This post is sponsored by La Crema Wines. All opinions here are my own. You can find the companion recipes over on the La Crema blog. 

Way back in 2013 (seems like ages ago now, doesn’t it?) I spent a lot of time in Russia. I’ve written about those trips a little bit, here and here, but never in great depth. I studied Russian throughout high school and college, so getting the chance to travel there for work was a dream. My primary destination was St. Petersburg, a glamorous, coastal city of old-world charm. I was there frequently between July – when the beauty and midnight sunsets of the white nights kept the whole city feeling celebratory – and December. And in December, it is very dark.

The dark is more shocking than the cold. In fact, at least in coastal St. Petersburg, it’s not much colder than New England. This week, for example, lows there are a balmy 29°F, while here in Boston we’re bracing ourselves for a week of -3°F nights. The dark, however, is a real challenge. For most of December, the sun rises at 10am and sets around 3:30. It never quite feels like daytime. The sun arcs low across the sky, resulting in sort of a 5 hour-long sunrise/sunset. In the context of all this darkness, it’s not hard to understand how New Year’s Eve became the bright spot of a Russian winter. It celebrates light and warmth, and requires feasting with friends long into the dark night.

For my final La Crema post of the year, I put together a celebratory menu of Russian-inspired New Year’s treats. A typical Russian New Year’s Eve spread consists of lots of small plates, salads, pickles, breads, and plenty to drink. A few years back I did a Russian-inspired end-of-year post, with recipes for rye blini, hot-smoked salmon dip, beet dip, and a pink vodka cocktail. This menu builds on those recipes. Taken all together, you could put together a pretty serious New Year’s Eve spread.

The first dish – Potato Bites with Caviar – is one of the easiest holiday appetizers I’ve ever made. All they require is boiling a pot of small potatoes, slicing them in half, scooping out a bit of the center, and dolloping each potato half with sour cream, a few pearls of caviar, and a tiny sprig of dill. That’s it – that’s the whole recipe in one sentence. And they are delicious! I was surprised by how addictive each little bite was.

The next dish is a bit strange to the American palate, but it’s super traditional. Herring Under A Fur Coat is a classic layered salad consisting of pickled herring, potatoes, carrots, onion, mayonnaise, beets, and hard-boiled eggs. I attempted to modernize it a bit, with the goal of making each layer taste good on its own. The changes I made were to cut out the mayo, add grated apple to the carrot and onion layer, and use smoked salmon in one half and pickled herring in the other. I also served them individually, for easier party-consumption. They were pretty good, although arguably still an acquired taste. Check out the recipe over on the La Crema blog if you’re feeling adventurous!

Last in the menu is a party friendly version of my favorite Russian recipe – Mushroom Pirozhki. These are a bite-sized, vegetarian version of the Rabbit and Mushroom Pie I posted a few years back. These little guys are addictive, and the perfect party food (warm, carby, easy to carry, and great with wine!). The filling for these Mushroom Pirozhki is a tasty mixture of wild mushrooms, sour cream, wine, and dill.

With all these recipes, you probably don’t need much dessert. If you must have something sweet, put out some Russian chocolates (like Alenka if you can find them!) and fresh fruit. And of course, we can’t forget the drinks. While vodka is the traditional drink at a Russian New Year’s party, there’s plenty of room for other libations. I’m definitely more of a wine girl than a vodka girl, and I opened a bottle of La Crema’s Monterey Chardonnay and one of the Monterey Pinot Noir for this menu. The potatoes and herring salad are both best with the Chardonnay. Mushrooms are deeply earthy, so the pirozhki pair well with the Pinot Noir – but if you’re only opening one bottle, the dill and sour cream in the filling also make them a good match with the Chardonnay.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to head over to the La Crema blog via the links below for all the recipes:

• Potato Bites with Caviar
• “Herring Under a Fur Coat” Salad
• Mushroom Pirozhki

