Russian Meet in India :)

Hello dear friends! Hope things are going on well in your corner of the world, the storms are behind, and there is only good weather ahead... I can apply same to myself too. We have been having a good but rainy weather last week, which I love of course.
Last to last weekend we had a mega-meet of Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Moldovian-Indian families living in Punjab area. About 14 girls, same number of children, and few husbands were there.  We had to go to another city Phagwara which is about 120 km from Chandigarh.
It was a buzzing event, a little loud because of kids, particularly little A, as he found his latest passion there - the stairs... and we had to climb them up along with him; it was good though to shed some calories and gain them again.
Russian meetings are not just meetings, it is usually a feast. Since we live far from our native land, the get togetherS become especially valuable. Good food promises good communication we believe. Each of us cooked a dish or two...We don't do it frequently, but when we do...
Russians LOVE various salads. These are Korean carrot salad and Vinegret salad.

One of the most favourite salads - Olivie, which we usually make for New Year :)

 Mini sandwiches look artistic on these plates.

 Mushroom stuffed eggshells.. I haven't tried these but someone said they were really good.

 Vegetable caviar - my mum's recipe :) It was yumm, though not everyone tasted it.

Chicken tefteli and Kiev cutlets.

Oh well.. not really Russian, but it was yummy! I haven't eaten sushi since Moscow (like 7 years ago?)!!! And NOTE - a home baked bread!!!

There were other dishes too, but I won't tire you with more.. let's have some dessert! Bezet fluffy buscuits:

Poncho cake - a specialty of one of our friends. She makes so yumm and so light!

 We had to drive back already in the evening, and could enjoy these beautiful views once again. We loved these trees growing on the both sides of the road - it is not visible here but the weather was slightly cloudy.

The sunset at river Sutlej...

I am loving these things in India - nature, being able to communicate with my folks and spend time with my D and little A :)

Food pictures credit goes to one of my friends, she takes really nice photos! Thank you!

What I Ate on Vacations - Russian Dishes

Over last few weeks I figured out that this topic deserves a separate post. Though I thought I was done with my Trip Home series, there was something else to tell - food we had there. However not just any food I ate, but those home made dishes, which my Mum never fails to prepare great! Why I want to have a special post about food is also because it represents some traditional Russian meals, which are my and my parents favourite. May be they will tease your taste buds too :)

May be some of your heard or may be even saw Russian feast, table with different tasty dishes, with many drinks and many guests sitting and talking absorbedly. All this is true. Russian family gathering at the table is a long lasting event, during which participants try out the variety of food which was made by a hostess and a host (my parents and me a little in our case). Here is one of the examples of how we used to taste at my parents house. As you know my D's whole family went with us this time, and I was very happy that everyone liked our cuisine. My Mum managed to please vegetarians as well as non-veg and prepare whole meal for 7 adults! Thanks Mum and Dad :)So here you can see (from left to right): turkey with vegetables, buckwheat, fried champignon mushroom, vareniki (I have a recipe here), vegetable salad, and cooked vegetables, sour cream + wine and vodka you know :)

The mushrooms were a real delicacy of that dinner, and freshly picked up by my parents on the way from Borovoe resort. Aren't they great looking?

Besides food my parents had home made cherry kompot (stewed fruit).What else to say? Delicious!

What concerns me, I made my dream come true and did some baking in the gas oven. I made "Sharlotka" pie which is my Mum's preference too when you need fast and easy dessert to be made. I was delighted when preparing the batter and then putting into a from and then taking our the flavoured yumminess! This one was an apple one, with a pinch of sugar and cinnamon.

After 3-4 days I baked one more but with raspberries from dacha! I put some cinnamon on the top simply because I love how it smells. This baking experience was different also because of the baking paper I used for the first time and I liked it this way - the pie doesn't stick and doesn't get burned.

Oh well and this is some special morning treat called oladii made of accidentally soured milk, flour and some sugar. Fried on oil.. and eaten with home made strawberry confiture! This picture itself makes my mouth watering, I better finish this post asap :)!

I want to try to make some of the dishes in India too, just need to find equivalent ingredients and here we go! Many times after finishing such care-free post I think of how happy I am to be able to enjoy all these! Because the world gets crazy day by day, judging by the news we see on TV and in newspapers.

I hope all of you are safe and sound whenever you are and enjoying the weekend with your families. Many warm blessings to you, my friends!

Inspired By Nature

Today be ready for some unusually long tales from me, my dears, as I was really missing you all and want to share my little things :) The week was pretty much diverse, in a sense of weather. I hand't even have enough time to complain how much hot days had become, when sudden rain and drop in temperature brought immense joy. Yes, I mentioned in my profile that I like rainy weather, no, actually, I love it! As I was waiting for my conveyance (which I'm going to show you soon) to pick me yesterday morning, I had few minutes of communication with nature. I can't describe how good I felt inhaling wet, fresh air, listening to the rustle of the trees, and observing this incredible sky... It is amazing how nature creates patterns from its elements - I have never seen such clubbing of clouds ever! 

