Gold Medal Meal -- Traditional Russian Dishes

As a new challenge we decided to make a meal based around the winners of the Sochi Winter Olympics - most gold and most medals.

And that means we'd be making Russian and American meals. The rules were - in case the US was a finalist - we had to make dishes we'd never made before and that were, in some way, authentic - from either cookbooks or "native" food blogs. For our American meal we're planning on using my new cookbook, Martha's American Food and we'll make our patriotic feast after we return from our honeymoon, to fittingly, Washington, DC.

This past weekend, we made a huge Russian spread and had my parents over to share.I did a lot of research with food blogs, an exciting Olympic-themed Buzzfeed article and an article from NPR. The hardest part of the meal was that I seriously struggled picking just a few dishes to try! Through this, I learned about a few trends in Russian cooking:

• Sturdy, root vegetables - potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, radishes - are a big part of their cuisine. Id' imagine they handle the cold winter weather much better than other, more tender veggies. 
• Pickling of these veggies is also very prevalent, and also related to extending their shelf life. 
• They love to use mayonnaise in creamy salads and sauces. Apparently, Russian mayo tastes differently than our American style (but I used our Southern classic, Dukes)
• Seeds, like poppy seeds and carroway seeds, are very popular and used in most breads and many cakes. 
• The Russians love their sweets! Desserts were the most popular types of dishes I could find and were all super sweet! They used sweetened condensed milk, lots of sugar and honey. I have bookmarked several other cakes I want to try soon! 
• The food - and there's a lot of it made for meals and parties - is relatively inexpensive. We made our huge meal that would have easily fed six adults (with leftovers) cost less than $30 to prepare. 

Each of the dishes originally seemed very exotic and were combinations we'd normally have never tried - but turned out beautifully! We made six dishes that covered a wide variety of flavors and textures. Sharing all of the recipes would result in the world's longest blog post ever, so I'll just give you links to each of them with descriptions and any suggestions.

Golubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls)

This dish is exceptional but beyond time consuming. It may take forever, but is totally worth it. I worried that there wasn't enough flavor infused into the dish or it was lacking enough sauce (only 3/4 a cup!) but it was incredibly flavorful. The mix of meats made for a great flavor, the sauce added just enough bold tomato-ness and the texture was great. And while all of the dishes made ample portions, this one was extraordinarily huge - we fed four of us each four rolls and had leftovers for three lunch servings and three freezer portions! This is going in the "freezer friendly" portion of my recipe scrapbook and I hope to make it every so often to stock up.

Russian Cucumber and Radish Salad 

This dish was impossibly simple to make and full of fragrant flavors. The green onion, parsley and dill gave it a very herbaceous flavor that paired nicely with the sour cream. And I was surprised to see how flavorful cucumbers could be and how mild the radishes were - normally cucumbers are really delicate and radishes are overpoweringly spicy but these almost changed in the salad. Adding just enough salt really blooms the flavor, too - but be sure to serve it immediately or the salt will bring out the water in the cucumbers.

Carrot Salad with Walnuts and Garlic 

I thought this dish was the most out in left field. Carrots are often in salad, walnuts are often in salad and mayonnaise is often in salad dressing - however, to have a salad compromised of only these ingredients, plus garlic (WHAT?!) sounded like a sure fire "oh, that was a fun idea; glad it didn't cost too much" dish. But it was so good! The carrots were crisp and their sweetness paired nicely with the large garlic. It was fresh and springy and very lightly dressed. I will be making this again for sure.

Buttery Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs

Another trend in Russian food - lots of herbs and spices - these potatoes were simply made, boiled and then crisped up in butter and olive oil and tossed with a bunch of herbs and spices. I don't find these to taste all that foreign or exotic, and they would go with almost any meal. 

Sweet Piroshki

I'm terrified of working with dry yeast - so this was J's project. This recipe - like the golubtsi - made a TON. Piroshki is a stuffed roll, and you can make it in either a sweet variety with apples (as we did) or savory with a braised beef and cabbage filling. Again like the golubtsi, this dish took forever too but was delicious. The folding of the rolls is complicated but they could withstand more filling and I would change the apple filling to be sweeter or more flavorful - adding cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. Otherwise, when cooled they taste only like a yeast roll. 

Chocolate Salami 

This was my favorite dish of the entire night! Apparently this a staple in Slavic households and is always around for snacktime and I can see why. It was incredibly simple, only four ingredients and I could eat this for days. It is like a mix of fudge and cookie dough. J is really paranoid about cookie dough or cake batter or anything that delicious but also contains raw eggs, so this is a great alternative. It makes four salami and they're delicious in either the fridge or the freezer. My new goal is to make an entire chocolate charcuterie plate! 

I suggest you try some of these dishes and find your own new cuisines to explore! And stay tuned for our American feast.