Jewish Kugel

Ingredients

1 LB egg noodles,

1/3 LB whole-milk yogurt/greek yogurt

1 LB light sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 spoons corn starch

cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisins, nuts 

Procedure

Cook noodles by instructions, and drain.
Mix all the other ingredients (besides  raisins, nuts, and noodles)
Add and mix the noodles and raisins&nuts.
1. Oil a baking pan, pure the mixture (it is possible to press a little with a plastic glove).


Bake for 30 min X 385 F, or for longer time on lower degree, until slightly brown.
2. Cool-down for ~10 min and slice. 

Orechovnik (Slovak Nut Roll)

Prep time: 1 hour 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Serves: makes two 12-inch rolls

A tender sweet bread with a deep golden crust and a flavorful, nutty filling. Perfect with a hot cup of coffee. Before you begin, keep in mind that the dough needs to be refrigerated overnight.

Ingredients

• FOR THE DOUGH:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 egg yolks, beaten (set aside the egg whites)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 package dry yeast
• FOR THE NUT FILLING:
• 3/4 lb ground walnuts (about 3 cups whole walnuts)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• FOR ASSEMBLY:
• 2 egg whites (saved from dough)
• 2-3 drops vanilla, divided
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, mix the vanilla and milk together then dissolve yeast in the mixture. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (like you would for a pie crust) until the dough resembles a course meal. Add the beaten egg yolks (setting aside the egg whites, covered, in the refrigerator) and the yeast mixture. Mix together briefly with a wooden spoon, then knead with your hands against the sides of the bowl until everything is blended together and the dough is no longer very sticky. Alternatively, you can use an electric mixer with a dough hook. Form the dough into a ball, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
2. When you are ready to put together the nut rolls, prepare the filling: mix together the ground walnuts, sugar, and brown sugar. Divide evenly into two bowls and set aside.
3. Remove your dough from the refrigerator; divide in half and place on a floured work surface. One at a time, roll out each piece of dough to a 14” x 13” rectangle. Turn the dough so that one of the longer edges is facing you. Mix your reserved egg whites with a drop of vanilla. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, brush some of the egg white mixture over the top of the dough. Then smear about 1/4 cup applesauce (or a little less) over the dough to keep the nut roll moist. Sprinkle one of the bowls of nut filling over the dough, leaving about a 1-inch margin on each side of the rectangle but the far end, where you can leave a little less room (about 1/2-inch margin).
4. Start rolling the dough away from you, into a spiral, keeping the spiral firm and tight. When you’ve made several turns, fold the 1-inch side margins inward, and then continue to roll all the way up, pinching the seam once rolled. Place the nut roll, seam down, on a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, use just enough milk combined with a drop or two of vanilla to brush the top of the rolls (this will make the rolls nice and shiny). Repeat the process with remaining dough.
5. Preheat oven to 350 F. Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes, then bake for 30-35 minutes until the rolls are a deep tan color. To serve, cut the nut rolls crosswise into slices.

Russian Pancakes "Oladushki"

This month Irina from Russia thought us how to prepare Oladushki, a popular dish in Russia either as a meal or just as snack.

Ingredients:

3 eggs 

2-4 table spoon sugar

pinch of salt

1 tea spoon baking powder

400 g cottage cheese

2 table spoon semolina flour

2/3 cup flour

In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add semolina, cottage cheese and flour. Mix very well. Then please wait (about 10-15 minutes) until semolina gets swelled.

In a frying pan, preheat the vegetable oil on high to medium flame. Using a tablespoon, scoop the oladushki  mixture and carefully tip it into the frying pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. Frying pan should be covered. Adjust the heat to medium-low if they brown too soon.

Remove and place on a plate layered with paper towel to get rid of any excess oil.

Serve warm or at room temperature, top with sour cream or honey, jam.

Bon appétit!

Mixing eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt and semolina flour

Adding cottage cheese

frying them

Ready to eat!

Russian Cabbage and Mushroom Pie

As an extra, Marina made a delicious vegetarian pie with cabbage and mushrooms.

