Кухня
I had planned on writing this entry several days ago, but suppose waiting till now was better. The reason being that I can no longer claim to count charcoal as one of my main food groups. Right now I have a pot of some chunky reddish stew on the stove waiting for consumption, and the test bowl I had was on the tasty side.
Tuesday morning was a slightly different story. I decided to try out one of my favorite dishes from home. My wise mother sent me some recipes and hoped that I could figure out how to not burn down my apartment. Anyhow, I tried my hand at a cottage cheese roast. I successfully mixed all the ingredients together and did a taste test of the resulting mess. It tasted almost the same as at home, so figured my troubles were over. Then I looked at the oven. It is gas, and I've never used a gas oven before. Fortunately, I did have the common sense to use a match and start it (did somebody mention burning apartment?). I did not notice a temperature on it, but there were two levels - high and low. Well, 350 degrees Fahrenheit is hot, right? In hindsight I should have remembered that ovens usually go up to somewhere around 550 or 600, making 350 a mild spring day. Maybe 15 minutes after putting my concoction in, I checked it out. Very crunchy looking. About this time I noticed a little thermometer at the base of the oven door and it was flat lined (if a thermometer can do that). I turned down the heat and left my roast to roast for another 15 minutes or so. When it came out it was colored. I decided to scoop some out - the top didn't look too bad. It was the bottom that was interesting. About a quarter inch of the kind of stuff those tablets you take to relieve constipation are made of. I fried up some carrots and sat down to 'enjoy' my meal. Actually I found that with ketchup and mayonnaise burned food tastes rather like french fries. Not bad for the first time with a gas stove, but definitely not good.
Even a simple man like me is not surprised to learn that the main ingredient in a cottage cheese loaf is cottage cheese. But I'm in Russia, the land of much sour cream and no cottage cheese. The closest thing to cottage cheese we've got over here is творог (tvorog), a kind of sweet curded dairy product typically eaten with everything from crackers and jam to the famous блины. As far as I can tell the substitution went well. But it stands to reason that if there isn't any cottage cheese, it can't be a called a cottage cheese loaf, can it? I am looking for names using the word творог and some other rhyming word. It would be nice if it made sense in Russian, but this is not necessary. The closest way to describe pronunciation in English is tvor (rhymes with the word your) - ugg (the sound made by the caveman as he drags the beautiful woman off to his cave to do the caveman thing). This is a call to all those who want to leave their own special mark in Russia - come up with a good name and then I can tell it to people when they eat my next well-done roast. I'm sure they'll be asking me how to make it and I can plug your name at that point.
Compare that culinary experience with the one I just had, and there are a lot of similarities. Except, this time it will taste good. About a week and a half ago I bought the smallest cabbage that I could find. It cost all of fifty cents and is not what I'd consider small, but it was all they had. Noticing that the outer leaves were starting to discolor, I figured I'd waited long enough for my girlfriend to send me a borscht recipe and figured I'd try it out on my own. The last (and only) time I helped in the preparation of this Russian staple was a little over three years ago. I was in Australia and it was very late Thursday night, or Friday morning more precisely. Konstantin Tomenko wanted to make some for the whole orchestra we were traveling with to try. So after a long day doing what I don't remember, I helped chop cabbage and beets. This evening I did the same thing, but looking back, the pot we used was really big - to feed 30 people. I put about the same amount into a much smaller pot - to feed 1 person. Oh well, I'll get my veggies. The only mildly interesting thing was that after I put the potatoes on to boil, I realized that I did not have a tool to shred my carrots and beet. A little prodding around in the former occupants stuff turned up a meat grinder. After hooking it up to my kitchen table, I put some veggies through it.
Tuesday evening when I returned home from work I flipped on the tv and found an excellent tv show - Штрафбат (rough translation). It is actually a series and this is the third week it has been on. Every evening for the rest of the week I watched it. Thursday in class one of my students said that she had just gotten the dvd, so I'm hoping I can borrow it and spend a weekend glued to the tube. I think it is extremely well made - the cinematographic angles and compositions are some of the best I've seen. It is much more movie like than tv like. Maybe it was a movie. I don't suppose it matters, but I'm learning Russian, right?
