Passport & Plate - In love with crust

lopason — Fri, 6 Mar 2015 08:19:29 GMT

Ingredients
Farmer cheese (firm and sticky, better if it has gone sour) 250 gr
Flour 5 spoons
Egg 1
Sugar 2-3 spoons
Any spices you like - cinnamon, vanilla, cloves
Sunflower oil 1-2 spoons

How to prepare this recipe
1. Mix farmer cheese, eggs and sugar in a bowl. Knead and beat the dough to make it smooth.
2. Add spices
3. Divide the dough into 10 balls. Flatten each ball to make small pancakes - 1 cm high and 4 cm in diameter. Dip each pancake in flour - all its sides have to be covered with flour.
5. Put frying pan on fire. When it is hot, put some sunflower
6. When the sunflower in the frying pan is hot, put the cheese pancakes on it.
7. Cook for 3-4 minutes on every side until it is golden
8. Eat it hot with sour cream or Greek yogurt. Or leave for a night - they are perfect when cold, with jam or berries!

The story behind this recipe
Travel - through time
I doubt there is a person who has never heard of russian borsch and blini. So I has always been lucky to be the first to tell curious members of international society about syrniki. These "farmer cheese pancakes" are not only a reason for my grandparents to meet, but also a reason for them to live together happily ever after.
My granddad and grandma lived in a small town, but they had never met until one evening in a shop, when they both felt like buying some farmer cheese for dinner. Unfortunately or fortunately there was only one pack of farmer cheese left, and my granddad was the first to ask for it. Than he saw my granny in a queue after him, thought she was beautiful, and heard her ask for farmer cheese and shop assistant say that they were out of it. My granddad couldn't resist doing something nice for a beautiful and sad girl, so he gave my grandma the pack he bought. After 2 minutes conversation she accepted his generous gift with a promise to go out with the gift-maker one day.
They met occasionally on a train station next day, my grandad was happy, but my grandma wasn't at all.
- You gave me the farmer cheese that had gone sour. - She said instead of hi.
My grandad didn’t come in nowhere and said bravely:
- I just wanted you to invite me for dinner with syrniki.
- There is no point in making syrniki of sour cheese!
- I totally disagree. Sour farmer cheese syrniki are one of the most significant dishes ever.
And my granddad was invited to my grandma's house to prepare syrniki and prove his point. The main ingredient in syrniki is farmer cheese, which represents love, he explained. And love can “go sour” after some time. You should add some flour - it will give a meaning to your love. Eggs will fix it and make it keep strong. Don't forget about sugar. And the final stage is to fry your farmer cheese pancakes to make old "sour" problems dissolve and to create a crust to protect your love.

Passport & Plate - Sun in dough

lopason — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 23:27:50 GMT

Ingredients
Dough:
Wheat flour - 500 gr
Warm water - 1 glass
Sunflower oil - 3 spoons

Filling:
Pumpkin ~500 gr
Sugar - to liking (perhaps, 5 spoons)

How to prepare this recipe
1 - Heat the oven to 200C
2 - Mix the flour with warm water and oil. You have to knead and beat the dough really well to make it elastic, smooth and able to stretch easily. Then, it should be left in a warm place covered with a warm plate for 15-20 minutes.
3 - During these 20 minutes you can make the filling. Grate the pumpkin or just cut it in small pieces (the "older" and harder you pumpkin is, the smaller the pieces should be). Mix with sugar to your liking, and stew the mixture - just let the pumpkin become smoother and the sugar dissolve.
4 - Cut the pastry into pieces to the size of apples. Roll and stretch each piece of pastry. Let them dry up for a couple of minute.
5 - Put 3-5 dough sheets on top of one another, spreading oil between them.
6 - Put the filling in the centre of the dough circles. Close the filling - try to form a “pentagon” shape.
7- Place your pies seam side down on the pan covered with oil. Cover the pies with oil and bake for about 20 minutes.
8 - Eat them hot!

The story behind this recipe
The Internet said me that Placinta is a Romanian pastry, but I’m sure it is my granny’s.

The fact is the recipe of the pie and the plate on which it was always served appeared in the family before my granny was born.
The family lived in a village near Odessa. In 30s they fled famine. They took along only bare essentials but they couldn’t leave the plate which this pie had always been served on.
It was an old Kusnetsov porcelain plate (Kusnetsov porcelain was the best in Russia, as famous as Meissen china in Europe), which passed from generation to generation with the recipe of Placinta.
The family had nothing to eat and they were not sure if they would get some food in the near future. Though, the family couldn’t abandon the plate, they took it along with faith in a better future and hope to be able to serve Placinta on this plate one day.
They moved homes, took on any jobs to get some food. Because of hunger one child (my Granny’s sister) died. The family went through extremely hard times, and the plate was always with them making them dream of real home and pies.
They could only dream of Placinta with pumpkin. It was like a sun in dough - the same hot and orange.
Placinta could be prepared with any filling, but my Granny has always made it with pumpkin. The dough is simple, so it needs something really amazing inside. Sweet pumpkin filling with its color and mild flavor perfectly fits.
The recipe survived, and so did the plate. We have it at home, and we serve cakes and pies on it on holidays. But you know what? The plate looks newer and brighter with placintas on it. And my granny is always smiling when she gets to know I cooked something from her family recipes book.

Lopason is enjoying her meal

Passport & Plate - In love with crust

Passport & Plate - Sun in dough