Ahem…
That’s me :]

It’s been half a year since I first thought I should write a short post saying the blog was going on a hiatus… but there was always a hope that the following week would not be as hectic as the previous and that I would finally have some time to post a new recipe and a few photos. What can I say - hopes remained hopes! We do eat occasionally, I still do cook for my family (there’s been a lot of lemon curd, minestrone, and chicken curry recently in our life), but I desperately lack time to take photos (especially now as there’s so little daylight) and write for the blog. So, all of my latest culinary achivements remain undocumented :] There’s just that huge vampire in my life called Evrokatalog.eu - it kills all my time. That’s a huge project indeed, believe me.

Huge thanks to everyone who has emailed me and asked why and where I had disappeared! Special thanks to the ladies who helped me with European recipes for a Christmas feature on my website: Nancy, Barbara, and Miriam. My apologies for all the emails and comments I didn’t reply to.

I have no idea when we’ll be able to revive the blog, but this will certainly happen someday! In the meantime, how about taking a look or even posting some gardening- or flower-related pictures at Gardener’s Day :) That’s a project I started because I searched the web and couldn’t find any online galleries to share photos of flowers, gardens, and floral crafts. And with spring approaching, I thought that creating one would not be a bad idea. This is just a pilot project so to say… I don’t have the time to seriously work on its promotion and development. Just thought some of you might be interested. Of course I wouldn’t mind a short tweet mentioning GD, a facebook status or even a link :-)

So… RussianSeason will be back… someday!! Wishing you a lovely weekend with delicious meals! There’s a hot walnut bundt cake resting in my oven right now :) What are you baking for the weekend?..

Alina

Yesterday Ivanka finally allowed me to go veggie-shopping to the farmers’ market. She is learning to walk and she refuses to stay in her stroller for more than 15 minutes. The farmers’ market, however, is located in a 25 minutes walk from our home. She can make a few steps on her own or walk for a longer time holding my hand, but this distance is still too long for her. Besides, where would I put all my bags if not into a stroller? I missed the splendid farmers’ market so much. The small market we have across the street just doesn’t compare with it - giant carrots, stinky garlic (last year’s leftovers?) and wrinkled blueberries are some of my anti-favourites.  So I was extremely happy when Ivanka graciously allowed me to take her to that further market! We bought as much fruit and berries as I could squeeze into the baby-stroller bags.

It’s pretty amusing actually that our daughter already has her own opinion on a lot of things. She thinks, for example, that food crumbs that fall on the floor are the best delicacies ever. I just can’t stand the sight of her digging a tiny clot of yesterday’s omelet from under the stove and trying to eat it. I even started to mop the floor every other day: Sisyphean efforts, as a true foodcrumb connoisseur will always find something delicious even on a freshly cleaned floor :)

Some other things Ivanka thinks are cool include eating toilet paper, destroying flower pots and chewing shoe sponges. But of course there’re also a lot of good, and beautiful, and exciting things she likes. We were surprised to note that she prefers cats to dogs. She does like dogs, but when she sees a cat… she sings serenades, she’s in love! She loves to listen to music and dance and sing along. She loves flowers. Her favourite colour is yellow. I just think that’s so tremendous to discover her new preferences, likes and dislikes!

The sea buckthorns that I bought at the farmers’ market are also yellow. So I hope Ivanka will enjoy the juice. I plan to make a few jars of concentrated sea buckthorn juice for winter - the oily and acidic juice rich in vitamins C and E is a true elixir for the skin and hair. I think that wild blueberry and sea buckthorn are two of the most healthful and nutritious berries that grow here in Latvia. This variety of sea buckthorn has larger, juicier berries than the wild one; each berry is filled with turbid, oily, astringent liquid that need to be be mixed with generous amounts of sugar and water to become edible (drinkable?).

I’m not going to call this a recipe, but my suggestion is to use almost equal amounts of berries and sugar for a concentrated juice. Just a little bit less sugar - like minus 1 tablespoon for each 1/2 cup. A good idea is to dissolve sugar in a small amount of warm water before adding it to berries. I mash berries and put them through a sieve to get rid of skins and seeds. Then combine them with sugar - and that’s it. Note that this is a very strong and thick juice that just makes you gasp as you drink it. It’s an elixir, don’t forget.  So of course you will need to add water - I find the 1:4 proportion pretty perfect (1 part juice and 4 parts water).

