Recipe: Solyanka (soup)/ солянка

One of the culinary delights in Russia is the range of soups and this one is one of my favourites. It's meaty and rich... and delicious.

 

 Here's a recipe (in near industrial quantities)...

Salad Recipe: Mushroom Meadow/ грибная поляна

It was a typical, Russian New Year for us and there were with plenty of salads, including Mushroom Meadow (Gribnaya Polyana).

New Year Comes Early (Recipe - Olivier Salad)

It's clear that New Year is coming... my wife's is getting cravings for salad. Not the British-style soggy lettuce, but the full-on Russian salads. The urges could not be contained and she decided on Salat Olivier, so here's the recipe...

Recipe: kartoshka cake

The is one of the easiest Russian desserts to make. Kartoshka means potato, yet there's no potato in it... the lying bastards! [edit: my wife's just called me a hypocrite on the basis of mince pies not containing mince... touché!] Still, it's delicious and ridiculously moreish.

Recipe: Golubtsi #1 (with peppers)

Golubtsi is an Eastern European dish, claimed as theirs by half the nations of the former USSR even though it's found across Europe and the Middle East. Essentially it's something stuffed with rice and/or meat, usually cabbage leaves or occasionally vine leaves, particular further south. The Russian name means little pigeons, hopefully not from the original filling. I've done another Russian variant, what we in the UK would call stuffed peppers.

Recipe: Shortbread with Curds/ Рецепт: Сочень с Творогом

The place where I worked in Russia had its own cafe and they prepared the food in a home-cooked way, but on a larger scale. One of the delights there was the sochen s tvorogom, shortbread with curd filling.

We had two packs of curds in the fridge and the plastic wrapping was starting to expand. They needed using up and there was only one thing for it... shortbread and curds on an industrial scale!

Russian-style shortbread with curds

Recipe: Russian Lace Pancakes

Ready to eat