I love Russian food. I know, it's heavy and often unsophisticated but to me, it's pure comfort. Last night in an attempt to sneak in some pasta before Passover, I boiled up some Siberian pelmeni, meat-filled dumplings, which I served with sour cream. I used fresh, decadently rich homemade sour cream from my favorite Russian market. To serve with it I made a quick cucumber salad composed of cucumbers and seasoned rice wine vinegar. I also made a beet salad with chunks of orange, a splash of blood orange olive oil and some vinegar.
The Russian market I go to has a huge deli selection with lots of salads. They also always have some sort of treats on the counter to tempt me. Latest temptations? Syrniki, a kind of cheese pancake and blini. The blini just screams "party". I could see buying a batch, picking out some salmon caviar and cracking open the vodka.
Syrniki is something I figured out how to make with some help from a couple of Russian friends. After last night's Russian feast, it's the perfect breakfast. Heavy, yes. Unsophisticated, yes. Delicious, oh yes. You do need to buy a very firm type of cheese called tvorog to make them, Ii the cheese is too creamy it won't work. But fortunately Russian markets always seem to carry quite a variety of this cheese.
Syrniki
2 servings
1 cup firm farmers cheese "tvorog"
1 egg
3 tbsp flour
2 teaspoons sugar
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
butter for frying and extra flour for dusting