The post Russian New Year’s Recipes and Celebration Menu with La Crema appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’ve somehow let over three weeks go by since the last time I wrote. Before our trip, I prepped and photographed six recipes to share with you while I was away, approximately one per week. It was good planning on my part, but I arrived home a few days ago and I seem to have only managed to post three of them. Whoops. In reality, I decided that this trip wasn’t the time to be fretting over my blog schedule and unanswered email inquiries – and I’m glad I did. It was nice to let go of some of it for a few weeks, to focus my energy each day on where we were and what we were doing. That’s not to say I traveled anxiety-free or without letting thoughts of home occasionally slip into my mind, but I let go of a lot more than I usually do, especially during our time in Japan, and I enjoyed the trip so much more for it.

I had originally intended this recipe for my February fitness goal post, but fitness goals are another thing I’ve let slide. I’m not too concerned about it – we spent 6 weeks walking 10+ miles a day, not sitting on a couch. Still, this is the kind of food I am very much looking forward to eating now that I am home – simple, light, and nourishing. We had fairly few “Western” meals during our 6 weeks in Asia – a few hamburgers in Hong Kong, a pizza one night. Both Hong Kong and Japan have such incredible food cultures, we were never bored with or tired of the local offerings. I wasn’t particularly anxious to get home, but walking through the door Monday night I was surprisingly happy to be here. And there are things that I’m looking forward to now that I’m back – yogurt and berries, real avocado toast, affordable wine and brie, giant grain salads. Planning for our garden this spring and getting back into decorating the house. Probably most of all, seeing my friends and family. And it’s almost spring! I might skip winter every year.

Now that I’m home, I’m also excited to be back in the kitchen (or at least I will be once we’ve managed to get some groceries). I’m full of inspiration for soups, noodles, dumplings, and street food – don’t be surprised if this blog takes a decidedly Asian slant for the next few months. But before we get to all that, I have this Nordic-inspired, healthy salmon and rice bowl for you, with pickled beets and dilled sour cream. It is super quick and easy to put together, and satisfying without being heavy. It’s also seasonally appropriate, beets being one of the few vegetables we New Englanders can get locally in the middle of winter. In fact, revisiting it now, I’m thinking this might be a good one to go on my grocery list this week. Enjoy!

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Scandi Salmon Bowl with Pickled Beets and Dilled Sour Cream

Pickled beets adapted from Gourmet. Serves 4.

• 2 beets, boiled until tender, peeled, and thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp mustard seed
• 1/4 tsp dill seed
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
• 2 TBS minced fresh dill
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
• sea salt, to taste
• 3 c. prepared brown rice, farro, or other nutty whole grain
• 8 oz. hot-smoked salmon, flaked into bite-size pieces

1. Place thinly sliced beets in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, stir together sugar, water, cider vinegar, mustard seed, and dill seed, and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, then pour over the sliced beets. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.
2. To prepare the dilled sour cream, mix sour cream, lemon juice, dill and minced shallot together in a bowl until evenly combined. Season to taste with sea salt.
3. To serve, fill 4 bowls with a few scoops of cooked rice or farro. Top the rice with the flaked salmon, a few pickled beets, and a dollop of sour cream. Best served when rice is still slightly warm.

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As has sort of become a tradition for me (and so many other bloggers – I secretly love reading everyone’s year end reviews and getting a little glimpse into their highs and lows), I wanted to take a little time and a little space here to reflect on last year and look forward to the next. I’ll try to keep it relatively short and sweet, but if you’re just hear for the food (no shame in that), skip down to the end for some delicious Russian-inspired zakuski from our New Year’s Eve festivities.

2014, A Year in Review

It was a pretty big year for this blog, especially in the last few months. There were a few months where revenue from this space was actually enough to cover my rent (!), Trevor and I wrote and photographed our first in-print article (I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s published), I worked with a number of great new sponsors and brands, and I created some content I’m pretty proud of. Although sometimes it’s hard to feel progress when you’re working on something day after day, taking a minute to look back at how it has grown over time highlights all the changes.

