From Russia with Food

Eastern Europeans have been eating beets for ages, most likely because they are full of vitamins and keep well during the long winter season (I’m going to chalk this up to us being awesome and beets going great with vodka, though.) This wonderful root vegetable, however, is just getting popular in urban America.  Nothing makes me happier than recently seeing beets appear more and more frequently on restaurant menus in New York.  They are versatile, adaptable to both sweet and savory dishes, delicious pickled and make a beautiful, colorful presentation.  Beets taste great and, as an added bonus, are low in calories and have outstanding health properties, permitting dieters and health nuts to indulge guilt-free.  The root’s unpopularity in America most likely originates from their bad rep as limp and flavorless canned vegetables and their outlandish purple color.  As their health properties become more and more well known, so has the vegetable and the truth is that they are tasty, relatively fuss-free (wear an apron or dark clothing while making a beet-based recipe) and very easy to prepare.

One of my favorite childhood recipes is the Russian beet salad.  It is a popular celebration appetizer, variations of which appear on holiday tables, picnics and cook-outs throughout Eastern Europe.  It is traditionally served cold or at room temperature with a variety of pickled vegetables, other savory salads and an arrangement of cold cuts.  There are many different versions of the basic recipe, making it adaptable to an array of tastes and eating preferences.  The recipe below is my preferred version, prepared simply with beets, caramelized garlic and onions, sour cream and mayo.  If you don’t like the creamy dressing or are vegan, it can be easily substituted with a little olive oil, or an olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzle, without compromising flavor.   Those who prefer a sweeter appetizer can add plumped raisins to the recipe (at the same time as the onions.)  Nut lovers will find that adding half a cup of lightly toasted pine nuts or walnuts to the salad makes this recipe even better and gives it an additional crunchy texture.  Without further ado, and right in time to impress your friends with a little commie flavor for your Memorial Day Barbecue, here is the recipe:

Russian Beet Salad

Ingredients:

2 medium beets (when buying, make sure the roots are firm and undamaged)
1 small yellow, Spanish or Vidalia onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp sour cream
salt & pepper to taste
a few sprigs of fresh dill for decoration (optional)

Wash the beets well in cold water, making sure to scrub the surface in order to remove all the dirt.  Add whole beets to a small pot and fill it with cold water until it just covers the veggies; bring to a boil.  Lower heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the beets are easily pierced by a fork (about an hour).  If water level falls below the beet surface, turn them upside down halfway through to make sure both sides of the beet are cooked evenly.  Place the pot with cooked beets under running cold water for a few minutes, then turn off the water, leaving them in the pot, and let them cool.

In the meantime, peel and finely chop the onions.  Peel and crush garlic.  Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and add the garlic and onions.  Cook until lightly caramelized, place in a bowl and let cool while you finish the beets.  Peel beet skins (this should be easily accomplished by sliding your thumb over the skin - it should come right off) and trim off both the root and stem ends.  Shred the beets on a shredder or in a food processor, and place in a bowl.  Add caramelized onions and garlic to the bowl with the beets.

If you are serving the salad right away, add mayo and sour cream to the bowl and fold gently until combined, making sure not to crush the beets.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and fold until combined.  Decorate with a sprig of fresh dill for a contrast of color and serve with your choice of entree, or as a healthy cold appetizer.

If you are not serving right away, put the salad in the fridge and add dressing right before serving.  Covered and chilled it will keep for about 3-4 days.

Good news Astorians - there’s a (relatively) new joint in the neighborhood. It’s a much healthier alternative to your usual grease-dripping fast food, but that could be the Russian in me talking (meat & potatoes, anyone?) It’s called “La Papa” and they sell…baked potatoes. Sure, they also fiddle in soup, paninis and various Turkish drinks, but their main staple is baked potatoes - made ready to order - with your choice of UNLIMITED toppings for a whopping $6.00. Think about it - they have the biggest baked potatoes I’ve ever seen (in fact I’ve wondered if maybe they import the things from Chernobyl) with any and all toppings you could ever want for just $6. They are a full meal, and I can barely ever finish one.

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This is the perfect springtime recipe! It combines the wonderful flavors of zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, tomato, thyme and herbes de Provence into a flavor combination that is guaranteed to melt in your mouth in a symphony of delight and put you in a good mood. It’s not heavily spiced or salted, to let the vegetable flavors combine and stand out on their own. It’s really perfect and ingenious and is my new favorite vegetable dish (thank you thank you thank you SK!). It’s gorgeous and pretty easy to make, and can either stand on its own or be served as a side dish to a number of meats and fish.

