The Most Expensive Chocolate Chip Cookies I Ever Made

One of the reasons I went ahead and bought the electric hand mixer to bake kulich was because I figured I could then make chocolate chip cookies and other mixer required recipes after. Recipes I couldn’t really do before because I was having an inner battle with myself over whether it was really worth it to go out and buy one I would only be using temporarily. The thought of trying to mix the kulich dough by hand in a very weak plastic bowl (the only big one I could find) was overwhelming so I gave in and bought the mixer (It was all of $12 – I’m not really sure what my problem was. Maybe it’s that I am used to having more cabinet space and I hate extra things on the counters). I was excited for the baking doors it would open afterwards. Well, If you read my post about kulich you will know that my mixer did not survive (duh, because it was $12).

Determined to make an American classic for my volunteer group, but not planning to go back to Ashan that week, I googled ‘How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies Without a Mixer’ and found a recipe on the website/blog(?) theKitchn. Which is one of those websites/blogs(?) that make you want to be cooler/change your whole life so you try commenting on it and usually end up sounding more lame. I opted to Tweet instead, but that didn’t produce any earth shattering changes, fame, or even a retweet…oh, well. I’m bad at Twitter and worse at Pininterest, anyway. I was pretty excited about the recipe. Maybe I don’t even need the mixer after all!!…Psh, of course I’ll get it anyway. I was so good at talking myself out of it and then I got a taste of having one again.

So Problem #1 happened while collecting ingredients. Brown sugar in most stores here is what at home we call raw sugar. So, not brown sugar. I finally found some in the fancy store across the street. It came out to about $7.50 for 1lb. These have now become very fancy cookies.

Next, I was unable to find vanilla extract. I probably should have just bought a vanilla bean since I didn’t know how to replace the extract with vanilla sugar, vanilla powdered sugar, vanillin, and every other vanilla option on the planet that these stores carry besides extract. I opted for just skipping it all together. Hold your gasps, the cookie flavor was actually fine! The other apparently exotic item in Moscow is chocolate chips. I have seen them once. In a tiny little packet around kulich baking time – and then they disappeared forever. Fine, I can chop chocolate bars into little chunks. Makes them even more homemade in my book! After all was said and done I got about 7 oz of chocolate chips for almost $4. That’s more than the cost of chocolate chips at home (where Nestle Tollhouse might cost about $3.59 for 12oz). So now these have become the Most Expensive Chocolate Chip Cookies I Ever Made.

This is how I followed the recipe (including the way I have to measure my ingredients in Moscow), but you can use the link I posted before for the original recipe: First mix 12 tbsp of granulated sugar and 12 tbsp of brown sugar until well combined. Smush out any clumps. In globs add/mix in the 114(ish) grams of softened butter (Here I got inspired and distracted by the idea of compound butter and daydreamed about what other ingredients I could make it with). Taste test a bunch of the butter/sugar mixture…I mean, what?

Add the two eggs one at a time, lightly beating the egg with a whisk (in the bowl but off to the side) first. Telepathically add some vanilla extract and hope that works. Add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of baking soda (Sigh of relief that I needed baking soda because there doesn’t seem to be baking powder in any store either). Mix this well. Add all 36 tbsp of flour at one time (try not to lose count). Carefully mix the dough as few times as possible until there is no flour visible in the dough or anywhere on the bowl. Fold in 200 grams of homemade chocolate chunks.

Next is the part that inexplicably makes me so irritated…roll tablespoons of dough and space them out on a lined or greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. I can’t stand this part and sometimes resort to spreading the mixture out in the baking sheet and just cutting it into Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars after baking. I can’t be the only one who has this revulsion because the cookie bars are actually an alternative option on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips package. I am not really sure what makes me so annoyed. I love cooking and baking and I like cookies. I’m assuming it’s because not many globs of dough fit on the baking sheet when you space them out so outrageously far (why 2 inches, Recipe, why?!) so you have to bake so many batches. And you have to wait for the cookies and baking sheet to cool before you can roll out another set. Yes, I am starting to realize how insane and impatient I must sound.

I decided to selflessly put myself through the torture of scooping and rolling because I wanted the volunteers to have chocolate chips cookies. Also I could lick any of the batter that sticks off of my fingers and the spoon…I mean…what? I stubbornly only spaced them out like an inch and a half though. Barely. And fully expected to get a big cookie blob in the end. But I didn’t. The cookies came out brilliant. The first (top rack) tray came out amazing. They even had a store bought shape to them. (Oh, I baked at 190(ish)°C for 10(ish) minutes). I stared at them in awe. Fascinated that the best ‘American-classic’ cookies I ever baked were in Moscow. With no vanilla. And less than 2-inches of separation!

Now, we won’t talk about the other trays that accidentally stayed in the oven too long. It’s crazy how fast cookies go from golden brown to charcoal (usually this happens in the 5 seconds that it takes me to nonsensically set the timer for just 1 more minute – the third time). I ALWAYS second guess and take out the cookies just a tad too late. This recipe has a great tip though – take the cookies out of the oven when the sides are set and the tops are dry to the touch. This really helps as my overbaked ones weren’t as bad as usual.

