Book 12 - Chapter 1 - Lososina Tushonaya S Susom Iz Petrushki and Piere Saves Himself and a Little Girl

Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Recipes: Culinaria: Russia by Marian Trutter

Lososina Tushonaya S Susom Iz Petrushki

(Steamed Salmon in a Parsley [and Butter] Sauce

To steam the fish:

2 Large Salmon Fillets (cut into small portions)
7 tbsp butter (yes, you are reading that correctly)
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup pickeled gherkin brine
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 bay leaf

For the sauce:

1 shallot, finely chopped
7 tbsp dry white wine
3/4 cup fish stock (reserved from steaming the fish)
2/3 cup butter (yes, more and yet more butter), cut into tbsp pieces
Salt and pepper (but you really don't need much salt if you are using salted butter)
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped

To steam the salmon, melt the butter, add the wine, brine, parsley, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and steam fish for just about 3 minutes.  Set aside and keep warm.

For the sauce, saute the shallots in the wine until the liquid has evaporated.  Add the reserved fish stock and boil until it reduces to half its volume.  Add the butter a piece at a time stirring constantly.  This seems to be some kind of Russian style hollandaise sauce.  Add the parsley and heat through, adding the fish back to the pan to warm it.  Serve with blissfully plain boiled potatoes.

This is a good recipe.  It's indescribably rich (as though it could be otherwise with all that butter!).  However,  two of the people eating it hate sweet pickles (Jay and I).  Here're the changes I would make:  1.  Cut down the butter slightly when cooking the fish.  2.  Cut the brine to 1/8 cup, unless you LOVE sweet gherkins, then you might actually want to finely chop a few and throw them in.  3.  Use a steamer basket to keep the fish out of the stock and prevent its being overcooked.  4.  Strain the fish sauce through a sieve to remove the brown parsley.  5.  Cut down the butter even further for the sauce and maybe add a little more wine.

All in all, everyone enjoyed it, but Yoga was compulsory today in order to feel secure in the right functioning of all arteries.

About the book:

Some people only discover what they are capable of when they are acting in the service of others.  Pierre Bezhukov discovers this in the last chapters of Book 11.  He is driven to do something for Moscow but realizes he hasn't the right temperament to make a good assassin. Instead, he finds himself wandering through flaming Moscow nearly delirious.  He rescues a young girl from the fires and then prevents a French soldier from violating a beautiful young woman.  He is arrested for his actions and taken into solitary confinement but he has yet to reveal his identity.  This might be the event of his life that makes him change from a purposeless nobleman into a man.

Book 11 - Chapter 22 - Carters' Millet, Golubsty, and I Didn't Read This Weekend

Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
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.