Ingredients for the dough:
1 egg
1 table spoon sugar
1 tea spoon salt
1 cup kefir or buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
Baking powder a little
150gr (about 1/2 lb) butter

For the pie filling we have chosen to use Cabbage, Mushroom and onions. Before preparing the dough fry the fillings until soft and set aside.

To make the dough, break the egg in a bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Mix them very well. Add one cup of kefir and mix all the ingredients together again. Add the flour and baking powder and mix all the ingredients together. At this point add the melted warm butter to the mixture. Make sure the butter it not hot otherwise it will cooks the dough. Mix it well. The dough should become fluffy and airy.

Now that the dough is ready, put half of the dough in the baking dish, add the filling and then put the rest of of the dough.

bake the pie in the oven first for 30 minutes at 375F then for 10-15 minutes at 350F until it's golden outside and cooked through.
Enjoy it!

Adding Kefir to dough mixture

Pouring half of the dough into the baking dish

add the filing

Adding the second layer of dough

And the second layer of filling

Just our of the oven

Austrian Apple Strudel

This month lovely Lea from Austria showed us how to prepare Apple strudel, including making the dough. As she mentioned, she made the Vienna Cafe version with crispy crust and lots of fillings.

Dough:
250 gram white pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil (neutral-taste - NO olive oil)
about 150ml lukewarm water (eventually more)

Put the flour on a kitchen surface, sprinkle salt on top of flour and mix it with your fingers. Build a crater out of the flour and put the oil in the crater. Mix it. Build a crater again and add about 1/3 of the water. Mix it. Add more water and mix it, knead the dough, add the rest of the water until the dough is kind of sticky (dough would stick to your fingers). Knead the dough with your palms until it has a smooth, soft and silky texture. Throw the dough-ball onto the kitchen surface for a couple of minutes until the surface of the dough is really silky. Form a nice round ball, spread oil on the dough and put a bowl over it. Let it rest in the warm kitchen for at least 30 minutes. The longer the dough can rest, the better. About 2h is perfect.

Meanwhile prepare the filling.

Filling:
100 gram butter
100 gram bread crumbs (plain!)
3 1/2 lb. apples (baking apples - sour, if the apples are not sour enough just add juice of one lemon)
100 gram sugar
cinnamon as desired
50 gram raisins
50 gram butter melted

Peel the apples, cut in half, remove the core and cut the apples in little apple pieces (I cut one half apple in 3 slices and then cut about 2 millimetre thick pieces out of the slices), add lemon juice if needed. Roast the bread crumbs in the butter. Melt the 50 gram butter for later.

The filling

THEN you need to stretch the dough:

Put a tablecloth (cotton in the best material) on your table and sprinkle it with flour. Take your dough and make sure it is soft and oily on the surface. Start thinning the dough with the back of your hands (take rings and watch of before). Once the dough is about as big as a table put in on the tablecloth, put your hands between the dough and the tablecloth and stretch the dough, beginning in the center, carefully with your hands. The dough will get huge and it is supposed to be as thin that you can put a newspaper underneath and be able to read it (if it's not as thin the first couple of times you make it, don't worry :-)). Cut the thinker edges of the dough if you don't like eating them.
In the end the dough should have a rectangle shape.

Dough ready to get stretched

Can you see how thin and transparent the dough is?

Now the dough is ready for the filling:

Spread the melted butter on top of the dough (everywhere). On one half of the dough put the filling, start with the breadcrumbs, then add the apple pieces, then all other ingredients.

Roll the strudel with the tablecloth. Begin with the part where the filling is on top. You can fold the edges to ,,close'' the sides of the strudel before you roll it, but this is not a must.

Put the strudel on a backing sheet (parchment paper!) and spread melted butter on top.

Bake it at about 375 degree Fahrenheit for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Covering the dough with melted butter

Adding the filing

Strudel fresh from the oven

You can fill the strudel with sweet or savory fillings (just google a little bit). Here are some ideas:
Sweet: cherries, rhubarb, poppy seed and apples
Savory: potatoes, squash, ground meat, mixed vegetables