In fact, they were fine. Just a little crunchier. And the beauty of it all was that I was serving the cookies to a group of people that aren’t familiar with them. So how would they know, really? I made them the following week again and their doneness was even better. The second time I added a tiny bit of cinnamon (still no vanilla) and mixed dark and milk *homemade* chocolate chunks. Yum. The cookies were all eaten.

(PS: There is one volunteer, whom I adore and think is a very generous person, who, every time I bring something in, likes to lecture me about how American sweets/foods are full of crap and that Russians aren’t used to that and prefer things that are less salty or sweet. I just smile and nod as I watch him take seconds, thirds, fourths…)

Easter: Part III

The last item on the Easter list was dying eggs.

When Andrei and I arrived in Moscow after a ten day trip in Jersey it was a couple of days before (Orthodox) Palm Sunday. We popped into the grocery store to grab some essentials and were excited to find a bunch of Easter stuff – egg dye, chocolates with XB (Hristos Voskrese = Christ is Risen) written on them, faux (but beautiful) pussywillow branches and shrink wrap egg decorations that were either spring-y or religious-y. We went a little crazy and bought a bunch of the egg decorations/dyes. I was excited to see some all-natural dyes that were made from greens, carrots, beets etc (Don’t worry Sis, I grabbed an extra container or two for you). It was fun to see Easter stuff that reflected the religious aspect of this holiday (Christ’s Resurrection) as opposed to in the States where, as my aunt pointed out, next to the Passover/Sader books, you have a Peter Rabbit display.

Nothing crazy fancy was done with the eggs. I tried sticking sprigs of parsley on them for some special design elements, but that did not work out at all and was quickly given up. Unfortunately the green dye in the box we opened was a little funky. Too bad because that’s my favorite color. Although our orange ones came out gorgeous! We had white and brown eggs so we were able to get two different shades from each dye.

Andrei was in charge of the shrink wrap eggs. I think he was into helping me decorate, but I sort of made it mandatory since I felt like I would be too lonely doing it on my own. He claimed to be an expert and veteran at the shrink wrap method (basically you put this decorated sheet of plastic over the egg and hold it in steam and it shrink wraps around the egg), but none of them came out. I’ll let him blame the Russian eggs (they come in cartons of 10 and some still have feathers on them, so that’s enough to unsettle anyone).

I think I like dyed eggs more, but I’m glad we did the shrink wrap too. The first time I tried doing shrink wrap was for Easter 2008. That year, while I was standing over the steam messing up every single egg (it’s much harder than you think), Andrei walked into my parents’ kitchen. He had flown in from the East Coast for a surprise visit for Easter. He later proposed after the Easter night services. So as funny as it may sound, shrink wrapping eggs is what I was doing the moment my entire life changed.

Easter is an incredibly important and special time for any Orthodox Christian and Andrei made it even more so with such a happy memory. Only days before that I was guided by my spiritual father to pray to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (whose relics are in the cathedral in San Francisco) to help me find my next steps in life. My graduation from Boston University was approaching and I was getting that slightly nervous/clueless feeling of what I was supposed to do after. Standing by the Saint’s relics, I did as instructed and felt more at ease. Four days later, Andrei was kneeling in front of me with a ring and I had my answer.

And in addition to the Easter We Got Engaged, we have the Easter We Were In Jerusalem, and now the Easter We Were In Moscow (Somewhere in there is also the Easter Papa Accidentally Yelled Christ Is Born).

Easter in Russia is pretty much the same as Easter at home. Just…more. More people, more services, more red. Everything was red. At home the clergy serves in white. Here it’s red. Candles are red. Flowers are red. Women’s scarves are red. It’s SO red. And very beautiful. We were lucky to attend services at St. Tatiana’s church at the Moscow State University campus near the Kremlin. The main priest there knows us by name so we felt very at home. Which is nice, because you want to feel at home if you are away from home on Easter.

A Few Other Differences Between Russia & The States on Easter:

-In Russia, it’s normal to walk by a huge office building with an enormous pixilated projection of Jesus Christ on it

-In the States we have an “Italian Shower” where in an attempt to save time or energy you skip a shower and spray lots of perfume. Here I started practicing the “Russian Shower” where you throw on a bigger scarf to make sure it covers all of your hair

-In Russia, no one looks at you funny when you sit down at a restaurant right after church and place a basket on the table that has frosted ‘cake’ in it with a candle sticking out of it and don’t sing Happy Birthday

-In Russia, there isn’t a long awkward pause after you answer the phone with, “Xpuctoc Bockpece!” (“Christ is Risen!”)

-In Russia, you must stay out of the way of old ladies when any priest starts spraying holy water. Unless you like the taste of gravel.

A week after Easter, in answer to recent vandalism and riots againts the Church, Patriarch Kyrill called for a service in defence of the Russian Orthodox Faith. 65,000 people showed up and filled the streets in front of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. Andrei and I being two of them. Before heading out Andrei had asked, “Do you think we should get there really early?” We had no idea what to expect. The answer was yes. Most of the people had gathered by the time we got there and it was packed. But we peacefully stood on the outskirts of the crowd and watched the service, which was held primarily outside, on a jumbo screen. I don’t even think I have the right words to describe how blessed I feel that we were able to be a part of this. The happiness that exploded out of us as we joined 65 THOUSAND people in exclaiming “Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!” and recited the Symbol of Faith. The joy still lingers on and goosebumps visit my arms every once in a while when I remember some moment from that day. Despite my lapses of laziness, God continues to bring me these amazing experiences. This one came with a renewed and strengthened confidence in our faith.

