Maslenitsa, pancakes and caviar

From the 8th to the 14th of February 2010 a holiday called Maslenitsa is celebrated in Russia, Ukraine and other countries. Generally Maslenitsa is celebrated 7 weeks prior to Easter and during the week prior to the start of the great Lent. Christian orthodox fasting rules are stricter than Catholic or Protestant rules, during Lent only vegetarian food may be eaten and fish is only eaten for 2 days during the long 7 week period. The use of oil is also limited. Only the seriously ill, some pregnant women and small children may ask their priest for permission to eat dairy produce, oil or fish more often. Being similar to the Mardi Gras or Carneval celebrations Maslenitsa is a time of party, fun and most importantly good food.

This painting by Boris Kustodiev, a famous Russian painter from the 19th-20th century, is called Maslenitsa. He painted a series of paintings on the theme of Maslenitsa from 1916 to 1920. This particular one depicts people hanging around outside and socializing, horse sledges snowrides, there is a queue waiting to enter a theater that looks more like a circus and a boy selling some kind of food on the foreground.

The most symbolic food eaten during Maslenitsa are pancakes, plain or with various sweet or savory fillings. Before Christianity arrived in Great Rus pagans used to celebrate spring by baking pancakes that symbolized the sun returning after months of winter. This pagan celebration was so immensly popular that the new Christian leaders decided to turn it into a religious festival. During Maslenitsa pancakes were made freshly everyday and different rituals were connected with them. A pancake used everything that was forbidden during Lent – milk, cream, sour cream, eggs, butter, yeast, oil and dairy products or fish for the fillings. Meat was already forbidden during Maslenitsa, so pancakes were eaten with fish or dairy products or with vegetable and fruit preserves. Eating elaborately and having fun meant saying goodbye to all the good food and the cold winter and getting ready for the difficult 7 weeks ahead.

Nowadays very little people follow the strict Lent rules, many restrict their fasting to not eating meat. But most families tend to cook pancakes during Maslenica. Many cities organize week long festivities with concerts, work shops and food stalls selling pancakes.

A hundred or more years ago regular caviar wasn’t really considered rich man’s food in Russia. Fish was so incredibly abundant in rivers, lakes and seas that both black and red caviar was very affordable. There are many levels of caviar quality depending on when the fish was caught, how the caviar was processed etc. In areas lining the oceans, big rivers and lakes and the Caspian sea fishermen families and peasants ate low grade caviar regularly. High quality caviar was brought to bigger cities but it still was quite cheap. But times have changed, the fish population has been reduced significantly and many legendary fish types like the sterlet or inconnu have almost vanished in free nature.

Today black caviar is an unaffordable delicacy for most people living in the former USSR but red caviar is much less expensive and therefore very popular. It can be bought in tin cans, glass jars or at supermarket counters where you can buy as much as you want as well as taste the caviar you are buying. Prices range significantly as does the quality and most people stick to their favourite brands. My favourite brand is Tunaycha.

In western restaurants caviar is often served with small, thick pancakes called blini or bliny. In traditional Russian cuisine the word bliny means a big, thin pancake, whereas small and thick pancakes are called oladji. In Russia caviar is most often eaten either on white bread with butter or wrapped into big and thins bliny with butter or sour cream. Bliny were traditionally made with yeast and buckwheat flour, but today there are also many simpler recipes available.



Ingredients for yeast pancakes:
800ml milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 generous tablespoons of dry yeast - a brand that you know and trust, many are unreliable
400 gr of flour
3 eggs
1/2 tablespoons of salt

Heat up about 200ml of milk until warm, but not too hot. Add yeast and sugar, mix well and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour. The mixture should thicken and double its size, now this substance is called leaven. Pour the leaven into a big bowl and add the eggs that you've beaten with a fork, flour, salt and the rest of the milk. Mix well and leave to stand in a warm place for about 30 minutes. You might need to add some more milk if the batter is too thick, it should be the consistence of thin kefir. Do not mix the batter anymore during of after that! A foam will form on top of the batter, it will make the pancakes porous and fluffy, if you mix the batter this foam will dissapear.
Heat up a pan and smear it with oil everytime you pour batter into it. Bake the pancakes on high heat and preferably on a cast iron pan. The thinner the pancakes the better.
Serve with butter, caviar, cured or smoked fish, sour cream, honey, cottage cheese, jam, preserved fruits etc.

Mussel night in Vozovna Stromovka

I don't like writing negative stuff and I avoid it at all cost when it's avoidable. This time it’s not and the bad thing is that I actually liked this place before. The place has major organization problems it must adress as soon as possible. There were only 2 waiters, but the place is not that big! There was also a gentleman in a white shirt wandering around and looking very important, something like a manager probably. I’ll come back to him later.

