Okay, so two of my dearest foodie friends and I decided we needed a get-together. We like themes for our cooking events, and this time we wanted to celebrate Russian cookery in honor of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
A little research led us to “zakuska”, which is a tradition of appetizers in Russia. Since we all prefer to graze all day instead of sitting down to a big dinner, we heartily embraced the zakuska idea.
With one exception, the dishes we served were very simple to prepare and relatively light. The one exception to simplicity was the Russian Black Bread, which had 5 different flours, chocolate, shallots, espresso, fennel seeds, caraway and some other weird ingredients. Thankfully, my friend, Jan, is an accomplished bread baker, and she turned out two loaves of delicious bread which we used as a pallet for the rest of the stuff.
The rest of the stuff:
Chopped egg and butter pate
Dill pickles
Chopped radish/Cream cheese spread
White bean and bacon pate
Salted mushrooms with dill and garlic
Garlic/Mozzarella cheese spread
Assorted green and black olives
Two kinds of smoked salmon (regular and marinated) with caviar
Liverwurst with homemade mustard
No zakuska is complete without cold vodka, sipped straight. We heard that Russian vodka is really the only vodka that is palatable enough for most people to drink straight, so we did a side-by-side-by –side taste test with three vodkas: two potato vodkas and one imported Russian vodka. We agreed with what we’d read: the Russian vodka was FAR smoother than either of the two potato vodka, with no burn at all.
Last, but certainly not least, my friend, Ann, made a “Chocolate Salami” for our Russian dessert. It has a consistency similar to fudge, but not as sweet – sort of like chocolate cookie dough, with crunched up vanilla wafers inside. Delicious! The recipe made three “salamis” – lots leftover.
This was a great food event with wonderful friends! USA! USA! USA!
Lee
A little research led us to “zakuska”, which is a tradition of appetizers in Russia. Since we all prefer to graze all day instead of sitting down to a big dinner, we heartily embraced the zakuska idea.
With one exception, the dishes we served were very simple to prepare and relatively light. The one exception to simplicity was the Russian Black Bread, which had 5 different flours, chocolate, shallots, espresso, fennel seeds, caraway and some other weird ingredients. Thankfully, my friend, Jan, is an accomplished bread baker, and she turned out two loaves of delicious bread which we used as a pallet for the rest of the stuff.
The rest of the stuff:
Chopped egg and butter pate
Dill pickles
Chopped radish/Cream cheese spread
White bean and bacon pate
Salted mushrooms with dill and garlic
Garlic/Mozzarella cheese spread
Assorted green and black olives
Two kinds of smoked salmon (regular and marinated) with caviar
Liverwurst with homemade mustard
No zakuska is complete without cold vodka, sipped straight. We heard that Russian vodka is really the only vodka that is palatable enough for most people to drink straight, so we did a side-by-side-by –side taste test with three vodkas: two potato vodkas and one imported Russian vodka. We agreed with what we’d read: the Russian vodka was FAR smoother than either of the two potato vodka, with no burn at all.
Last, but certainly not least, my friend, Ann, made a “Chocolate Salami” for our Russian dessert. It has a consistency similar to fudge, but not as sweet – sort of like chocolate cookie dough, with crunched up vanilla wafers inside. Delicious! The recipe made three “salamis” – lots leftover.
This was a great food event with wonderful friends! USA! USA! USA!
Lee
Love it! I would like to try the white bean and bacon pate.