I hope to be back in Burlingame for Easter next year, but if I am not, a piece of my heart will be there anyway. And a piece will be in Jerusalem and a piece will be in Moscow. And a piece will say yes all over again to the man of my dreams.

Easter: Part II

For some reason I decided to make sirnaya pascha (think cheesecake filling, but maybe a little less sweet) the same day as I made the kulich. I felt like I was on a pretty good roll, so why not just whip it up? Right, Olya, because it can be ‘whipped right up’. My excuse is that I was a rookie at sirnaya pascha so I had no idea – even though the recipe told me everything that was involved before hand. It’s not like it was hiding anything.

To make things even easier (sarcasm) I decided to follow a recipe in Russian that a new found friend on facebook shared with me – to go along with my naive ‘whip it up’ attitude.

First you squeeze 2.8 kilograms (roughly 6 pounds) of farmer’s cheese through a fine mesh seive and set aside. Psh, who needs pilates this week? – this was a serious arm workout. And I almost had to bury my new sieve next to my new mixer in my quickly growing kitchen appliance graveyard.

I was dorkily excited to buy the farmer’s cheese at a regular grocery store in Moscow. I kind of splurged on it as there were cheaper brands available – I had overheard a woman in the store ask a salesperson where their ‘amazing farmer’s cheese’ was so I really wanted to use it. Plus it looked like it was packaged and sent over from a farm. I just couldn’t resist. It came in little packages of anywhere from an inconsistent 264 to 311 grams so I may or may not have looked super silly standing there for 20 minutes with my cell phone calculater trying to gather the exact amount I needed over several pre-packaged containers 🙂 (Does anyone have a simpler way to do that, by the way??)

Anyway, with the ‘sifted’ cheese to the side, separate 10 egg yolks into a metal bowl (or double boiler), add a 1/2 cup of milk, 2 cups of sugar and one packet of vanilla sugar. Now, I wanted to use fresh vanilla beans so I opted to just replace regular sugar for the vanilla sugar. Having seen different sizes of packets of vanilla sugar, I wasn’t really sure how much regular sugar to substitute. I don’t think I put enough because the result was not as sweet as I would have liked.

The yolk, milk and sugar mixture gets heated over a pot of simmering water. You must stir constantly (and avoid making scrambled eggs) until the mixture becomes a thick cream. Take it off the heat and add 400 grams (or a little over 4 sticks) of butter that have been cut into cubes. Mix until the butter melts, and let it cool.

Add the milk-egg-sugar cream and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to the farmer’s cheese and mix it very well. The recipe suggests using a blender. Probably even an immersion blender would work. I have neither so I got another bonus arm workout. Add some grated lemon zest. I used a vegetable peeler and a knife, which was fine, but it made me sincerely miss my microplane zester. Seriously, I miss it…like number one after family and friends.

Then the recipe says to add raisins, dried fruits, and/or nuts. We all know how I feel about this, so I will move on.

Line an upside down pascha form with gauze/cheesecloth (which I purchased at the pharmacy like a true local!) and fill it with your (totally fat free, I swear 😉 ) sirnaya pascha mixture.

Some forms come with pegs that will hold it over a bowl to drain. Mine didn’t, so I put one in a pasta strainer over a bowl and the other in my mesh seive over another bowl. If you can, add some kind of weight on top – I stacked a couple plates on each. They should drain for 12 hours or more in the fridge. Then you can flip it over and take it out of the form. If you don’t have a form at all, you can just put it in a bowl and let it set in the fridge. The XB on the side of mine (and most) stands for “Hristos Voskrese”, which is “Christ is Risen!” To which one would answer, “Truly He is Risen!”

My sister and I always had a theory that if you eat ice-cream in a giant spoonful, taken right out of the carton, without using a bowl, then the calories and fat do not count. It used to drive my brother absolutely insane. Not even sure why – it’s not like sticky drops of something on the floor by the refridgerator were uncommon in our house. In any case, I have chosen to apply this theory to eating sirnaya pascha as well. So skip the bowl and you’ll skip the calories too.

Andrei will not eat sirnaya pascha unless it’s spread across the top of a piece of kulich. That is also a tasty (soul-healthy) snack.

***(When making the sirnaya pascha, I revised the measurments recorded in the blog for 2 kilograms of farmer’s cheese. That gave me enough for 2 sirnaya pascha forms plus some extra in a bowl)***

The Adjustment Period

I am the type of person that will attempt to grab all the grocery bags out of the car, despite their weight or number, and carry them up the stairs to the front door, risking breaking everything (and incurring a possible dreaded extra visit to the West Orange Shop Rite) just to avoid taking more than one trip. Even though it would be so much simpler (and safer) to just take two trips. Or gasp…even three. I think this all began when my spoiled little self had one chore growing up: after my mom would pick up everyone’s abandoned items downstairs and place them on the staircase, I had to deliver them to each individual’s room on the second floor. To cut my chore duty time in half, I would try to do this all in one shot. I would throw on any jackets, put on my brother’s hats, drape my sister’s clothes over my arms, all while balancing stacks of my mother’s food magazines and my father’s thirty seventh all-in-one mini tool set from Walgreens. I remember being pretty good at this; however, I also have distinct memories of being yelled at after tiny screwdrivers and wrenches that turn into nail clippers would inevitably come tumbling down the stairs.