Here it is the end of the week, and there are still no more pictures up for your viewing pleasure. I'll see what I can do by Sunday. Now it is time for bed.
Tuesday morning was a slightly different story. I decided to try out one of my favorite dishes from home. My wise mother sent me some recipes and hoped that I could figure out how to not burn down my apartment. Anyhow, I tried my hand at a cottage cheese roast. I successfully mixed all the ingredients together and did a taste test of the resulting mess. It tasted almost the same as at home, so figured my troubles were over. Then I looked at the oven. It is gas, and I've never used a gas oven before. Fortunately, I did have the common sense to use a match and start it (did somebody mention burning apartment?). I did not notice a temperature on it, but there were two levels - high and low. Well, 350 degrees Fahrenheit is hot, right? In hindsight I should have remembered that ovens usually go up to somewhere around 550 or 600, making 350 a mild spring day. Maybe 15 minutes after putting my concoction in, I checked it out. Very crunchy looking. About this time I noticed a little thermometer at the base of the oven door and it was flat lined (if a thermometer can do that). I turned down the heat and left my roast to roast for another 15 minutes or so. When it came out it was colored. I decided to scoop some out - the top didn't look too bad. It was the bottom that was interesting. About a quarter inch of the kind of stuff those tablets you take to relieve constipation are made of. I fried up some carrots and sat down to 'enjoy' my meal. Actually I found that with ketchup and mayonnaise burned food tastes rather like french fries. Not bad for the first time with a gas stove, but definitely not good.
Even a simple man like me is not surprised to learn that the main ingredient in a cottage cheese loaf is cottage cheese. But I'm in Russia, the land of much sour cream and no cottage cheese. The closest thing to cottage cheese we've got over here is творог (tvorog), a kind of sweet curded dairy product typically eaten with everything from crackers and jam to the famous блины. As far as I can tell the substitution went well. But it stands to reason that if there isn't any cottage cheese, it can't be a called a cottage cheese loaf, can it? I am looking for names using the word творог and some other rhyming word. It would be nice if it made sense in Russian, but this is not necessary. The closest way to describe pronunciation in English is tvor (rhymes with the word your) - ugg (the sound made by the caveman as he drags the beautiful woman off to his cave to do the caveman thing). This is a call to all those who want to leave their own special mark in Russia - come up with a good name and then I can tell it to people when they eat my next well-done roast. I'm sure they'll be asking me how to make it and I can plug your name at that point.
Compare that culinary experience with the one I just had, and there are a lot of similarities. Except, this time it will taste good. About a week and a half ago I bought the smallest cabbage that I could find. It cost all of fifty cents and is not what I'd consider small, but it was all they had. Noticing that the outer leaves were starting to discolor, I figured I'd waited long enough for my girlfriend to send me a borscht recipe and figured I'd try it out on my own. The last (and only) time I helped in the preparation of this Russian staple was a little over three years ago. I was in Australia and it was very late Thursday night, or Friday morning more precisely. Konstantin Tomenko wanted to make some for the whole orchestra we were traveling with to try. So after a long day doing what I don't remember, I helped chop cabbage and beets. This evening I did the same thing, but looking back, the pot we used was really big - to feed 30 people. I put about the same amount into a much smaller pot - to feed 1 person. Oh well, I'll get my veggies. The only mildly interesting thing was that after I put the potatoes on to boil, I realized that I did not have a tool to shred my carrots and beet. A little prodding around in the former occupants stuff turned up a meat grinder. After hooking it up to my kitchen table, I put some veggies through it.
Tuesday evening when I returned home from work I flipped on the tv and found an excellent tv show - Штрафбат (rough translation). It is actually a series and this is the third week it has been on. Every evening for the rest of the week I watched it. Thursday in class one of my students said that she had just gotten the dvd, so I'm hoping I can borrow it and spend a weekend glued to the tube. I think it is extremely well made - the cinematographic angles and compositions are some of the best I've seen. It is much more movie like than tv like. Maybe it was a movie. I don't suppose it matters, but I'm learning Russian, right?
Here it is the end of the week, and there are still no more pictures up for your viewing pleasure. I'll see what I can do by Sunday. Now it is time for bed.
posted by Troy on 01:44
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