Photo diary: week 1, project 366

Yotam Ottolenghi wrote in the latest issue of Feast: "There's a fuzzy period between Christmas and New Year when no one quite remembers what the date or plan is". That in a way describes all the winter school break for me, I'm not quite following the days or dates.
It's back to school tomorrow for us.
And amen to that, it was a rather stressful long holiday period, and so many things were put on hold.
Happy new year to you all, and a happy new decade!

This post is a mix of the last few days of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. On the last Sunday of 2019 I was trying to finish my Top reads of 2019 post, and taking some images of the books I've read in the last year, like A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison.
It's a wonderful magic adventure for children, with feisty heroines.

In between shopping trips, I took Eddie to Greggs. All sausage rolls were finished, so he has chosen a slice of pepperoni pizza instead. To me it's not a proper pizza. I like the Italian-style crust, thin and crispy, this slab looks more like an open pie than pizza.

The 31st passed in a blur of cooking and TV. We watched Billy Elliot with Eddie. I didn't realise there was so much effing in the film. It is a good film, though the language made me wince quite a few times.
Eddie told me that Tom Holland, who is his hero, was in a Billy Elliot musical production when he was a child. I wonder if he'd like to see the musical in the theatre.

I didn't take any photos on the 31st as such, though I did try to catch the fireworks just a minute past midnight. We could see some feeble attempts at fireworks over the garden wall, but it was more noisy than spectacular.

On the 1st of January Eddie and I went to the cinema to see Spies in Disguise. It was actually quite entertaining, if you don't expect anything too clever. Eddie had to see it, because Tom Holland is voicing one of the main characters.

I asked Eddie to take a photo of me, as I wanted to do the "ten year challenge". Yep, I know, I'm jumping on the bandwagon unashamedly. Eddie wanted me to make a double photo for him as well, but I told him he wasn't born yet a decade ago, so I couldn't possibly help him.

It's only week 1, and I've already failed to take photos every day. I'm just feeling so listless and tired, and lacking in motivation.
I walked around the garden yesterday afternoon, looking for some inspiration, maybe a flower.
I know a year ago we already had hellebores in bloom in the early days of Jnauary but this year there are only leaves on view.
The only colour in the garden is the bright red of rosehips.

I am trying to grow a red hyacinth in a jar on the kitchen window sill, without soil, but with pebbles and some seashells. The roots go down and sideways in a slightly creepy way. And the bulb shifted itself, so it's now slightly lop-sided.

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Gluten free potato blini and salmon cured in gin

Jay Rayner always makes me chuckle. Christmas edition of Observer Food Monthly had another funny editorial written by him. In it he gives us 10 Christmas food commandments.

Commandment no.1 from Jay says "Thou shalt not mistake Nigella, Mary and Jamie for the Lord, thy God. Those Christmas specials are only TV programmes. They're entertainment, not a blueprint for how your Christmas is meant to be. Yours won't be anything like that because you don't have battalions of home economists to knock up the food and set designers to decorate the house. Even Nigella's won't be like that".
And how true is that. This rule should apply to all dinners we host. And if the only paper napkins I could find at Easter are Christmas-themed because I bought five packs on offer after Christmas, kind friends won't judge me on that (or if they do, they won't tell me).

We had a wonderful dinner last night with our close friends, two of their children go to school with Sash, and one of their boys is in the same school as Eddie, only a year older.
Cooking is one of pleasures of life for me, a creative outlet and more than a hobby. I would say a vocation, though an unpaid one.

I considered preparing a different starter for our new year's eve, as I tend serving blini with home-cured salmon as a starter frequently, but then I thought that this is one of my favourite starters. It looks festive and tastes great. I did tweak both recipes though.

As one of our friends is a coeliac, I cook all dishes gluten free when they come for dinner. Last year I also cooked gluten free blini, but this time I added some mashed potatoes to the recipe, and the little pancakes turned out to be very fluffy and thick. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, including my fussy boys.

Gluten free potato blini (makes 18+ blini)
Ingredients:
1 potato (100g)
2 medium eggs
125ml milk
125ml water
250g gluten free flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free flour)
1tsp baking powder
2tbsp melted butter + more butter for frying
sea salt
First cook a potato in skin in salted boiling water. Once cooked, let it cool, peel off the skin and mash the potato with a fork. Beat in two eggs, add milk and water, and mix well. Sift in the flour and baking powder, add melted butter and season with sea salt until you get thick smooth batter.

Place the pancake pan (with four cups) over medium heat, add a small amount of butter or cooking spray. The pan should be hot but not smoking, or the blini will be quickly burnt.
Pour a tablespoon of pancake batter in each cup. Cook for about 3 minutes on one side, then carefully flip over each pancake with a knife, and cook for another minute or two, until golden.