The one good thing about this is it was practice for apartment living. I don’t really have the comfortable option of two short trips from my car to the front door since my only choice really is to drag all the bags at once for several metro stops and a good 30 minutes total of walking on the street. Sure I could hail a gypsy cab, but what’s the fun in that? For some reason I choose to nervously reach for my key while holding two slipping bags on my shaky and sweaty pinky (not sure why I can’t put the bag down in the hallway, but just go with it), praying I don’t drop the one with the carton of eggs in it and crack them all. Yes, that has happened. I wouldn’t be a Pavlenko if it didn’t…Flash back to several trips to the grocery store: my mom holding an empty container on top of 7 others in her hand. Around her, salad, dressing, or blueberries spread (or bounce) across the entire produce aisle while my mother quietly, but forcefully, tells me to ‘just turn around, and walk away’. I think I’m starting to understand where I get this from…

…I am letting myself get distracted. The point here is that this little habit has at least eased me into one of the adjustments of apartment living in Moscow. Really having to carry your groceries in one shot. But please, I’m a pro. Just ignore the coffee dripping down my hair and into my face. Yes, that has happened too. The harder change for me was mastering shoe removal upon entering the apartment. In the beginning I was tripping over groceries and overheating in my coat (when does that come off??) while balancing on the tiny entrance rug, afraid to step off until I took of my shoes. Russians From Russia (RFR), will take their shoes off upon entering their or a friend’s apartment. It makes sense since Moscow is a very dirty city, but it raised so many questions for me I kind of stressed myself out. Do I need to provide slippers for guests? Will they understand we are here temporarily and don’t have extra slippers? Should I bring my own slippers to a friend’s apartment? – or would BYOS have been on the Facebook invite? What happens if I didn’t bring my own slippers and the ones they have are too small? Do I still wear them? And if I stretch them out? Make them smell?

A lovely change is how great RFRs think our Russian is. They are fascinated that we speak any at all since we weren’t born here, didn’t live here before, and grew up in the States. And our parents weren’t even born in Russia/nearby (except Andrei’s dad). So I speak more confidently even though I know I am making mistakes. Because it’s a wonder I speak any Russian at all. But when I return home or talk to Russians Like Me (RLM) I revert immediately back to English. Because I feel like my Russian to them is much less impressive. Silly. But it’s the truth.

I think my Russian has been getting a tiny bit better. The accents here can sometimes be hard to understand. Or people also just talk really fast. I am taking pilates and the instructor speaks pretty quickly. It’s funny though because even in American fitness classes the instructor could be screaming, ‘Bend your knee!’ in your face and you will still be staring at your very stretched out and straightened knee trying to figure out what to do. But anyway, for the whole first class  I kept thinking she was randomly saying toilet. Pelvis in Russian is taz. A toilet bowl/toilet in Russian is oonitaz. When she would say to stand pelvis width apart, the combination of her sentence really sounded like oonitaz. Made for a confusing first pilates class.

Another difficulty, which sometimes happens to me in New Jersey or mostly in New York City, is not being able to find a lot of things in one grocery store. I feel it more here though. And the stores in the city center, of even Ashan, won’t always carry the same thing, even the next day. There seems to be less consistency.

Hence I used whole, instead of ground, cumin and elbow macaroni instead of orzo in this Spicy Chickpea and Lemon soup (which was almost identical to the delicious Hale & Hearty version):

The recipe can be found here: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/spicy-chickpea-soup-lemon-orzo-recipe?click=recipe_sr

So, I recently went to four grocery stores in one day in preparation for making traditional Easter (and one more lenten) sweets. Not sure if either store would carry all the spices I need, I picked up any that I saw along the way at each grocery store visit. When I got to the last place on my agenda, I still needed cardamom. I found it. It came in a convenient combo pack with the other spices I had already bought seperately. So if you need ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg…I have plenty to give away.

Because of all the prep for Easter and church services taking place during this last week of our Great Lent (hello, WHERE did the time go?!), our meals won’t be very creative this week. Plus I’m too exhausted from my full day spice hunt to come up with some brilliant dishes to close out this lenten season (no worries though, another lent is lurking just around the corner). So it’s soup, spaghetti, leftover soup, and more spaghetti on the schedule.

But I’ll very quickly share a meal I made (that I thought tasted pretty fabulous) from before our short trip to New Jersey. Judging by the busy week ahead, I don’t think I will be able to work this into another post before Lent ends, and I wanted to get it out there. Maybe someone sick of spaghetti and shrimp can use this (you know, since you would never dare to eat this outside of a lent 😉 ). A little twist on my mushroom patties:

Mushroom & Tomato Sandwiches served with Arugula & Orange Salad

For two sandwiches: Boil a medium size beet until tender (or buy pre-boiled beets). Meanwhile, dice 1-2 tomotoes. Toss in a bowl with 1 chopped garlic clove, fresh chopped basil, olive oil, white balsamic, salt/pepper to taste. Set aside and let the flavors soak. Chop about 3/4 lb of mushrooms (large slices of portobello would probably also work every well). Saute them until tender and liquid has evaporated. While they are still warm, season with salt/pepper and mix in some lenten mayo (I do try not to rely on fake this and that, but the lenten mayo in Moscow is actually quite delicious). Spread some of the mayo plus dijon mustard on one or both sides of some bread, preferably a baguette. Top with the mushrooms then the tomatoes and greens of your choice.

