The Christmas Dinner

You will find tips and recipes for Christmas lunch at the page Natale

All kind of important celebration lunches or dinners have many course, always of complex taste.
They will always take time first because they celebrate something important, but also because our stomachs need time to absorb and enjoy all dishes with pleasure, without being tired and doing honor to the table.
Today, more and more often these meals, especially in family, are in a shortened version
But traditionally of the list of course has always been quite long.

Ghirlanda di Natale

Cliccate l'immagine per sapere come realizzare questa ghirlanda.

The menu of a complete Christmas meal after an initial aperitif with appetizers could provide

1. Starters
2. First course
3. Main course with side dishes
4. Frozen fruits sweets or Sorbets
5. Desserts
6. Coffee and liquors

SWEET & SOUR PAMPKIN called “Söche trombe”

This recipe for pumpkin was a "must" on the Christmas Table in my family, both among starters but also as side dish in the main course.
I'm not sure that it was a popular dish in my country, or only a traditional recipe of my family .
Certainly it is a typical recipe of Italian Jewish cuisine in the part of the recipes collection of the Giuliana Ascoli book "The cuisine in the Jewish tradition".
In my house it was always prepared with the kind of pumpkin called "trumpet " for its shape of elongated neck flask, a quality of pumpkin not powdery nor too sweet which is particularly suited to be cooked this way.

Prepared in advance and put in tightly sealed jars, it will keep for a long time .

le zucche con il sale per eliminare la loro acqua.

Ingredients: ½ kg pumpkin, olive oil is for frying and for the carp, 1 cup vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic, some dried fig.

Cut pumpkin into thin slices. Fry in deep oil and put them in a jar, alternating with some dried fig.

Marinated Eel called “la Bissetta”

A traditional dish of the Milan area, often offered among starters of the Christmas celebration dinner

Image from the "Cucchiaio D'Argento"

Ingredients: 1 large eel ( but not too much large… ), some flour, olive oil for frying
For the marinade: good wine vinegar, 2 stalks of celery, 1 carrot, 4 spring onions, 3 leaves of sage, 1 garlic cloves, pepper, salt.


Even if you buy it alive, ask to your fishmonger to kill it just to avoid tragi-comic situations.
Clean and cut it into pieces long less than 10cm and dry them with paper towels.
Flour each piece and fry them in abundant oil. Set aside in a container or in a bowl.

Prepare the marinade: Cut garlic clove in half and fry it gently in a little oil and butter until browning.
Boil 2 cups of vinegar adding the vegetables finely chopped and the fried garlic and the crushed pepper corns. When the marinade is reduced to about a half, pour it on the fried eel.
Let marinate for at least 24 hours.

Fresh Appetizer of Prawns and Langoustines

It 's a fine appetizer particularly suitable for the Christmas table. If necessary, it can also be enriched with other crustaceans.

Ingredients for 6 people: 1 lettuce, 1 medium tomato, 6 grapefruits not bitter, 1 can of crab, 100gr peeled prawns, 1 cup mayonnaise, ½ cup yogurt, 18 blanched langoustines, salt and pepper

Peel, wash and drain the lettuce. Remove the seeds and cut tomatoes into small cubes.
Peel one grapefruit and remove the skin from each slice. Put aside for decoration as well as the best crab pieces, chop the rest of crab removing cartilage.

Cut the other grapefruits in small pieces and mix them in a bowl with tomato cubes, half of the prawns, the chopped crab, yoghurt and mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to make the taste intense.

Share into individual bowls lined with lettuce leaves, garnish with grapefruit slices, prawns and langoustines. Serve well chilled

You can do without langoustines.
If you use blanched fresh crab instead of canned, this appetizer will be even better.

Blinis Demidoff

We have an example,  though incomplete, of this excellent dish in the film Babette's feast

from "Babette's feast"

For 10 persons: 20 blinis, caviar, smoked sturgeon or salmon thinly sliced, Salsa Smetana.

