Selyodka pod shuboy
: food, January 09 2021 ▶
There is no way I can take a good picture of the final product, no matter what I do. It will come either as bland top-view pic or messy side-view. Well, as you see, I preferred the latter. Depending where you live, this "salad" is called "dressed herring" or "herring under a fur coat", which is a direct translation from the russian "selyodka pod shuboi". It is a simple, but very time consuming dish. Benefit: you can store it in the fridge for about a week.
Ingredients:
- Herring fillets - no skin, no bones, salted only. Avoid the more common sour ones.
- Mayonnaise - pretty please, use the regular one and not the canola-oil-garbage.
- Boiled potatoes - with some salt, just as they become soft, not ready for mashed potatoes
- Onions
- Boiled red beet
- Boiled carrots
- Salt - just a pinch for the red beet and carrots
- Ground black pepper [not in the original recipe]
- Sumak for garnish on top [dill in the original recipe]
- Boiled and grated eggs [I do not use them]
I cannot give exact quantities as this depends on the amount of salad you want to make. I use 4 small soup cups, as this is best for serving and storing. One cup is enough for a single person. The arrangement is in ~1cm thick layers. You have to put some mayonnaise on top of each layer and then continue with the next.... yeeah, we will be using a lot of mayonnaise. Here is the order of the layers:
- potatoes and ground black pepper(+mayo)
- herring (+mayo)
- onions - this layer is 1/2 thick (+mayo)
- red beet (+mayo)
- carrots (+mayo)
- eggs and garnish
I put as little mayonnaise as possible, but enough to create a "flat" surface on the top of the layer.
There is one drink, and one drink only that goes with the salad - fine russian vodka.
Dried meat
: food, December 09 2020 ▶
Once in a while I like to have some intense flavor next to the fine glass of wine. Salami works just fine, but I go a step further by making some home-dried meat.
The meat:
Beef, pork, game meat will do (anything but poultry, although some people claim good results). The main goal is to be less-fatty, no membranes, veins, threads, etc. Just a clean slab of meat. Ideal proportions - 30cm, 10cm, 5cm, ~1kg. I used faux-fillet (sirloin) beef. Of course nowhere near the ideal proportions, but hey, there will be a "next time" for sure.
The tricky part - curing:
There are many ways to do it. I have tried them all and the "controlled dry curing" works best for me. All relative to 1kg of meat:
- 15gr regular salt
- 15gr curing salt
- 2gr sugar
- spices of your choice - ground fenugreek (cemen), ground black pepper, cumin - these are just for the curing process, so do not overdo it here.
- some working with your hands - rub the sugar, then the salt, then the spices into the meat.
- if you cannot vacuum-seal the meat, put the meat in a plastic bag, put it into a bowl of water, then tie it. This will ensure as little air inside as possible.
- put the bag in a cool place for 7 days (10 is also fine).
- turn it upside-down each day and massage it a bit.
Drying:
- put the meat out of the bag, rinse and pat-dry with kitchen paper. Moisture is unwanted.
- press it down with some weight overnight.
- put a hanging thread through the meat.
- mix your favorite spices, enough to fully cover it. I use again 1ts (tea spoon) ground fenugreek, 1/4ts cumin, 1ts sweet paprika and 1/2ts cayenne pepper, 1ts dried summer or winter savory. Rub the stuff all over the meat.
- leave it hanging in a cool, dry, airy place for 10 days.
...well I have to admit I cheated a bit on the last step, but the result was exactly the same. So I do not a have dry, airy place. Mostly because of the local climate. But I have an oven with a fan, that can be tuned down to 35C. 8 hours inside, with the lid slightly open to let the moisture out, did the task just fine. After that the meat was not 100% as I would like it to be, but I put it in kitchen paper and then in the fridge, so after 2 days it was "perfetto"!
Gravlax
: food, December 08 2020 ▶
A Nordic appetizer, which translates as "buried salmon" - old-school food preservation. Not only it goes best with cool vodka, but also makes a delicious lunch - just put 2 slices of bread, some soft cream cheese, rucola (rocket salad), some horseradish and the fish together and you will thank me later.
The ingredients:
- all measurements are relative to 1kg of salmon fillet with the skin
- 170g rock salt (sea salt will do)
- 30g pickling salt (if you do not have, just put 30g more rock salt)
- 200g sugar - I prefer brown sugar
- 100g vodka or gin - I use vodka
- 1 cup dill (chopped)
- 10g ground black pepper
- orange zest of a regular-sized orange
The making:
- rinse the salmon under cold water, dry with kitchen paper
- mix all the ingredients above, put a small amount at the bottom of a deep dish
- put the salmon skin-down
- use the remaining mixture to "bury" the fish
- put some foil on top, (optional) put something heavy to press it down
- leave in a cool place for 3 days
- put out the fish, rinse with cold water, dry with kitchen paper
- slice as thin as possible, enjoy
Pork tongue
: food, November 13 2020 ▶
That is the tongue of a pig. Also one of the best appetizers/side-dishes ever! It is fairly easy to prepare, but slightly more difficult to find, as general stores do not usually sell such stuff - you have to go to your local butcher. Here we go:
Ingredients - tongue:
- 600-800gr pork tongues
- 2 bay leaves
- 10-15 peppercorns
- 1-2 pimento seeds (Allspice)
- 1/2 tea spoon salt
Ingredients - sauce:
- 2 big garlic cloves
- juice of 1 big lemon
- 1/2 tea spoon salt
- 1/2 cup dill
- 1/2 tea spoon chili flakes
- 1 tea spoon Worcestershire sauce
Preparation:
Put the pork tongue in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes on MAX setting. Take it out, let it cool down, peel the skin with hands. DO NOT even think of throwing the stock away - you can make a soup or use it in another dish. Just strain it first. Some other recipes may ask for some oil, but the tongue is fatty enough, so I do not use any. Mix all sauce ingredients in a separate cup. Serve the tongue slightly warm and cut sideways.
Aged cowboy steak
: food, September 08 2020 ▶
Not every day a God-sent piece of meat lands in my plate, so it is an occasion to commemorate. Plus, this is how you do it:
- What you see on the pictures is a 20-days dry-aged ribeye cowboy steak (meaning "with the bone").
- Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper.
- Sunflower oil to rub. Forget about the "extra virgin" bullshit. It has lower smoke point and will turn bad.
- Ground pepper and salt. Generously!
- Put the pan on "highest".
- Preheat the oven on 180C with ventilator (else 200C).
- In the pan - 2 minutes on each side, repeat (total of 8 minutes).
- Move the meat to a baking dish(if the pan is not ovenproof), cover with foil, put it in the oven.
- This steak was ~3.5cm thick, so I would say 10 minutes per centimeter. In my case - 35 minutes.
- Remove from oven, leave it to rest 5-10 mins.
- 17C cooled Merlot or Cabernet (if you are wondering).
