Chocolate Chip ( Or Rum Raisin) Oatmeal Cookies

I am not a very big fan of American food and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookes to me are very American. May be it is that way just for me... Any way, when my daugher came from her school cooking class and brought this recipe for us to make at home together, I can't say that I was full of enthusiasm dip inside. I expected it to be too sweet and just plane too much of all tastes that define cookies. But I figured that we'll be baking it together and it just would be fun because of that. Well, I have to admit that I was wrongand that the cookies are absolutely out of this world! They are just right and now on my favourite cookie list. We made two types: chocolate chip for little girls and rum raisin for big girls. Every one was happy!

Here is what you'll need:

1/2 cup butter or 110 gr

1 egg

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tea spoon vanilla

1/2 tea spoon baking soda

1 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cup chocolate chip ( if you would like to make it with raisins substitute the amount desired and soak it about 1 tablespoon of rum or coffee liquire)

Remove butter from refrigirato 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat oven to 375F. Place butter in mixing bowl and beat for 30 seconds. Add egg, sugar, brown surag, vanilla and baking soda to butter. Beat for about 2 minutes. Slowly add oat and mix well. Use a wooden spoon to fold in chips and raisins.

This cookies bake the best if you make them small. We used a small icecream scoop or you can use 2 teaspoons. Leave about 2 inches between the cookes. bake for 8-10 minues. Alow to cool and enjoy!

Green Gram Lentil with Spinach (Moong Dal with Palak)

One of my colleagues is from India and we frequently exchange recipes and overall really enjoy cooking and sharing. She gave me this recipe to try and it came out quite delicious. It is a wonderful dish for dinner and a small cup of it can be part of lunch.

Here is what you'll need:

1 cup of split Green Gram Lentil (Moong Dal)

2 to 3 cups chopped Spinach

1 tea spoon chili Powder

1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 tsp hing (Asafetida)

2 table spoons of butter

1 tea spoon chopped garlic

1 tea spoon graded ginger

salt to taste

Wash and soak lentils for 30 min to and hour. Cook lentils and turmeric, chili powder and salt in presser cooker for about 20 minutes after the presser build or about 40- 45 minutes using regular method. Lentils should be very soft. Mash lentils with the spoon. Add the spinach, mix thoroughly and cook for about 4 minutes.

Melt butter in the pan, add garlic and saute till fragrant, add ginger and hing. pour over lentils. Mix thoroughly.

Enjoy with balsamati rice.

Lemon Bars

This is one of my most favorite combinations: buttery crust and sweet and bitter lemony filling.

My romance with this recipe started in the local natural foods market- I have tried their lemon bar and liked it so much that went to their chief to ask for a recipe. They told me that it is proprietary information and they can not give it to me. So I have started experimenting and trying different combinations until I have archived very comparable result.


Here is what you'll need:

For the dough:

1 3/4 sticks of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract
2 1/4 cup all- purpose flour



For the filling:

1 large lemon, graded with zest
1 large , preferably green, apple
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
1 tsp of lemon extract

The rest is quite easy. Beat the butter with sugar and salt together until soft and fluffy. Add lemon extract. Add in the flower and mix in carefully until the dough forms.

At this step I have tried few different ways of assembling the bars and my favorite ended up being to divide the dough in 2 part- one of them about 3/4 and the other about 1/4. Then refrigerate for about 30 min so that it is still soft but hard enough to grade.

While the dough if chilling, prepare the filling. Grade lemon and peeled apple on the grader, add the sugar and lemon extract.

I recommend using fluted tart pan and place in on the baking pan in the oven.. Butter it up some and grade the bigger part of the dough. Press in in lightly. Spread the filling, take care of the edges. Then grade the smaller part of the dough. don't worry if you can see the filling. It would come out fine.

Bake at 350F ( about 175C) until it is golden on top. Cool down before cutting.

My Grandma's roll up fruit cookie

This is a very fast and easy recipe that one likes to have on hand when cookies are needed within an hour. They come out flaky and buttery with the flavour of fruit filling that you've chosen.If you will go for something more sour it would be tangy or sweeter- it would be a sweet tooth pleaser.

Here is what you'll need:

1 egg
1/4 tea spoon baking soda
1 table spoon vinegar
pinch of salt
1/2cup water

2 sticks (about 200 gr) margarine or butter
2 cups flour

If you want to make larger amout of dough can use 2 1/2 cups of flour to 250 gr of margarine.


Break egg in the cup and mix lightly, add soda with vinegar and salt and add water so that it becomes 3/4 of a cup.

Put butter and flour in the bowl and cup with pastry cutter until it reaches the stage of fine crumbs. Start adding liquid ingredients gradually and continue cutting with pastry cutter. continue till dough forms. stop adding liquid once sufficient for the butter flour mixture.