On a service dish, arrange the blinis (1 or 2 for each person), very hot, and put on each a tsp of caviar, a slice of smoked fish and 1 Tsp of Smetana Sauce.

Serve immediately.

This recipes requires several ingredients and the preparation of both, Blinis and Smetana Sauce.

I like very much salmon caviar, which is less expensive than dark sturgeon caviar, so I use indistinctly both types. I also like the delicious smoked sturgeon and, if I can find it at a convenient price, I buy it.

If you use these blinis as entrée you would not need a large quantity of each ingredient.

It will be different, instead, if you will make them the main course of the dinner. In this case, blinis as well as salmon and caviar will be abundant.

Leavened Blinì

Blinis are small pancakes, typical of Russian and Ukraine cookery.

They are similar to crêpes but smaller, more similar usual pancakes.

I tasted them for the first time in Paris was in the russian restaurant , "À la Ville de Petrograd" in Daru street. This restaurant recently have changed management.

From that time I have tried to reproduce them and at last I had success.

Ingredients: 500g plain flour, 30gr baking yeast, 1 Tsp sugar, 1 egg, 50g butter, 250g yoghurt.

Dissolve the yeast in a glass of lukewarm water and add it to the flour, mixing in a bowl. Combine with it yogurt and sugar, melted butter and finally the egg .

Smetana

Smetana is a sour cream sauce (in Italy is simply call it sour cream).

It is a sauce that in Russia is sold ready-made. In Italy sometimes we replace it by a good greek yogurt. 

Its preparation is complex, but we can make an excellent imitation of it with some products that are on the market.

Ingredients: 100g mascarpone 200g whipping cream, the filtered juice of 2 lemons

Pour the mascarpone in a large bowl, add cream and stir vigorously with a whisk.

Then add the filtered juice of lemons and mix again very well all ingredients.

Let stand.

In my experience, it is better to prepare Smetana the day before eating, so the sour of lemon juice will integrate with the other ingredients, creating the special taste of this sauce.

It is possible to keep Smetana in the refrigerator for a few days in a glass container, tightly closed.

It is a very versatile sauce that can be combined in many dishes, both sweet and savory.

Orange Sauce

A sauce of many uses, ideal for roasted duck but also pork meat.

To garnish 2 Magret: 3 oranges, 2 tsp honey, salt and pepper

Squeeze 2 oranges and put their juice in a small saucepan.
Peel the third orange and divide it into small cubes, slices or wedges, as you want. Put them in the pot with the orange juice. add 2 teaspoons of honey, salt and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.

You can also enrich this sauce with a teaspoon of vinegar, balsamic if you like, and even with a little Grand Marnier and orange peel, cut in thin slices and then scalded in hot water.

Magret de Canard with Orange scent sauce

A Magret is the breast of a Duck or Goose. It is different from the usual duck we find easily at the supermarket, because it comes from a special breed of duck.

The term Magret comes from the Occitan word magre meaning lean meat.

Now it’s more easy to found it, not only in the finest shops but also, vacuum-packed or frozen, in some supermarkets

It can be smoked and treated as a ham but it is more often cooked in a pan or on a grill and served, rare or pink, cut into thin slices.

The cooking is very simple but it requires attention

Ingredients:  One magret will  serve 2 persons

After unpacking the breast remove with a small and very sharp knife the thin film on the flesh side.  It is a natural film that usually enveloppe any muscle. Then, simply cut slits in a diamond pattern across the breast fat side and season this side only with salt and pepper. That will prevent the fat will distribute into the meat when you cook it.

Use a heavy iron skillet or cast iron pan and absolutely don’t oil it.

Place the breast, fat-side-down, in the cold heavy pan and cook until it’s an appetizingly golden-brown color  and fat is melted.

The Magret will "inflate" when seared and it will render lots of fat in no time

Turn the breast and continue cooking in its own fat for 2-6 minutes depending on the point you desire the meat will be cooked.

