Recipes

Here are some of the items I've been making over here:

Oven Pancake – Debbie’s Irkutsk version
Preheat oven to “hot” – I bake at “7” on the oven here. (425F is what I was aiming for)
Melt 2-3T butter in baking pan. I’ve been using a 9” casserole dish.
Mix together:
3 eggs, slightly beaten
¼ liter milk
1/10 liter flour
1 T sugar
Beat all ingredients together until no lumps. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for approx 20-minutes until golden brown and puffy. Serve with jam, honey or syrup (if you have it!) or just eat plain!

Auto Parts Chicken – Debbie’s Irkutsk Version
1 T butter
4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic
½ onion, chopped
4 potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 carrots, sliced (use one if very large)
Generous portion of mushrooms
Two chicken bouillon cubes, prepared in ½ liter water
2T flour
3T water
Salt/pepper
Brown chicken in butter in large pan on stovetop. Add garlic and onion. Sauté for a few minutes. Add potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and chicken broth. Cover and simmer 30-minutes or until veggies are soft – stirring occasionally. In a jar, combine flour and water and shake. Add to pan to thicken juice. Cook a few more minutes – broth thickens as it cools. Salt/pepper to taste.
(this recipe came from allrecipies.com but was modified to fit available ingredients!


Judy Holmes’ Russian Vegetable Medley
Slice thinly and layer in greased casserole dish one of each:
Potato, carrot, onion, red/yellow or green pepper, tomato, mushrooms if desired
Mix together 2T mayonnaise and sour cream (generous portions of each).
Top with 2/3c shredded cheese (enough to cover).
Bake in a hot oven until warm and bubbly and vegetables are soft.

Beef Stew – Debbie’s Irkutsk version
½ kilo Beef stew meat, already cubed (from the deli) {my pieces were very large, might want to cut in half to make it easier to eat and quicker cooking if needed)
160g tomato juice
710ml water
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 carrots, cut into 2” pieces
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
Any other seasonings you might have available and like to add
In large dutch oven, brown beef in some oil. Add water and tomato juice. Stir in onion, garlic and bouillon. Bring to a boil and cover. Simmer 2 hours. Stir in carrots and potatoes. Cook another 20-40 minutes until veggies are tender.


Hamburger Steak with Mushroom Gravy – Debbie’s Irkutsk version
½ kilo ground beef
100 ml plain dry bread crumbs (I used panko crumbs)
1/20 litre milk & 3/8 litre milk (divided)
1 garlic clove
Dash salt
2 t vegetable oil
¼ litre plus mushrooms (sliced)
2 T flour
Combine beef, bread crumbs, 1/20l milk, garlic and salt in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Heat the oil over medium heat in a 12” skillet that has a lid. Shape the meat into four 3 ½” patties about ½ inch thick, adding them to the skillet as you make them. Sprinkle the mushrooms around the patties then cove the skillet and cook for 5-minutes.
Meanwhile combine the remaining milk and flour in a container that has a lid and shake well until any lumps disappear. Set aside.
Uncover the skillet after 5-minutes. Push the mushrooms out of the way, if necessary, and carefully turn the patties over. Continue to cook, stirring the mushrooms often, until the meat is cooked to personal preference. Remove patties to a serving plate.
Shake the flour-milk mixture again and pour it into the skillet with the mushrooms to make a gravy. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly and scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet, until the gravy is heated through and to the desired thickness – takes a few minutes to do this. Season as desired and spoon the gravy over the patties and serve.
(recipe from Desperation Dinners and modified slightly)