Easy Chicken Tortellini Soup is a fun way to enjoy delicious vegetable soup. You can add any garden vegetables that are in season to this soup. It’s really just a version of Minestrone Soup, but with added tortellini, taking it to the next level. It’s always best to make chicken stock from scratch, but if in…
Comfort Food Recipes
Buckwheat Porridge
Buckwheat Porridge with Milk, sometimes called Buckwheat Kasha, is a popular breakfast meal across Russia. Actually anything buckwheat is staple in the Russian kitchen. Japanese soba noodles are also made with buckwheat. Buckwheat apparently helps lower bad cholesterol, is high in protein, and is gluten free and low GI. Russia is the worlds biggest producer of…
Kotleti with Podlivka
Kotleti with Podlivka is a comfort food enjoyed by Russians for generations. You got the comfort food trifecta, meat, carbs and sauce. Kotleti are like Russian Meatballs or Rissoles, or something in between. Kotleti with Podlivka, is a whole other level of meaty goodness. I have 2 kotleti recipes you can make, Classic Beef Kotleti…
Vegetarian Cabbage Soup – Shchi
Vegetarian Cabbage Soup is a flavorful and healthier way to eat Russian Shchi Soup. There’s nothing more comforting than a bowl of homemade soup on a cold day, or when you’re not feeling well. Vegan and vegetarian soups are full of flavor, especially if you make the stock properly. You won’t even realize you’re eating…
Chinese Crispy Roast Potatoes
Chinese Crispy Roast Potatoes in a Master Stock are the most flavourful, crispy potatoes I’ve ever eaten. Have you ever heard of Chinese Roast Potatoes, and what is a Master Stock? To explain Crispy Roast Potatoes in a Master Stock, I’ll start with the Master Stock. What is Chinese Master Stock? I think Wikipedia defines it…
Baked Potato Piroshki
Baked Potato Piroshki are simply the plural form of the Russian word pirozhok, meaning small pie. This recipe is a bunch of small meat pies, but adding everyones favourite carb, the potato. They are also sometimes called Pirozhki, or Pīrāgi, depending of what part of Eastern Europe you’re from. They were introduced by the USSR…
Hot Chicken Sandwich
Hot Chicken Sandwich recipe is a Canadian classic loved by many, and is so easy to make. It feels like you’re not really cooking, yet the family is happily eating! The first time I ever ate this was at was in a restaurant chain in Canada, in a city called Winnipeg. The restaurant was called…
Palava Pilaf Recipe
This Palava Pilaf Recipe (Плов) is my favourite Russian comfort food, but is commonly accepted as an Uzbek dish, but all former Soviet Republics enjoy Plov with many variations. Traditionally, it’s cooked by the man of the house, and is popular for weddings. But we eat it all the time for dinner, usually with dill pickles or…
Herb Roasted Potato Wedges
Herb Roasted Potato Wedges is the perfect recipe to use all your fresh herbs from your garden. Baked and not fried, with so much flavour. That’s one of the great benefits of having a small garden is the fresh herbs that seem to grow everywhere. Truthfully, I tend to plant them absolutely everywhere. Have you…
Blini Recipe (Блины)
Russian Crepes also called Blini or blinchiki are a version of thin Russian pancakes that I grew up eating, usually for breakfast on Saturday mornings. As simple as it is to make, it’s still a lot of work as it takes time. Blintzes are a type of blini (blintzes, crepes, blini and blinchiki are the same thing)….
Coca Cola Ham
Coca Cola Ham is a holiday classic at our place. Which holiday? All of them! Usually Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, but this is the way we usually eat ham, any occasion will do! I first saw this recipe from Nigella Lawson on her TV series Nigella Bites, which is just a variation of an American way…
Mushroom and Beer Soup
Mushroom and Beer Soup isn’t a traditional Russian soup, however Russians love all things mushrooms. There are many ways to make mushroom soups with many varieties of mushrooms, depending on what part of the world you live in. My first memories of mushrooms came from a book from which we learned to read in Russian from, our Bukvar…
Easy Vegemite Stroganoff
Easy Vegemite Stroganoff is made from Australian Vegemite with Russian Stroganoff served with rice, Fusion at it’s best. How can I explain Vegemite, if you have never heard of it? Vegemite is a breakfast staple in Australia, one which Aussie kids grow up on. According to Wikipedia, Vegemite is a dark brown Australian food paste…
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes are an ultimate comfort food, and the perfect accompaniment to roast meat, or really almost any main course. I was never a huge potato fan, but my wife has slowly spent nearly 20 years chipping away at that, and now I can say I like eating potatoes. Potatoes have origins in what…
Pan Fried Potatoes
Potatoes have only been around in Europe for about 500 years, but are definitely a staple in Russian cooking. They originated from South America where they have been cultivating it for thousands of years. There is something satisfying about eating a rustic meal of potatoes, maybe it’s all the carbs. I remember my mum making…
How To Deep Fry A Turkey
How To Deep Fry A Turkey recipe is a quick way to enjoy turkey during the holidays. I’ve always thought that nothing was better than a traditional oven roasted turkey for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Now I’m hooked on deep frying my turkey. When deep frying a turkey, the skin is crispy, the meat flavorful and…
Eggnog French Toast
Eggnog French Toast is a holiday favorite at my place. A Christmas morning breakfast that we all enjoy after opening up our presents. Christmas Day is a day of eating. After opening the presents (and breakfast), we go to church then start on the Deep Fried Turkey and Coca Cola Ham. Always a food coma…
Baked Pirozhki Recipe
Pirozhki is simply the plural form of the Russian word pirozhok, meaning small pie. This recipe is a bunch of small meat pies. They are also sometimes called pirozhki, or Pīrāgi, depending of what part of Eastern Europe you’re from. They were common around the USSR are now commonly found across Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan….
