Saturday 3 November 2012

Cooking with Russia

Last year I bought a Russian cook book, then promptly looked over the recipes salivating in anticipation... Then realised I had none of the ingredients and zero capital to buy new ones. So then left it gather dust.  Until now...  and even then I didn't really follow the recipe.


Original Recipe for White Cabbage with Cream
1 head of perfect white cabbage                        1 1/2 cups sweet cream
2 tablespoons butter                                           White Pepper
1 tablespoon flour                                              Salt

Cook the head of cabbage whole in salted water until almost ready. Drain. Cut into serving portions. Combine butter, white pepper and salt. Mix flour with cream and add to the butter. Add cabbage and cook slowly until the cabbage is completely done. Serves four.

My Recipe
1 Serving Red Cabbage sliced                            2 tablespoons Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons Flora                                              Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon flour                                                Salt



Cook the cabbage in boiled water with salt until slightly under done. I like mine slightly crunchy so I only boiled it for about three minutes. Then plunged it into cold water.  Then I drained the cabbage and put it on my plate to rest.



I then, in the pan I cooked the cabbage, melted the butter and added in a decent amount of black pepper. I chose to leave out the salt because I'd cooked the cabbage in salt already.


Then I added the Greek Yogurt to the pan and the flour. Once mixed up I've got to admit that it didn't look too promising. The cabbage smell and the strange milky thick mess that was unfolding before me.


Then I added cabbage and cooked until the sauce no longer had a slight flour taste and it was a more pleasing texture.


I then served it with pickled herring that I got from Tesco, which are served with gherkins and sliced onions. They taste great and have a lovely texture. They also are definitely fitting for a Russian menu as herrings are a staple food in Russia.   Then because the plates at our University house are so large and the fair sized meal looked so tiny on them I added a heap of spinach.


It was absolutely delicious, I imagine it would be better with Cream not Greek Yogurt and Butter not Flora. That being said I finished everything on my plate. Russian cooking is definitely something I'm going to keep trying. 

Yours 
Belinda Stepford
xxx

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