I love to discover new places for food, for eats, for shopping for food…I don’t know why I look so mean in this photo…I’m actually a pretty happy girl.

One of my favorite places to go is Brighton Beach.  As much as I love to go out to eat … my favorite thing to do in Brighton Beach is to shop for food and prepare it at home. 

 I speak Russian so it makes it that much easier and way more fun, but I recently took a bunch of my non-Russian friends on a little excursion through the mad world of Russian Food Shopping in New York. 

 We walked around a lot, stopped for some Peerozhki on the street.  The street vendors sell amazing little pastries, stuffed with cherries, apples, puppy seed, mushrooms, potato, pork, etc…its so good.  I get one every time I’m there.

It was Russian New Years (January 13th) so we stopped into a couple stores for some party supplies:  smoked sausages, pickles, dumplings, bread, herring – very important, salads, katlety, pirogy – actually sweet cakes, blini, pickled sauerkraut, and of course - Vodka.  There are two great Bazaars on the main strip.  You can get anything you want already prepared, hot and ready to eat, buffet style to go.

To make it just a little more fancy, it was a celebration after all  – we picked up a huge box of red caviar.  Weeks before that my brother and I found a crazy little place that sells amazing, fresh, delicious caviar for a very, very low price.

 We browsed a few book stores, took in the scenery and the Russian Language spoken all around.  It was fun. Back home we all went to eat and drink.  It was fun to share this with my friends, to guide them a bit through the new tastes they were experiencing…they like it a lot and we all had a great time.

Please go check out:  MissCooksAlot.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Refreshing, light, easy and fast to make.  Very healthy and good for you. 

Ingredients:

Onion
One large beet or two medium ones
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
Mayonnaise

Steps:
Fresh Beets: boil until soft, use a knife to test if its done: if the knife goes in completelly smooth and soft all the way through the center it is ready to take out of the water.
Canned Beets:  This is the easy way and way way faster.

Chop Everything into tiny fine little bits
Mix
Add salt, pepper
Add a tablespoon of mayonnaise
Mix

Serve.

I also like to chill it a bit in the fridge before serving.

Ingredients:

Chicken, Beef, or Vegetable Stock or Broth (2 cans from the grocery store will do)
Spinach
Mushrooms (any that you like – I used Shiitake in this soup)
Onion (or green onion – Scallions: use about six or eight)
Garlic
Butter
Parsley
Bay Leaf
Dill
Spices
Rice
Tkemali (Georgian Sauce) *

How to Make it:

Pour about five or six cups of water into a pot.
Set on Medium Heat
Add two cans of broth or four to six cups of stock
Throw in an onion (or half of a large one)
Throw in a bay leaf
Take about six strands of parsley, tie them together with another strand and throw that in.
(Parsley Flakes will work – but nothing beats the fresh stuff)
Throw in about six handfulls of fresh spinach
Salt, Pepper, Spices (add your of choice of spices, but salt and pepper is enough)
Throw in a handfull of rice (I used white rice in here)
Bring to a boil and turn the heat down a bit

Meanwhile: In a medium frying pan:

Chop up some onion and throw onto a pre-heated pan with a piece of butter in it.
Mix it up, salt, pepper.
Ladle a bit of the soup thats being cooked out of the pot into the pan. This will make the onions soft and tasty.
Add some chopped parsley.
Throw in a handfull of spinach.
Add the mushrooms.
Add another half ladle.
Cover for a few minutes.
Sprinkle some dill.
Stir, Mix a couple times until the stuff is golden and brownish, yet moist and juicy.  Most, but not all of the soupy stuff should be absorbed into the vegies by now. 

Your kitchen area should be filling up with awesome smells right about now.

Now throw all that into the soup.

Mix, stir.  Taste, add salt, pepper, whatever else you think will be good.

I thought some Tkemali would be great so I added a teaspoon of that.  

Its a Georgian Sauce (made in Bulgaria) made of green plums, sugar, coriander, spices and other stuff.  Its all natural, its pretty potent and strong so just a bit will do. 
The Tkemali added a wonderful little mistery flavor to the soup.

Serve hot or cold, with a toasty baguette or a slice of black german bread. 

This is so good for you! Its full of vitamins and other great stuff.  Its fresh, its almost fat free.
Most importantly it is so easy to make.  The salmon cooks itself, you just add vegies, the oils and the spices, and cook the pasta.