Personally, this year felt mixed. It may be that I’m letting the stress I’ve been feeling for the past two months represent too much of the year, but like any year, 2014 definitely had its highs and lows. I actually ended up having 3 different jobs this year, all with the same company, which was exciting, but not without its transition stress. I traveled a ton – this was certainly my biggest year yet as far as travel is concerned. I made trips to 6 countries – Ecuador, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Malaysia and Ireland – and all of them except for Italy were places I’d never been before. I wrote detailed travelogues of my family’s trip to Ecuador (Quito, The Amazon, Baños, and Cotopaxi) and shared some pictures and memories of our over-the-top dinner at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, here. The rest of the trips were for work and were mostly documented through Instagram, but in short: Hong Kong is incredibly vibrant and alive and I would love to spend more time wandering through it’s crowded streets; a long-weekend spent solo in Rome in May is just about the loveliest thing there is, for the unhurried bowls of fresh cacio e pepe eaten al fresco, long runs through the Villa Borghese, and afternoons spent poolside; the best part of Malaysia was undoubtedly the food, which was abundant at every meal and convinced me that I would be perfectly happy eating sweet and creamy curries for breakfast for the rest of my life; if someone asked me to move to Dublin I would be happy to go, for the friendly people, the twisty streets, the lively pubs, and unlimited quantities of amazing Irish butter.

Besides travel and blogging, there were a few other things that defined this year for me. I definitely got back into a solid fitness routine over the course of the year, which I documented through these monthly “Fitness Challenge” posts. I started from a place that I was very unhappy with – heavy, tired, and a complete stranger to my old running habits. Getting back in shape was a slow process, but by springtime I was running regularly and eating better, and I managed to keep those habits going all year. And of course, there’s the stuff that really matters – family and friends. I love how much time I was able to spend with my family this year, and being able to drive over for gardening and Sunday dinner almost every week is something I really treasure. I perhaps could have done a little better in prioritizing some of my friendships last year, but it’s something I hope to focus on more in 2015. And finally, Trevor is still the best, I love sharing my life with him, and I love that even after 7 years together I still feel excited to be with him. So that’s a big fat plus sign for 2014.

On to 2015!

Although I’m still reflecting on how I want to shape 2015, there’s a few things that I already know will be focus areas. One thing that I want for myself is to be less stressed. This is probably easier said than done, but I’m trying to think about what habits and routines I can change to allow myself to be more flexible and less likely to end up in a stressed-out, to-do-list-dominated state. I also want to find ways to build more joy and spontaneity into my life, to be more flexible, and to forgive myself and others more easily. I’ve been toying with the idea of some sort of gratitude journaling or instagram project, to keep myself in a positive and thankful frame of mind, but am a little worried that I’ll turn it in to one more thing I stress out about getting done every day. Have any of you tried something like this? What did you think? On a lighter note, I want to read more books, take better advantage of my travels, have more regular date nights with Trevor, and maybe learn to dance on pointe (I have no idea if this is even within my reach, but I’d like to think it is!). What are your resolutions and thoughts for the new year? I’d love to hear about them.

And if you’ve read through all that (not as short-and-sweet as I promised, huh?), then it’s time for some New Year’s eating! We had a fairly mellow New Year’s that was just right – movies and drinks with my brothers, then Veronika came over for snacks and champagne, before we headed with her and Scott to a late dinner in Harvard complete with fun party hats and free champagne. The snacks were sort of a last minute decision, but once I’d gotten the idea of a little Russian-inspired blini spread into my mind, I couldn’t get it out again. New Year’s Eve is a much bigger holiday in Russia than Christmas is, and the evening is filled with lots of zakuski, a buffet of hot and cold appetizers, and vodka toasts. So I whipped up a batch of rye and caraway blini and two easy dips: one made from hot-smoked salmon and cream cheese, and the other from chopped beets, honey, and vinegar. Both got generous helpings of dill and red onion, and spooned onto hot blini for a delightful mix of flavors. For drinks, I went with a sparkly pink number inspired by this Bon Appetit recipe, with fresh grapefruit juice, vodka, campari, and prosecco. Everything was delicious and all together it made for a festive spread.