Now I wonder if these berries are available in your country?

When it comes to buying fruit, I always give preference to fruit that originate from a nearer country - local farmers produce being the perfect option of course. In January, when supermarkets run out of Latvian apples, I choose Polish because they look the worst. I mean, you will never convince me that apples that keep until May are actually edible. No no no. So, while I’m always tempted to buy some of those crisp, green, glossy Granny Smiths, I opt for the slightly bruised, smaller apples from Poland.

If you take a look at these apples I brought from Slovakia, you will notice that they are imperfect. Their shape isn’t perfectly round, their colour isn’t perfectly even, their skins are bruised. These are real apples from Stano’s Grandmother. And I had to use them up urgently while they still were juicy and firm. And I had a block of margarine that also needed to be used up. So I started with these two ingredients, whipped up a flaky and a not too sweet dough, and tossed the apples with freshly scraped vanilla seeds (you can’t always use cinnamon with apples after all). Something else was missing. A layer of creamy and sweet coconut paste! Somehow I’ve never thought of pairing apples and coconut in a cake before, but surprisingly, they made a gorgeous couple! The sweet smell coming from the kitchen warmed up the chilly August evening, and the fact Stano had two (!!) pieces of the pie made me think it was pretty good. Of course he said he would have preferred it without coconut (he always chooses the right words, you know), but he ate it! So, let me introduce you my first lattice pie - you will notice that the lattice pattern isn’t perfect either, I made an error at a certain point, but this didn’t make the pie taste any worse. I love it the way it is. And the lattice - I will certainly do it the right way next time.

Apple Coconut Vanilla Lattice Pie
Ingredients

- Crust:
200g margarine, softened
1 egg
2 1/2 cup AP flour
4 tbsp whipping cream
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp home-made vanilla sugar
Pinch of baking soda

- Apple filling:
8 medium-sized apples, peeled and cored
1/2 cup sugar or less if using a sweet variety of apples
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean, freshly scraped
1 tbsp starch (we use potato starch here)

- Coconut filling:
1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp AP flour

Rub margarine with sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat in the egg and cream. Add flour and baking soda and knead the dough until smooth. Allow to chill.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cut the apples into fine cubes (I used a potato cutter). Toss them with vanilla seeds, sugar, and starch. Set aside.

Combine coconut, sugar, flour, and whipping cream, and stir until well-blended.

To make lattice crust, I suggest following the instructions at Simply Recipes. I divided the dough into two slightly unequal parts however, and used the bigger part for the pie shell and the smaller part for the top crust. Spread coconut filling over the pie shell and then fill the shell with apple filling. Then, top the pie with lattice crust.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Cabbage With Egg
1 small head cabbage
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or more)
3 tbsp butter
2 eggs
Salt
Fresh dill, fresh chives

Serves 4

Start by melting 2 tablespoons butter in a small skillet and toasting the breadcrumbs with butter until golden and crunchy. Season breadcrumbs with salt as you toast them.
Halve the cabbage and cut each half lengthwise once or twice. Chop the cabbage into thin strips (the thinner the better, I believe).
Transfer cabbage to a large saucepan and add hot water to cover the cabbage. Bring water to a boil, add salt, and cook cabbage on a medium heat for 3 minutes. Strain water from the cabbage, return it into saucepan, and switch heat to low. Crack two eggs into the saucepan and stir well with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring over a low heat until the cabbage gets uniformly coated with egg (about 2-3 minutes). Stir in a spoonful of butter. Optionally, stir in some diced dill right before the cabbage is done.
Serve warm, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and chives.

Hello Russian Season readers!

This is Amanda. Since Alina’s been busy these days with redesigning her other website, I offered to do a guest post for her. Before I go any further, let me introduce myself: I am 15 and live near the American capital – Washington D.C. I have a huge passion for food too. Whether it’s baking, cooking, eating, or anything else that deals with food, I love it (okay, maybe except for dishwashing). I also have my own food blog – softandstiffpeaks.blogspot.com.