These blini make a great base for all sorts of toppings. Smoked salmon is wonderful on blini. Serve with a ready-made smoked salmon or make your own a day in advance, pickles, lemon slices, soured cream with dill, or whatever topping you fancy.

Salmon cured in gin
Ingredients:
340g salmon fillet
100g sea salt, flakes
100g caster sugar
1/2tsp caraway seeds
1tbsp juniper berries, crushed
100ml gin, unflavoured (or vodka)

1. Lay the salmon in a deep baking dish lined with a big piece of cling film.
2. Add the salt, sugar, caraway seeds and crushed juniper to a small bowl and mix well.
3. Press the salt and seeds mix evenly all over both sides of the salmon. Pour gin or vodka over it.
4. Wrap the salmon in cling film carefully, trying to contain all liquid inside the film. Place another smaller dish on top and weigh down with some heavy tins.
Place in the fridge for 24+ hours.
5. To serve, unwrap the cling film and rinse off the salt in cold water. Pat dry with kitchen paper. Slice the salmon thinly and place on a serving plate with crayfish tails (optional).

I use two heavy ceramic baking dishes for preparing the fish, one smaller size goes on top.

If you want to add colour, grate a raw peeled beetroot into the salt mix.
You will surely wow your guests with such a delicious starter.

Happy new year!

That's my little brother and me, aged about 2 and 5, looking very solemn. I'm dressed as a Snowflake, a rather typical New Year's eve costume for children's parties at those times in the Soviet Union.
Most of my early childhood photos are black and white. I remember when my older niece was a little girl, she looked at her Mum's childhood photos and was sad, because she thought that everything was black and white then. She was also offering to colour in the photos.

New Year's eve was a big celebration in the Soviet Union, much bigger than Christmas which then was a very religious holiday. Sometimes I wish I could turn back the time and just have a peek at our jolly company, with my parents still young and us as kids, trying to stay awake until midnight. The winters were white (well, they still are in Russia), and the magic was just round the corner.

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

Memories, memories...

"When I look at my old pictures, all I can see is what I used to be but am no longer. I think: What I can see is what I am not.” (Aleksandar Hemon)

It happened so that my last post of the year was rather melancholic. I planned to end the year on a more cheerful note, but haven't had a chance to post anything. After the most stressful trip to Italy (see my post How Frozen saved my sanity at Christmas time), our year ended on a minor key.
The new year's eve at home was quiet and peaceful (oh, how I appreciate those words). We were all in bed at the usual time, I snuggled in warm woolen blankets with my ipad, reading until I heard the fireworks singing "whoosh-boom-boom" at midnight. I closed my eyes and sent a request to the Universe or whichever deity is listening, asking for a less stressful year. I switched off my ipad and started thinking of all the new year's eves I spent with my family in Russia.
It used to be such a huge celebration, with the table laden with food, neighbours and friends visiting through the night until the early hours. The last new year's eve we spent in Russia I was already married. It must have been 1999 or was it 1998? My husband, my late Dad and I went to the main square to watch the fireworks. It was cold, snowy and beautiful. People were cheerful and kept wishing each other a happy new year. I'm sure there were plenty of inebriated folks around, and not everything was wonderful, but memory is a funny thing. You look back and the past is painted bright and beautiful. I was young and full of hope, so things did look much more exciting then.
Looking through the battered photo album (I do need to get a better one for my old photos), I picked up a family snap taken at the new year's eve in 1979.

That makes me almost 11 years old, my cute little brother is not yet 8. Mum is young and pretty, Dad is as gorgeous as always.
My bro is dressed up as a cowboy, and I have a Japanese outfit - my Mum's silk bathrobe turned into a kimono, with a big handpainted silk sash. I have a peacock's feather in my bun (very Japanese. Not!). Mum has painted my eyes and lips, and I am ecstatic.
By the looks of it, one happy family. Yet there was a lot of tension between my parents. It was not an easy relationship, as they were very different but strong personalities. Dad was very popular, forever invited to parties, and he was the soul of the party. Mum's choice was to stay at home, she has always preferred reading (and still does) to any party, and is a complete teetotal (which in Russia is not looked very favourably, especially at the parties).
Whatever their differences, I knew my brother and I have been much loved. There are so many disfunctional families, where children sadly never know what love is, and I am so lucky to have had a family like mine, with all its difficulties and strong opinions, passions and struggles. I truly am lucky.

I look at my parents's smiling faces in this old black and white photo, and see the family resemblance. My older son Sasha sometimes has the same blinding smile, just like my Dad. I am much older now than my Mum in this photo, and I never had the same high cheekbones of the Russian steppes, but with age I am getting to look like my Mum more and more.
But in this photo, we are all together, young and happy, and the future is bright.

