"Russian Cooking" - Pelmeni (Pasta Pouches with Filling) for a decidedly un-St. Patrick's Day, St. Patrick's Day

Date I made this recipe:  March 19, 2015

Russian Cooking by Vladimir Usov; Translated by Irina Avdeyeva

Published by:  Planeta Publishers

© 1996

Purchased at Eat My Words bookstore, Northeast Minneapolis ("Nordeast")

Recipe: Pelmeni (Pasta Pouches with Filling) with Meat Filling – p. 154-156

So.  Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, a day I would normally "celebrate" – in a cookbook way - by making something Irish.  This year though, I decided to go rogue and make something completely different because:

1)     I'm not Irish.  Not one tiny drop.

2)     My collection contains only two Irish cookbooks and I've used them.

3)     My best friend, Carol a/k/a "Tall" died three years ago on St. Patrick's Day and that changed everything.

So I decided to honor her memory by making something from a Russian cookbook because:

1)     Although she traveled the world, she especially loved Russia and visited there twice before she died.

2)     In fact, shortly after her last trip, a church near her house changed hands and is now a Russian museum.  Coincidence?  I think not! (By the way, I still have trouble imagining a Russian museum in a very Mexican-looking building but real estate is real estate so....)

3)     The night before I flew to NJ to attend an aunt's funeral, I got together with two former Calhoun-Isles Community Band band members at a fabulous St. Paul Russian restaurant, Moscow on the Hill.  Carol was a founding member of my community band and she loved that restaurant.  'Nuff said.

4)     Speaking of band, I bought this book last year at this fun bookstore – Eat My Words – while attending a book signing.  The book – Ride Minnesota – was written by another former band mate, Cynthia Sowden.  Cynthia's book is a (travel) guide for 23 great motorcycle rides across Minnesota.  If you like "bikes" (as in motorized ones), you should buy it.  Anyway, Cindy's daughter, Beth, was at the signing.  Beth lived previously in Russia.  Years back, Carol and Beth spent some time chatting about Russia.  Small world, right?

5)     Per Beth, this cookbook is very representative of "real" Russian food. So I bought it.  And after sharing a huge bowl of today's featured recipe, Pelmeni, with my friends at Moscow on the Hill, I decided that this was going to be my St. Patrick's Day dish.

6)     Except as these things go, I made this dish on a Thursday instead of St. Patrick's Day which was on Tuesday.  Oh well.

So that's the long and the short of how I came to make my non-St. Patrick's Day meal. 

As to the cookbook, most of the recipes were relatively easy but a few posed challenges mostly because of ingredients, for example, a soup with nettles (Shchi with Nettles – P. 40); Rassolnik with Poultry Offal – so NOT going there – as well as several dishes for goose.  I don't really like goose plus where would I find it at this time of year?  A few of the dishes also called for pork fat and while I supposed I could have rendered a couple of slices of bacon, that was too much work.

Other recipes though, appealed such as salads, some beef and pork dishes (without the pork fat) and the pastries.  There's a Russian Orthodox Church at the end of my block that hosts two bake sales per year and honestly, I about bought out the place the last time I went.

But.  I had my heart set on the pelmeni and there it was.  Except, of course, that there was no way I could duplicate at home what I ate at the restaurant.  None.  At one point, when Andy and I were trying to seal up these little pouches, I jokingly threatened to bring everything over to Moscow on the Hill so they could do it for me!  I'm sure they would have been thrilled.

None of the recipes gave a serving size and had I realized how many this made, I would have halved the recipe as we still have a bit leftover.  In fact, this book seems very Russian – no narratives, no helpful hints, just straight-up recipes, ingredients and cooking times.  Beth wasn't kidding when she said it was very authentic!

And because the recipes were light on the tutorial, it took us a while to figure out just how big and how thin the dough should be for these dumplings. And even then, we ended up with some that were a bit doughy that might have been better served by boiling them longer...or not.  Hard to say.  So be en garde for inconsistent dough thickness.