Without further ado, let me introduce what I’ll be blogging about today: the chocolate chip cookie. Yes, this usually is not found in Eastern European cuisine, but Russian Season also covers international foods as well. The chocolate chip cookie is the quintessential American comfort food. These are extremely popular – grocery stores sell different varieties and brands of this cookie (original, double chocolate chip, chewy, etc.); they can also be bought during lunchtime at my school. Also, they are enjoyed as an after-school snack for many school children. Perhaps what makes it so popular (besides how delicious it is) is that it is commonly associated with grandmothers, family, and warmth. It is common for young children to bake this cookie with their grandma over summer vacation or during the holidays. To some, these cookies evoke nostalgia.

The story of how these popular cookies originated goes like this: Ruth Wakefield was baking chocolate cookies for her restaurant, but she ran out of baker’s chocolate. So, she substituted chocolate pieces in. However, the chocolate pieces did not melt and incorporate into her cookie like how the baker’s chocolate would have. Instead, the chocolate pieces stayed intact. This was how the chocolate chip cookie was born. From an accident. A yummy accident, I might add.

I have used this recipe (found below) for several years now. It is originally from my middle school Family and Consumers Science (also known as Home Economics) teacher. Every time I make these, they come out perfectly. It’s slightly crisp on the edges, and soft and chewy in the center. Studded with chocolate chips, these light brown cookies are delish! And when the cookies are baking, your entire house will fill with a glorious, glorious smell. Chocolate, brown sugar, sweet oatmeal, and vanilla all combine together to form a wonderful aroma. Best of all, after you have popped these in the oven, you can lick the remaining cookie dough off the bowl and whisk. (Of course, there is the risk of salmonella from the raw egg, so do what you think is safe. You may use pasteurized eggs as an alternative or forgo it all together.)

After they are baked, let them cool a tad bit before biting into them. These cookies can be enjoyed both warm or at room temperature. Whichever way you choose to enjoy the cookies, make sure to dip them in a glass of milk – it is simply the best way to eat these.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields: 18- 3¼ inch or 8 cm cookies in diameter

Note:
Because cups and spoons are used in America instead of the standard grams and liters, I have provided both the American and metric measurements. As a cup of flour may vary widely in weight, my metric measurements are only approximate. If possible, use cups and spoons. It will be closer to what I used, making your end result more similar to mine.
Alternatively, you may make one big, round cookie. Bake for 14-15 minutes instead.

Ingredients:
½ cup/113 g. butter
1/3 cup packed/70 g. brown sugar
1/3 cup/70 g. white sugar
1 egg
½ tsp/2.5 mL vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup/330 g. flour
¼ tsp/1 mL baking soda
1 cup/165 g. chocolate chips
½ cup/40 g. oatmeal

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 degrees Celsius.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add in both sugars and combine until incorporated. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add in egg and vanilla extract. Scrape down sides of the bowl again.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, chocolate chips, and oatmeal together. Turn mixer onto low speed. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until combined – be careful not to overmix.

Using two teaspoons (those used for stirring tea and coffee), clamp the dough and transfer it to an ungreased baking sheet. (Put one spoon in each hand with the indentations facing each other, and clamp the dough or use the teaspoons like chopsticks). Evenly space out the mounds. Use a second baking sheet if you run out of room on the first. Flatten each mound of dough to 2 inches/5 cm in diameter and ½ inch/1 cm. thick. (A trick for this is to cover the dough with plastic wrap first – this will make this process less sticky.) Make sure that there is still room in between each disk of dough – the cookies will spread in the oven.

Bake for 8-12 minutes. The cookies may appear underdone, but they will continue to cook from the residual heat. Let the cookies cool and firm up on the baking sheet for a bit. If you wish, you may transfer them to a cooling rack with the assistance of a spatula (I didn’t). Enjoy while warm or at room temperature. And don’t forget to accompany them with a glass of milk!

Read more recipes and posts by Amanda at softandstiffpeaks.blogspot.com!

