Charlie D's Ukrainian Recipes

[CharlieD]

Picture is not mine, I do not eat or cook pork.

 

[CharlieD]

This recipe is not from Ukrainian cuisine and also I simplified it a lot. So it is more a recipe, as they say about the movies, “inspired” by the original recipe called Kchachapuri, from Georgian cuisine, I mean Georgia the country not the state.
Ingredients

Pastry dough – 2sheets
Cheese any kind as much as you would like about a pound or more.
Some freshly grated garlic 2-3-4 cloves or to your liking
2-3 eggs plus 1 one for glazing and closing.
Salt and pepper to taste.
A pack of pastry dough. There are two sheets per Pepperidge farm brand package. You will have to roll it out slightly so it doesn’t rise too much. Make both sheets the same size.
I like to buy couple of different kinds of cheese and mix them together, also and that is from original recipe I like to add feta cheese, the original cheese is called Suluguni, you can find it in the Russian store, if you have one around, but feta works just as well. Mix cheese, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper together spread on one sheet, leaving about ¾ of an inch of the pastry dough uncovered. Make the egg wash and using the pastry brush, brush the uncover ends. Spread the second sheet on the top. Try to make sure you push the air out as you cover it. Using a fork pock bunch of holes in the top sheet, so there is way for air to escape during baking. Using same fork pinch the ends together all around. Use the rest of the egg was h to brush the top; a little pinch of salt added to egg will help to make the top look shiny.
Bake per instruction on the box, or until the dough is baked to your liking. I like it on a bit overdone side, kind of dark golden brown.

 

[CharlieD]

Imitation crab Salad

Salad:

1 potato
2 carrots
2 hard boiled eggs
½ cup canned sweet pees
1-2 cup imitation crab.
1-2 table spoon mayo
Salt to taste.

1 small to medium Granny Smith apple or
1 cucumber
1 pickle.

( Last 3 items I do not use, but my mom interchangeably uses them, depending on her mood )

Boil potato in skin, carrots (I peel them before cooking), eggs. Let it cool down so you can work with them. Peel potato and eggs. I like to dice all the items very small. Mix together; add salt and mayo mix it. Yum. Add one spoon of mayo first and try, you may or may not want to add the second spoon, or maybe even third.

 

[CharlieD]

SALMON SALAD.

Ingredients:

Salmon, pink or red, canned (or cooked) 1-2 cans

Potatoes 2-3

Carrots 2-3

Green peas 1-2 cans

Beets 1-2 cans

Hard boiled eggs 3-4

Mayo 1 cup or so.

Little bit of water and or lemon juice to dissolve the mayo.

Salt and Pepper to taste


A tip. It works the best when you have the same amount of each ingredient and double amount of salmon (separately)


- boil potato with skin on. Peel them after they cool off.
- peel and boil carrots
- hard boiled eggs.
- canned beets (or you can boil one yourself. I don't like to do it because it takes too long), but don't use the pickled kind, they have too much vinegar in them.

All of the above can be cooked day in advance and diced or even grated on the big hole grater.

-canned peas.

optional: you can use any vegetables you like i.e. onion or green onion, corn, pickles or cucumbers, some people even put apples.

-Pink or red salmon - 1 can

(Red tastes better but is more expensive, so I usually get one of each and mix it together). Fish comes with some bones. Make sure to discard them. Or you can simply bake filet of salmon for about 15 minutes and use then instead of canned stuff.
Mix it well with a fork. I’m a lazy person J and do not like to chew, so I try to mush all my food. After that, set the spread in the middle of the serving plate and pour the mayonnaise mixture over it. Make sure to cover fish completely, it looks better when served.

-mayonnaise should be dissolved (a little bit) with water and/or lemon juice. Do not add too much juice so as not to overpower the taste of the vegetables and fish. Mayo should be liquid enough to spread over salmon but not too liquid so it runs off.

Put all the prepared veggies in a scoop around the fish. Make it look pretty by putting them in order and somewhat color coordinated.

Serve like that. It looks very pretty. After everybody stop commenting how beautiful the dish is season and mix it well all together.

Looks beautiful before it was mixed and tastes good after it is mixed, though it doesn’t look that good anymore.

 

[CharlieD]

In the Imitation crab Salad, substitude the imitation crab for diced chicken, or beef, or cold cuts, or any and all in any combination together. Yum.

 

[CharlieD]

So what it is an old thread, what if I have something to say.

 

[CharlieD]

Piroshki
1 egg
2 packs quick rising yeast
2 cups milk
A pinch of sugar and 2 of salt
4 ½ cups flour plus more for kneading
Plus oil for kneading

Warm up the milk a little bit. Add sugar, egg, yeast, and mix well. Slowly add flour mixing well. After adding all flour kneed for few minutes, until dough comes off of the walls of the container you are using. Cover with the towel. Let it rise in a worm place. It should at least double in size. When that happens push the dough down, knead for another minute divide into small portions. Like a golf ball size, flatten it put the mixture in pinch to close, fry in oil seam side down first.

 

[NoraC]

Schav
(spinach soup)
one of the easiest things to make.

Do you want hot or cold? In reality it doesn’t matter.

Thank you! It IS schav and I hadn't had it in 32 years. BTW, you can grow sorel in MN; get the seeds from Cook's Garden and plant them in a window box or flower pot, if you don't have garden space; it is a near weed.

 

[David Cottrell]

So what it is an old thread, what if I have something to say.