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Rye and Caraway Blini

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine. Makes 30-40 blini.

• 1 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/2 c. rye flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 c. seltzer or club soda
• canola oil, for brushing the pan

1. Place the buttermilk, both flours, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, caraway, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a blender. Blend on high until a smooth batter forms, stopping to scrape excess flour down the sides with a spatula if necessary. Let batter sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. When ready to cook the blini, stir the seltzer into the batter. Heat a little canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then pour tablespoon-sized drops of batter into the prepared pan. Cook until bubbles on top of pancake have popped, then flip. They should cook for about 60 seconds on each side. Remove to a plate, and repeat until you have used all the batter, adding more canola oil to the pan whenever it runs out. Best served warm.

Hot-Smoked Salmon Dip

Makes about 1 cup.

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 TBS creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2 TBS finely  minced red onion
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh dill
• 1 small wedge preserved meyer lemon, finely diced
• 4 oz. hot-smoked salmon

1. Beat the cream cheese, creme fraiche, red onion, dill, and meyer lemon together until the mixture is even. Use a fork to flake the hot smoked salmon out of its skin in bite-sized pieces. Gently stir the salmon pieces into the dip. Serve chilled.

Russian Beet Dip

Recipe inspired by Cooks.com. Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 medium beets
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 TBS finely minced red onion
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS cider vinegar
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove the greens and tails from the beets and place the beets in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil, boiling until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 25-40 minutes, depending on their size. Remove the beets with a slotted spoon and run under cold water, rubbing the skin off with your hands as you do so. This works best when the beets are still warm.
2. Dice the beets into 1/4 inch cubes. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, red onion, honey, vinegar, and dill until evenly mixed, then stir in the cubed beets. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve cold.

Pretty in Pink

Inspired by Bon Appetit. Serves 2.

• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, from one large grapefruit
• Two 1.5 oz. shots of vodka
• One 1.5 oz. shot of campari
• Chilled prosecco or champagne

1. Add grapefruit juice, vodka, and campari to a cocktail shaker with a few cubes of ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into two coupe glasses. Top each glass off with prosecco and serve immediately.

The post 2014 – A Year in Review // Rye Blini with Smoked Salmon Dip and Russian Beet Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

After 11 days of vacation, I had to go back to work… for all of 5 hours. Then we had our first Nor’easter of the year, they closed my office, and now I’m back on vacation for another 3 days. So far, 2014 hasn’t been too strenuous. Sadly, Trevor had to drive off into the snowy wilderness to go to work today, but he made this nice warm Russian drink and wrote this post for you to help those of you who are in the same boat warm up:

I’m especially pleased with the way Christmas and New Years came in 2013. It’s been like having a string of one day weeks for us around here, and work has been pretty low-key for everyone. I feel like I’ve had enough large meals and beer to hibernate at least through to March, and the bitter cold has kept us reading in bed until late in the mornings for quite a few days in a row. That being said, work is starting again in earnest, and most Bostonians are battling the first Nor’easter of the new year. For me, when I’m shoveling in the dark after a long day of work, the thought of a nice warm (alcoholic) beverage is pretty much the only thing that makes it bearable. [Edit: I swear Trevor isn’t a sad, lonely alcoholic. Also, I sometimes help with the shoveling.]

I discovered this drink while looking for ideas for the Captain’s Table Challenge, that Katie and I have been participating in (results for the second round are imminent).  With Katie traveling to Russia so often, it seemed like a good place to look for bracing beverages for the darkest depths of winter. At any rate, Sbiten, (according to the internet) it one of Russia’s versions of the hot, spiced, mulled winter drinks that cure what ails you. It stood out to me because the use of jam and honey make it so thick and hearty and give you a lot of control over the flavor. I’ve tried the recipe using a red wine base, as well as a rum-water base, and both turned out very nicely.

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Sbiten: Russian Mulled Rum

Serves 2.

