Ratatouille

I hate zucchini. But everyone's gardens always have a plethora of zucchini this time of year so I inevtiably end up with some. And there is only so much zucchini chocolate cake you can make (a recipe I promise to publish). So to use up my least favorite vegetable, I make ratatouille, adapted from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. The end result is delicious and the only way to eat any type of squash, including eggplant.

The Joy of Cooking cookbook is a must for everyone's kitchen. There is literally a recipe for everything in it. Come across a turtle you need to cook up? This cookbook will tell you how to find the tastiest turtle meet and how to cook it. Using canned turtle? The cookbook will tell you how to adapt your recipe. Even exotic foods like breadfruit are in this cookbook.

Ratatouille 

Ingredients

• 1 medium or large zucchini (or squash or eggplant) sliced. 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 green peppers, sliced.
• 2 large onions. 
• 5 or 6 tomatoes sliced
• 1 sprig of rosemary.

Instructions

1. Slice the onions and cook with the garlic in 1/3 cup olive oil.
2. Layer everything, salting and peppering each layer. Start with the zucchini slices in the bottom a roaster. Top with a layer of onions. Then a layer of green peppers. Finally, layer the tomatoes on top. Add the rosemary and drizzle with olive oil
3. Cook for 40 minutes, covered in an oven at 350. Uncover and cook 20 minutes more. 
4. Serve. We eat ours sometimes with sour cream.

Beetniks (Beet Leaves and Dough)

This is one of my favorite Ukrainian dishes and today I am using my mom's recipe. You take fresh made bread, wrap it in beet leaves to make tiny dumplings and then soak them in a dill cream sauce. It is a staple of every special occasion and you can make the dumplings ahead of time and freeze them for months. We call them beetniks (or beet leaves and dough) and I can never find a recipe on the internet so I am posting one. This is a very local dish, but very rich and tasty. It also is a good use for beet leaves, maybe left over from cooking, say borscht.

Beetniks

Ingredients

• 1 loaf bread dough (I used frozen)
• About 50 small to medium beet leaves (don't use ones that the  bugs have eaten). 
• 1 litre cream
• 1 onion
• 4-6 Tbsp of fresh dill

Instructions

Beetniks

1. Wash the beet leaves. Remove the stems. To dry, spread one layer of leaves between tea towels. You can use leaves that are slightly wilted but don't use leaves that are eaten by bugs.
2. Break off about a walnut sized ball of dough. Place on the rib of the beet leaf and roll up tightly. Repeat until you run out of beet leaves or dough.
3. Let rise until the dough peeks out the edges of each roll. 
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes on a greases cookie sheet until golden brown. Fill a roaster with the beetniks. 

Cream Sauce

1. Dice the onion and cook in a generous portion of butter until soft.
2.  Add the cream and the dill and simmer until the sauce thickens. If the sauce does not thicken, fry a little flour with butter and add to the cream. If too thick, add a little more cream. Sauce should be a yellow color.
3. Pour the sauce over the beetniks. Allow the sauce to soak in,(you can heat them up in the oven if you like). Serve.

Beet Borscht

Beet Borscht (beet soup) is a delicious vegetarian soup that my Ukrainian grandmother used to make. Today I am making it using all fresh garden vegetables. Everything, even the garlic, is from the garden(with the exception of the canned tomatoes and beef broth). It is a great recipe because it is so versatile. Don't have peas? Don't use them. Have celery? Throw that in too. The trick is to use lots of beets and lots of dill and the rest sorts itself out.

As a pro tip, beets will stain your kitchen a lovely shade of pink. And your hands. And your wooden spoon. And the handle on the fridge. And your tea towel. So wear an apron and gloves and watch that you don't recolor everything.

Beet Borscht

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup diced potato
• 1 cup diced carrot
• 1 cup peas
• 1 diced onion
• 2 cups diced beets (about ten small beets)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 4 tablespoons fresh chopped dill
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups broth
• Sour cream

Instructions

1. Add all the vegetables and garlic to the soup pot with a little oil. Cook until the onions are clear and everything is died pink, about ten minutes. 
2. Add the broth and dill. Bring to a boil. Cook for 20 minutes.
3. Garnish with sour cream and serve.

Spinach and Cheese Frittata

Frittata is basically a quiche with potato. It is easy to make. I am a huge fan of meals that you cook in a single pan, so this is a favorite of mine.

Spinach and Cheese Frittata

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced
• one onion, diced
• one package frozen spinach, thawed
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cheese
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Using a large skillet, fry the potato and onion with a little bit of oil for ten minutes until the potatoes are soft
2. Add the spinach and cook a little longer
3. Beat the eggs and milk together
4. Add the egg mixture to the skillet. Sprinkle with cheese
5. Cook for ten minutes or until the center is firm.

Potato, Cottage Cheese and Sauerkraut Perogies

For my first post I am making classic perogies with multiple fillings. Perogies are a type of Ukrainian dumpling filled with various fillings, usually potato.  Making homemade perogies takes time but is worth the effort.This recipe has been passed down in my family and will make one dozen cottage cheese perogies, one dozen sauerkraut perogies and 4-5 dozen potato perogies.

Perogies

• Fillings: 
• 2 medium onions, chopped finely
• 4 large potatoes, peeled 
• 1 cup dry cottage cheese( or regular cottage cheese drained)
• 1 cup sauerkraut
• 1 egg yolk
• Perogy dough
• 6 cups flour
• 6 Tbsp oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter or baking soda
• 2 cups potato water

 Fillings

Potato, sauerkraut and cottage cheese filling

1. Potato filling
1. Boil the potatoes with at least 2 cups of water, reserve the water for the dough. Let the water cool while you make the other fillings.
2. Mash potatoes
3. Season with salt and pepper,
4. Fry 1.5 onions and add about one onion worth to potato
2. Cottage cheese filling
1. Mix cottage cheese with 0.5onion, fried in previous step
2. Add egg yolk
3. Sauerkraut filling
1. Fry remaining onion with sauerkraut, drain excess liquid.

Dough

1. Mix together all the ingredients. The potato water can be warm, but not hot. Knead until dough is well mixed, and slightly sticky (but not sticky enough to stick to your hands)
2. Let sit for 15 minutes to one hour. This step is very important, skip it and your perogies will be tough.

Perogies

1. Roll out dough in batches.
2. Cut dough into two inch squares. 
3. Put a dab of filling in the center of each square, making sure filling never touches the edges or the perogies will split open when you cook them.
4. Pinch each square closed into a triangle
5. Drop the perogies, one at a time, into a pot of boiling water (no salt, this will make them tough).
6. Boil the perogies for 7-8 minutes, or until they float and puff up a bit.

At this point you can either eat the perogies with sour cream or covered butter and fried onions(or both). Or, if you can't eat 6 dozen in one sitting you can freeze them. To freeze them cook them, coat them in oil and put in freezer bags. To cook them later: Thaw a bag of perogies then either boil them to warm them up or fry them till crispy.

Fold squares into triangles