Vareniki (Вареники)

Ingredients:

For the dough

1 Egg

2 Cups Milk

8 Cups Flour

For the filling

1 lb Farmer's Cheese
1/2 cup Raisins
1 stick Butter 




Vareniki is a traditional breakfast meal in Russia. In my family we usually make them with the farmer's cheese, but you can also fill them with berries, fruit, nuts. 

Farmer's cheese is very close to the cottage cheese, but it has smaller curds, and is not salty. You can get it at the grocery store or you can prepare it yourself.

For the dough, you will need to blend milk and eggs with a mixer, and then slowly add the flower until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer. The dough needs to be dry, like a bread dough, as you’ll have to roll it out into thin layers.  

Pinch off a ball of dough, roll it out, adding flour as needed to keep everything from sticking.  Put the layer of dough over a vareniki  mold and in the meantime, prepare a second ball of dough in the same way.

For the filling, you will need to mix farmer's cheese with melted butter and raisins that were previously soaked in warm water. You can use other fillings as well. Pinch off small pieces of the farmer's cheese mixture, enough to fill it in. Press it into the mold, flattening each as needed so the farmer's cheese is roughly level with the dough.

Once the mold has been filled, place the second layer of dough over the top and use a rolling pin to pinch the two layers of dough together.  

Once everything has been sealed and cut, flip the mold over and gently knock out the vareniki onto a floured pan.  Check each to make sure they’re sealed, and then place the pan in a freezer while preparing your next batch.

Freeze the vareniki, and use what you need for the breakfast throughout the week, month, or year. 

Boil them for about 5 minutes until they float. Serve with sour cream, condensed milk, or preserves. 

Bon appétit! 

Kotleti (Котлеты)

Kotleti (Котлеты) – Russian Meatballs

Ingredients:

2 Lbs ground beef

2 Lbs ground pork

2 Medium Onions

2-3 Cloves Garlic

15 Oz Italian / White Bread Loaf

4-5 Cups Milk

1-2 Tsp. Salt

½-1 Tsp. Pepper

Russian Kotleti (Cutlets) are in my mind, a cross between my mom’s Italian meatballs and meatloaf.  They’re typically much larger than meatballs – roughly egg-sized, 2” in diameter, and 3” long.  Serve them hot with a side of mashed or fried potatoes, or even pasta.

Start by shredding the onions and garlic in a food processor.  Cut them until they’re small – roughly the size of rehydrated minced onions.  Similarly, but separately (I don’t know why, but I not allowed to argue with my mother-in-law’s recipe), shred the potatoes until cut just as small.

Cut the crust from the bread and soak in the milk.  The bread should be soggy, and there should be just enough milk so that it’s all soaked-into the bread when resting, but the milk would immediately start coming out if pressed even the slightest bit.

 

Mix everything together, including the salt and pepper to taste.  You could use a mixer of some kind, but as with meatballs and meatloaf, using your hands is just as easy.  The final mixture will be soft and moist.

Heat a frying pan to medium, add a little oil, and then start frying the Котлеты.  They should be formed into egg-shaped balls as described at the start of this blog.  A ½-cup measuring cup works well for this purpose, but you may choose to make them larger or smaller to taste.

The goal of frying is not to cook them completely, but rather, to set their shape enough so they can be lined-up on a baking sheet and still hold their form.  Fry for a few minutes on top and bottom, then transfer to a deep baking pan.  Squeeze as many as you can into the pan before baking them for 30 minutes at 350 ^oF (175 ^oC).  The internal temperature should be at least 160 ^oF.

If you’ve followed this recipe, you’ll have somewhere between 25 and 40 kotleti.  Eat as many as you want for dinner, and then refrigerate or freeze the leftovers.