Say away old man! It just so happens that I will copy your piroshki recipe to my recipe files, many of which are from you.

I just received a nice cook book from my Ukrainian granddaughter, her g-dmother and g-dmother's daughter. A birthday present - Украинская Кухня - Ukrainian Cuisine.

Not knowing how to read Russian I started with Rabbit stuffed with Rice. I abandoned that and am copying Onion with Milk in Cyrillic so I can take it to google translator to turn into English. Seems that it would be simplier to learn Russian doesn't it. Why Ukrainian Cusine written in Russian? We won't go into it here.

 

[David Cottrell]

By the way Charlie, how about a couple of suggestions for the mixture to put in the piroshki. Будь ласка.

 

[CharlieD]

DW wants PC, will do it tomorow, I hope.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Charlie mate I am 70% through this fantastic thread, the pickled toms is a must try in september.

 

[Zhizara]

Charlie mate I am 70% through this fantastic thread, the pickled toms is a must try in september.

I agree. I'm glad you bumped it, Charlie.

 

[CharlieD]

As far as mixture to put into piroshky. Traditional are meat, potato, jam/preserves, farmer’s cheese, cabbage, split pea, green onion and egg mixture.
I like to prepare meat specifically for it, but have used plenty of leftovers. I’d collect leftovers meat. Sautee some onions, grind and mix all together. To stretch it you can add some cooked rice, or my grandma's favorite was hardboiled egg. Just make sure that whatever you decide to put in tastes good. Because it is going to make piroshky either taste good or not. Potato I boil in skin, peel add sauté onion, salt pepper to taste and grind thru the meat grinder. Mix well, you're good to go. Farmers cheese is though less common but doable. Just add some salt or sugar to the mixture; you can even add an egg to keep it more together. Cabbage. I stew the cabbage with salt and some pepper till it is soft and started to look somewhat brownish then it is ready to go. You can add some sour croute to fresh cabbage as you cook it, but not too much.
Split peas should be cooked to the consistency of porridge. Jam or preserves has to be nearly hard. I make special one just for that reason. I purposely over cook it so it becomes not hard, but for sure tough. Then it will not run out from the inside during cooking. And the last one I use is egg and green onion mixture. It is practically an omelet with chopped green onion. Again make it taste good. Sauté some onions add egg, let it set, cook till it is hard, but do not burn. Do not chop or anything, simply cut pieces of big or small enough to put inside the dough. You might need to sprinkle a little bit of flour on it because it is wet the dough is not going to want to close on you and might open up during frying. Same with cabbage.

 

[David Cottrell]

More possibilities than I thought!

Thanks Charlie, I got it!

 

[CharlieD]

Solianka
is the meal in a bowl. A simplified version of more complex Russian recipe for Solianka.

Ingredients:

Crosscut shank with bone in - 3.5 - 4 lb

Large carrots, grated – 2

Parsnip, small to average, grated - 1

Large onion finely chopped – 1

Pickle, for G-ds sake use the dill not the vinegar pickle, I don’t know how people eat them anyway, large – 2

Olives, I mixed green and black chopped ones together – 1 cup
(My family doesn’t like olives, if you do - do not chop them at all)

Tomato sauce – 2 cans

Hot jalapeno pepper, chopped – 1

Sweet red pepper, chopped – 1

Garlic, freshly chopped – 2 cloves

Parsley, dill – about a pinch or more

Lemon, sliced, for serving - 1

Rise – 2 cups

Cold cuts, cut into small cubes or chopped anyway you like about – 2
Cups

Salt, pepper.

In the large pot cook beef or “the other white meat” (if you like) in about 6 quarts of water, cook uncut. Basically you need good meat base bullion. I use beef and I like to cook it for a long time to make sure the beef is very tender. I like to cook with some salt and freshly ground pepper. After water boils I clean the foam of the top and at that time add onion, carrots and parsnip. And let it simmer till ready. Take the meat out and let it cool. At that time add pickles, olives, tomato sauce or paste, you’ll just need less of it. Hot and sweet pepper and garlic. Let it cook for about 15-20 minutes add rice. Now, about the cold cuts. I keep the whole bunch of them already cut in the freezer. It could be anything, salami and bologna, ham and smoked turkey, leftover of some cooked chicken you had the other day, hotdogs and bratwurst, if you like kidneys and tongue it is even better. Just through all of them into the pot let it cook till they are hot (they really do not have to be cooked, as they are already cooked). When meat gets cold enough to handle cut it into small cubes and add back to soup, together with cold cuts. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. Soup has to be spicy and with a hint of pickle. I prefer to use hot pepper to make it spicy rather than black pepper.
For serving you’ll need sour cream or mayo-lemon mixture. I like to mix a little bit of mayo with some lemon juice, add about a half of a teaspoon for a bowl of soup. Slice the lemon and hang a half of a slice on the side of the bowl. For those who will want the soup more tart they will squeeze the juice right into the bowl. Sprinkle some dill and parsley (for the smell) and serve. Now lets see if I can add a picture of it, I made the other day.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Keep them coming Charlie, I am interested in how the Ukrainians make Beef Strog.

 

[CharlieD]

Actually pretty much the same everybody else does. Meat, sour cream, noodles.

 

[CharlieD]

Ok, I am trying to upload some pictures and as always I am having trouble.

 

[CharlieD]

These are the pictures of meat filled pirozhki.