Do never poke Magret to return it but use pliers kitchen or wooden spoons. After cooking, let your duck breast to rest for at least 5 minutes, loosely covered in foil. This ensures that it will be juicy and easy to slice.

Arrange it on a dish and serve

To garnish  I have made a simple orange sauce with mashed sweet potatoes aside.

Mashed sweet potatoes

Ingredients for 4 people: 800g sweet potatoes, 1 cup cream (20 cl), Olive oil, Salt, Pepper

Cook in a large quantity of water sweet patatoes, peeled and cut into pieces. Cook them in boiling water for 10 minutes.

When cooked, after draining, mash them and mix with cream and olive oil. Salt and peppe.

Note:

This mash goes perfectly all your meat, expecially pork or duck meat, and spicy fish but but also beef and poltry stews and gravy.

How to cook red meat

This video from youtube is really well done, complete and clear.
It is in French but I think that no one will have trouble understanding.

Good cooking meat is measured by its firmness.

To help us to measure it well, we need the of our hand, as you can see in the video.

• Near Raw: join the thumb and forefinger, the muscle of your thumb will have the same firmness that must have meat with this cooking 
• Rare: join the thumb and middle finger 
• Medium: join the thumb and ring finger 
• Well done: join the thumb and little finger

I am testig Meat Pies

I am testing meat pies. In fact, it is a long time I am doing this, but considering that we are near  Christmas, these tests have taken a certain acceleration.

Pâté of my experiment are made by meat and poultry and especially liver which, in recent months I've cooked quite often.

It is not something new. I've always loved these meat pies because they are gorgeous when they are good, and finally not particularly difficult if we are well organized .

The final result is every time better and better and superior to the effort and cost.

It is convenient  to clear some misunderstanding thet you can find on the net, many of which are created by a certain linguistic ignorance, to give precise information

One of the best sources of information is Wikipedia, which is not always completely reliable when talking about foods and recipes.

First, the name: Pâté is a dish prepared by combining different ingredients mixed together.

Today they are a specialty of French cuisine but we find various Pâté in different European national cuisines .

Until less than a century ago, they were part of the few systems available to our ancestors to preserve food.

French have the best references about them because their ancestors, Celts and Gauls, were known to be excellent in preservation of meat, as mentioned by many ancient authors such as Polybius, Cato and Pliny. Strabo in the first century BC wrote that Gaul was a country where people were able to preserve meat. It is not strange that over there we find excellent confits and terrines.

Today that storage and transport are no longer a problem, these preparations belong only to the domain of gluttony .

Generally the mixture of a meat pies is rather coarse, even it is not a rule.
In the past, they were often wrapped in dough and dipped in jelly. Sometimes inside there was even whole portions of meat.

Terrines and mousses are always pâtés. Terrines are prepared, as the name implies, in their own container and mousses are generally very refined and spreadable. Making a mousse, was in the part very challenging because the mixture was sifted by hand, but todayeverything it is more easy because we have blenders, food processors and mixers. Mousse contains always also a large amount of butter .

Dolmades by JeanPierre Coffe

In one of the 2009 editions of  Michel Drucker program on French Antenne2 TV-network, Jean- Pierre Coffe, the famous French gourmet (and also chef, actor and writer),  prepared a dish to make a tribute to Charles Aznavour after an idea of Drucker himself.
After an enthusiastic talk about winemaking traditions of the South Caucasus territories and in particular of Armenia, the original country of Aznavour, and about the simplicity and the friendliness of its people and its food, he offered to the company a dish of cabbage dolmades.  
(Coffe says among other things that even the wooden barrel was conceived in Armenia , an assertion which may not coincide with reality) 

Dolmas is the term used in Turkey for stuffed vegetables and their particular preparation.  In Greece, the same word indicates only stuffed grape leaves and all other kind of stuffed vegetables are generically called Yemista.     

