Oladi - Russian Pancakes

After the deep fried yeasted flat bread from Hungary, my today's post goes to Russia, yes today am sharing Oladi, an incredible Russian Pancakes. These cute mini pancakes makes an excellent breakfast and they are seriously very easy to make with easy ingredients. Trust me this Oladi is definitely a fabulous breakfast pancakes to kick start a day. Oladi is prepared with buttermilk/Soured milk/Kefir-fermented milk.Kefir gives a distinguishing taste to oladi, but it probably can be replaced with buttermilk in case you are having troubles finding kefir.Kefir,this fermented milk is quite difficult to find out for me, so i made this fluffy mini pancakes with buttermilk, though you can also go for soured milk. By the way, soured milk is prepared by adding lemon juice or vinegar to milk.

Grenki - Russian Breakfast Toast

Hope you all enjoyed the flaky and very aromatic Somalian flatbread yesterday, today i want to take you all to Russia. Actually i cook rarely Russian dishes,however this time for this long marathon i want to dish out an interesting Russian breakfast. Most of their dishes are meat based breakfast dishes and some goes for eggs, after a day spend in front of my lappy finally i decided to go for a eggy breakfast and finished finding out this interesting and very easy breezy Russian breakfast toast.When i saw this Grenki recipe,i couldnt stop myself away and i tried them the next day for our breakfast. Trust me this grenki are quite easy to make with simple ingredients. Some says to use Challah bread for making this grenki while other says any stale bread slices makes excellent grenki. However i prepared mine with whole wheat bread slices.

Blini - Russian Pancake

Russia is mainly a northern country with long-lasting cold winter. Obviously the food should give much energy and warmth to survive during the winter time to Russian peoples. So, the essential components of Russian cuisine are the ones, which provide more carbohydrates and fat rather than proteins. Fresh fruits and vegetables are rarely used in food. So, the top five components of a Russian meal are potatoes, bread, eggs, meat (especially beef) and butter. Other popular foods include cabbage, milk, sour cream, curds, mushrooms, lard, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, berries, honey, sugar, salt, garlic, and onions.Blini, or Russian pancakes, are thin, flat cakes prepared from batter and cooked on a hot frying pan - first on one side and then flipped to cook on the other side.

The origins of this traditional Russian dish, which recently celebrated its thousandth birthday, can be traced back to ancient times. Its ancestor was made from oat jelly; a hungry traveler wishing to warm the composition up on the fire probably got distracted by something very amusing, leaving the jelly to fry and thus creating the first blini.Since then blini have changed, but not dramatically they are now made not only from oats but also wheat, rye, buckwheat and barley.

Vegan Russian Braided Bread with Pesto Filling

I love pestos, obviously i make varieties of pestos at home.Bread with pesto filling definitely goes directly to our favourite bread list, i tried my hands in making this Russian braided bread for this month's We Knead To Bake, a monthly baking event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen. As Aparna asked us to chose any stuffed bread with a savory filling, actually she said to make a different shaped bread, immediately i checked my bookmarked recipes and baked this green gorgeous looking pesto braided bread. This bread is definitely a keeper, very easy to shape. This bread can be enjoyed thoroughly just like that or simply along with a bowl of warm soup to have filling and satisfying dinner. Pesto filling is used in this bread is Coriander, cashew pesto. This pesto gives any excellent flavor to this vegan bread which is dangerously addictive. One cant just stop with a slice.

Baklazhanaya Ikra -Russian Eggplant Caviar

Baklazhanaya Ikra, a popular vegetarian spread prepared specially with large eggplants and this dish ressembles tastewise quite like our Indian Baingan Bharta..This caviar is prepared simply by grilling eggplants in oven from which their flesh is taken and prepared along with onions, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, salt and pepper powder..Chopped tomatoes brings them a beautiful colour and this Russian eggplant spread tastes fabulous simply when served along with any bread eventhough Russians goes for their famous rye bread...This spread take an important role in most of Russian home, as this eggplant caviar is known well in Russia as the Poor Man's Caviar..




1no Eggplant(large)
1cup Onion chopped
6tbsp Olive oil
1tsp Garlic (chopped finely)
2no Tomatoes (large & chopped)
1/2tsp Sugar
Salt
Pepper powder
Lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees...Bake the eggplant on the middle rack for about an hour, turning it over once or twice untill the eggplants turn soft..Meanwhile, cook the onions in 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in medium heat untill they are soft but not brown...Add the garlic and cook for few minutes, put off the stove...Remove the skin of the egplant with a sharp knife, then chop the pulp finely as a puree..

Add this pureed eggplant to onions and stir in the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper powder...Heat the remaining olive oil in the pan in medium heat and pour in the eggplant mixture.Bring to a boil, stir constantly, then turn the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for an hour.

Remove the cover and cook for another half-hour, stirring from time to time, until the mixture turns thicks.. add the lemon juice as per taste, give a stir...Transfer the mixture to a bowl...

Serve with bread..

Draniki - Russian Potato Pancakes

Draniki, a delicious potato pancakes which ressembles quite like potato latkes or hash browns..This is a easy breezy pancakes which can be ready within few minutes and the difficult part of making out this pancakes is to grate the potatoes else this is easy pancakes to enjoy without any guilt...This Russian pancakes goes for grated potatoes,flour,baking powder and buttermilk, u can add egg to this pancakes, which i didnt used in this pancakes..How u seen ,u just need very less ingredients to prepare this droolworthy draniki..Some peoples used to grated onions to their draniki which i completely skipped in this recipe, coz already grating potatoes made me tired and i dont want to grate again onions for this pancakes..Sending this delectable draniki, potato pancakes from Russia goes to AWED-Russia guest hosted by RV of  Food for 7Stages of Life, event by DK...



5nos Potatoes (peeled & grated)
2tbsp All purpose flour
Salt
1/2cup Buttermilk
1/4tsp Baking soda
Oil

Take the grated potatoes along with all purpose flour, salt, buttermilk, baking soda, (can also add eggs if needed) in a large bowl, mix everything well and this mixture turns bit thick to pour..Heat enough oil, pour a small ladle of this potato mixture, cook on both sides until they turns golden brown..

Serve draniki with sour cream or apple sauce..