Ingredients:

Salmon
Thin Spaghetti
Butter
Broccoli
Spinach
Parsley
Sunflower Oil or Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper, Spices

How to make it:

Boil the spaghetti, follow cooking directions on the box. I like to cook it just a minute under for perfect al dente.  Also, I sometimes salt the water a little and sometimes add half of teaspoon of butter – it makes the pasta tastier and easier to serve later.

Salmon:
Option 1 (Pan Fried):
Fresh Salmon should be pink, it should smell fresh.
Get a nice slice from your grocery store or fish market.
Pre-heat the pan on medium heat with a teaspoon of butter or oil.
Place the salmon in the pan, pink side down.
Add a piece of galic.
Salt.
A slice of lemon.
A couple black pepper balls.
Chop up a bit of parsley, throw it in.
Cook the salmon until the pink starts to brown and crisp and getting that fried look.
Flip it over.
Add a bit of oil.
Cover with Fresh Spinach and Broccoli.
Salt, Pepper, Squeeze some lemon.
Cook until the other side is is crispy.
The vegetables will cook themeselves.
One the skin on the salmon is crispy golden/brown – turn the heat of.

Option 2: (Steamed Salmon)
This is great.  It doesnt use any oil or butter.  It takes about 10 to 15 minutes.  Usually makes the salmon more tender and soft, juicy, and the flavors are all there.  This is my favorite way.

Presentation:
Place a desired amount of spaghetti on your plate.
Salmon goes on top.
All the vegies on top of that.
There should be a good amount of juices in the pan.
Grab a spoonfull and pour all over the entire dish.

Mmmm…..thats good.

Recipes coming soon! Great with some cold or hot Sake

Simple Vegetable Stew with Pickle on the side.

Recipes coming soon!

I call this a real Ukrainian borsh because I’m a real Ukrainian, but the first thing about Real Ukrainian Borsh (or Borsch) is that only your Mama can make the best borsh. However, when you can’t have your Mama’s borsh, and the red menace takes hold of you, you’ve got to know how to do it yourself.

Here is how:

Ingredients:

(If you can, use only the freshest ingredients. In this recipe I’m going to tell you how to make a fast, affordable borsh)

Two cans of skinless tomatoes in tomato juice
A can of tomato paste
Two cans of broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable stock)
(real borsh is made with real beef)
Onion
3 Beets (or two cans of sliced beets)
Fresh Cabbage
Potato
Carrot
Fresh Parsley
Bay leaf
Salt, pepper, spices

Steps:

Add six or seven cups of cold water to a pot and set on medium heat
Add 2 cans of broth
Add 2 cans of tomatoes (open the can and pour the juice out into the pot, take the tomatoes out of the can and slice them on a cutting board then place into the pot)
Add a table spoon of tomato paste
Add a bay leaf or two
Add salt

Throw in a few black pepper heads
Clean and peal a medium sized onion, throw the whole thing in (don’t chop)

Throw in a handful of fresh parsley
Let all that boil and heat

If you are using canned beets:
Open the cans
Pour the juice out into the pot
Take the beets out and cut into quarters
Throw those in

If you are using fresh beets:
I like to boil the beets first before even starting the borsh. But you can also just slice and cut into quarters and throw the raw beets in with all the other ingredients.
Beets can take up to an hour to cook. To check for when they are done: use a thin sharp knife. if it goes through the center of the beet without any resistance the beets are done.

Take a medium sized cabbage:
Cut in half.
Set it on its flat side.
Cut in half again.
Chop into slices (slices should be about 1/4 each)
Throw all that into the pot.

Peal a potato.
Cut into quarters.
chop into small squares.
Add to the pot.

Peal a carrot.

Cut in half lengthwise.

Chop.

Goes in the pot.

Be creative with your vegetables.  Add a celery for that extra fresh kick.

Stir it all up.
Let boil.

Once it boils: taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Lower the heat and cook until all the ingredients are soft and cooked all the way.
The Cabbage should be completely soft and not crunch or chewy at all.

The borsh should be pretty dense because of all the cabbage and other veggies, this is good.  If its too dense, feel free to add a bit of water or broth.

Serve hot.  Mix in a teaspoon of sour cream and a nice slice of fresh bread on the side.  The borsh should have that fresh tomato soup taste and be a deep red color.  If you add too much beets (which is ok) the color will be more purple than red.  Everybody makes theirs different.

This is a hearty soup. It is a meal in itself.

For that real ethnic flavor: make some Garlic Sauce and Dumplings to go along with the Borsh, take a couple vodka shots with that and you’ll feel the full experience.  I’ll tell you about the Garlic Dumplings in the next post. Enjoy!