The recipe whose origins span across all Near South-East could be created in Armenia and South Caucasus, although in Greece it is said that the idea of wrapping food in vine leaves dates back to the time of Demosthenes, during the first defeat of Chaeronea, 338 BC, at the time of the siege of Thebes by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. 
Such an argument that dates back to 400 BC, does centainly silence everybody!   
However, considering that territories around Mount Ararat, Armenian territories now partly independent republic and partly annexed to Turkey, in ancient times were called Lands of Wine and also that History, Bible and legends reference this country for excellent wine production, I guess I can say that these rolls could be born over there.    

The stuffing in the best-known version includes aways rice and minced meat or rice and herbs in a common home edition. In Armenia, however, it can also consists of burghul, the dried & chopped sprouted grain prevalent in Middle Eastern cuisine and certainly more ancient than rice.    

This is the simplest recipe. If you want to make it much richer, follow what Coffe says in the video for his cabbage leaves version. 
One note: Coffe does not bend very well cabbage leaves so rolls could be damaged during cooking.   

Read below how to do. 

Ingredients for 6 servings: about 40 grape leaves fresh or frozen, 250g of rice , 2 or 3 scallions or onions , 2 tablespoons pine nuts , olive oil , chopped parsley  end herbs(chives , fennel or dill, mint) and coriander ground and heated in a dry pan to release its aroma, the juice of 2 lemons , salt and black pepper     

Pine nuts are almost never lacking and even chopped herbs such as mint, parsley and fresh coriander.  This simple stuffing can be enriched with other tasting ingredients like ground beef or lamb, raisins of Corinth that in many Mediterranean recipes replaces minced meat.   

Pittule from Apulia

Today I want to recommend the Facebook page ricette di Nina because it is full of gorgeous recipes, most quite traditional, other more imaginative but all tasty and innovative.

Among them there’s the recipe of Pettole from Apulia, which are pretty much the same of the zeppole from Naples.

In Apulia this is a traditional preparation of holidays periods of Autumn, when the new wine is ready.
Ingredients are simple: flour, salt, yeast and water and sometimes even boiled potatoes. That’s all. Simple to make and even easier to eat.

In Naples they’re generally a street food that you can eat while walking .

Frying pettole at the Pettole Festival in the town of Noci

In Apulia, however, the preparation is almost a ritual occasion to gather the whole family around the kitchen, where the family mama frys these simple but delicious pancakes.

In few seconds they go from the pan into the mouth of some of the presents, immediately, without any seasoning or just sweetened or salted, depending on people taste, or dipped in honey, must or figs wine.
It’s said that ... pettole attract the new wine.
What do you think, might be true?

Crisp-coated fried fish, fine and good

Sardines and anchovies are a kind of fish we call blue fish in Italy, good anch cheep almost everywhere on the shores of the Mediterranean.
We cook and eat them from very ancient times.
This magic name, blue fish, comes from the habit of these fish to attend the azure waters close to the shore at certain times of the year, reproduction time, the time of loves.
The ancient Mediterranean people were fishing near the coasts and therefore they were consumers of these oily fish, as even today.
A healthy diet if the fish come from clean waters 

Sardines are the main ingredient of many recipes. Among these one of the best is this: sardine and anchovy breaded and fried.

In this version, I have used for breading, instead of the usual bread crumbs, other ingredients that give to sardines a different taste and color making this dish, not only good but even nice.

Ingredients for 4 people: 8 Sardines , 1 or 2 eggs, about 2Tbs water , 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup black sesame seeds, 1/2 cup blonde sesame seeds, 1/2 cup plain cornflakes chopped, 1/2 cup chopped peanut, olive oil for frying.

Clean the sardines, open them and gently pull out backbones. Spread fish flat, rince, drain and dry them with a towel. This cleaning could be done also some few days before frying, if you decide that fish will be frozen to guarantee against Anisakis, the parasite so prevalent in most fish today.
However, since we 're going to cook our sardines freezing is not absolutely necessary here.