As to the filling, I froze the leftover filling as the yield on that was also large.  I liked the filling but wished it had just one more ingredient for balance. I'm not sure what but honestly, I kept thinking "parsley!"  Maybe that's where the St. Patrick's Day green could have come in?  I also probably got a bit carried away "mincing" the meat mixture in the Cuisinart as it ended up to be more paste than minced and that might have also thrown the filling-to-dough ratio off.  In the end, I ate more filling than the dough but honestly, I do the same to ravioli as well.  And cupcakes.  I love the frosting, love any filling that's included but not so much the cake itself.  I am sure I am not alone in these preferences.

Now ever since I started this blog, I decided that in order to even attempt to make my way through my cookbook collection, I would need to limit my recipe selection to one per book.  And I make each recipe faithfully according to the directions.  Andy's only issue with my "one and done" method for cooking for the blog i.e. making the recipe once only, exactly as directed, is that I don't allow for tweaking which may (or not) vastly improve the outcome the next time around.  But as he knows, if I were to rework all the recipes I've tried out for this blog, I would never make my way through my collection even though I am already ridiculously behind, having cooked from only 527 of my 2,060 book collection.  But when the goal is to keep cooking and keep collecting, well then it hardly matters that I've only sampled a quarter of my cookbooks.

Prep time for this dish is estimated at 1 hour and 30 minutes and I don't think it took that long but you will need to reserve enough time to make the dough, roll it out and fill it.  The filling itself took minutes!

Pelmeni (Pasta Pouches with Filling) – serving size not listed

For the dough

2 cups flour

½ cup milk

1/3 cup water

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 egg

Salt to taste

For the filling (meat)

10 oz beef

10 oz pork

 1 onion

2-3 cloves garlic

2/3 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream (optional) for garnish

Ann's Note:  it's unclear whether the beef and pork should be pre-ground or not.  I bought it (raw) already ground. 

Optional fillings (untried)

Pelmeni with Fish

1 lb filleted fish

1 onion

2 tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Pelmeni with Mushrooms (untried)

5-6 dried mushrooms

½ cup rice (cooked)

1 onion

2 tbsp butter

Salt to taste

To make the dough:

Heap the flour on the table, make a hollow on top, pour in the egg, water and milk, work into a dough. At the end, add the vegetable oil.

Roll the dough out thinly, cut out small rounds (about 2 inches in diameter), or divide the dough in three even portions and roll each into a plait about an inch thick, then cut crosswise to the size of a walnut and roll out the rounds from individual pieces.

To make the Meat filling:

Mince the beef, pork, onion and garlic in the food processor, season with salt and pepper, add the milk and mix well.

Place a teaspoonful minced meat on each round, fold over and pinch the ends together to make a half-moon.  Set the prepared pelmeni aside on a floured board as you go along.  Pelmeni can be stored frozen in the fridge, if not used immediately.

Lower the pelmeni one by one in salted boiling water; serve as soon as they surface, with butter or sour cream.

To make the other fillings:

Fish - Wash and mince pike, cod or other fish fillets in the food processor together with the onion, twice; add salt and pepper, spoon over the butter and mix well.

Mushrooms – Soak the mushrooms beforehand; cook, chop finely and fry lightly.  Add salt, the previously sautéed chopped onion and cooked rice.  Mix.

"Irish Cooking - Classic and Modern Recipes" - Beef in Guinness for St. Patrick's Day!

Date I made this recipe:  March 16, 2016 (for St. Patrick's Day)

Irish Cooking – Classic and Modern Recipes by Ethel Minogue

Published by:  Shooting Star Press

ISBN:  1-57335-488-0

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Store

Recipe:  Beef in Guinness – p. 61

For once I was prepared.  For once I got a one-day jump on St. Patrick's Day.  And then like that, it came, it went, there were parades, there was drinking, there were likely hangovers (come on – St. Patrick's Day on a Monday?  That's asking for it.) – in other words, business as usual.

And so, our Irish repast:  beef plus beer = the perfect combination?  I don't like lamb so we didn't have lamb, I can take or leave corned beef (I adore it in hash but otherwise not so much) and watery cabbage?  No.  But I have to say that although the dish as a whole was great (the beef was ridiculously tender), I had issues with the – dare I say it – Guinness.

