Russian Season

I’m so excited to finally tell you our very main news – our little daughter Ivanka is here! She is already 10 days old and very pretty :) And she inherited a good appetite from us :) We went home three days after her birth, and the first couple of days were as chaotic as any first-time parents’ first days probably are. I was afraid to accidentally hurt her, I didn’t know where to begin in the morning and how to survive at night time when the baby wouldn’t sleep properly (I guess she’s still mixing day and night). Gradually new activities were added, such as bathing and walking outside, and hey, seems like I learned to juggle all that! Unfortunately, what suffers the most is cooking – I haven’t cooked a decent dinner ever since she was born, but at least I’ve had some free time in the mornings when she was still sleeping so I could have my oats or rice in peace and quiet. Today the weather was so rainy and moody that we decided we’d just sleep by the open window instead of going outside, so I had the time to toast some rolled oats in a pan and make a parfait with some tart and juicy autumn fruit, simmered and cooled, and some plain yogurt. I’ve been told no raw fruit or vegetables, no raw (pasteurized) milk, no beans or cabbages etc, so I guess I’ll have to specialize in breastfeeding-safe recipes for a while.

I didn’t have any special cravings while I was pregnant, but now I have two strong ones – for oats and yogurt. I just can’t live without a bowl of plain yogurt with toasted rolled oats and plum jam in the morning – or just oatmeal with jam or butter… who would have thought I’d ever have oatmeal every other morning of my own free will?? The only annoying thing is that my pregnancy - now breastfeeding - was the reason why I had to start eating meat :( I know that a lot of vegetarians carry on with their diet also during pregnancy, but I was scared that the baby wouldn’t get all the essential proteins, so I had to start eating chicken or meat at least once a week. But, I’ll certainly return to my semi-vegetarian diet when I no longer breastfeed.

Life with a newborn is quite busy, but I’ll try to post some simple recipes every now and then. And now I’ve got to go because I hear her squeak quietly in her crib – just like a nestling or a mouse, so funny :)

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You know, there are days that alter your priorities. Like, you decide to do some ironing before going to bed (because you’ve been falling asleep at 5am for the last 3 weeks and you need to find a way to relax before sleep) and get an electric shock when plugging in the iron. As they’re taking you to the hospital in an ambulance, all you can think of is that you never again want to see that expression on your relatives’ faces and that nothing really matters except for your own and your family’s health and safety. Just half an hour ago you were doing your chores, planning your tomorrow and text messaging to your friends - it’s unbelievable that your cozy and comfortable life has an evil face too, and sometimes it turns with that evil face towards you. When you finally come back from the hospital, you delete half of the bookmarks on your blogroll, because you don’t feel like reading about shopping and first date ideas. All you want is to be forever with your family, at your home, even if there’s too little space and you’ve wanted a new sofa for ages.

But, at least, this cured my insomnia and I’ve slept for 12 hours in a row :)

I’ve also received a bunch of silly questions at the hospital, like “do you have bared wires there?”… I guess every doctor and every nurse asked me if I had been messing with bared wires!

And here’re just a few shots of the birthday cake my Mom made for her own birthday (I’m afraid I made her a bad present) - it’s another variation of Strawberry Cake we made for sister’s birthday in June. This time it was made with two types of blueberries and raspberries. I liked it even better than the strawberry cake, it resembled a fluffy parfait with whipped cream and fresh berries. The large garden blueberries, which I generally find too watery compared to forest blueberries, worked out perfectly on top of the cake. I will ask Mom and post a recipe later - there’s little difference from the Strawberry Birthday Cake. Right now I’m off to bed - my own bed… home sweet home!

Meet the Piglet – he’s a part of our team as well. He really supports me when I’m upset or tired. He loves wild strawberries, thick cream, and cottage cheese

Today RussianSeason turned 1.

A year ago, on a hot and sunny summer day, my Mom and I took the plunge and started a blog on foods that we were grown with and that were hardly well-known abroad: Russian, Soviet and Eastern European. We felt like we had to tell the world more about Blinis, Kulichi, Ukha and other basic dishes of traditional Russian cuisine. We also needed to share some good old Soviet recipes such as Vinegret, Anchovy Stuffed Eggs, and Custard with Kisel. We thought you’d be surprised to hear that one of the most delicious Latvian desserts is made with rye breadcrumbs and cranberries, that Filini pasta can be eaten with milk and sugar, and that you can make jam-filled buns in a steamer.

Our first post was about a mushroom soup. Why mushroom soup? Maybe because I love chanterelles and could have them every day. Or maybe because mushrooms are an essential ingredient of Russian cuisine. Later, Stano (my husband-to-be, hehe) joined us and translated his favourite recipes into Slovak, so we have a Slovak version too (okay it’s a little bit out-of-date but that’s because the Chief Translator is currently very busy).

As we moved on, we couldn’t resist the temptation to cook and write about foods from other corners of the world, so the blog became more “international”. And the more we cook, the longer our huge to-do and to-try list grows. In fact we still haven’t even made very basic Eastern European foods such as Pelmeni and Vareniki, but I’m sure we will. It’s just Foodgawker, Tastespotting, and our blogroll that are too distracting! :) We discovered hundreds of inspiring blogs and made a lot of wonderful virtual friends. I never knew that foodie world was *that* huge and friendly.