It all started the very moment we came in. I have reserved a table about 3 weeks ago, but they had no note of our reservation. I’ve made the reservation via email and got a confirmation. They looked in the computer and in the diary, our name wasn’t there. They were apologetic and reacted promptly by bringing in a table and 2 chairs from outside. BTW the place was fully booked; if they hadn’t come up with bringing in the table, we would have been turned away. The furniture is hard plastic and it’s obvious that the chairs were ice cold for another 30 minutes, I had to sit on my jacket. The waiter seated us, smiled and walked away not to return for 15 minutes. He hasn’t given us menus, hasn’t taken our orders, nothing. Husband walked to the bar and got us the menus. About 10 minutes after that the smiley and actually quite pleasant waiter came along and took our orders. We ordered 2 different Belgian beers, 2 kinds of mussels, French fries and 3 oysters.

Do you see the menu above? It quoted the prices for 1, 3 and 6 oysters, just as the official menu I was sent did. We’re absolutely not into oysters and just wanted to sample 2 pieces for the sake of it. But our waiter promptly told us that we could only order 3 or 6. He couldn’t answer why they quoted the price for singular oysters. We were “forced” to order 3. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not about money, it’s about the principle.

We waited and waited for our beers. A woman with a teenage boy and a baby that came in after us and who was obviously friends with the “manager” was served food earlier than we were served our drinks!!! We arrived at 7 p.m. and were served our first beers at 7.45 p.m, I’m not joking. Husband wanted to get up and leave, but knowing how much I wanted the mussels he stepped on his pride.

The beer was alright and although pricy (at 49-55kc for ¼ litre) we kinda enjoyed it. I think they only had those 3 Belgian beers on tap this night, I haven’t seen anyone drinking any other kind of beer.

The oysters were served on a spectacular plate with pebbles. As I said, we’re not really into oysters, but I quite liked those. They were meaty and smelled good, I ate the two of them. Husband still hates oyster BTW. The menu said that these were Belon oysters. Belon oysters are a delicacy and expensive, because the French AOC standard says that they should only be harvested in a certain region along the Belon river. Was this the case here? I don’t know, but hey were round like Belon oysters should be, and not oval like the usual oysters.

The mussels, steamed in wine and steamed in Leffe beer.
There was lots of them, probably more than the ½ kg quoted in the menu. So there are plus points for the portion size. They were very fresh, plus points for that too. But, the majority of them was half raw!!! We felt like idiots. I mean, I have eaten mussels for dozens, maybe hundreds of times but I’ve never been to Belgium and so I thought that maybe this is the way they are eaten there. For me, a mussel should be fully open, the majority of those was only half open and their shells were so brittle that it was a real problem opening them up without cutting yourself. They were slimy inside and you could not peel them away from the shell in one piece, they tore apart, revealing their slimy and unattractive guts. I thought that they were tasty, but something was terribly wrong with the texture.

As I looked around, I saw several other people showing each other the opened mussels and shaking their heads while wondering whether this is right. Husband ate about 10 or 12 of them, proclaimed them disgusting and stuck to the fries. I kept eating the mussels, picking out those that were more or less cooked. Yeah, I’m desperate. I still regret not having made a photo of one of the partially raw mussels. What a horrible waste of good quality raw material. It is necessary to mention that the place is obviously owned by the same owner as the Les Moules restaurant. The name means mussels and it’s a fairly upscale Belgian beer restaurant specializing in mussels. Funny, huh?

Oh, the fries were great! Crispy on the outside and soft inside. The mustardy mayo was good too.

There was a number of other very annoying things, like the fact that we weren’t served bowls for empty shells, napkins, bowls of lemon water, we got the first two after we asked but never got the latter. Most other tables had to ask for those things too. The staff constantly forgot to bring us our drinks and had very stupid excuses for it. We weren’t asking for any excuses but the waiter felt that he had to comment on the missing beer with “Oh, I draught it but I forgot for whom it was! Hahaha” WTF? Just say “Sorry, I forgot about your order.”

But, what about the guy in the white shirt? He constantly kept returning to the table with the woman, the teenager and the baby. He asked them if everything was alright for at least 5 times, but totally and absolutely ignored the other 10 tables. He kept walking in and out from somewhere in the back and even though he clearly saw that the waiters had a hard time doing their job, he never helped them.

Now, I know this is all our fault. We should have complained about the service, sent back the food etc etc, but when it comes to it I’m always too shy to do it, as are most people around me. This is utterly and absolutely wrong and it’s about time we start doing something about this attitude of ours. I hereby promise to send back the next overcooked steak or non aldente pasta I get at a restaurant!

