Russia has been in the news quite a bit lately however that is not where I got the inspiration to make two of Russia’s national dishes. Netflix has a show called Chef’s table that features interviews with Chefs of highly acclaimed restaurants. In the third season they have an episode that covers a Russian chef, Vladimir Mukhin and his restaurant White Rabbit considered 18th best restaurant in the world on the Worlds 50 Best restaurant list.
What intrigued me the most about this episode was the challenge that faced Vladimir Mukhin. As he said
Russians suffered 75 years, two-and-a-half generations Soviet time when people were fooled into eating this gray, urban grub,”…“I really hate that period because it destroyed Russian cuisine, and I will do whatever it takes to bring the genuine Russian taste back to the people.”
From then throughout the episode he goes into how he does his research and reinvents Russian classics for a modern audience. Seeing that Russian cuisine consisted more than Borscht and Vodka made me want to cook Pelmeni and Shchi.
Pelmeni was the dish that presented the most challenge as recipes that need to be stuffed take forever to make. Before I could start filling the dumplings, I had to make the stuffing. The stuffing consisted of ground pork, ground beef and a combination of finely processed garlic, dill, parsley and onions.
The next step was filing the meat mixture into the dough. While looking up making Pelmeni, I saw that the easiest way to prepare them was to buy a cheap Pelmeni mold. Now I have experience with stuffing food by hands and I know that frankly it sucks so I was more than happy to buy a cheap mold to save me hours of time.
You can see the process below.
- Roll out the dough and place it into the mold
- Place 1 teaspoon of the meat filling into each slot
- Roll another sheet of dough over the meat
- Pop the pelmeni out of the mold
Don’t let the lack of more steps fool you, this took me about 2 hours to make all the Pelmeni. The work was tedious but I just listened to a podcast and rolled and rolled and rolled.
The result was three pan fulls of Pelmeni in the freezer.
With the Pelmeni chilling in the freezer(see what I did there), it was time to start preparing the Shchi. Thankfully for me preparing Shchi took me no time at all. The only time consuming part of the process was cutting all the vegetables but after that it just went into a pot and simmered away. The only deviation from the recipe was that I used half beef broth and half water.
When the Shchi was finished, all I had to do was boil Pelmeni and roll them in some melted butter. The Pelmeni have a nice dill taste that was not overwhelming and they are surprisingly filling for being so tiny.. Another benefit is that I have a whole bag left in the freezer to make quick dinners with.
The Shchi was better than it had the right to be. With no meat, I was expecting a bland, flavorless soup but I was wrong. The Shchi was unexpectedly hearty and the flavors mended perfect together. Served with dill and sour cream, the soup was delectably creamy.
Despite all this, we all know the national dish of Russia is Vodka so I had to have a shot before eating my meal.
Recipe used for the Pelmeni is here.
Recipe for the Shchi is here.