To celebrate out first anniversary, we made a festive jelly/panna cotta type of thing. We’ve already made this with yogurt, grapes, and canned peaches before and it looked (and tasted) very pretty. This time, we tried to stick to the most natural, seasonal ingredients: thick sour cream and local strawberries, wild blueberries, and raspberries. I really liked the sour cream jelly for its very milky taste and its soft, silky texture (I’m not sure if Panna Cotta can be made with sour cream, so in order not to hurt anybody’s feelings, I’ll call this just sour cream jelly). And the assorted fresh berries scattered in the jelly just scream summer, don’t they? It’s such a shame strawberry season is almost over though; it was untypically short this year, perhaps due to the heat. But, there’re still blueberries, currants, plums, and all the gorgeous summer recipes we’ve yet to try.

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As I’ve already mentioned, blackcurrants are not just a fount of vitamin C; they are supposed to improve heat tolerance. So in hot weather, it’s a good idea to include blackcurrants in your daily menu. Of course it’s a yet better idea to bake a delicious pie with them, but I chose the easiest way: pureed some fresh blackcurrants and sour cherries and made a sorbet. And it came out so good, I’ve got to say! As you know, I still don’t have an ice cream maker (I’m not ready to invest around $100 in a device I’d use 2 months in a year) and I’m always on the quest for ice cream maker-free frozen desserts. The pectin in blackcurrants helps the sorbet mix gel as it freezes, which results in a nice smooth texture. The ice particles in blackcurrant/cherry sorbet are so tiny that you can hardly feel them. It also melts gracefully, turning into a sort of smooth cold berry sauce. In a word, I’m quite excited about my new discovery! Oh and just to mention, I made it from scratch without any reference to existing recipes – so it’s totally the way I like it: sharp, tangy, concentrated, rich in colour and flavour.

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Strawberry season is in full swing here; soon Mom will be making her delicious strawberry jam. The freshest, local strawberries are finally here since last week, and we’ve been sampling different varieties almost every day. My favourite is called Zephyr. It’s a kind of strawberry that tastes much better than it looks. A real gem among strawberries, it’s so delicate and fragile that you’d better buy it in small batches (we usually take a kilo or two) and eat it on the same day. The small berries of irregular shape are immensely tender and have a brightly pronounced flavour of wild strawberries. They have no chewy core at all, and after you rinse them in water (with the most care of course), they will probably lose their shape completely, turning into luscious, sweet, fragrant morsels suffused with June sunshine. That’s why I love them. They are absolute summer.

With these Zephyr strawberries and with some cherries that arrived from Hungary I made a few glasses of light mousse. Unless you’re opposed to raw eggs, it’s a foolproof and quick recipe which might come in handy when you have unexpected guests. I believe it’s also a good way to have your daily protein, together with your vitamins. I just pick the freshest eggs of a trusted brand and wash them with a sponge and dishwashing liquid. As for the remaining egg yolks, why not use them in eggnog, omelette, or cookies?

It’s interesting how the texture of this mousse varies slightly depending on the type of berries. My cherry mousse came out very smooth, glossy and thick like a cake icing; after taking the photos I found out it was quite impossible to sip it through a straw, so sorry for misleading you. The strawberry mousse, however, was kind of airier, lighter, and runnier. I can’t wait to try this with blueberries and raspberries and see what the texture will be like.

UPD A cherry/raspberry mix works out particularly well!

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My sister turned 21 on Saturday. Isn’t this a lovely age? I remember I graduated from University at 21 and went to Denmark for an internship. There I met all my new colleagues, while back home I had my wonderful family, my fun-loving classmates, and friends from University. Plus I had 30 penpals all around the world – from Lithuania to Indonesia. That’s so many people to love and admire! It felt absolutely like the whole world was in front of me… 21 - that’s when you’re a grown-up and yet very young, and your own achievements are making you proud and happy, and if anything ever goes wrong, there’s always another chance. I think 21 is one of the very best ages ever!

Of course a lovely occasion like my sister’s 21st birthday required something super-lovely for dessert. Something sweet, festive, and fluffy. Something like whipped cream and fresh aromatic berries between layers of a light and sweet sponge cake. Something that would smell of freshness and summer and would be candy to the eye, and would make that tiny “shhhhh” sound when you cut it with a knife, because it’s airy and fluffy like a cloud.

We thought all this pointed clearly to a strawberry&whipped cream cake glazed with strawberry jelly and decorated with fresh lemon balm.

The whole concept of this cake belongs to my Mom. I mean, I know this is not the first strawberry cake in the world, we just didn’t stick to any particular recipe – just our intuition and inspiration. We made a pretty huge cake (28 cm in diameter), because you see, we had guests. I’m quite sure that half as large would be enough for a normal dessert. This strawberry cake somehow reminded me of that gigantic Walnut Meringue and Chocolate Mousse Cake we made for New Year’s. When you make huge cakes like that one, at some point they start to live their own life – asking a pinch of this and a bit of that, more sugar here and less cream there, needing to be constantly under control, finally making you worry through the night – how will the frosting come out?! Haven’t you noticed this with your large cooking projects?..

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