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I haven’t had too many days off lately, and the ones I did have inevitably fell on what most 9-5ers would call a workday - Monday or Tuesday. Normally I’d use that time to catch up on some serious naps, but recently my schedule got all wonky when, for no good reason and without explanation, I started waking up at 8:30 AM. This stumped me - what’s a night owl to do when the boyfriend is at work and it’s bright and sunny outside? Why, start a new exercise routine called “walk around New York City until my legs feel like noodles,” of course! Along the way, I ran across two beautiful murals and visited Crumbs Bake Shop on Lexington between 44th & 45th Street and shared my opinion.

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I have a few favorite food haunts in Astoria. Having lived in the area for almost five years, it’s difficult to skip the comfort of the preferred to experiment with new restaurants, especially on a splurging budget as tiny as mine. It happens occasionally, however (trying new restaurants in Astoria is one of my New Year’s resolutions), and in mid-January I went to check out a German restaurant called Wunderbar German Grill & Bierhaus that the boyfriend has been raving about since he attended their opening a year ago. I’m fairly harsh when judging German food - having been to Germany, I’ve frequently been disappointed with German restaurants in New York City. They are either bland and overpriced, or try too hard to make gourmet food out of what should essentially be just variations of meat, fat and carbohydrates. Thankfully, Wunderbar doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not and serves great, filling German meat & potatoes at prices that won’t cripple your wallet (unless you plan on drinking enough beer to requisition a little push-cart for homeward transportation.)

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A few weeks ago I was foraging through my refrigerator in search of likely dinner suspects and came up with nothing much. I had a few leeks, eggs, onions, some salad-things and the makings of what could be turned into miso soup. My wallet was feeling similarly empty, so instead of straining the budget by going shopping I gathered what I had and decided to make the soup and an easy veggie galette. This savory pastry is relatively easy to make, delicious and CHEAP! Apart from the leeks, most ingredients that go into this recipe should already be stashed somewhere in your fridge or pantry. Leeks and caramelized onions provide a wonderful sweet flavor to the recipe and the eggs add substance and creaminess. It can be eaten for breakfast (although I’d suggest making it the day before and keeping it covered with plastic wrap overnight to eat in the morning - that’s too much work before coffee for ME, thank you very much), lunch or dinner and goes well with most light sides - be they soup, salad or sauteed veggies.

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Not only is this entry entirely late, it’s also very cheeky. You see, in Communist Motherland(s) of the USSR, we didn’t celebrate Christmas. In fact, most people didn’t openly celebrate any sort of religious holidays. Oh, sure we’d still decorate various evergreens and pester Grandfather Frost for presents, but this whole thing was buried under the lovely catchphrase of a “National Holiday.” A USSR Hallmark, if you will (although the way I understand it, it’s very much a Hallmark holiday in the USA these days, too.) This is an entry about Soviet celebrations and a few cold appetizers that you might try, and consider making a part of your holiday tradition.

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The first time I had the pleasure of being acquainted with Vesta was in October 2008. I’d just gotten off the bed after my knee surgery - two weeks of lying on a mattress later - and my mom (who was taking care of my walkless ass, bless her soul) decided that we needed to get me out of the house and go out to dinner. We were driving by this little place, located a mere block and a half away from my apartment, when I asked her to finish the evening there. Two crutches in tow, I ambled in. It was opening night. In hindsight, it was probably the best foodie decision I ever made. I’ve brought many friends here since, and everyone has always been delighted. Naturally, when the boyfriend’s friends from upstate New York came to visit last weekend and we woke up slightly hung-over on a Sunday morning, I suggested relieving our troubled stomachs here over brunch. We stayed for two hours, and I doubt they’ll hesitate to visit again the next time they’re in town.

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I should probably fess up right away - I am NOT a fan of Boston cream pie. It’s too…squishy and it doesn’t usually taste like much. So, as luck would have it, I got suckered into helping make it for a friend’s dinner get-together. The boyfriend offered to bake it because it’s his favorite dessert. He didn’t really consider a few things - one, he doesn’t bake and two, he knows EXACTLY how it should taste, and did I mention that he doesn’t bake? Naturally, when the day of reckoning came about we didn’t have a clue of how to proceed.

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Wandering through the Union Square farmer’s market in early September, I got really excited about eight-ball squash and little round heirloom eggplants. As far as cute vegetables are concerned, you really can’t do better. Stuffed and properly presented, they are delicious, make adorable dinner centerpieces (little vegetables! WITH HATS!) and taste even better reheated the next day, having had a chance to absorb all that delicious sauce and stuffing spices. The idea for stuffing came from stuffed sweet peppers my mom used to make for me in Ukraine. Usually in the US, squash and eggplants are stuffed with bread, cheese and other nonsense. While I don’t always scoff at vegetarian stuffings, I can really appreciate some delicious meat and vegetable combination. So while looking for recipes I turned to one of my favorite Russian cooking websites, kuking.net, and looked through stuffed pepper recipes until I found one similar to what I was trying to create. A little fiddling and spice-shuffling later, I had a delicious dinner.

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