By polina, on February 2nd, 2013%  This is the ultimate Russian winter comfort food, and it’s very easy to make. The only secret is, the potatoes and the mushrooms have to be cooked separately, then combined just before serving. Why can’t we make it a one-skillet meal? Because the mushrooms need salt early, to help them release their water and become crisp; the potatoes, on the other hand, cook best without salt, that will make them break down and lose their shape, if added too early.
Here I made this dish with store-bought crimini mushrooms. Back in Russia we used any type of foraged forest mushrooms, with even more delicious results, or, in the middle of the winter, when no fresh mushrooms were available, we would rinse pickled mushrooms to remove the brine, and then proceed with the recipe.
I like to season my mushrooms with a little thyme, garlic, and fresh ground pepper. Most Russian cooks go for sautéed onions, and leave out the pepper. Try it both ways. Both are good.
 Sautéed potatoes with mushrooms
Serves four
For the potatoes:
2 Tbsp olive oil
5 large Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Sea salt
Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes, cook, stirring occasionally, until almost tender. Season with sea salt, continue cooking until cooked through.
For the mushrooms:
2 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced 1/8 inch thin
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
5-6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked, stems discarded
Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, season generously with salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms release the liquid and it evaporates. Add garlic and thyme. Continue cooking until mushrooms and garlic are browned.
Combine potatoes with mushrooms, serve as a side to braised meat, or on their own.
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By polina, on June 6th, 2012% 
It’s California king salmon season! Everyone here is excited about our local salmon. The market price reflects this excitement – the whole fish goes at $10.99 a pound, and fillets are $17.99 a pound. Bu the glorious fish is totally worth it, and we can afford it once a year, right?
The fishermen bring the salmon in early in the morning, it hits the Bay Area stores a couple of hours later, and then you have to catch it the second time: it’s usually gone by noon.
This morning I caught about 1.5 pounds of the freshest local king salmon fillets at Sigona’s Farmers Market in Redwood City. I cut it into 6-ounce portions, and made a healthy version of the classic salmon with dill sauce for 4.
Salmon with Dill Sauce
Serves 4
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
4 salmon fillets, skin on
Salt, pepper
6 oz plain Greek yogurt
1 small bunch fresh dill, finely chopped
2 strips of lemon rind, yellow part only, cut with vegetable peeler, very finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt
Heat olive oil and butter in a large non-stick skillet. Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Place fillets flesh side down in the skillet; let them sizzle without disturbing for 2-3 minutes. Using a large spatula, carefully turn the fish over. Cook for 2-3 minutes more, or until just cooked through but still juicy.
Mix yogurt, dill, lemon rind and lemon juice. Season to taste.
Spoon the sauce over the fish, garnish with lemon slices and dill sprigs.
Other ideas for cooking your local fresh salmon:
Poach it. Prepare court bouillon with white wine, lemon, black peppercorns, carrots, celery, parsley, onion, bay leaf, and enough water to cover the fish, in a deep sauté pan. Simmer 20-25 minutes to extract the flavor from the vegetables, season to taste. Remove and discard the vegetables. Place the fish fillets in the court bouillon skin side down. Simmer until just cooked, about 10 minutes, more or less depending on the thickness of the fish. Serve in soup bowls, with strained court bouillon and julienned blanched carrots and celery.
Grill it. Season the fillets with salt and pepper, brush with olive oil. Grill on preheated medium grill until just cooked, 6-8 minutes, turning (carefully, with a large spatula) once.
Here grilled king salmon is served with grilled yellow squash and a sauce of fava beans with tarragon and lemon.
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Location:Redwood City, CA
By polina, on December 12th, 2011% These pot-stickers probably came to Siberia from China. Then they spread all over Russia, and became a favorite winter food. If the temperatures stay consistently below freezing for 3-4 month, you can invest into making a few hundreds pot-stickers, freeze them outside, put them in a bag, and hang it outside of the window, to be cooked as needed. They cook from frozen in about ten minutes. They are economical, easy to cook, and oh, so tasty! Shaping them is labor-intensive, but if you live in a region with freezing winters, or in a house with a large freezer, you only need to make them once a year.
In Siberia, they make pelmeni with all types of filling: mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage, grains, fish, meat, poultry, or any combinations. In Moscow, where I grew up, pelmeni are always filled with mixed meats, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and minced onion. The usual filling is half ground beef (not too lean) and half pork. Whenever we had venison, we would always mix ground venison into pelmeni filling (1/3 beef, 1/3 pork, 1/3 venison)
In my family, we would spend the afternoon before the New Years Eve making pelmeni. Mom made the filling, dad rolled out the dough, and we all shaped. The first hundred or so would go on our holiday table, the rest froze on all available surfaces out on the balcony, for winter dinners to come. We would put a whole peppercorn into one of the pot-stickers. The lucky recipient could make a wish that will come true in the new year.