For the salad: Make a dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, a splash of white balsamic, salt/pepper. Toss two handfuls of arugula with some of the dressing, reserving the rest of the dressing. Remove peel and pith from one orange and one blood orange carefully with a knife along curves of the fruit – keeping it intact. Slice crosswise. Peel and slice the beet. Top bed of dressed arugula with orange and beet slices, and some black olives. Drizzle remaining dressing (to taste).

Zucchini Improv

I just got back from a fun date with my husband at a chain Italian restaurant in Moscow called Mi Piace. I enjoyed a delicious tomato soup from their lenten menu. We happily walked back home in the only slightly chilly evening to find we had walked ‘auto-pilot’ to our previous apartment building on Noviy Arbat (just one identical building over from where we currently reside). “We were due,” Andrei said as we back tracked to our current building.  We were bummed to only have discovered the lenten menu with one week to go. Last time we were there they only gave us English menus (everyone always guesses we are American) which never include the lenten options. This menu at Mi Piace is great because it includes a good variety of options instead of the typical fried potatoes with mushrooms (which I admit I could happily eat everyday for the rest of my life). Variety is key though because sometimes things can get old fast.

A great group was started on Facebook to let Orthodox friends share their favorite lenten dishes. It’s an excellent way for everyone to add some variety to their days of vegan-ness. Despite the vast vegan recipes now available, on Facebook and beyond, I find it’s easy to feel like you keep making the same things, or are ordering the same foods (raise your hands if you’ve eaten hummus, shrimp and pasta more than three times this week!).

In my Russian food magazine, Hleb i Sol (Bread and Salt), I found a nice alternative to the lenten staple of stuffed bell pepper – Stuffed Zucchini. I liked the recipe because it seemed like a hearty dish of just veggies with no rice (which also gets tiresome) in the filling.

In a very simple translation, you take two zucchinis (for two people as a main, or 4 if you are serving with a bunch of other stuff), cut off the ends and then cut them in half lengthwise. Using a spoon or melon baller, carefully scoop out the inside of the zucchinis creating a sort of boat and set aside. Drizzle the zucchini “boats” with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven at about 390F for 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile chop the zucchini ‘meat’, fennel, garlic, and capers. Cube eggplant, peppers, and onion. Cut some green and black olives in half. Make a ratatouille with all the vegetables, some canned tomatoes with their juice (breaking them up with a spatula while they are in the frying pan). Add a bit of tomato paste, let it all cook, then stuff the zucchini boats and sprinkle with some bread crumbs. Put the stuffed zucchini back in the oven and roast for another 15 minutes. Top with fresh basil.

While I was prepping the dish, our neighbors from across the hall came by to ask if we could look after their suitcases. They were checking out of their temporary apartment but still had some time before their train. Although they were much more pleasant than the very very scary old lady in the other apartment across the hall that I swear was cooking little children in her apartment, they definitely didn’t make us doing them a favor easy! When they came back for their stuff they parked themselves in our kitchen (after 12am) and almost demanded tea. It was all easy to laugh off of course (since growing up we had all sorts of people in and out of our house all the time), except that when they were dropping their stuff off, I was cooking the ratatouille and distractedly added too much of the canned tomatoes. The result was very watery so I had to add some couscous to absorb the extra liquid. Although they didn’t come out like the picture, they were delicious nonetheless. It’s always good to be able to improvise.

…just like I had to improvise with this apple tart when I realized I had no foil. But that was easy – I guess I can’t really call greasing and flouring the sheet pan improvising :). I found a recipe that had a great tip – make a syrup by reducing water, sugar, and vanilla with the apple peels and brush the dough with it before baking. Makes for a delicious crust. I used lenten dough for this and thinly sliced apples. (before baking, top the apples with melted margarine, the syrup and sugar)

Love Triangle

We’ve been at home in New Jersey visiting and renewing visas, hence my small break in posts. Not that I was super on top of it to begin with! 🙂

Anyway…we head back to Moscow tomorrow making today a full day of cleaning, packing and prepping. When I was leaving Moscow to come here, I have to admit I was a little sad. I somehow wasn’t ready to leave this place that was starting to feel like home to me. I love so many things about our life in Moscow and despite the mostly freezing weather I have been very happy there. Experiencing so many churches, making friends and slowly getting better with our Russian language. And despite the fact that he has to work a lot and I know he is stressed, seeing my husband proud of his project and so dedicated to his work in itself is worth being in Russia.

So somehow, although we had been traveling back and forth, this time, after two months in Moscow, it was much harder to leave. Even if for just a quick ten days. I got all lame and weepy saying goodbye to my fellow volunteers. I lingered in every room of the apartment until I wasted most of my packing time (kind of like I am avoiding packing now 🙂 ). It’s silly because I knew we would be back very soon, but I think deep down I was afraid that I would remember I also love home. Ten days is enough for me to miss everything that is back in the States. Not that I didn’t before, but I am used to being away from home and I have gotten better at kind of pushing aside those feelings. Bring me back, and all the emotion floods right back into me.