Prepare everything for breading fish. Place flour in a shallow dish. Beat eggs and water in a small bowl and prepare peanuts, sesame seeds etc in separate shallow dishes.
Now dip well fish in four to coat both sides, then after removing excess flour dip in beaten eggs and let drip excess eggs and at last dip them well in the final breading, black or blonde sesame seeds or chopped peanuts or cornflakes, pressing coating with a fork or by hand on both sides of fish.

Fry gently fish in hot oil until crisp, place it on paper toweling to absorb excess oil and then serve your sardines with lemon wedges.  

Automn Dessert

I must confess, pears are not my favorite fruits, but any times I eat them I’m obliged to reconsider this idea.
However, they are one of the best fruits to make jams, cakes with or without chocolate and also to be cooked with aromatic herbs and spices. In this recipe I combined them with orange to prepare a simple and pleasant dessert that will be very appreciated in your autumn dinners.
 

This preparation is also suitable for other fruits such as apples or quinces.

For 6 people: 6 pears quite big , 1 orange , 8 tablespoons caster sugar, 60gr butter, 6 eggs, 250gr cream.

Peel pears and cut them into quarters. Then brown them in a pan with 60 gr of butter and 3 or 4 teaspoons of sugar. Pour the orange juice, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Pour fruits into a baking dish .
Beat the eggs with the cream and the remaining sugar and pour this custard over fruits .
Put the dish in the oven in a hot water bath and cook for about 40 minutes at 200°C.
 

You can make more intense orange flavor perfuming the cream with some drop of Grand Marnier . Serve warm.

Pâte Brisé e Pasta Frolla

I put toghether these two preparations because they are similar.

They are, however, both of ancient Arabic origin.
 
They share three important characteristics.

• The content of butter is always half the weight of flour. 
• The protein content must be low, so if possible, choose a low-protein flour that is different from the flour to make bread (so don't use Manitoba) and use only few egg whites. 
• Kneading should be very short in order to limit the formation of gluten. Do it only with your finger tips, as much as possible, to avoid to warm ingredients with the hand palm. 

Pâte Brisé

The dough Brisé is widely used in France not only for savory preparations but also for the sweet ones, such as Tarte Tatin 

The components are: flour, butter and eggs, proportions, two parts flour, one part butter, the yolk of an egg each 250g of flour and a pinch of salt.

Cut butter into cubes and let it soften at room temperature out of the refrigerator.
Then mix it with the flour very quickly, preferably using just your fingers so as not to heat the pasta.
Then add egg yolks and let the dough to rest in a cool place before use.
There also exists a version without egg.

Pasta Frolla (Shortcrust Pastry) 

We can say that this kind of dough is the queen of Italian tart dough, it is a cross between a pâte brise and a pâte sablée full of eggs. In Italy it is an traditional preparation and there are however several version of it, slightly different in doses.

This dough is great also for cookies and tea pastries.

Here are the proportions I prefer: 500gr flour, 200gr butter, 200gr sugar, 4 eggs (including 2 and 2 yolks).

These doses are enough for a nice amount of pastry which, if not completely used, you can store in the freezer wrapped in a transparent plastic film.
Knead quickly flour, sugar, butter (very softened), whole eggs and egg yolks, preferably by hand and only with the your finger tip to not heat the mixture with the temperature of your hand.

Kneading by hand or by a mixer, what you will get is always a cluster of small portions of dough that you'll shrink with hands.
In this case however, knead for a short time and at intervals to avoid that the preparation will warm. Make a ball and put it to rest in a cool place wrapped in plastic wrap.

Here are some photos of the various steps:
Here it is! There took more than 5 minutes. I wrapped in transparent film and is ready to be put to rest in the refrigerator. The rest is good but if you hurry you can also use it right away .

Small pieces of butter and flour

I recommend that you cut the butter while it is still solid, just taken from the refrigerator, and add it to the flour as in the picture and then let it soften.

Tthe dough when you begin to kead it

You feel impossible to get a homogeneous mixture but do not despair !
Add the eggs and butter that you can rely on is melting and you will see that in a few minutes , just by applying a slight pressure of the hands will come to get what they want.

