Good Friends Good Food has made a thematic swing to selecting a country once a month and cooking whatever you wish from that country’s cuisine. The second country chosen was the Ukraine. If you look at cooking endeavors on the internet this month, there are people cooking for the Ukraine for various causes hoping to raise awareness of their current political situation. Ulrike suggested that we make recipes from the Ukraine this month, so we were all off doing a search of the cuisine of the Ukraine and learning about the people and their culture, especially their culinary culture. Throughout the month I made recipes to fit in with our meals here and we enjoyed all the recipes very much.
For the Salad Course: Leek Salad with Apples and Carrots and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: leeks, carrots, apple, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper. This is a fast recipe and it instructed me to serve immediately but I parked it in the refrigerator for an hour to serve as a side with a meal and it was just fine, very light and refreshing, we enjoyed the combination of flavors and light dressing. Since there are just two of us here most days for meals, I always make pared down versions of recipes, which often leaves me with little bits and pieces like a half a leek or a carrot or half an apple (if I eat half an apple for lunch), etc. so it was nice to find a recipe that I could just morph these pared down ingredients into and have it seem all fresh and new.
For Another Salad: Olivier Salad (Also known as Russian Potato Salad and very common in the Ukraine (called Olivye Salad in the Ukraine), you can research Ukrainian History to learn about the connections with Russia), and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: ham, potatoes, carrots, boiled eggs, dill pickles, onion, peas, cucumber, mayonnaise, fresh dill, salt, pepper, and sugar (optional). This is so good, I knew I’d like it from the list of ingredients, and although I usually have a very strict rule about “not too many things touching each other” on my plate, there are some exceptions, if one can just sort of pick at it one ingredient at a time. This is one of those exceptions, probably because it is served cold. It works well in a lettuce wrap as well.
For the Main Course: Easy, Creamy Ground Pork Stroganoff and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: egg noodles, ground pork (or beef or chicken), oil, butter, mushrooms, onion, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper, coriander, paprika, flour, chicken broth, half-and-half (or cream or whole milk), cream, fresh dill, and fresh parsley. There is a video on the site which makes everything very clear and shows how easily this recipe goes together. It’s different than a regular Stroganoff recipe in that it uses ground meat, has grated carrots in it, and doesn’t use sour cream like I’m accustomed to using in a Stroganoff. That said, it’s a very good dish, simple, easy, delicious, and fairly easy on the budget. (You know, it kind of reminded me of a fresh take in a hamburger-helper kind of way, good or bad, there you have it.)
For a Side Dish: Ukrainian Dill Potatoes and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: small young potatoes, salt, sunflower oil, garlic cloves, and freshly chopped dill. I saw a lot of recipes that used dill so I’m assuming that the Ukrainian people love dill, as do we, so I was happy to add this to the little potatoes. Recipes like this are quick and tasty, making a nice side dish to any main meal. Mark loves potatoes, possibly more than another food item, so he is always happy with any sort of potato recipe, the dill added a very nice touch.
For Dessert: Syrnyk - Sweet Ukrainian Easter Cheese and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: cottage cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. (I saw several versions of this recipe and some added lemon, so I added lemon zest as I’m never one to pass up an opportunity to put lemon into a recipe. This took no time at all to assemble and baked for an hour, cooled for an hour, and then went into the refrigerator to chill. It’s sort of like a crustless cheesecake, and since I added the lemon, we were very happy with the idea of a lemon crustless cheesecake. I drizzled a little thinned blackberry jam over the slices just for fun, a suggestion I found on a similar recipe. She says that the Ukrainian people serve this at Easter. I’m thinking that’s a great idea and may become a new Easter tradition here as well.
For Dessert: Honey Babka Cake and the recipe can be found here. The ingredients: flour, eggs, sugar, honey, sour cream, baking soda, white vinegar, and salt for the cake and cream cheese, whipped cream, and powdered sugar for the topping. I made a quarter size of this cake and it was lovely, just light and flavorful (the honey is such a nice flavor in this cake), with that little surprise topping treat with the cream cheese and whipped cream. She cut hers into 1" squares and things like that are half a laugh when cooking for guys...guys don't really appreciate tiny small food as one would imagine, so this is a 2" square, not as cute, but definitely more guy-sized. Mine also did not get the deep color that she got in the photo of her recipe, so maybe I need to bake it longer, it was testing done and I didn't want to risk going too much over the recommended time, but next time, I might try to bake it longer. I will make this one again.
It was all a lot of fun, and for April we are going to be making Middle Eastern Cuisine. You are welcome to come along, blogging is not required if you would just like to cook along with us. Ulrike has blogged several Ukrainian recipes this month and you can find them at her blog here. Margaret also blogged her Ukrainian recipes and you can find them at her blog here .