• 1 c. water
• ½ c. spiced rum (plus one shot, optional)
• 2 T jam of choice
• 1 T honey
• ½ t ground ginger
• 1 t ground clove
• ½ t ground cinnamon
• ½ t ground nutmeg

1. Heat the water and ½ c. rum over medium heat in a small pot. When the mixture is just boiling add the jam and honey and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the spices, and stir to mix. Strain into mugs and add a dash of rum to each, if desired, for a stiffer drink.

Note: For a red wine-base, replace water and rum with ½ c. water and 1 c. red wine.

The post Cold Weather Cocktails: Sbiten appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I have two more days in Russia, and although it’s been a good trip, I’m looking forward to going home. Mostly because I miss Trevor. I know, I’m a huge sap, but he’s the best (he had brownies sent up to my hotel room! From 4,000 miles away!) Also, I kind of miss my parents, freezing rain is not my favorite type of weather, so… yeah, I will be happy when we land in Boston. But I promise to enjoy my last two nights.

Since we eat out for every meal here, I try to be especially conscious of the choices I’m making at restaurants and of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in general. I have some things working in my favor – a free gym which I can use without leaving the building, about 8-gillion bottles of water dropped off in my room every day, and limited mindless snacking options. But other things, like the propensity to serve sour cream with everything here, and the temptation to order a glass of wine every night, are working against me. Luckily, many traditional Russian dishes are pretty vegetable heavy. At breakfast, I’ve been having roasted mushrooms and boiled carrots with my eggs every morning, lunch always starts off with a vegetable soup, and there’s plenty of vegetable-centric mains to choose from on most menus – like pumpkin ragu, mushroom pie, and stuffed peppers.

Stuffed peppers, while certainly not unique to Eastern European cuisine, are a particular favorite of mine recently (in fact, I had them for lunch yesterday). This stuffed-pepper phase of mine was kick-started by the Mexican-style peppers that they serve for lunch at Bacco’s, which are filled with quinoa and black beans, and topped with cheese and enchilada sauce. Then, after having the meat-and-rice-stuffed version a few times at our cafeteria in Russia, I wanted to make them myself. I combined the two ideas, but kept a Mexican twist in there – the end result was peppers filled with a deliciously savory beef, quinoa, and black bean mix and topped with a smoky-spicy chipotle sauce and plenty of cheese. This is a meal that I feel good about.

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Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans, Quinoa, Beef, and Chipotle Sauce

Serves 4.

• 4 large bell peppers, tops cut off, seeds and veins removed
• 1 c. quinoa
• 2 c. water
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 large onion, minced
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 5 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp chipotle liquid (from canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce)
• 1 c. cooked black beans
• 1 TBS tomato paste
• 1 1/4 c. canned crushed tomatoes, divided
• 1/2 c. shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
• 1/3 c. crumbled cotija cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and then add the stemmed and seeded peppers. Boil for 3-5 minutes, just to blanch the peppers, then remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and set aside. Once cool, place in a casserole dish.
2. Rinse the quinoa, drain, then add to a medium pot with the 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, lower heat, cover pot, and cook for 15 minutes, or until “tails” of quinoa have unfurled and the quinoa is tender. Fluff up with a fork and set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the minced onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and break up with the back of a wooden spoon, and brown thoroughly, which will take about 5-8 minutes. Add the chili powder and chipotle liquid to the pan, and stir to evenly mix. Taste for seasoning, adjusting with more chili powder or chipotle if desired. Add the black beans, tomato paste, and 3/4 c. crushed tomatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken, stir in the quinoa, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Spoon the beef filling into the peppers, filling to the top, and arrange the peppers in the pan. Mix the remaining 1/2 c. of crushed tomatoes with 1/4 c. of water and pour into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the peppers with the cheddar or monterey jack cheese, then cover the pan with foil. Bake for 40-50 minutes, then remove the foil, and broil the peppers on high for 5 minutes to brown the cheese. Serve with the crumbled cotija cheese.

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