It really is taking forever for me to get things catalogued in this blog after our trip. It's the 12th of January and I'm still blogging about December 20th. We had pot stickers for dinner. Pretty easy. They come already made and then I created some sauce for them, and away we went. The sauce is just soy sauce, srirachi hot sauce and a little rice wine vinegar. Great dipping.
On Tuesday the 21st, we had Warm Rueben Pie, Blinzes, Russian Tea Cookies, and Rugelach.
I was a busy cooker.
Warm Rueben Pie: Cooks Illustrated Magazine.
Lili picked this one out and it was good, although if I made it again, I would change the sauce a little bit.
1 1/2 lb. of corned beef, or pastrami if you can't get corned beef.
1 lb. of swiss cheese, or we used dutch havarti because we had it.
1 tube of pillsbury ready to bake bread
1 1/2 cup of sauerkraut.
The recipe asks you to make a sauce, but I'd just get thousand island dressing in a bottle and use that. The dressing the recipe calls for is too sweet.
Unroll the bread and create a circle. On one half pile the meat, the cheese and the sauerkraut. Spread the dressing on the top. Pull the other half of the dough over the fillings and crimp the dough together to cover it. Brush the top with an egg wash and then sprinkle with caraway seeds or fennel seeds.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
I also made blintzes which are a crepe filled with ricotta cheese and fruit. I got the recipe from the Marin Independent Journal.
Lemon and Dried Blueberry Blintzes
Servings 8 (16 blintzes)
For the crepes: 1 1/4 cup all purpoe flour
2 tsps powdered sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 c low fat milk
3/4 c. water
6 tablespoons butter melted,plus more for brushing.
For the filling:
2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
3 tbs. sour cream, plus extra for serving
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsps lemon zest
3/4 c dried blueberries.
To make the crepes, in a blender combine the flour,powdered sugar, eggs, milk, water and melted butter. Blend until smooth. Let the batter rest, refrigerated for 20 minutes or up to one day. Heat a 10 inch nonstick skillet or crepe pan over mediuim heat . Brush the pan with melted butter. You many only need to do this for every other crepe. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the pan, then immediately tilt and rotate the pan to spread the batter evenly over the bottom. Cook the crepe until the edges are lightly browned and beginning to curl up -- about 2 to 3 minutes.
Carefully loosen the edges of hte crepe witha spatula and flip the crepe over in the pan. Cook until the second side is slightly browned, about another 20 seconds. Slip the crepe onto a plate. Prepare the remaining crepes in the same manner. There should be enough batter for 16 crepes.
To make the filling, in a medium bowl stir togetherthe ricotta, sour cream, sugar, egg, egg yolk, lemon zest, and dried blueberries.
To assemble the blintzes, one at a time place a crepe on a clean work surface with the paler side facing up. Place 2 tbs of filling at the center of the crepe. Fold the opposite sides of the crepe over the center until they barely touch. Fold in the other two sides to make an envelope that completely encloses the filling.
Put the blinzes back in the crepe pan with some butter and warm until golden brown. Serve with jam, or sour cream.
It's not the holidays without these special cookies.
Russian Tea Cookies
1 c butter softened
1/2 c. sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
2 1/4 c of flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c finely chopped pecans.
Mix the first three ingredients together thoroughly and then add the flour salt and pecans. Form the dough into a ball and then chill it for up to an hour. Form small balls from the dough and bake at 400 for 10 - 12 minutes. Roll in confectioners sugar when you take them from the oven and then once again when they have cooled.
I'm posting the rugelach in a separate entry.
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