I went to New York City last week to take care of some errands. And it went right for my heart strings. I was uptown, midtown and almost all the way downtown in one quick day and it was dangerous. Emotionally dangerous, that is. Walking around I could literally feel in my chest how much I adore this place. I wanted to hug it. But I’m too cool for that, ahem. Maybe it was the sunshine. Hadn’t seen that for a while 🙂

My mom also came to visit and that made me miss Burlingame and San Francisco in California. What amazing places. I was so happy to see her face, and not through a computer screen via skype. We actually chatted about how awful it is when you are attached and happy in more than one place. For about 7 1/2 years it’s been two for me – West Coast (the Northern California part) where I am from, and East Coast where I went to school and married into. Well, now I have a third. Moscow. It’s a blessing, I know. I am so fortunate – so much love across so many big places. But it’s tough too – so much love across so many big places.

I am happy that we got to see a lot of our closest friends and family. I didn’t realize how much I needed a great gab fest with old girlfriends and I got one. And it was perfect. And I got to use my new food processor for a dinner party meal which I will make sure to blog about soon! I have some catch up to do with some back logged posts, but I will end this one here.

We say goodbye to New Jersey & New York tomorrow, with a little wave in the direction of California. See you in approximately three months…try to go easy on me.

I’m looking forward to our continued adventures in the land of our roots.

Operation Русская Кухня (Russian Kitchen)

Back home in New Jersey I receive monthly issues of Food & Wine and Bon Appetit magazines. It takes just one issue to make me want to change my whole life, at least culinarily speaking. I miss these monthly gifts (who doesn’t LOVE getting snail mail in this heavily technology based world?!) so I went out and bought the March issue of a Russian food magazine called Hleb i Sol (Bread and Salt). The recipes aren’t limited to traditional Russian dishes. On the contrary, many in this issue aren’t, but they did actually have a few articles and recipes specifically for the Great Lent, which to me is absolutely fascinating.

Although Russia has not completely rid itself of the leftovers of communism and the Soviet attitude/lifestyle, I can’t even express how awesome it feels to be surrounded by our own religion. At home, what happens at church and what happens in society (for example at a restaurant or a store) was always so separate. Here, it all comes together. Restaurants advertise their convenient lenten menus and grocery stores mark their suggestions for fasting (some products even have lenten stamps of approval on them). Almost every time I am at the store at least one customer is confirming whether a loaf of bread or a pie is in fact lenten. The only disadvantage to this is of course missing out on post-holiday sales in time for our celebrations. At home we always stock up on wrapping paper or ornaments after December 25th in time for our Christmas festivities on January 7th. Same usually goes for Easter candy. Here I guess we don’t have that luxury, but really the trade-off is so much better.

Lenten options at the grocery store. The yellow sign says "Products Recommended for Lent" and the boxes say "For Lent"

I plan to show a lenten recipe from Hleb i Sol in another blog post, but what I wanted to share this time was mors (basically fruit juice, but so much better). In this magazine they had a couple recipes for mors “like your babushka used to make”. We had been buying mors practically every week, so I decided it might be fun to try making it myself and feel like a traditional Russian cook from back in the day. I find that although many people buy pre-made items now, there is a pride in homemade Russian staples like pickled cucumbers and jam (especially if you also grow the ingredients or pick them on a trip to your ‘dacha’).

The recipe I followed calls for pressing out the juices of a mixture of forest berries and adding boiled water to the juice. Then you add a few cloves and some honey and let it sit for several hours until serving either cold or warm (remember to remove the cloves first!!).

I used brusnika, which translates to cowberry, which I have never heard of in English. It looks almost like a cranberry and is the red berry pictured above. I also used black currants (both bought frozen and defrosted).  I don’t have a strainer so it was difficult to press juices out of the berries and my meat mallet was just not doing the trick. I decided to boil the berries in water for a bit and then squish them as much as possible, add the clove and honey and strain it with the pot lid after.

I’m not sure this was the best idea. I think the skins of the berries made the mors much more bitter. I added some sugar to help, but I think now it’s only really enjoyable if you add hot water when drinking a cup. For now, the jug of it is just sitting in the fridge, neglected. When I return home to Jersey, amidst my kitchen gadgets that I remember fondly, I will try again and hopefully continue to make my own mors for years to come.  But this wasn’t a total disaster and I am happy that I tried it out. Something in which to progress.

My next traditional Russian kitchen attempt was zhavoronki. Little rolls shaped into birds that signify the coming of spring. Traditionally they are made on/around March 22nd (the holiday of the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste), but I made them a little earlier this year to share with the volunteers. I used a friend’s recipe (that I believe she got from her cousin). Hopefully they won’t mind me sharing it here 🙂

Basically you dissolve one package of yeast in a cup of warm (NOT hot) water, then add 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup sugar. Gradually add 2 cups of flour to make the dough. Add more flour as necessary (you don’t want the dough to be sticky, but you should be able to work with it). After kneading the dough for a bit, let it rise for about an hour. I had mine covered with a dishcloth and near a heater. I was very excited to see that the dough had risen! (I did double the recipe and it was fine)

Knead the dough again and then work pieces of the dough into a ‘log’. Tie in a simple knot – on the end that becomes the tail use a knife to cut the tip into three ‘feathers’ and on the end that becomes the head stick in cloves for eyes. You can also use raisins for eyes which you then do not have to remove before eating. Despite this convenient alternative, I am loyal to team-clove as that is how they were done in my family. So decide carefully because there is no going back. You are cloves or you are raisins. Not both. My husband comes from team-raisin and it causes awkward tension every spring.