Aggiungete le uova ed affidatevi al burro che si sta sciogliendo e vedrete che in pochissimi minuti, soltanto applicando una lieve pressione delle mani arriverete ad ottenere quello che desiderate.

Here it is!
I tooks no more than 5 minutes.

I wrapped in transparent film and is ready to be put to rest in the refrigerator.
The rest is good but if you hurry you can also use it right away .

The problem with the pastry is often to pull a thin sheet without losing time.

Here's how to do it .
Remove from refrigerator and slice it, because slices will soften quickly the whole piece.

To roll out, place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and it's  done.
What you see is my rolling pin.
It 's very thin and looks like a broom handle, but it is not. The type that is used in Greece to spread the sheets of pasta Phillo . 

The best TARTE TATIN

Tarte Tatin is one of best the desserts made with apples and it is also very easy to prepare. In addition if it is well made it looks very nice.

We can use the same method with other fruit and even with some vegetables and make a Tatin with pears or tomatoes, fennel , etc. . but the original is with apples and ... the best of all.
 
In this post, I’ve used pastry ready-to-use that you can buy in all supermarkets. 
But you can prepare it at home, like I did  quit often. 
The same applies to the Pate Brisé, the native dough of this French recipe .

For 6 people: 4 or 5 apples (about 1 kg) sweets end not chalky, ½ lemon, 25gr butter , 4 or 5 tablespoons (about 150gr) of sugar, pate brisé or pasta frolla ( ready to use ). 

Peel apples, remove the core, cut into quarters and each quarter again into 3 or 4 regular slices and thin enough.
From each medium sized apple, at least 12 slices.
Melt the butter in a large pan and pour the apples to brown gently for a few minutes.
You can also sprinkle with a little caster sugar.
Do everything quickly, this is only a preliminary step .

Now take a baking tin with low sides and large about 30 cm , pour inside the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water and make with it a light caramel by placing the pan on the fire and stirring with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes.

The sugar should melt but not darken to much. The caramel should to become of a clear honey color. Switch off.

It’s also possible to caramelize more apples and make them more colorful than what I did today , in the recipe in photography.
Place apples in baking dish and distribute over the entire bottom of the pan .
Now take the dough you have decided to use.
Gently take it out of its packet and lay it on the baking dish, placing the edges inside of the pan to completely enclose apples.
Bake at 180° C for about 25-30 minutes.
Be careful not to brown too much the dough .

Let cool and then turn it into a flat service dish wide enough, in the case apples and have still retained caramel syrup.
Serve preferably warm, accompanied by a small pot of cream or whipped cream or vanilla ice cream .
It’s a gorgeous dessert to lick your fingers.

 

Viennese Cabbage

Ingredients: 1 large savory cabbage, salt, caraway seeds and pepper, 30g lard or bacon, 30g flour, 1 finely chopped onion,  1 clove of garlic (optional), 4 potatoes.

in this recepe, lard or bacon is used as cooking fat. Be free to substitude it with oil or butter, as I do for a more delicate teste

Cut  the cabbage, removing all stalks and coarse ribs. Put it into a boiling salted water together with popatoes cut into big  pieces and the caraway seeds. Cook until tender. Gently fry onions, garlic with a little four to thicken. Add some water or stock and then drained cabbage and potatoes. Cook for a short time.

Cabbage cook in this way has a soft and very pleassant taste and is tipillay Viennese.

It is a great side dish for roast or boiled beef and for hot sausages, but it is very good  also with a plate of mixed cheeses.

