What are you planning to cook at your next big dinner?  Why not try something diverse and inspiring from a traditional culture.  International cuisine is great way to show off your cooking talents and today we are going to talk about some hot and cold Russian dishes that anyone can prepare.

Blini - Traditional Russian Pancakes

The French might have invented the crepe but it does not mean other countries don’t have their own version they think is better.  Russian is no different and the traditional hot pancake is called Blini.

Ingredients:

½ cup plain flour (sifted)

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (optional if you want a lighter mixture)

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk with the sugar and salt.  Combine with the flower and stir in the milk (if mixing by hand add the milk in slowly to avoid lumps).  Mix well or blend in a food processor.   You should have a thin batter at this stage.

If you are using baking soda in your recipe, add it now to make the mixutre more light (i.e. it adds air to the batter).  You can also stand the batter in the fridge for half an hour to let it rest.  Take the batter out of fridge when you are ready to cook.  If the mixture is too thick, add water or milk.  If the mixture is too thin, add in flour.  What you want is a pancake batter that pours like fresh cream.

Heat a pan over medium heat and lightly coat the cooking surface with oil or butter.  Pour a couple of table spoons of the mixture onto the pan and spreak the mixture out evenly into small pancakes.  Make it as thin as you can for traditional Blini.  Each side should only take about a minute.  When bubbles appear in the mixture or the centre of the uncooked side is dry, flip it over to finish it off.

Move the cook Blini to a plate and butter one side and stack them.  Serve them by putting jam in the center and folding them.  Fold them a second time to make a neat triangle.  They are best enjoyed with hot black tea with lemon.

Russian Salads

If you want to prepare a Russian salad, then forget about tossed lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber.  Russia is a cold country, so hardy root vegetables tend to feature on the dinner table that delicate spring salads.

This is gives us the Russian salad – a salad with some grunt.  A typical salad is the Dressed Herring Under Fur Salad.

To make this salad you will need:

2 herring (salted)

5 potatoes

4 carrots

4 beets

5 eggs

1 lb mayonnaise

Bring a large pot of unsalted to the boil and add the vegetables.  Boil until soft, drain and set aside.

Skin the herring and remove any bones.  Dice the fish into small cubes about half an inch wide.  Take your serving platter and layer the herring on the bottom.  Cover with a thin layer of mayonnaise.

Take the potatoes and mash.  Spread the potato as the second layer and cover with mayonaise.  Repeat the process for the beets and 3 of the eggs.  Top the dish with the remaining egg and put in the fridge (covered) for one hour before serving.

What else can you cook that is Russian?  Why not try some a href=”http://www.hotrussian.net/russian-food-borsch.html”>Borsch as well?

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