Trenčiancky hrad - the Trenčin Castle

As always in Slovakia, I’ve been eating like crazy. Fruit, sweets, cakes, and megatons of delicious and fluffy multigrain-sprinkled bread. I’ve tried Žinčica - a fermented sheep milk drink that is left from making Bryndza cheese, and Parenica - rolls of mild string cheese, and Oštiepok - formed smoked sheep cheese that has been steeped in salted water. I’ve drunk fresh, full-fat milk that can be turned into creamy, rich home-made cottage cheese. And of course we’ve had Bryndzove Halušky by Stano’s Mom. Fianlly I had the time to take photos and to write down the recipe. Now I think it’s time to update our blog author info in the right sidebar of the site :)

Me by Krater - a mini lake of mineral water in Eastern Slovakia

Bryndzove Halušky is a staple of Slovak cuisine. That’s a food it might take you some time to get used to, because it’s very heavy. Halušky are small potato dumplings mixed with Bryndza cheese sauce and flavoured with bits of fried bacon. Something you need before a physically exhausting day in the field or on the farm. Halušky are traditionally served with Žinčica, Kefir or any other fermented milk drink.

To make Halušky, you will need a special perforated tool called Haluškaren. Now we’ve got one too, but before Stano has used a sheet of perforated cardboard that he had prepared himself :) Using some kind of a colander with large holes is a possible alternative.

Bryndzove Halušky

Ingredients
10 medium-large potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup wheat flour
2 eggs
2/3 tsp salt
250g Bryndza cheese
1 cup 10% cream
200g bacon
3 tbsp diced chives

Serves 6-8

Grate down the potatoes and mix them with eggs and salt. Add flour and mix until combined. Note that the batter should not be too loose: test by dropping a little batter into boiling water - it should not spread in the water.

Cut bacon into fine cubes and fry them until golden-brown and crispy.

In a mixing bowl, blend Bryndza cheese and cream (sour cream can be used instead as well).

In a large saucepan, bring to a boil about 3 liters salted water.

Pass the batter through a perforated tool into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface.
Mix Bryndza and cream into cooked Halušky and stir until well-combined. Fold in fried bacon and chives.
Another option is to mix in the fat left from frying bacon and sprinkle remaining bacon on top of Halušky.

Hi, let me introduce myself. My name is Stano, you can read about me on this blog from time to time. Alina is busy these days… weeks… months, because we are preparing for holidays in Slovakia plus of course she has to take care of our little Ivanka. Our plan is to come to Slovakia, relax and do nothing, just visit new places, swim and eat :) I hope we can take some photos of my Mum’s dishes, and Alina can learn more about our traditional Slovak recipes.

I have to let you now that I am cooking every weekend, and yesterday I made Bryndzove Halusky. I have some friends here in Latvia and I made them 2 servings of Halusky and they were very happy. I came to their home as a courier from food delivery, wearing a red T-shirt, a red bag and a red cap. They laughed, but then they had their Halusky and they said they were tasty. If you would like to know more about Bryndzove Halusky, visit our blog later. In short, it is a traditional Slovak meal made of potatoes, egg and wheat flour cooked and mixed with bryndza, and on the top we put bacon :) I also made garlic soup, but we don’t have a photo of them either. I promise I’ll make it in the future and we will publish it on this blog.

Alina made this cake I think two weeks ago, but she was too busy to publish the recipe. She loves rhubarb and is making beverages, cookies and everything that’s possible to make with rhubarb all the time. These cakes and cookies are so yummy, a little bit sour, so it fits very well in the summer season.

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake
Recipe based on Banana Upside-Down Cake by Lululu@home.
This year’s last rhubarb recipe - promised! :D

Ingredients
100g butter (about 1 stick), softened
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup plain sugar
1 egg
2 stalks rhubarb
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt

*I baked my cake in a deep loaf pan

Preheat oven to 180C.
In a small saucepan, melt about 2/3 of the butter with brown sugar, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until uniform.
Pour caramel into baking pan.
Trim and peel rhubarb stalks. Cut them into pieces that would fit into the pan crosswise and arrange them in the pan in two overlapping layers.
Beat remaining butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, then add flour and remaining dry ingredients. Stir well and add milk.
Pour batter over the rhubarb layer.
Bake for some 35 minutes or until ready.
Serve lukewarm, optionally with ice cream:)

*Note: Use young rhubarb stalks that are not too fibrous. You might need more rhubarb if the stalks are thin or short.

