In Search of Vkusnyatina: Two Dinners and a Cake (by Mari)

I have been meaning to write about some of the meals I recently cooked and post them in separate entrees, but with time passing by and the projected entries accumulating, I decided to bunch them together into one post.

Chicken in White Wine Sauce

I don’t have a specific recipe that I follow for this one, I wing it to taste, but here are some of the ingredients that I use:

1 whole chicken breast

5-7 button mushrooms

small package of grape tomatoes

a few leaves of fresh basil

white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)

salt

olive oil

I cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and sautéed them in a pan with a bit of olive oil. I sliced the mushrooms and some of the tomatoes and put them in the pan once the chicken was mostly cooked. I decided to cut some of the grape tomatoes in half so that they would give some of their juice off into the sauce, but left some of the tomatoes whole so that we could have that satisfying little burst when biting into them. The veggies gave off some juices and I topped it off with the wine, eyeballing the amount. I put the salt in twice, once when I was first cooking the chicken by itself and then again to the sauce, to taste. Then, when everything was cooked and nearly ready for plating, I topped it off with some chopped fresh basil (we grow our own basil in a flower pot in the kitchen and it definitely comes in handy.) I had also made some thin spaghetti to go with this, although I would have preferred angel hair pasta because with something as thin and delicate as a wine sauce, I feel like thicker pasta just doesn’t absorb as well. So we had the chicken with veggies and sauce over the thin spaghetti with a glass of Pinot. It was good, if I do say so myself.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

This is something I came up with during Passover when I couldn’t use breading on the tilapia. Usually, I did a mix of breadcrumbs and parmesan, but when I omitted the bread crumbs and doubled the parmesan during Passover, Craig really liked it and thought I should just make it that way from now on, hehe.

Tilapia filets (other fish filets would work too)

Enough grated parmesan cheese to cover the amount of tilapia filets

The following spices, to taste:

dry dill, oregano, and basil

salt

pepper

garlic powder

olive oil for frying

I mixed the parmesan with all the spices on a large plate. I coated the filets in the mixture on both sides, pressing it in to the parmesan to have it stick a bit better, and then put it right into the pan with a bit of olive oil. I let it go, not moving it, until I could tell that the parmesan got to a golden brown color and then flipped it. Same thing on the other side, until golden brown. This actually turned out to be the perfect timing for the fish too, it was flaky but moist, not overcooked at all. I really liked how the parmesan made a slightly crunchy crust on the fish, it was a very nice texture contrast to the fish. When I did just half parmesan and half bread crumbs, it didn’t crisp up like this.

I served this with some white rice. A little while after that though, I made a salad that could go well with this fish too, I think. It’s pretty easy, tasty, and actually gets better the longer it stands in the fridge.

Beet, Carrot, and Apple Salad

1 can of beets

2 medium size carrots

1 large Granny Smith apple

a couple of spoonfuls of mayo

salt

I cut the canned beats into long thin strips. I used the mandolin slicer with a julienne setting to slice up both the apple and the carrots. I mixed the apples, beets and carrots together in a bowl and added the mayo and salt while mixing. It was a very crisp and fresh salad, a bit of a sweet and sour flavor. It only gets better the second and the third day. Craig wasn’t a huge fan of the salad; he ate a bit on the first day, but then didn’t really go for the leftovers later. So there was enough salad for me to have as a side dish for dinner for 3 days. By the third day, the veggies were slightly softer, but the carrot and apple still had some definite crispness to them and the flavors have melded very well together. There was also no separating of the mayo and juices that sometimes happens to veggie salads when they stand, all the juices were totally reabsorbed. I got the idea for this salad from a Russian restaurant near us “Da I Net” where they serve it with some Potato Chip Sticks on top for an added crunch.

Almond Cake

This is a recipe that my mom has used for many years at Passover and it comes from one her Passover cookbooks. But it’s so good, I’d eat it any day. My mom usually makes this in a bundt pan, but I made it in a loaf pan, so it came out more like a light and fluffy bread, rather than a cake. But it’s still soooo good.

8 eggs

2 cups of finely ground almonds

1 cup of sugar

Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks with half the sugar. Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the other half of the sugar to the egg whites gradually while continuing to beat them with a mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolks, don’t stir. Then gently fold the almonds in. Again don’t stir, but fold thoroughly and carefully so that the almonds are throughout the mixture. Then pour into a greased pan (bundt or loaf pan, both work) and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. You can test for doneness with a tooth pick.