That's right.  I had issues with the Irish national beer.  So good thing I'm not even one teeny tiny drop Irish or I'd likely be bag-piped out of my clan, right?

Here's the thing:  I am not a beer drinker.  I never was but then I have several valid reasons why, namely Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR), Hamms, Schlitz and Blatz (not to be confused with "Blitz(ed)" as in something many people were after a kegger. These were the beers of my generation and my parent's generation and they are all barley "pop" beverages with a tech of alcohol in them and they smell.  Honestly.  If any of you ever smelled a can of opened beer that was left out after a party, you know what I'm talking about.

Plus, beer can lead to beer guts and I don't do beer guts.  I do wine...or is that whine?  So college keggers were not for me (but trash can parties were) Shall I tell you though, that the popular beer substitute when I was in college – i.e. wine – was also absolute swill?  I cannot even think about a bottle of Boones Farm without shuddering.

But happily for most beer drinks, the beer landscape has now changed and not only are we importing more beers like Guinness but dark beers of all kinds are roaring to the top of the beer sales charts.  And I don't mind a sip or two of a good dark beer (like Guinness, I'll admit) but I don't want a whole glass.  My husband, on the other hand, is all about dark beers and so of course he liked this recipe a lot.  Sadly, although the meal itself was divine, all I could taste was the slightly bitter flavor of the Guinness and for that reason, and that reason alone, I had to slightly ding this recipe.  Perhaps the next time I should have the beer with the food...or just skip the food...it's unclear.

And so speaking of food, I am not a picky eater but since I have a major list of Irish food do's or don'ts, I automatically eliminated oh, a good 75% of the recipes in this book.  Also not on my dinner table this time around?  "Hare Pudding" (p. 83) – ew.  Even Andy wrinkled his nose at this one.   And what the...what?  "Seaweed Salad"? (p. 87) What am I, a mermaid?  And alright, "Seed Cake" in the dessert section (p. 111) doesn't sound that appetizing but the "seed" in question here is caraway seed, not birdseed as you might imagine.  And do not laugh, because years ago, I almost bought a cookbook intended for our friends, the birds.  The shop really needed to move that item to another section but whatever.

"Seed Cake" aside though, the dessert section was looking mighty appealing and God Bless the Irish, almost every single recipe contained booze.  Talk about my kind of cookbook! But just having made a Caramel Custard Pie for Pi Day (03.14.14), I was in the mood for something more substantial and since I like beef and Andy likes beer, we were golden with this recipe for "Beef in Guinness."

My only addition to this otherwise yummy and hearty stew (the taste of the beer aside) was potatoes and quite frankly, I was amazed that an Irish recipe didn't call for them up front – Irish Potato famine, anyone?  I added two peeled and quartered Idaho potatoes during the last 30 minutes of cooking time and they were perfect.  And the beef I bought (chuck steak) was so tender it was ridiculous.  This recipe calls for "braising" beef and a quick Google search lists many type of options for beef suitable for braising (quick sear the beef then simmer in liquid for a few hours until tender).

And so there you have it, another successful St. Patrick's Day meal made by someone with not a single, solitary drop of Irish blood in them but with perhaps a wee bit of alcohol – a happy cook makes a happy meal!

Beef in Guinness – serving size not indicated but probably 6

2-3 lb beef for braising

Seasoned flour (Ann's Note:  I used salt and pepper and that's it but you could likely season however you wanted.)

Oil or dripping

2 onions, sliced

4 garlic cloves, whole

3 carrots, sliced

1 large bunch of fresh herbs (Ann's Note:  all I had on hand was parsley)

Salt and pepper

Beef broth (see Basic recipe) (Ann's Note:  buy a large can or carton and add to the pot per the directions i.e. enough to cover the beef)

2 bottles of Guinness (Ann's Note:  or more!  Two bottles for the recipe...two bottles for the cook)

1 oyster per person (optional) (Ann's Note:  option not taken!)