Place the zhavoronki on a baking sheet. Poke holes with a fork or toothpick to let air escape as they bake. Also you can steep some tea in a little water (make it strong) and brush that on the dough to add a bit of color (instead of an egg wash). Oh, I’d like to add that I found the right flour – it was the one I assumed would be whole wheat flour after all.

Bake until golden brown. You can test doneness by carefully picking one up and tapping the bottom – if it sounds hollow it is done! Once they are out of the oven, brush some honey on them. This is such a clever touch (that I stole from my friend, Ksenia, who gave me the recipe).

I have made much prettier zhavoronki, but they came out tasting nice. And the apartment smelled delicious! If I made scented candles I would start a Russian line and one would be Zhavoronki…along with a million others (Kulich, Sirnaya Pascha, Old Books, Church Insence. Note to self – look into this idea!). I was so excited to bring them to the volunteers as most of the treats I bring them are based on American recipes, until all of a sudden panic set it. These zhavoronki do not look like dainty little birds. And I have seen pictures online of Russian creations made from bread. They are impeccable. Was I about to make a complete idiot of myself by proudly bringing in these…I don’t even know what to call them…they looked like birds flattened on the side of the road! I was hoping the taste would compensate.

…I think it did. The volunteers were happy. And although one of them said my zhavoronki looked like ‘kambala’ – Russian for those flat fish that camouflage in the sand at the bottom of the ocean (in Russia nobody worries about hurting your feelings) – everyone seemed genuinely happy to eat them and pleased that I brought them in. I think Operation Russian Kitchen was a success…

‘Shroom Addiction

It’s always fun when you can start making dishes without recipes – either you’re repeating something you’ve made before and have mastered or, even better, you are applying stuff you have learned from cooking other things to create a new dish of your own. I did this the other day when I made mushroom patties.

First of all, let me start by telling you how much I love mushrooms…

..actually, I can’t, because I don’t know how to express just how much. But trust me, it’s a lot. It’s a weakness. I love discovering new restaurants and new food, but it is so hard not to order mushroom risotto or anything with mushroom sauce every time I see it on a menu. I pretty much have to make a pros and cons list and talk myself out of it. Kind of like my husband and buffalo wings. He just can’t stay away. When we started dating it was summer. In three months I ate more buffalo wings than the whole rest of my life before that first date. In turn, since meeting me he has probably eaten more mushrooms than he did in his life leading up to our romance. He was never a mushroom lover, but I married him anyway.

I also had a co-worker/officemate that loved mushrooms too. And we had the same hair. It’s like she and I were made for each other.

Anyway, I thought mushroom patties would be an interesting experiment given my addiction and the fact that we are back to vegan cooking. I made up my own recipe. It could definitely use some tweaking, but I think the flavor was good. But again, I love mushrooms. So from what I understand about having a child…they can almost do nothing wrong. And even when I’m sick of them, I still want them around. And when they are gone, I miss them.

First I finely chopped about a pound of washed mushrooms. (If my husband is finally reading this blog then please change that to VERY THOROUGHLY washed mushrooms…love you). Then I sauteed them with some minced garlic (I would have microplane zested the garlic into the pan if I had the microplaner with me) until all the liquid evaporated and set it aside to cool.

Next I sauteed half a chopped onion and added it to the mushrooms. In one of those sauteeing batches I added some chopped fresh parsley. I let it cool slightly before mixing in breadcrumbs and vegan mayo until the mixture became shapeable. In Moscow I haven’t been able to find regular breadcrumbs yet. I think either the dried kind or throwing a slice of white sandwich bread in your food processor would probably work much better. What I used, called smes in Russian, was more dusty…almost like flour.

I shaped the mixture into patties and rolled them in more breadcrumbs (seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika). Then I put the patties into the fridge to allow them to get cold/harden. I pan fried them with a little olive oil, turning once or twice very carefully, until they were heated through and had a delicious crispy crust.

Serve with sides of your choice. Mine were cous cous and a very simple salad.

The next day I broke up a leftover patty and mixed it with leftover cous cous for more of a ‘pilaf’. That was delicious too.

I welcome you to tweak my recipe into something of your own!

A Week of Blini

The week before Great Lent is called Maslenitsa (known in English as Pancake Week or Cheesefare) during which you can eat everything but meat. In Russia it’s a great time of festivals and festivities. Saying goodbye to Winter (except not really because I am still freezing) and getting ready for Spring. The toppings for the blini (non-breakfast pancakes) range from fish, sour cream, caviar, etc to cheese, jam, apple puree and so on. My favorite combination is sour cream, chopped eggs and smoked salmon. Delicious.