Chicken Stroganoff
Stroganoff (бефстроганов) is the ultimate Russian comfort food for me, usually made with strips of beef, served with a starch. There is no direct translation for Chicken Stroganoff in Russian. It literally translates to Beef Stroganoff from Chicken in Russian. Traditionally in Russia, it was served with thin fried potato straws, almost like a shoestring…
Creamy Pumpkin Soup
As soon as autumn arrives, this Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Leek is a family favorite. When you say pumpkin, I don’t automatically think of a savory pumpkin or squash soup. I think of harder to make sweet pumpkin desserts, like Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Roll. Growing up we would eat pieces of Sweet Roasted Pumpkin with…
Beef Stew with Potatoes – Kavardak
This Beef Stew with Potatoes Kavardak recipe (Кавардак) is delicious beef winter stew that’s common across Russia and across former Soviet countries. Especially common in the Central Asian part of Russia and the surrounding regions. It’s roots of this recipe seem to come from this region. It’s very popular in Uzbekistan (some call it their national…
Galushki Soup (Галушки)
Fresh Pasta Galushki Soup (Галушки) are a Eastern European fresh pasta (sometimes a dumpling) which is made several different ways. Mum has always made these in a stew or soup with chunks of chopped steak. Alternatively, the Galushki soup dumplings are boiled in water and served with fried onions and sometimes bacon and homemade sour cream, almost…
French Dip Recipe with Easy Au Jus
French Dip Recipe with Easy Au Jus, can also be called Beef Dip with Easy Au Jus Recipe. It’s an American staple created in Los Angeles from the early 1900’s, which 2 restaurants lay claim to, Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet and Phillipe the Original. However its not clear who came up with the original dish, but both restaurants…
Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
This one pot meal, rustic and easy to make, Lazy Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls (Ленивые Голубцы) is perfect to make when you’re in a hurry. If you love eating traditional Cabbage Rolls, but are too busy with life to spend 3 hours making them, then I’m talking to you! Don’t get me wrong, traditional Cabbage Rolls are so…
Clam Chowder made with Fresh Clams
I love this Creamy New England Style Clam Chowder recipe. It’s also known as Boston Clam Chowder. Growing up in a Russian household, we never ate creamy clam chowder. We never ate any type of seafood chowder. My mum won’t even eat shrimp, as she call them ocean worms! She doesn’t know what she’s missing!…
Buckwheat Kasha
Buckwheat Kasha with Mushrooms is the perfect side dish because it’s so healthy! Is buckwheat a superfood? Maybe. It’s definitely an ancient grain, eaten for thousands of years. Buckwheat is most commonly eaten in Japanese soba noodles, or as an Eastern European Kasha. It apparently can help lower bad cholesterol, is high in protein, and…
Secret to Crispy Grilled Cheese
Do you want to know the Secret to Easy Crispy Grilled Cheese Sandwich? Everyone knows how to make ordinary grilled cheese sandwiches (grilled toasties). Not hard. Spread butter on the outside of the bread, on a hot frying pan or griddle, flip and done. I don’t know about you, but I hate spreading the butter. If…
Olivier Salad – Russian Salad Recipe
Olivier Salad (салат Оливье) is a Russian Potato Salad is enjoyed at every Russian celebration dinner, especially for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Just like another famous Russian salad, Herring Under a Fur Coat, it takes time to prepare these delicious salads. You’ll find versions of Olivier Salad all over the world. Popular in Eastern European countries, Poland,…
Syrniki – Russian Cheese Pancakes
Growing up Mum would made Syrniki, (pronounced sYr-nee-key, usually on a Saturday morning. We would devour them, drenched in sour cream and jam. This breakfast was a treat, as mum had to make the Tvorog cheese in advance. When I went to Latvia in 1991 on an outreach trip with an American team, the…
Easy Chicken Noodle Soup
This Easy Chicken Noodle Soup is such a time saver, perfect to make when we are in a hurry, or perhaps feeling unwell. Why is it that we take comfort in chicken noodle soup when we are sick? Perhaps it’s a childhood comfort memory, our mum’s feeding us chicken noodle soup to make us better?…