When I arrived to the sector I work in, everything was quiet, looked clean and fresh. The plaza  was totally different from what it is usually. And usually it's a crowded place, noisy because of the people's talks and birds' chirping.

Besides adoring changing weather, I occupied myself with few projects this week. This one was inspired by Magaly's wonderful  candles, you can find her tutorial here. I managed to make only one so far and wasn't that clever to tie the wick around pencil to keep it up while wax is getting cold, but I do love this cute white candle, which is by the way, scented with lemongrass! My D liked the candle very much, as he likes lemongrass fragrance too.  I haven't tried to burn it yet, but will do today in honour of our 2 years and 9 months marriage anniversary. Oh yea, I always say, that we have to celebrate not only love, but patience. We went through so many challenging  moments already, and I believe they made us stronger and closer to each other.

Among all the doilies I had made before, this one is very special. Not only because of the colors, which I myself like a lot, but also because it was made for my parents. You see, I'm getting ready for my trip back home. I picked the doily pattern immediately I saw it on Debi's blog. She took it from Rita's blog, and  thanks to her for highlighting this pattern. My doily didn't come out that lacy, because I used DK acrylic yarn. I tried to block it later on as to stretch the stitches more to  show the spaces.

And now something special (again). My first painting on real canvas - it was such a spontaneous decision of mine! I used acrylic paints, oh dear, I really like them now, as I tried them only on plain paper before. The canvas texture is also pleasant to paint upon. First, I planned to make the picture fairy tale like, but later it turned out more realistic. I love sun set, as it sometimes gives wonderful color to the sky... The whole painting is a pure inspiration, with no drawing rules :)

The current week is a big long 7 day celebration of Maslenitsa holiday, which precedes the Great Lent in Orthodox calendar. Every day of the week has its own name and purpose, and usually, everyone bakes Russian pancakes "bliny" during the whole week as to share with their relatives and friends. Today is a day when mother-in-law visits her son-in-law's home and he offers her pancakes :) Here is my version of pancakes - they tasted the same as my father's ! Yumm : )

The last day of Maslenitsa is called a Forgiven Sunday, and this is the day when you ask for forgiveness from your close ones and they ask from you. You have to forgive, even if offense is big, or simply say "God will forgive you". 

I wish you all to have good mood, peace of mind and love in your heart.

Cooking The Crescents

  I don't share much of recipes in my blog, but this time I would like to do it, because besides being the first  proper Russian dish I tried to make in India, it is also the first time I made it myself (as I used to make it always with my Mom before). The dish is called Vareniks (Vareniki) and it consists of two parts: dough and stuffing. Vareniks are to be made in a crescent shape, what I like a lot :)  If you ever try to make them, let me know the result, please :) I am sure you would love it!

Indian wheat flour is called maida

Dough ingredients:

1 kg of wheat flour (Indian maida)
1 tsp salt

1, 5 glass of water (glass = 250 ml)

Dough preparation: put dough into a large bowl, add salt and pour water. Start mixing dough and water together, knead dough until it becomes viscous and you can make a ball out of it. Keep in the fridge for at least 20 minutes in the same bowl. 

                                                                          Stuffing ingredients:                                                        8 middle sized potatoes

3 middle sized onions

salt to your taste

spices and herbs to your taste

 Stuffing preparation:

 Boil jacket potatoes. Let them cool and peel of the skin. Put them in the bowl and mash well. Cut onion into small squares. Pour cooking oil on a pan, let it to heat up a bit and then put onion on it and fry until onion  becomes a little golden, add a pinch of salt, parsley,oregano and red pepper, mix. Add onion mixture to mashed potato. Mix the stuffing well.

Shaping up Vareniki.
  This is going to be a little challenging part of cooking, but good shape of the dish comes with experience.

Take your dough from the fridge, cut a piece of it and roll in a "sausage". Cut the "dough sausage" into equal pieces. Now you have to roll each piece into small circles.

 Where is your stuffing? Take one dough circle and put a small amount of stuffing on it with the fork (or spoon if you wish). Now... start closing the circle from left to the right, make sure the edges stuck to each other. So you will have to have a crescent shaped varenik in the end.

  Find a tray or a wide dish, sprinkle it with flour and lay out the "crescents" onto it one by one.Do the same till your stuffing finishes.
 Boil water in a stewpot and put 10 vareniks into it, boil them until they start floating on the surface, boil for more 5 min and take out, put into a bowl, add a piece of butter so they won't stick. Serve hot. You can eat vareniks with any sauce, but they will taste better with sour cream :) Yumm.

   To have a complete Russian style meal, prepare a Summer salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, pinch of salt and herbs and a tsp of olive oil. Mix well.

***Have a nice day and enjoy your meals!***