Cooking round-up

Finally finished the Thanksgiving leftovers. I made another batch of Turkey Tetrazini (to great acclaim by Igor) to finish off the turkey.

And then it was onto beef: I split a 3-lb. top round roast. Half of it went for kharcho; the other half went for my dad's recipe for beef and cabbage soup. For the kharcho, I used the recipe from Please to the Table, with some modifications; recipe link is from a Russian cooking blog. I didn't put in mint (not available) or chili pepper (didn't want to make it hot for the kids). I also used less water (about 7 cups) and less tomatoes (again, didn't have enough), but "toasted" the tomato paste like Lidia Bastianich does. I also substituted ground, blanched (possibly stale) almonds for the walnuts. But the soup came out really well. Igor prefers the soup to be made with lamb, but conceded the soup tasted good.

This week, I also made pelmenis, which are so easy with store-bought wonton wrappers. The recipe is based on the one in Please to the Table. Basically, mix 3/4 lb. ground beef, 1/4 lb. ground pork, about 3 tbsp. finely chopped onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Put a small spoon of the mixture into a wonton wrapper, seal with egg white, and fold. Drop into salted, boiling water for 8 minutes, and you have an instant meal. We eat them with Russian sour cream and Russian salads (or at least pickles). I lay out the pelmenis on parchment paper and a baking sheet, and freeze them overnight. Laying them out will keep the individual pelmeni separate. I use the same technique for freezing individual slices of bacon (rolled up) and the like.

I learned that open packages of wonton wrappers get moldy (or dry) very quickly, so this time, I just made Russian hamburgers with the leftover meat mixture rather than open a new package of wrappers. The Russian hamburgers (or cutlets) were also based on Please to the Table, again with modifications based on what I had.

I feel like I'm becoming a home economist.