At least it wasn’t an expensive dinner. The mussels were 145kc each and if they had been good it would have been a major bargain.

But will I ever return for a thematic dinner at this place? Never!

Mussels steamed in wine

Have I mentioned that I love mussels? :-) Yeah, they're my favourite food. This is another classic recipe and it's extremely simple.

Ingredients:

1 kg of mussels - cleaned
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
1 stem of celery
1 red chilli
fresh thyme
1/5 litre of good white wine
olive oil
salt

Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a big pot or deep pan and heat it, add the chopped shallots, garlic, celery and chilli. Roast for about 3-5 minutes on a medium flame. Throw in the thyme and mussels, pour in the wine, raise the heat to maximum and cover. After 3 minutes or after all of the mussels have opened season with a tiny bit of salt and serve with a crispy baguette. A little chopped parsley garnish on top looks nice.
That's all I need to be happy.

BTW we reserved a table for the mussel night in Vozovna Stromovka this Friday, so more mussels are coming up this week I hope! There is still a possibility that we will have to cancel it though
:-/

Mussels with wine, cream and chilli

Mussels and clams are one of my all time favourite foods! This recipe is probaly my favourite, I cook it most often. It's a perfect romantic dinner for two or a decent starter for 4-5 people. All you need to go with these mussels is some fresh baguette to mop up the sauce and some white wine to drink along.


Ingredients:
1 kg of fresh mussels
1 large clove of garlic
1 shallot
1 chilli
300 ml of decent white wine
200 ml of cream (heavy cream is better, but to reduce fat I use the 12% cream)
some fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of butter + 1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt


I described how to handle mussels and clams here.
Carefully wash and clean the mussels. Throw away any mussels that are already open and don't close when you handle them and also broken ones. In a deep pan or pot heat up the butter and oil, add the finely chopped shallot and garlic and fry for 2 minutes on medium heat, add chilli and thyme. Turn the heat to maximum. Throw in the mussels, close the pot with a lid and shake it. Pour in the wine and let boil for 2-3 minutes without the lid, pour in the cream, add salt to taste and shake well again. Let cook for 2 more minutes. Remove any clams that haven't opened. Serve!
The prawns on the left were simply fried with some garlic infused olive oil.

Crayfish from IKEA

No recipe here, just a tip. From late july to early september IKEA sells wonderful frozen crayfish. In Sweden there is a festivity called Midsommar and during it lots and lots of crayfish is eaten. IKEA is offering crayfish in its cafeteria and also this frozen stuff. It's already boiled in a salted dill brine and can be eaten straight away without any further cooking.

I haven't got the slightest idea why there is no fresh local crayfish sold in the Czech republic. With so many ponds and lakes there could be plenty of farmed crayfish here. The only 2 places that sell frozen boiled crayfish that I know of is Makro and IKEA but only during the summer months. This crayfish costs 249kc for 1kg. Although a bit messy to eat it's delicious with a beer or 2!

Spaghetti a vongole

Pasta vongole is a classic Italian dish and is always prepared with long thin pasta like spaghetti, spaghettini or linguini. It's amazingly simple to make and tastes heavenly but only under the condition of having fresh vongole, good pasta and ripe cherry tomatoes, which often poses as a problem in Prague (mostly the vongole). I bought beautiful vongole in the new seafood shop I wrote about in the previous post and some nice cherry tomatoes from a Vietnamese vegetable vendor and now I am ready to cook my favourite pasta.

All clams must be carefully washed and cleaned! You don't want sand between your teeth. BTW these clams were very clean, I only rinsed them under flowing water in a sieve. All clams that are already open before cooking and do not close if you tap them on the table (i.e. don't show any sign of activity) are dead, throw them away without remorse. Those mussels that don't open when cooked are also unedible and might cause severe food poisoning, throw them away too. If you buy clams and plan to cook them later or the next day, refregirate them but do not cover! Remember, the poor things are still alive and need air to breathe. Arrange them in one layer on a plate and put them into the fridge. When you take them out of the fridge many will be open, don't panic, leave them to stand for 2-3 hours and you will see, and most importantly hear, them ressurect. Those that don't close or move are dead so get rid of them. For me, the safest way to determine whether the clams are alive is to put them under flowing water, the alive ones will close immediately. Never freeze mussels or clams!

