Saturday, 5 November 2016

Russian Christmas & New Year Food

The Magical Day




So, the official parties are over and the 31st of December arrived! The morning of this day is truly magical for every Russian. You open your eyes, remember what day is today and...kind of turning in your mind into a child who does believe in magic. From this moment on you start expecting something magical would happen to you today... And you have all of the pleasures of the day waiting for you! --- Friends, family, music, entertainment and , of course, enjoyable food !


New Year Celebration Menu



Russians love to eat a lot of antipasti and salads. There are usually a few of them on the Christmas table.
No Russian Christmas/New Year celebration without Champagne! It must be there!
2.Salad "Mimosa" ( eggs,onion, carrot, fish, mayonnaise)
3.Salad "Herring under a fur coat" ( herring, potatoes, onion, beetroot, mayonnaise)
4.Kolbasa (Salami)
5.Fish
6.Pickled Gherkins ( pickled in water, salt, spices, no vinegar )
7.Pickled Tomatoes (pickled in water, salt, spices, no vinegar )
8.Pickled Cabbage in its own juice with salt and sugar ( no vinegar )
Hot course:
9. Pelmeni with horse reddish sauce, tomato sauce(ketchup) or sour cream (watch out for my lens about pelmeni )
10.Traditional Russian Christmas Goose with Apples ( watch video below)
Dessert:
11.Tart "Napoleon"
12.Tart "Honeyed"
13.Plenty of biscuits/cakes
14.Plenty of Chocolates
15.Plenty of Varenie ( preserved fruit in sugar syrop )
16.Fruit
Drinks:
17.Tea
18.Juice
19.Compote ( fruit pieces are cooked in water with sugar and preserved in the jars for winter)
20.Wine
21.Vodka ;)
Sometimes there is caviar on the table, but not often as it is expensive and ordinary people just can't afford it.

Here it is the"Olivier" winter Salad recipe (my favourite). In other countries is known as "Russian Salad". Click here to go to the recipe page.




Traditional Russian Christmas Goose Video Recipe

Very tasty!


Better a free range farm goose!

Traditionally it's stuffed with buckwheat and cooked with apples. You can substitute the stuffing with whatever you want.

Watch this video. The man speaks Russian, but you can follow the video and understand what he is doing.





Traditional Russian Sweets

Below are those traditional sweets that everybody knows and loves in Russia. Recommended.





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'Olivier' ("Russian Salad") Winter Salad Recipe

KitchenAid Tools and Accessories - Made with Love


Ingredients:
  • traditionally it should be beef. You can use chicken breast or substitute them with ham or cooked sausage - 200-250 gram
  • 4 potatoes of medium size
  • 3 or 4 eggs
  • 4 pickled gherkins- about 9 cm long
  • 1 carrot medium size
  • 1 medium size onion
  • 1 sour apple ( optional as this is only a modern twist to it )
  • 1 tin of green ( garden ) peas ( those that are ready to eat in tins )
  • sour cream ( could be substituted with mayonnaise)
  • salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • fresh or dried herbs like dill,coriander or parsley - this is purely optional and only if you like herbs. In my family we use a lot of herbs
This amount of the salad goes for 4 people (4 potatoes, 4 gherkins,3-4 eggs = calculating as 1 of the kind for 1 person)

Tip: To make a salad (any) tastier try to put about one dessert or table spoon (depends how you like it) of sunflower/rapeseed oil in addition to sour cream or mayonnaise.




Watch how to make Olivier







How to make Russian Original Olivier

  • Wash well potatoes and carrots without peeling the skin off.
  • Put them into a pan with a boiling water and cook/ Keep in low boiling until they are soft ( but not falling in pieces!),
  • Take them out of the water and leave them to cool.
  • Boil eggs 8-10 minutes, then put them into the bowl with the cold water.
Then:
  • Peel and chop eggs.
  • Peel potatoes and carrots and cut into small cubes ( 1 or 1.2 cm cubes)
  • Peel and finely chop the onion
  • Gherkins cut into small cubes ( smaller than potatoes cubes)
  • Wash the apple, peel it and cut into small cubes.
  • Chicken (Ham or Sausage ) cut into cubes as well ( the same size of 1 or 1.2 cm cubes)
  • Take a bowl and mix the potatoes, carrots, apple, ham, peas, onion, pickles and eggs in it.
  • A bit of salt (bearing in mind that the salad will have the mayonnaise in it as well) and put freshly ground black pepper.
  • At last, put the sour cream (or mayonnaise) in it and mix.
It will look like you see it on this picture and it's OK to put it like this on the table . But you can decorate it as you wish. You can decorate it as shown on the pictures below ( look below at other serving suggestions)-- with egg, tomato, carrots, olives and herbs. Let it rest for 1 hour at the room temperature and put it into the fridge for another hour or two and serve.
This is the original recipe of this salad. Some people put other ingredients into it , but then the salad would not be original and only a variation of it.
It is really simple to make it. The principle here is to just simply chop all of the products, mix them and that's it !
TIP: it will make it simpler and faster if you boil veg and eggs the day before .
Try it, I am sure you will love it as I do.




Olivier Salad Serving Suggestions




































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