Russia: Fact Sheet
CABARET
Peta's first stop was at a Russian Cabaret performance in Auckland
where the actors celebrate after the show with their favourite
Russian foods from home. Elena and Anastassia were kind
enough to share their recipes for their three favourite dishes.
OLIVIER RECIPE (Potato Salad)
200 g boiled beef
4 eggs
2 medium carrots
3 medium potatoes
2 big pickled cucumbers
1/3 of cucumber
1/3 of a tin of green peas
3 table spoons of mayonnaise
2-3 green onions
METHOD
Boil unpeeled potatoes and carrots
Hard-boil eggs.
Let all of the above cool to room temperature.
NB: never put hot or warm potatoes in the salad.
Peel potatoes and carrots.
Cut beef, potatoes, carrots and cucumber into small cubes of even
size (with an edge approx. 7 mm). Add salt to your taste.
Stir.
Cut pickled cucumbers into small cubes of even size (approx.
7x7x7mm). Add to the salad.
Peel eggs and cut into small cubes of even size (approx. 7x7x7mm).
Add to the salad. Add green peas.
Pour the mayonnaise over the salad. Stir carefully.
Chop spring onions and mix through the salad. Decorate with green
onions, or parsley.
Serving: NB: It will take some time for the mayonnaise to penetrate
and flavour the salad. Allow at least half an hour before
serving.
SELEDKA POD SHUBOI RECIPE (Herring Under a "Fur"
Coat)
2 thick salted herrings
5 potatoes
4 medium carrots
3 medium beets
4 eggs
400 g mayonnaise
1 medium onion (very finely chopped)
METHOD
Boil all the vegetables until tender
Boil eggs, until hardboiled.
Peel the skin from the herrings and cut them along the spine.
Remove all the bones.
Cut herring meat into very little pieces.
In a large dish, place a layer of herring meat evenly on the
bottom, followed by the finely chopped onion as the next
layer.
Spread over a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Grate the boiled potatoes, and layer them on top of the
mayonnaise.
Grate carrot and layer it on top of the potato.
Top with a thin layer of mayonnaise, followed by boiled eggs,
roughly chopped.
Remove skin from the beets and grate. Layer this on top of the
eggs.
Spread the remainder of the mayonnaise all over the salad,
including the sides and the top.
Leave the salad in the fridge for an hour before serving.
NB. You can also make thinner layers and have multiple layers in
the salad, simply by following the same order, herring, onion,
potatoes, carrot, eggs and beetroot.
FARSHIROVANNYI PEREC RECIPE (Stuffed
Capsicum)
8 red bell peppers
1.2 kg of beef mince
100 g rice
2 onions (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
8 tbsp Sour Cream
Salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
Boil the rice until it is semi cooked.
Hollow out peppers, cut off tops for stuffing.
Saute onions and garlic. Add beef mince, cook and drain, without
discarding the onions and garlic.
Mix the mince with the rice and add salt and pepper to taste.
Stuff the mixture into the peppers.
Place in a preheated oven (350�F) and bake for about 40
minutes.
Serve hot with a spoon full of sour cream on top.
SHASHLIK
Peta met with restaurateur and former Uzbekistan
shashlik café owner Raf Vorobeva. Around the coal fired
barbeque Raf shared his favourite recipes for Russian style
marinades for his all time favourite skewered meat, shashlik.
Raf's traditional Shashlik Marinade
Marinade cubes of lamb with onion, onion juice, coriander powder,
cumin seeds and cumin powder. Add salt just before cooking -
otherwise it affects the tenderness of the meat. Place the skewer
and cook on an open fire.
Rak's Shashlik Marinade with a Kiwi Twist
Blend half a kiwifruit with cumin and use as a marinade for 2 kilos
of cubed lamb. You must never use any more than half a fruit for
the 2kgs of meat otherwise the meat will be unbelievably tough.
Again place the skewer and cook on an open fire.
ORTHODOX CHURCH/COOKING
Peta attended the Russian Orthodox Church Easter midnight service
to mark the end of a 49 day fast.
In preparation for breaking the fast parishioner, Olga translates
for her elderly grandmother as she teaches Peta how to prepare
Kulich, a very rich tower like bread - which is one of the three
symbolic foods traditionally taken to the church service for
blessing.
Recipe not supplied
BLINI
Peta spent the afternoon with Tatiana Hutchins and some of her
friends from the New Zealand Russian Society. Before afternoon tea
Tatiana and her friend Natasha showed Peta their method for making
their favourite blini - a pancake often served with caviar. Later
the guests arrived armed with home made food and a shared
enthusiasm for drinking tea from the traditional Samovar.
BLINI RECIPE (Flat Pancake)
1/3 cup flour
2 cup plain yoghurt (unsweetened)
1/3 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
METHOD
Use a shaker to beat the eggs, salt and sugar until well
blended
Pour some yoghurt into the batter, stir in, add vegetable oil, stir
in once again and begin to cook Blini in a hot pan. The pan should
be greased for the first pancake but later it is not necessary as
the dough has enough oil in it.
Serve Blini hot, with butter, sour cream, jam or caviar.
ST PETERSBURG
In the final part of the show Peta visits Raf Vorobeva at his
Russian restaurant in Parnell, Auckland. Here Raf's wife Yulia
prepares the famous Russian beetroot soup Borscht and a divine
layered Honey Cake while Raf teaches Peta a thing or two about
Russian vodka.
St Petersburg
1/333 Parnell Rd
Parnell
09 373 3179
BORSCHT RECIPE (Beetroot Soup)
0.25kg beef
1/4 head of cabbage chopped
1 potato cut into small pieces
1 tomato chopped
1 carrot grated
1 capsicum chopped
1/2 onion chopped
2 stalks celery
1 Boiled Beetroot grated
Fresh dill chopped
4 cloves garlic grated
100g tomato paste
METHOD
Boil the beef for 1.5 hour with onion and celery.
When meat is cooked, add potato and cook for 10 minutes.
Then add cabbage.
In a separate pan, fry the beetroot, carrot, onion, capsicum and
tomato in vegetable oil for 5 minutes, then add to stock and cook
for 10 minutes.
Add tomato paste. Five minutes later add grated garlic, coriander
and dill.
Cook for a few more minutes then serve with sour cream.
HONEY CAKE
4 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
105g unsalted butter
2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp honey
For cream:
1 can condensed milk
300g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g jam
METHOD
Mix the eggs with the sugar in a heat proof bowl.
Add honey, butter and baking soda and simmer over a pot of boiling
water
While the mixture is still over boiling water, slowly Add 2 cups of
flour
Mix together.
10-12 mins later, take the bowl off the boiling water and add 2
more cups of flour.
Cut the dough into 5 pieces and roll them out into circles. Bake
each round cake (20cm diameter) in the oven for 2 minutes.
Prepare cream by mixing butter and condensed milk with a blender
then add vanilla essence. Spread cream and jam on the top of each
cake and put them one on top of another. For best results
refrigerate cake for 1-2 days before serving.