The daycare/office facilities I’m using provide free dinners as well:) My Mom has become a true Babushka who always has something yummy in her pantry. At home, I’ve been making lots of rhubarb preserves: compote, jam, and frozen rhubarbs. I actually came to conclusion that freezing this wonderful plant is the most rewarding option, because I don’t like the extra sugars you’ve got to add if you want your jam to keep until winter.And what can be simpler than cutting rhubarb stalks, freezing them on a large plate, and then transferring into a plastic container… that’s it!

One of the main culinary delights I’ve indulged in recently is my Mother’s strawberry sponge cake. She made me two cakes already and I hardly shared them with anyone. It’s made without butter, so it doesn’t leave a heavy feeling. It’s simple. It’s summery. Fragrant strawberries sinking in a fluffy sponge cake under a sugary, crisp, thin crust - that’s what the first steps of a cool Latvian summer taste like.

Ingredients
8 medium-sized eggs, yolks and whites separated
1 3/4 cup AP flour
1 3/4 cup sugar + extra sugar for sprinkling
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2kg strawberries - rinsed, hulled, and cut into pieces

Makes one cake 30×24cm

Pregeat oven to 180C.
Rub egg yolks with sugar and vanilla sugar.
Add water and stir to blend.
Add flour and stir until smooth.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in the whites into the batter and gently mix with a spoon.
Pour 1/2 of the batter into prepared baking pan. Top with 1/3 of the strawberries. Pour the remaining batter over strawberries and top with remaining strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 40-50 minutes.

Do you have/eat ramsons in your area?

Rhubarb is one of the foods that I can eat every day once their season arrives. And it seems like all of our family is sitting on a rhubarb diet. Ivanka in enjoying her daily rhubarb drink, Stano’s asking for more rhubarb cordial, my Mom is making a rhubarb crumble, and I have three different rhubarb cakes plus preserves in my plan. We’re a kind of a rhubarb family, aren’t we! :) Maybe this is just an effect of rhubarb being the first spring fruit plant that can be eaten as a fruit. I guess most of you are already enjoying fresh strawberries and other gifts of summer, but here up North, we’re still stuck in the rhubarb season (imported strawberries don’t count). And I love it! The tart stalks that turn so tender when baked or simmered, the bold play of green and red colour that turn amber and translucent when heated, the glossy skins and the firm, watery flesh. Oh, rhubarb!

This cake, topped with streusel, is my attempt to recreate the most common Latvian rhubarb cake - a simple, lovely, habitual cake. I’ve compared about half a dozen recipes (that sometimes were pretty controversial) and compiled them into one recipe with my own amendments included. First, I used 1/4 whole wheat flour, as I frequently do these days. It’s healthier, it gives extra taste, it provides pleasant moistness. Second, I used a mix of white and brown sugar for the filling, and I think I could have used brown sugar only. The original recipes called for plain sugar of course, but I thought brown sugar was a better match for the tart rhubarb. Third, I incorporated a little starch into the filling, just to prevent it from leaking. And that’s it. I thought of playing with walnuts in the streusel, but then I decided to keep it simple and traditional. Sometimes I succeed in holding back from too much tweaking ;-)

Ingredients

- Batter:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp semolina
Little cube of butter

- Filling:
3 very thick rhubarb stalks (400-450g), trimmed and peeled
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used Farinsocker by Dansukker)
1 tbsp starch
1/2 cup cream
1 egg

- Streusel:
1/3 cup AP flour
50g butter (less than 1/2 stick), softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Makes one 30×24 cm cake

Cut rhubarb into small cubes. Combine and stir 1/2 cup plain sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, starch, and rhubarb. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 180C.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla sugar. Stir in sour cream. Add AP flour, WW flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until smooth.
Grease your baking pan with butter and sprinkle with semolina. Pour batter into prepared pan.

In a clean bowl, mix butter and sugar. Fold in flour and cinnamon and blend with a fork until small crumbs form.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, 1/2 cup sugar, and cream.

Drain off juice from rhubarb. Spoon rhubarb onto the batter, pressing gently. Pour the egg mixture over rhubarb and sprinkle with streusel crumbs.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set.