This post is way, way overdue. But I still have not given up on posting a write up on every single day of the Challenge, so am playing catch up whenever I remember, or rather, whenever the mood strikes me. One day, I will finish all 32 of them...
So we progress to Day 14 of my World Cup Food Challenge, which was the day for the second cook-along. I managed to wrangle an invitation to my Russian former housemate's home for a home cooked Russian meal. Well, actually there was not much wrangling required. I asked her if she would like to invite me home for dinner, and she did. When we lived together, we thought up a plan of cooking together, so that we could learn how to make different dishes and new tips and tricks. We did however have very different schedules. We went for days without even seeing each other, let alone having a meal together. We also had different eating habits so we knew from the get-go that it was going to require quite a bit of coordination to cook a meal together. Undaunted, we said we should try to make the effort, though not too often because that it would be unrealistic. Once every two weeks, we thought was fairly feasible. As it turned out, in the two months we lived together, we managed to cook together all of ONE time! So, the second cook-along for my Challenge, was also the second time we were to cook together.
The menu which my Russian Chef-of-the-Day had planned was kotlety, basically: meatballs. It is very similar to most meatball recipes I have come across. I do like meatballs and have wanted to make some every since I moved away from Germany. But living in the land of meatballs now, it seems a bit silly to sit around making meatballs at home when they sell them in 2 kg packs in the supermarket for hardly anything. Having said that though, I hardly buy them which just means that I hardly have meatballs, even though I actually really like them. So, meatballs was a good choice as far as I was concerned. As a side, we had the option of mashed potatoes or buckwheat. Much to her surprise, I agreed to buckwheat. I had supposedly turned my nose up at it at some point or another while we were living together. I do not remember the incident, but I am not surprised. It sounds like me. I have never been, and probably never will be the biggest fan of grainy, legumey ...things. I do not mind it when it appears in other dishes, but when it is the main component of a dish, I find it hard to muster much enthusiasm. Perhaps it has much to do with how it is prepared and what it is served with. I suspect it is rather because people seem to behave about these healthy foods as though their healthy properties negates the need for taste. Boiled buckwheat with a bit of salt because it is good for you? I'd rather have a bar of chocolate, thank you. But in the spirit of not turning my nose up at food that is out of my standard fare that has become synonymous with this challenge, I said I would have it the way she would have it. If with buckwheat is how she would have it, then so it shall be. And so it was. It was a simple dish, "humble" as the Russian Chef-of-the-Day called it.
Kotlety
Ingredients
500g minced beef
1/2 onion, diced
150g breadcrumbs
1 egg
a splash of milk
spring onions
Coriander powder (and/or other desired herbs and spices)
salt and pepper
Method
1. Mix ingredients together and form into fist sized balls. (There may have been some kind of order to this, but I cannot now say for sure.)
2. Coat meatballs with breadcrumbs then fry till brown. (Now, there was some dispute about this. The coating with breadcrumbs instructions came from someone else, and it not something my Russian Chef-of-the-Day usually does. Actually, as she had apparently not made this since she was 12, it is more likely that it is not something that her mum usually does. Breadcrumbs were added on the advice of another Russian who cooks much more than my Russian Chef-of-the-Day does. Said Russian-Chef-of-the-Day remained unconvinced.)
Verdict: Like she said, a simple, humble meal, but a good and satisfying one. I don't think you can ever go wrong with meatballs. And I even took seconds of the buckwheat! The coating with breadcrumbs remained a bit of a question mark. The meatballs darkened very quickly and she reckoned it was the fault of the breadcrumbs which were getting brunt. Will I make this again? Well, I would like to say yes, because as I said, I do like meatballs. But I have managed to not make any meatballs despite wanting to for almost 4 years now. I am not convinced that anything would change in the near future. We will see.
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Stupid camera on my phone with a white balance problem makes everything pink! |
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