Recipes: Cooking Around the World: Russian and Polish by Lesley Chamberlain and Catherine Atkinson
Music: Downloaded a yoga video to burn off some of this sour cream, but no new music
Carters' Millet
1 1/4 cups millet
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
4 oz bacon
1 tbsp olive oil
1small onion, thinly sliced
3 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp fresh chopped mint (had I been able to find any of this, I'm sure it would have added a lovely flavor)
Salt and pepper
Rinse the millet in a sieve. Mix in with the stock, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 30 minutes. Fry the bacon until crisp, remove from the pan, reserving some of the fat. Add olive oil to the pan and brown the mushrooms and onion for about 10 minutes. I added some Asparagus, because it was in my fridge and about to go bad. It added some color and flavor. Mix all ingredients with the millet and heat through.
Golubsty
(This is actually a Polish recipe, according to the book,
but I'm sure the Russians eat something similar)
1 large Savoy cabbage (emphasis on large)
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 lb of ground beef, lamb, or pork
1 tsp ground corriander
5 tbsp stock
2/3 cup cooked long grain rice
chopped fresh parsley (I didn't even have dried parsley - oh well)
2 tbsp butter melted
For the sauce:
1 1/4 cup sour cream
2 tbsp tomato puree (we used tomato paste)
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper
Preheat the oven to 350. Carefully remove 12 outer leaves of the cabbage, rinse, blanch in a pot of salted boiling water for 4 minutes, remove and pat dry. Buying a smaller cabbage because you are thinking to yourself, "what the heck am I going to do with the rest of a large cabbage?" is a mistake. It will make wrapping your "parcels" much more difficult.
To make the stuffing, brown the meat in a frying pan for 5 minutes, remove and drain off excess fat. Add the oil to the pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes. Stir in coriander, meat, stock, rice, and half the parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Place a tbsp of filling in a leaf and wrap it up. If you bought a small Savoy cabbage and missed the step about blanching it, kitchen twine will help you out a lot on this recipe (I actually found the missing twine, it was under the couch - I don't understand either). Arrange in one layer in a baking dish and brush with melted butter.
Heat the sour cream, tomato puree, and bay leaf, stirring until bubbly. Stir in remaining parsley and salt and pepper. Pour sauce over the cabbage. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes.
We forgot to cover them. They didn't get dried out, but the sauce could have been creamier. We didn't do a lot of things on this recipe. Probably because my kitchen helper Jerilyn brought over 2 bottles of our favorite pink prosecco and we started drinking before we started cooking. This is a warning about the dangers of cooking while under the influence, kids. It wasn't a tragedy this time, but ugly things can start to happen in your kitchen. We suggest staying sober while chopping your veg, and doubling the sauce to make this recipe extra yummy.
About the book: I was going to read yesterday, but my Kindle battery was dead. Instead I read about some English Kings and Queens. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say this, George III sure lost some prime real estate.
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