Cut the beef into large chunks and dip in seasoned flour.  Fry in hot oil or dripping.  Fry and brown the onions and garlic.

Place the meat, onions and other vegetables in a casserole dish.  Add the herbs and seasoning, and cover with beef broth.  Bring to a boil, then cover and cook over low heat for 1 ½ hours.  Add the Guinness, bring to a boil and simmer for another 30 minutes.  (Ann's Note:  at this point, I added two quartered Idaho potatoes to the pot.)

Lift the meat out of the sauce with a slotted spoon and serve; reduce the sauce to half the quantity over a high heat.  Pour it over the beef again, season to taste, and add the oysters, if liked. 

Serve with wedges of white crusty bread with mustard and a pint of Guinness.

"The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever" by Beatrice Ojakangas - Beer-Baked Irish Beef (for St. Patrick's Day and in memory of "Tall" Carol)

Date I made this recipe:  March 17, 2013 (St. Patrick’s Day and in memory of my friend, "Tall" Carol)                       

The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas

Published by:  Chronicle Books

ISBN:  978-0-8118-5624-9

Recipe:  Beer-Baked Irish Beef – p. 218

Damn, March is an awful month!  I know, I know—there’s St. Patrick’s Day and there’s the first day of spring and this year there’s also Easter for those of you who are into fun and frolic.  But it’s also a time of great loss for me:  5 years ago on March 2^nd, my mom passed away; 2 years ago on March 9^th, my dad passed away and a year ago on St. Patrick’s Day, my best friend, “Tall” Carol, passed away.  I’ve told my poor husband, whose birthday is on March 1^st, that we might have to stick that date on the end of February just so that we can celebrate it with joy and laughter instead of sorrow and tears.

So it’s been some kind of year and as I am not Irish and neither was Tall, I was not in the mood to really do much for St. Patrick’s Day except, of course, cook (and to hide out in my house to avoid debached and drunken drivers).  And today’s cookbook and recipe come straight to you from Tall’s collection and what the heck, I even found a beer recipe for the occasion.  As she liked beer, I think she would have liked this recipe.

In the “what a difference a year makes” category last year’s temperatures were a ridiculous and unseasonably high 75 degrees.  A group of us – family and friends – sat out on her deck planning her memorial to be held a month later.  That day too, the day of her memorial, turned out to be very, very warm.  But alas, this year we are back to our usual modus operandi which is to say snow and more snow and cold.  Today’s “opening” temperature was 12 degrees.  Let me repeat that – 12.  Brrr.  And so desperate temperature times call for desperate measures and that meant casserole!

Now whereas I tend to dream all year of summer sandals and warm temperatures, Tall loved skiing and the snow and so she would have been all excited by St. Patrick’s Day evening’s 4-inch snowfall and would have thought the stew I made in her honor was most appropriate to the weather.  And the fact that it had beer in it and was an Irish stew would have been just the thing she would have made for St. Patrick’s Day. 

The other thing I know about my friend was that she loved slow-cooked, falling-apart-as-we-talk beef stews.  She always reminisced and raved about a couple of crock pot roasts that I made on cross-country ski trips which was nice, but really, the crock pot did all the work.  I even considered making this recipe in a crock pot just to see how it would work but in the end, I went with 4 hours of slow-roasting in a 275 degree oven and it was perfect.  And once the flavors had a chance to “set” in the refrigerator, it was outstanding.  Tall was all about leftovers and usually divided and froze leftovers into single-size servings for eating at a later date; in this household, we usually eat the leftovers until we are bored and/or they’re gone.

As mentioned earlier, this book came from Tall’s collection and I have to admit that I did not make the connection right away to the fact that local author, Beatrice Ojakangas, wrote this book.  Beatrice is considered an authority on Scandinavian cooking and is a member of the James Beard Hall of Fame which earns her a hale and hearty “Uff duh” from the peanut gallery.  I like that local tie-in as it just seems to bring everything full circle.  This book is loaded with other yummy recipes, and includes everything from dips to desserts so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a substitute should the beer-beef recipe not suit you (although how could it not???).