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 kg vongole clams

10 ripe and tasty cherry tomatoes

pasta, about 200gr in dry state - please use good pasta (I use DeCecco)

1 medium sized clove of garlic - cut into 4-5 pieces (NOT finely chopped)

2 tablespoons of parsley - chopped finely

1/6 red chilli - cut into rings (about 6-8 thin rings)

olive oil

Instructions:

1. Several hours or one day prior to cooking wash the tomatoes and make two cuts on them to form a cross. Pour some boiling water over them and remove skin. Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. Put the tomato halves in a bowl and pour olive oil over them (sounds complicated but takes 5 minutes). Leave. See comments below

2. Boil your pasta in salted water until al dente, strain and set aside.

3. Heat up some oil in a big pan and add the chopped garlic and chilli. Fry until fragrant and add the cleaned vongole. Pour in about 1/2 cup of boiling water and let evaporate for about 2 minutes until all clams open up. Add the tomatoes and the parsley let cook for another minute, add some more boiling water if needed. The smaller the clams the less time they need.

4. Add pasta and carefully stir. Stirring mussels may cause them to break and you will end up with hard pieces of shell in you pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5.Serve and enjoy

This tomatoe/oil mixture is often used when the cook does not want the sauce to taste overly of tomatoe. In restaurants these tomatoes are made in bulks of several kilograms and used for several days. Marinating the tomatoe halves in oil makes them keep together and as the result the sauce contains pieces of tomatoe instead of mushy tomatoe puree. And please, don't throw away the leftover oil! It's been infused by the tomatoes and is a great salad dressing!

I bought the cherry tomatoes that are sold on the stem, they were round and all the same size. The price was ridiculous - 150kc/kg. I don't know why they're so expensive and who actually buys them for that price, but they are very good, ripe and sweet. You only need 10 of them so it won't ruin your budget, but you do need these very ripe tomatoes.

Sometimes white wine is added to pasta vongole, but IMHO the cooking time is too short for adding wine as it leaves the sauce too sour for my liking and overpowers the delicate vongole flavour. Also butter is often used instead of olive oil, it's tasty too, but more French style.

Cooking clams is not everyone's thing because they are...uhm, alive. Yes, they do move and they do make squeeky and cracking noises. Black mussels are a bit quieter but vongole clams really do show that they want to live. If you think you will not be able to cook something that's moving, don't waste your money and don't buy them. Sorry for the morbid details but that's just how it is...

What a loooong post! :)

New seafood store

A new seafood shop opened up in Žížkov. It's called Pescheria Adriatico and is located in Bořívojova 11. The owner, who is Italian, brings the seafood from Italy. The stuff is fairly fresh, given that you go there when there has been a delivery recently, which is on Firday I believe. The shop is very simple and the variety of seafood is not as wide as at the Seafoodshop or Makro, however the quality/price value makes up for it. There were 2 Italian families doing their shopping when I came in and that's a good sign for me. The fish they sell is NOT scaled or gutted, I guess you could ask the shop assistant to do it for you. But especially the clams and mussels are very clean, even the black mussels.
I don't know why they display ungutted fish, the only thing that comes to my mind is that this is used as evidence of freshness. Ungutted fish goes bad much faster than gutted fish and maybe they do it on purpose so they can say "See, we don't gut our fish, it's so fresh and gets sold so fast that it doesn't have the time to go bad!" But maybe I'm just thinking too much and they are too lazy to gut and scale the fish in advance. :-)

I bought 2 seambreams, 1kg of anchovies and 1 kg of vongole veraci clams. This will make 2 lovely seafood dinners!

The first dinner featured the seabream and the anchovies.

I put some marjoram, thyme, dill and lemon inside the gutted fish, sprinkled it with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked them in the oven under the grill. The fish was beautifully moist and delicious. Nothing beats a simply prepared fresh fish for me.

The anchovies were battered in flour and deep fried. Oh man, did these smell when they were being fried. I had to open all windows to increase air circulation. Anchovies and sardines are the most smelly fishes, but this doesn't make them less tasty.

The dinner involving vongole clams is described here.

A simple appetizer

Bliny (Russian pancakes) with sour cream and salmon caviar. The bliny dough contained yeast and buckwheat flour, which is a very old fashioned way to make traditional bliny.

Vietnamese style glass noodle salad

A very light and refreshing salad, best served chilled.

Ingredients for salad:

Cooked shrimp - I used about 300gr of shrimps that were cut in half along the spine

Glass noodles (soaked in hot water and drained)

Bean sprouts or snow peas or any other springy vegetable

Ingredients for dressing:

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 of a chilli, chopped

2 tablespoons of minced ginger

2 tablespoons of sesame oil, fish sauce, canola or sunflower oil, water

Chopped cilantro (coriander)

juice of 1/2 lime

1 tablespoon of brown sugar or honey

Instructions:

1. Mix together the dressing ingredients. Season to taste. It should be sweet, salty, hot, sour and garlicky at the same time.

2. Combine shrimp and noodles and toss with the dressing