Borsch with Smetana and Pirozhki

Of Ukrainian origin , this is the most popular and widespread soup in Eastern Europe but also in North America where it was introduced by the Jews Azkenaziti .The name means " red soup " or maybe just " soup " given that there is also a green Borsh. Not knowing Russian, however , I can not be sure.The traditional recipe includes as ingredient even meat, not only in the preparation of the broth but also in the soup itself, along with chopped vegetables but, however, a popular Polish version traditionally served on the Christmas Eve diner  is made only by vegetables as taught me a Polish friend.The essential ingredients are beetroot and cabbage (any kinds of cabbage except the red one) but the key feature of his taste is a mild acidity that you get especially with vinegar or lemon juice and that was formerly obtained by a process of fermentation .Like all these complex soups, it is better eaten the next day after resting a night.Ingredients for Borsch: Meat broth q.b. , 700g  of meat (beef, pork or chicken as you prefer or available) , 300g raw beetroot (now it is easy to find, often also organic), 400g of green cabbage , 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes , parsley , some tomato ( if you have , a clove of garlic (if you like ) , butter or oil, vinegar or lemon. Sour cream or greek yogurt for garnish.

Leave aside the cabbage and tomatoes and wash the other vegetables including beets. Peel and cut them into small slices. Fry them in a pan over medium heat with a little butter or oil. Add meat cut into chunks, season, add the tomatoes cut into small pieces too and then the cabbage coarsely chopped into strips. At this point, stir occasionally to prevent ingredients from sticking wasting the soup . Add broth and simmer gently at least 2 hours and even more, refilling evaporated liquid.
At the beginning, Borsch has a dark red color tending to orange but as the soup cooks his color becomes more similar to the color of wine or of a dark plum juice and even the parfume will become more harmonious, well structured, moving away from beetroot original smell, which at first seemed to be quite strong, integrates very nicely with the scent of other ingredients: the beet's sugar caramelizes, due to the heat.
Halfway through cooking, add vinegar or lemon juice, tasting in order to decide the amount. Salt at the end.
Serve piping hot with, apart, a bowl of  Smetana sauce or sour cream (which can be replaced by good greek yoghurt) to garnish and  with Pirozhkis, the traditional rolls stuffed with meat or vegetables.

I  don't use almost never vinegar but lemon as a learned from one of my Polish friend and, to tell the truth, I  like my vegetarian Borsch most than others. 
This is not only is a very nutritious soup and a confort food, but it's really healthy.

In winter it warms like nothing else. But in some Eastern European countries, it ts also consumed cold in the middle of summer, well mixed with sour cream. 

Borsch activates metabolism, improves blood circulation and balance fluids that affect blood pressure.

Traditionally it is eaten with Smetana and also Pirozhki and sometimes it is accompanied even from toasted strips of bacon or lard that Ukrainians  like so much.

Francobolli Ucraini dedicati al Borsch

Images of this post present Ukrainian tamps dedicated to Borsch and some Pirozhki ( image taken from Google images)

 

Pirozhki with 2 filling (meat and cabbage)

Traditionally Borsch is eaten with Smetana and Pirozhki (пирожок , пирожки ) or Pampushki as they call these stuffed rolls in Ukraine. In the most usual forms, these are small dough cakes stuffed of meat or whatever else. Different places and families have different recipes. It is said that in Ukraine, Russia and Poland, Borsch is the same on all tables, those of the rich and the poor, and what makes the difference are pirozhki, Cakes with savory filling on the rich tables, a bread crust for the poor . Pirozhki can be whatever you want, stuffed with cheese or just herbs, game or a mix of everything else
In Armenia, where Borsch becomes popular during the Russian domination, piroshki are usually stuffed with meat and potatoes and are similar to Turkey boreke and Greek pitas.
They depends on the cook and are ideal turnovers in a fusion cuisine. You can substitute them also with focaccette from Puglia.

Here is a possible recipe for these special Russians and Ukrainians turnovers

L'immagine dei Pirozhki è presa da Google images

Ingredients: 500g of flour , 2-3 eggs ( depending on size ), 65g butter, melted 100ml of warm water, 75ml milk , 25g of fresh yeast (or 1 sachet 7g ), ½ tsp salt, 2 +1 Tsp sugar Ingredients for a cabbage filling: 500g cabbage or sauerkraut, 2 boiled eggs, 2 Tsp butte, salt. Ingredients for meat filling: 400g of ground (pork, beef), 1 onion, 1 egg, 2 Tsp milk, salt and pepper.
Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water and 1 tsp sugar, let it sit for about 10 minutes until it foams. Put the flour in a bowl, add milk, lightly beaten eggs, butter, salt, sugar and baking powder dissolved.