So here’s how this whole thing went down:  we used one bottle of Guinness for the recipe, Andy poured himself a glass as well, I had my usual Bombay Sapphire martini (up with olives – a drink that Tall also enjoyed along with a good beer), and we raised our glasses to Tall, who is always here in spirit.  And so before I go, let me leave you with an Irish poem that I think Tall, who loved her cat Purl, would have enjoyed:

The Mouse on the Barroom Floor

Some Guinness was spilled on the barroom floor when the pub was shut for the night. Out of his hole crept a wee brown mouse and stood in the pale moonlight. He lapped up the frothy brew from the floor, then back on his haunches he sat. And all night long you could hear him roar, 'Bring on the goddam cat!'

Beer-Baked Irish Beef – serves 6 to 8

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon pepper

2 ½ to 3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1- to 1 ½ -inch cubes

6 slices bacon, diced

4 carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths

4 large onions, cut into eights

2 cloves garlic, bruised and peeled

¼ cup minced fresh parsley, plus chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 bay leaf

1 bottle (12 ounces) Irish stout or dark beer

Hot boiled potatoes for serving

Preheat the oven to 275F. 

Combine the flour, salt, allspice, pepper, and beef cubes in a plastic bag.  Shake until all the meat is evenly coated with flour.

In a large nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp.  Remove the bacon and set aside, leaving the drippings in the pan.

Add the floured pieces of meat, a few at a time, and quickly brown them on all sides.  Transfer to a deep 2 1/2- to 3-quart casserole with a cover.  Add the carrots, onions, garlic, minced parsley, rosemary, marjoram, and bay leaf to the meat.

Pour the beer into the skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Pour over the meat in the casserole.

Cover and bake for 4 hours, or until the beef is very tender.  Remove and discard the bay leaf.  Sprinkle the dish with the chopped fresh parsley and cooked bacon.  Serve over hot boiled potatoes.

"The Complete Book of Soupds and Stews" - Green Split Pea Soup with Wine

Date I made this recipe: March 17, 2010 (St. Patrick’s Day)

The Complete Book of Soups and Stews by Bernard Clayton, Jr.
Published by: Simon & Schuster (A Fireside Book)
ISBN: 0-671-43864-6
Recipe: Green Split Pea Soup with Wine – p. 328-329

Well, here we are at St. Patrick’s Day and I thought I had a “regulation” corned beef and cabbage meal all set and ready to go until I talked to my husband.

Me: “So, what do you think of corned beef and cabbage for St. Paddy’s Day?”
Him: “Huh.” (In husband speak, this means “No.”)
Me: “Okay…hmmm… what about pea soup?”(Hey, it’s green, it works!)
Him: “I could get behind pea soup.”
Me: “And it has potatoes in it and potatoes make us think of Ireland so there it is!”

You have to admit, it was a pretty good save, right?

While my husband might have some Irish blood in him, I have not a drop – not one tiny little drop. And frankly, crowded beer halls are just not all that fun if you’re not Irish. But I can cook and I can distinguish colors (my husband is colorblind) and so I went with green soup with potatoes and so there we are – instant Irish!

The author notes that “a hint of mustard and sesame oil and a nip of wine (Me: it’s St. Paddy’s day—go for broke!) and vinegar give this hearty soup a special character that sets it apart from the dozens of other dishes made with this legume.” And sure and begorrah, this soup turned out to be pretty tasty indeed!

This concludes my salute to St. Patrick’s Day! Slainte ! (To your health!)

Green Split Pea Soup with Wine – serves 8
1 pound green split peas, washed and drained
5 or 6 cups water, depending on consistency desired
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup minced onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup minced celery
1 medium potato, thinly sliced
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
1 cup chopped tomatoes
¼ cup dry red wine
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon thyme
Several drops dark sesame oil (very potent)
3 tablespoons vinegar
¼ cup freshly chopped parsley
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Wash and pick over split peas. In a medium (4-quart) saucepan, cover the peas with 5 cups of water. Add the bay leaf and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook until tender, about 1 hour.