One night I made blini for myself and my husband at our apartment. I used my friends’ recipe that I tried early last fall (sometimes blini are good outside of Maslenitsa) and they came out pretty well. I have to say my dear lady friends did a much better job than I did! Although I made them in Moscow, the first time I ate blini from this recipe, in September, it felt more like I was in a little Russia. We were at a cabin in Pennsylvania that was COVERED in little Russian chochkis. We went mushroom picking the day before and sang Russian songs around a camp fire. So it really was like both times I was in Russia 🙂 Except this time I got to use Russian ingredients – like my favorite water here (never had an opinion, but this one is delicious – Cone Forest), Russian milk AND flour that is special for making blini, as you can see by the picture of a blini stack on the front of it. And Russian eggs that sometimes still have little feathers in the carton.

The recipe is basically to beat/whisk one egg with some milk (like french toast coating), add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Gradually add flour (mixing/whisking between each addition) until the batter is the consistency of sour cream, then thin out with seltzer water until you are ready to fry. Then ladle into a hot pan (with some butter) and cook it like a pancake.

There is a saying “S Pervom Blinkomom” that comes from the fact that the first pancake always come out messed up. It applies to things you try the first time and it doesn’t come out great…with practice it gets better. It translates to “With the First Blin”…for me it’s “With Every Blin”.

Anyway, all the festivities we participated in were great. At our friends’ apartment we had a filling out of marscapone, smoked fish and mustard. Definitely interesting. The blini there were super thin. I want to try his recipe next year – he used butter in the batter and not in the pan. No yeast and no seltzer water.

A few parks in Moscow had great festivals that we went to with AMAZING (best I have ever had) blini made to order. I had two, and probably could have had more. One with smoked salmon and sour cream and the other with mashed potatoes, crispy onions and mushrooms. So good! Still dreaming about it. We went to three festivals the last weekend. So I had five separate blini occasions. It does get old. And then you take a break for a day and suddenly you want more…it’s a blini phenomenon.

but now we are back to lent…

That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles

About two weeks ago I decided to bake what I call ‘gooey bars’ for the volunteers. Back in December I made them chocolate peanut butter bars based on a recipe that I modified for my apartment and available groceries. This time I also had to crumble cookie crumbs and I currently have even less available methods in our apartment. It really has nothing to do with Moscow. In Ashan they have plenty of appliances, it just doesn’t make sense to buy any considering we are here temporarily. I want to check out their food processor options though, because every time I describe this recipe to someone here, I try to say food processor, but they say blender. I guess you can make cookie crumbs in a blender. But I want to know exactly what they are calling a blender.

This time I had to use a wooden meat mallet/tenderizer to crush the cookies…a little messier than the potato masher and colander.

So the one benefit to my husband still not having read my blog is that I can freely talk about my resourcefullness in the Moscow kitchens. I’d hate for all this to back fire and him have a reason to say it’s silly to buy fancy kitchen gadgets when I can just use a meat mallet to make cookie crumbs!! So let’s all agree to keep this a secret? 😉 Thanks!

These gooey bars of deliciousness are technically called Magic Bars on the back of the Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk can label and in google searches. I for some reason disliked this name (doesn’t Magic Bar make you think you’ll get high or something?) so I just call them gooey bars. Anyway, I have now brought them to Moscow. And they are becoming quite popular, except now we have to pause for lent (yes, again).

A girl in the volunteer group went home and made her own version. I gave our landlord a piece and he was over the moon. One church worker, who was in the kitchen while the volunteers were cooking, kept taking more during her coffee break while she thought no one was looking, and then thanked me profusely later for bringing them in.  I brought them to a dinner party and the whole plate was empty in 5 minutes. My husband’s colleague loves sweetened condensed milk so I gave Andrei a piece to pass along and then I got a call from the coworker with laughs of gratitude. Maybe they will explode in Moscow and I can become famous for introducing gooey bars to Russia. And make millions 🙂 Sounds like a Russian fairytale – making it big by making/finding something magical. Maybe I should keep the cookie’s original name. Olya and the Magic Bars. Magic Gooey Bars?

I don’t really use a recipe anymore (but you can find one on the Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk can label – they print it on the outside last time I was in the states and saw…so you can jot it down, but buy a different brand of the milk if you prefer). Like for everything else in Moscow they have several different types of sweetened condensed milk in all sorts of containers!

The quick explanation of the recipe is as follows…

(MAGICAL) GOOEY BARS

-Crush/Mash/Food Process graham crackers to make crumbs (about 305 grams if you are in Europe)

-Mix with enough melted butter so if feels like it will kind of hold together and spread out the mixture on a covered baking sheet

-Top with sweetened condensed milk (400-500grams, again if you are in Europe). Try to avoid spreading with a spoon as you will move the graham cracker crust. I try to drizzle thick ribbons along the edges and as much around the center as I can, then carefully tilt the pan in different directions to spread the sweetened condensed milk over the crust.

-Top with chocolate and whatever toppings you prefer. Here I did Alyonka milk chocolate and Alpen Gold white/dark swirled chocolate chunks. At home I do a mix of chocolate chips, coconut flakes and sometimes toffee or something like that. You can also use nuts, but I don’t really like nuts in chocolate/dessert. The volunteer who made them here for her friends also put cranberries which is probably an interesting touch.

-Bake in a preheadted oven at 350F for about 20-25 minutes…or until the edges are starting to brown. Let cool, cut into squares, serve and watch everyone fall in love with you.