Meatball Soup

Soup with meatballs, rice, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and coriander

In Russia, soup is a staple dinner dish. It is always something you have before the main course. My 80 year old grandparents still have it every day.

I'm not a fan of soup. This is probably because I've had it every day of my childhood and never questioned it until we left Russia and I discovered that in other countries, people didn't have soup every day. Not being a fan of vegetables, I quickly decided I didn't want to eat it anymore. Only in the last few years, I have started to enjoy it occasionally.

When I saw this recipe, I thought I wouldn't mind trying it. I should've learnt from my other cooking experiences out of this book and halved the ingredients. After I finished rolling the meatballs, I realised there was no way they were all going to fit into my pot, not to mention adding potatoes and carrots later. I had to separate the soup into two pots.

As you can see from the photo above, there was not much liquid. Some of the meatballs ended up falling apart. I was very frustrated with the whole process because it was taking so much time and not turning out the way I expected. When my husband and I tried it, we were not impressed. Not to say it was bad, just not something I would cook again.

Ratings

husband: 3/5

wife: 3/5

Pelmeni

Meat dumplings

This dish was a total cooking disaster for me. It put me off making anything else. Tatiana's grandmother was right, it was "too much effort". Especially for a pelmeni novice like me.

First of all, the dough was too hard too roll. My arms were sore from rolling it to 1.5cm (at most). It was definitely a lot thicker in the middle. Then, my grandparents gave me a special thing that put the pelmeni together. Rather than making it easier for me, I ended up wasting a lot of the ingredients because I couldn't use this tool properly and having to fix the edges myself.

Since I rolled the dough too thick, I had a lot of filling left over with which I didn't know what to do. I ended up making a couple of kotlety (Russian meatballs) at my husband's suggestion.

When we finally tried the end result, my husband (having never tried pelmeni before) knew immediately the dough was too thick. It still had the real pelmeni taste so I wasn't too disappointed after all the trouble I had with the recipe.

I later told my grandma about my cooking episode and she said, "Don't you know, we always buy pelmeni. Making them is too much effort".

Ratings

husband: 2½ / 5

wife: 3/5

Meat Cutlets with Onions and Esther's Mashed Potatoes

Not the healthiest option to have for dinner but so comforting, especially when it's cold and rainy outside.

I didn't have a shallow frypan so used one with deep edges. The meat cutlets did not need to be fried for 7 minutes on each side. After about 4-5 minutes, they were close to burning. I made them a little smaller than tennis balls (as instructed) and flattened them only slightly which produced a crunchy crust and very soft and juicy insides.

Since the recipe said that Tatiana served them with mashed potatoes, I decided to use the recipe from the middle of the book. It even said that she served Esther's mashed potatoes with her meat cutlets. Perfect combination. I have to confess this was the first time in my life I made mashed potatoes.

I had no idea what a ricer was so when I googled it, I was happy to realise that we had it! My husband always talked how he couldn't find it in Australia so his Mum brought one for us from South America when she was there earlier this year.

I only made half the recipe portion because I didn't have a pot large enough to fit over 2kg (5lb) of potatoes, plus all the other ingredients that had to go in it. I used light cream (18% milk solids) as there is no half-and-half (12.5% milk solids) in Australia. I was worried the mashed potatoes would be too rich but even with the added butter, they were still a little bit dry.

When I tasted the final product, I even had seconds. My husband said he preferred my version of the meat cutlets (I bake them in the oven, rather than fry them and also add potatoes into the mince). For me, this was the best dish so far.

Ratings - Meat Cutlets with Onions

husband: 3½ / 5

wife: 4/5

Ratings - Esther's Mashed Potatoes

husband: 3/5
wife: 4/5