While the peas are simmering, cook the onions, garlic, celery, potato and carrots in a large covered skillet over low heat until the vegetables are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add the contents of the skillet to the soup and continue simmering for an additional hour, or a total of 2 hours.

Fifteen minutes before serving, add the tomatoes, red wine, mustard, thyme and a few drops of sesame oil. Stir to blend well. If the soup seems thick, add a cup or so of water.

Just before serving, add vinegar, parsley and freshly ground pepper to taste.

NOTE: You will likely have to add water way before you get to the final 15 minute mark.

"The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" by Fannie Merritt Farmer - Corned Beef and Cabbage

Date I made this recipe: March 15, 2009

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
© 1901; this printing 1909
Recipe: Boiled dinner – p. 206

Well St. Patrick’s Day is this Tuesday and this year, I am ahead of the curve. I made this dish on Sunday night so that we could have corned beef hash for dinner on Tuesday. I LOVE corned beef hash but when I was growing up, mom never made hash out of the leftovers. Good old canned corned beef hash was good enough for us.

This is one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever made and yet the instructions in this book were a bit vague (cookbook authors in the early 1900’s didn’t have a need to print every detail like today’s authors) and so I cheated and looked online as well as referenced other cookbooks to get a sense of cooking time. I needn’t have bothered since the corned beef brisket I purchased had instructions (although they were teeny weenie and printed at the very bottom) but I liked the research portion of my program.

I chose this particular recipe book because when I think of St. Patrick’s Day, I think of Boston and this book (actually, this famous book) is from Fannie Merritt Farmer’s Boston Cooking School. In culinary circles and among cookbook collectors, this book is still highly prized.

Although I’m sure she did not intend to be funny, Fanny’s description of corned beef cracked me up to no end: “Corned beef has but little nutritive value. It is used to give variety to our diet in the summer, when fresh meats prove too stimulating. (I had no idea that fresh meats were stimulating!) It is eaten by the workingman to give bulk to his food.”

Like most people, when my mother made corned beef, she added cabbage, potatoes and carrots although I’m fairly sure she did not do this to bulk up my dad’s food. My mom also created a special sauce for her corned beef that was made of equal parts of Miracle Whip and mustard. When I told my husband this he gave me look best described as “Ew” and got out the horseradish. I went with mom’s favorite, something she probably developed to make sure we ate the boiled cabbage and just had the best walk down memory lane.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day everyone! Erin Go Bragh! (Ireland Forever!)

Boiled Dinner a/k/a Corned Beef and Cabbage – serving size not indicated
1 corned beef brisket (mine was 2 pounds)
1-2 heads of cabbage (1 used one for two people)
Carrots
Potatoes (small Irish white potatoes are best but you can use any)
Turnips (if desired)
Beets (?? I’ve never heard of beets in a boiled dinner)

To boil the corned beef
Wipe the meat and tie securely in shape, if this has not been already done at market. (I didn’t tie my meat). Put in kettle, cover with cold water, and bring slowly to boiling point. Boil five minutes, remove scum, and cook at a lower temperature until tender.

Since “until tender” is not a good gauge of time, I looked online and found that 2-3 hours for a 2 lb brisket is about right. I also boiled mine for ½ hour, using the online instructions, rather than Fannie’s 5 minutes but I think it all comes out in the wash so do what you feel is best.

Cool slightly in water in which it was cooked, remove to a dish, cover and place on cover a weight, that meat may be well pressed.

To cook the vegetables
After removing the meat from the water, skim off the fat and cook vegetables (with exception of beets, which require a long time for cooking) in this water. Carrots require a longer time for cooking than cabbage or turnips. Carrots and turnips, if small, may be cooked whole; if large, cut in pieces. Cabbage and beets are served in separate dishes, other vegetables on the same dish with the meat.

To save time, I cooked all the vegetables separately (the carrots, potatoes and the cabbage) and then added them to the corned beef pot just before serving. If I hadn’t done so, I would have had to cook the mixture for another half hour and it was getting late.