“...A mirror can trick you day by day into thinking you remain looking and existing in one way forever. But a photograph presents you with the truth: it freezes you eternally, existing as a reminder that you can never, ever go back to any one moment again- that you are always changing, hour by hour, cell by cell, in tiny fragments that build skyscrapers overnight.” (Kells Adeline Sapp)

Come Dine with me Russian style

If your idea of a Russian dinner is influenced by the austerity movies or the black and white Garbo film where the Russian officers throw the glasses behind themselves in unison after emptying them (I tried to find that scene on Youtube but couldn't), then your views are far from reality. Would you like to have a glimpse of what it could really be? Let's not just visit any festive dinner. You are invited to a New Year's eve party, or Come Dine with me Russian style.

That's me, in my home town, sitting by an old wooden house (not ours, we lived in an apartment)

The table will be laden and groaning under the variety of dishes on offer. New year's eve party is often a big family celebration, with friends coming and leaving through the night, as they visit as many parties as possible. And everywhere you come, you are expected to eat and drink and be merry.
In the Soviet times aka my childhood and young adulthood, there were three salads which were a must for any festive table, be it a birthday party or a New Year's eve.
These are: an Olivie salad (it is known in the West as the Russian salad, but is actually much nicer), a "seledka pod shuboi" (lit. a herring under the fur coat) and a Vinegret.
Herring under the fur coat is a salad that I remember with fondness though I make it very rarely (my dear husband is not keen on anything pickled or salted). I make my own salted or cured herrings as the marinated herring you can buy here in the delis is just not the same. For the salad you will need the cured herrings, potatoes, onion, apple, carrots, beets and egg with the much loved mayo. If you fancy finding out more about these salads and read the recipes, please follow the links above, they will take you straight to the recipes.
Vinegret is a vegetarian salad made with cooked beets, potatoes, carrots, sauerkraut, apples, pickled gherkins, shallots and peas. Very colourful and full of vitamins.

Herring under the fur coat and Vinegret

Olivie salad, another blast from the past. 
The recipe is attributed to the now obscure French or Belgian chef Olivier who opened a restaurant in Moscow in the 1880s. The original recipe asks for the partridge meat to be one of the ingredients of this salad.
My version is closer to the Soviet-style recipe. From my childhood I recall the days when we went out to friends' party, and the women would be sitting in the kitchen, chopping the ingredients and mixing the salad in the big enamelled wash-basin. This is a very satisfying mix of the cubed turkey meat or ham, with the hard-boiled eggs, cornichons, olives, apples, carrot, potatoes, onion, peas, all smothered with mayo.

Salad Olivie

These salads as well as all the other appetizers are served typically with a shot of ice cold vodka. Put a bottle of Stolichnaya in the freezer for a couple of hours (don't worry, it won't turn into ice due to the high alcohol content). Personally I prefer a glass of champagne. In the Soviet times many Russian families celebrated with a bottle of Sovetksoe champagne, but I have no idea if this brand still exists. I would offer a bottle of Veuve Clicquot or Moet & Chandon if you want to splash.

While the photo of Stolichnaya is my own, the image of the Soviet champagne is taken from a cook book Kulinariya 1955, USSR

The table will be laden with salads and appetizers, all kinds of pickles, pirozhki, and sliced cold meats.

Pickled baby cucumbers and tomatoes

Pirozhki stuffed with mashed potatoes & mushrooms

Blini with cured salmon and soured cream

And if you thought that was all, you'll be wrong. Yes, you might feel stuffed already. There is still a main course to come, but there is no hurry. There is a whole night ahead, with music and TV on. At midnight raise a glass of champagne and toast the New Year. You might want to go out and watch the fireworks in the main square. After a brisk walk in the cold, you might be ready to have the main course.

Don't expect a roast turkey for the main course, it is not very popular in Russia. Instead it will be a roast duck or goose, with beautiful roast apples and stuffing, served with the roast potatoes and other veg.

There is no typical Russian new year's eve dessert as such. Christmas pudding would be almost unheard of, and not particularly fancied either. Every family will have their own favourite cake, fruit and nuts, or open a big box of chocolate to have with a coffee to keep you going until 5 or 7am.
Most likely, you wouldn't want any cake, but wouldn't mind a bit of a refreshing fruit salad.

Often we would add a dollop of ice cream to coffee and make coffee glisse.

Dance through the night with me!


Dress code? I wanted to tease you and invite you to get dressed in the national Russian outfits...

That's me, in my early 20s, in a Russian dress (I was a member of the ethnographic society)

... but please don't worry. Informal cocktail attire would do perfectly well. I have even found a perfect dress for myself, a Slav Tsar dress from a new Verushka collection by White Stuff.

This is my entry to Come Dine with Furniture blogger competition. Hope you are inspired by my extensive menu and would really come and dine with me!