Knead dough for a long time because it is very similar to a brioche dough and must be well-crafted to rise well. Put it in a bowl, cover with a cloth or with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it doubles. Knead again the dough at least once more letting it to rise again before preparing pirozhki .

Prepare fillings.
For the cabbage filling: thinly sliced ​​cabbage and simmer it in a pan for 10 minutes with butter, stirring often. Salt. Boile Hard-boile eggs, let them cool, peel and chop them before mixing with cabbage.

For the meat filling: finely chop onion and mix with the ground beef, salt and pepper and if you want brown it in apan. Then add the eggs and milk and stir for few minutes.

Prepare now Pirozhki: With the dough make a sheet, 4-5 mm thick and cut portions not too large, more or less like those for a small panzerotto, any shape you want, round or rectangular. Put on it the filling and roll them up or close them very well by sealing edges.
Arrange Pirozhki on a baking dish covered with parchment paper or well greased, brush them with egg

Pirozhki can be large or small and are a perfect finger food.
They're always great, both hot and cold.

If you do not prepare Borsch, you can eat them with any soup and also with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. 
Fill them with anything you can imagine of even jams, fruit, mushrooms, fish, cottage cheese and so on.

Picio Pacio

If I am right, this is an ancient recipe from the Milan area that probably  noone remembers anymore today. Me too, I cannot  find the old book where I found it, times ago.  

So please, trust to my memories.  

It is extremely simple. 

I cannot say that it is a poor-cooking recipe because there is meat in it, but certainly it is not rich, though it is nice and tasty. 

Let's begin  from the name, Picio Pacio, in Milanese popular dialect describes the texture of what remains on the ground when, in winter after a heavy snowfall, people walk over it and, at the same time, the temperature becomes less rigid and a light rain begins to fall. 
By extension, then we talk about Picio Pacio to indicate any mixture of the same texture.  

To prepare Picio Pacio we need: some Beef, Carrots, Potatoes, Celery, Onion and Garlic possibl , a teaspoon of Canned Tomato, little water, salt.

Slice onions and cut into small pieces the other vegetables and even meat. 
Place everything in a pan, add salt with a  half glass of water and cover with a lid.
Put at medium heat and when it begins to boil, add a teaspoon of tomato paste. 

Reduce heat to low and let simmer slowly until meat is tender under the fork and vegetables, especially potatoes, become easily mushy.
Season to taste and add some liquid to obtain the texture you like. 
Serve hot. 

Yes, you are right,  in this recipe there is no fat added. 
The only fat is that contained in meat itself.  
Instead of beef you can use pork or chicken or a mixture of the three meats.

Cauliflower Gratin

Cauliflower au gratin is a delicious dish

This recipe should certainly be a main dish because it is rich of eggs, cheese and bacon.

Not least: it is a quick recipe cause it takes about 15 minutes plus the cooking time.

Ingredients for 4 people : 1 small cauliflower, 50g. toma mountain, 50g bacon, 150gr milk, 150gr cream, 4 eggs, 20gr of butter, 40gr of white flour, salt and pepper.

Wash the cauliflower and divide it into florets. Brown them quickly in boiling salted water. 

In a bowl, beat together flour with eggs, salt and pepper and warm milk. 

Add to this mixture the cream, the cheese cut into small cubes and the bacon into thin strips. Grease a terracotta bowl or a gratin dish.

Spread on the bottom the cauliflower florets and cover with the egg mixture.Put in the oven at 220°C for about 20 minutes. In cooking, make attention not to burn the gratin surface that has to be colorful and crisp, but not dark brown . Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving, otherwise it could be too hot in your mouth.