In California, I like to make pelmeni for our Tahoe ski trips. After a day of skiing, they cook fast, and they taste great! Rolling out the dough is physically demanding. My dad (who is very good at it) being 9000 miles away and my boyfriend not being part of the culture, I replace them both with my pasta machine, on it’s thinnest, ravioli setting. I then cut out dough circles with a 3-inch round cutter. A glass with a thin edge, or a cut tin can can do fine. Pelmeni should be a little larger than ravioli, but smaller than most Chinese potstickers, about 2 inches across.
Serve pelmeni in beef stock with a little white wine vinegar, straight with butter and
a lot of fresh ground black pepper, with sour cream with minced garlic and scallion, or even with mayonnaise!
Pelmeni
Makes about 200, serves 10-12
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2cup water
for the filling:
1.5 pound mixed ground meats (3/4 pound beef and 3/4 pound pork; or 1/2 pound beef, 1/2 pound pork, 1/2 pound venison)
1 large onion, minced
1 tsp salt
1 (generous) tsp fresh ground black pepper
Make the dough: sift flour into a large bowl. Mix in salt. Make a well in the center. Pour egg and water in. Mix, gradually incorporating the flour from the sides, to make very stiff dough, knead. At first it will look like it’s too dry and not coming together. Do not despair, keep kneading. If after five minutes of kneading it’s still not coming together, add a few drops of water, repeat (you can skip the gym that day). Cover with plastic, let rest 30 minutes.
Make the filling: combine ground meats, onion, season with salt and pepper, mix well.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough as thin as possible, using a rolling pin and a lot of elbow grease, of a pasta machine. Cut out 3-inch circles. Put together the leftovers, and roll out again.
Place about 1/2 tsp of filling in the center of each circle. Pinch the edges together tight. Connect the corners to make a neat ring. Place on a floured plate or cutting board. Repeat 199 times, or so. Freeze. Put in ziplock bags, keep in the freezer for up to 6 month.
To cook: in a large pan bring water to boil over high heat. Add frozen pelmeni, bring back to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cook until pelmeni float to the surface, 5-10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Serve with:
- sour cream and black pepper
- sour cream + minced garlic + minced parsley or scallion
- white wine vinegar and fresh ground black pepper
- beef stock + dash of white wine vinegar
- melted butter + a lot of fresh ground black pepper
- 1 cup sour cream blended with 1 cooked carrot and 2 minced garlic cloves
- (I didn’t say this) mayonnaise
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By polina, on October 18th, 2011% 
Good bye, summer!
They are probably the last ones of the season, and I’ll miss them terribly. But at this weeks farmers market an almost six-pound bag of slightly overripe organic heirloom tomatoes was $5, and they were of absolutely beautiful, sunny orange and red varieties. I had to take them home, and now everything I eat has tomato sauce on it. I also put away a couple of bags of tomato confit in the freezer for later.
Tomato confit
Makes a lot
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, peeled
5 sprigs oregano
5 sprigs thyme
5 pounds ripe (or slightly overripe, undamaged) tomatoes, or as many as you can fit in your roasting pan, cored
Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with olive oil, spread onion, garlic, and herbs in the pan. Place tomatoes on top of onion mixture, stem side down, fitting them close together. Season with salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Bake about one hour, or until tomatoes char on top and blister. Let cool a little. Remove oregano and thyme. Puree vegetables in blender, working in batches, adding liquid from the bottom of the pan as needed. Store in a refrigerator, or freeze in locking bags or in ice cube trays. Use on pastas, eggs, beans, thin with stock to make tomato soup, braise fish fillets in it, or make my simple version of a vegetable terrine, while eggplants and bell peppers are still in season, and the weather is grill-friendly.
Terrine of grilled eggplant and fire-roasted peppers with tomato confit
Makes 1 4-cup container
2 bell peppers
3 small Italian eggplants
Olive oil for grilling
Salt, pepper
2 cups tomato confit
2 bags unflavored gelatin
Preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Place peppers on the hottest part of the grill, char on all sides, turning occasionally, until almost all the skin blackens. Place in a covered container and leave until cool enough to handle.
Slice eggplants lengthwise 1/4 inch thick. Brush with olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper. Remember that the vegetables will be served cold, so stronger seasoning will help them shine. Grill, turning once or twice, until soft and nice grill marks are created.
When peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the skins – they should slide off easily – and cores and seeds. Work over a bowl to catch the juices. Slice peppers lengthwise.
Line 4-cup Pyrex container, loaf pan, or terrine with plastic wrap. Put a layer of eggplant slices on the bottom, with the best grill marks facing down – this will be the top of the finished terrine. Top with a layer of peppers. Repeat, finishing with a layer of eggplant, with the best grill marks facing up, in case you decide to serve the terrine in the mold.
Divide tomato confit into two roughly equal portions. Bring one to almost boil, add any pepper juices to it. Sprinkle gelatin on cool confit, let sit two minutes. Add hot confit, mix well. Pour tomato-gelatin mixture over the vegetables in the mold. Pierce in a few places with a bamboo skewer, to let the tomato flow under and around the vegetables. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Turn the terrine over to a cold plate, remove the mold and plastic, slice to show the colorful layers, and serve with more tomato confit, if desired.
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Location:San Rafael, CA
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