Russia: Borscht and Pelmeni

Привет!

This time we're in Russia. I present to you two of the most famous traditional Russian foods there are, borscht and pelmeni. Borscht is a vegetarian beetroot soup, often served as an appetizer, with sour cream (also known as smetana) There are different forms of borscht. The differences between the variations include the serving temperature. The traditional Russian version is served hot, but many countries such as Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania have their own cold variants of the soup. The Lithuanian variant of Borscht, Šaltibarščiai, is sometimes also referred to as Lithuanian Gatorade because it's highly nutritious and helps revive athletes. But as mentioned, this post features the Russian version.

Pelmeni is one kind of a dumpling, which reminds ravioli. It is most often filled with meat, but basically only imagination is the limit of what you can use as ingredients, which makes it very easy to turn this food vegetarian. Vegan it is not, since the dough contains eggs. I even read that some restaurants in Saint Petersburg offer fruit filled versions. There are many ways to serve these dumplings in Russia, but I think the most popular ways are either with smetana (alike to borscht), or with tomato sauce. The small amount I know about Russian cuisine is that they love to put smetana in a lot of places, which at least I can relate to since it tastes really good. Pelmeni has also been spread around the neighboring countries of Russia, and so exists under many names in a bit different versions, just like borscht.

Now that we're finished with the brief introduction, it's time for the real deal; The methods.

Borscht

With this recipe I would like to emphasize, (though this is the case with pretty much every food in the world) that there as many different versions of the recipe as there are people making this food. This is my version of it, but if you prefer it to be made in some other way, please share in the comments so everyone can choose the method of their liking.

Water
Onion
Garlic clove
Salt
Potatoes
Carrots
Beetroots
To Serve: Smetana

I can't really say any specific amounts. Just consider the amount of people at the table and whether this will be the appetizer or the main course.

Pour water in the pot and start heating it up. Peel an onion and a garlic clove and put them in the water among with salt. This will create the vegetable broth for the soup. Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes, and when the water is boiling, add them in. Potatoes are added first because the cook the slowest. Next, peel and cut (or alternatively you can grate) the carrots and add them in the soup. Lastly, peel and cut (or grate) the beetroots and add them also. Let boil on medium heat until the vegetables are well cooked. When the soup is done, you may remove the garlic clove and the onion which have done their job in giving out taste for the soup. Serve hot with smetana.

Pelmeni (for 3 people, or 2 very hungry ones)

Shell

2,25 dl Wheatflour

1 Egg

1 dl Water

Salt

Filling

Onion

~400g minced meat (or whatever you want... I used minced horse beef)

Pepper

Salt

Garlic

For cooking either water or meat/vegetable broth

Shell is easy. Just mix the ingredients together to make a dense dough, and put it in the fridge for about half an hour or for the time you prepare the filling. For the filling you just fry the onion and add the meat and seasoning and fry until done. Let the filling cool down as you work with the cold dough. First you roll it out on a floured surface, until maybe 3 mm thick. Next you cut out circles from the dough. I used a big coffee mug for this with the diameter of ~8 cm. The following step is to put a spoonful of the filling on each circle and fold it. It took me a while to realize how they are folded (and you can do it in many ways) but for example this page features one way. 

When they're all folded you start to feel sorry for the old Russian Babushka's who always did this by hand instead of being able to just walk to the store and buy a kilo of frozen ones when needed, it is time to start cooking them. As mentioned, you can use either water or broth for this. Just put the liquid in a wide pan and bring it to a boil. Then add the pelmenis and leave boiling for maybe 10-20 minutes, depending on the size. In some recipes they also cook the pelmenis in the oven until golden brown. 

Serve with smetana or tomato sauce, though you can also use your imagination. At least in Lithuania they serve this kind of dumplings with either mushroom sauce (very yummie) or they put the portion in the oven with cheese on top until the cheese has melted, which isn't bad at all either.