Cut dough in half and roll our each half about 1 to 2 ml thick. Cut into wedges. Put preserves of your choice and roll up.

Bake at 350F for about 16 to 18 minutes or until golden on the edges. Once cooled can dust with powdered sugar.

Baklava

In St-Petersburg they used to have the store that was called “Eastern Sweets”. It was right on the main street of the city- Nevskii Prospeckt. To this day I remember what a treat it was to buy some sweets there. And they would have baklava and fudge and sorbet and nougat and kurabeye (sweet buttery cookies) and million other tasty things- or at list it seemed that way when I was a kid. When I’ve found this recipe on http://www.azcookbook.com/, I right away felt that this would be the taste that I remember from those early days. And it surely is! I did small modification- I love spices too much, so I've added some clove and cinnamon to filling and to the dough. It is not too sweet and plain delicious!

Here is what you'll need:

The Dough

3 cups of flour
8 oz of butter
1 cup of sour cream mixed with teaspoon of baking sode
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/3 teaspoon of clove, ground

The Filling

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites
2/12 cups walnuts, finely chopped
1 tea spoon cinnamon

Incorporate butter into the flour using pastry cutter. Add sour cream and soda mixture and add egg yolks. Continue incorporating with the pastry cutter until it comes together. Divide into 3 parts and chill for 1 hour.

For the filling combine sugar, spice and egg whites and add to the chopped nuts.

Take 8 by 12 inch pan. Roll out the first piece of dough to approximately fit the pan, transfer to the pan and adjust with your hand up to the edges. Spread half of the filling. Roll out the second piece of dough. Stretch a bit with your fingers to fit the pan up to the edges. Spread the second half of the filling. Roll out the third piece of the dough. Lay it on the top of the filling. Brush the top with egg wash.

Cut the pastry into diamond shapes with the sharp knife. Place a walnut piece on each piece of pastry.

Bake at 350 F for about 40 minutes. Let cool completely.

Vinegret- Russian Beet Salad

There are a few dishes that are considered staples of Russian table, particularly for holidays. This salad is one of them in my opinion. With quite a bit of cold weather, majority of vegetables that were used were root vegetables that keep well. It is very basic but tasty and nutritious. It can be used as an appetizer ( can serve it in a nice bowl or in letters cups) or it can make a hearty side dish for dinner.

Here is what you'll need:

1 large beet
1 or 2 potatoes
3 to 4 carrots
Half of white onion
5 medium size pickles
jar of peas or steamed fresh pees
2 table spoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Steam or boil beet, potatoes and carrot in there jackets. You can do that 24 hours in advance to making the salad. Peel.

Cut in even cubes. Dice onion as small as you can. Cut 4 pickles same size as the rest of vegetables and grade 1 pickle on a large grader. Mix everything gently in the bowl, add peas and oil and mix again. Add salt and pepper to taste.
You always can add fresh herbs such as dill or parsley, finely chopped.

My Grandmother's Cabbage Soup or what we call Щи (Shee)

Here is one of the Russian classics. I feel there are as many recipes of this soup as there are cooks. And here is my family's version of it.
There are two kinds that I remember from my childhood that my grandmother would make- one based on meat stock and usually it was beef stock or a vegetarian one. I usually cook a vegetarian cabbage soup. I feel that it is significantly lighter but has all the vegetable flavors that you really making this soup for. For fuller meal you eat it with bread and buckwheat porridge that is placed right in the soup. You also can add sour cream as an option. It is not cooked with sour cream to begin with though.

Here is what you'll need:

Large onion, diced
4 large carrots, graded
3-4 medium to large potatoes, diced
medium size cabbage or half of a large head of cabbage, shredded
about 3 tomatoes, quartered
vegetable oil
couple spoons of butter
salt and peppercorns to your taste
2 bay leaves
About 1 1/2 litter of water

Fresh or dry dill- about 2 table spoons

In a large heavy bottom pan heat about 4 table spoons of oil add onion and carrot and sauté until fragrant. Add bay leaves and peppercorns and continue sautéing for another minute or two.

Add potatoes and water. Bring to a boil and lower the heat. Cook until potatoes are almost done. Add the cabbage and cook for about 10 minutes. While that is cooking away, take a small pan, heat it on a low fire, add butter and tomatoes. Cook tomatoes until fragrant and half cooked. You are looking to have that delicious tomato- butter sauce. Once that is achieved, add tomato-butter mixture to the soup. Add salt and adjust it to your taste.

Turn off the stove, add dill, cover with the lid and let sit for about an hour. I think it tastes better if you let it rest. Flavors have a chance to incorporate.