The Voice of Business and Community In Central New York

The Cooking Corner                                         by .... Vera Neroni

          Spring is finally here, hopefully to stay! Spring holidays are just as welcome, especially Easter. In Russia Easter is a very widely celebrated holiday, and just as with any Russian holiday for that matter, there is a favorite traditional dish with age-old recipes, that everyone looks forward to on these first warm days. The Easter cake, called kulich in Russian, is probably one of the most favorite among holiday recipes. There are countless versions of it: plain, chocolate, raisin, some even made with curd cheese. I decided to share one of the most popular recipes for this wonderful festive cake, and certainly favorite in my family the raisin variety. You might also add lemon or orange peel to it for a better aroma and texture, and sprinkle them on top of the frosting for some color when the cake is done.
          The second recipe is one that my mother recently came up with while trying to make a fast supper with a playful twist she added pumpkin seeds to an omelet! The dish was an instant hit. It is perfect for those in your family who love snacks, but still need a substantial dinner, I present a dish that will appeal to your local fast-foodist and appeal to the whole family as well. The pumpkin seed and Pringles might be substituted for any other snack favorite; it is just what is most popular in my family. Maybe this scrumptious omelet will actually convince them to have some greens on the side!

Pumpkin Seed Pringle Omelet

8 large eggs
¾ cup milk
½ - ¾ cup roasted and salted pumpkin seed
1 mini-package of Pringles, broken up into small pieces

          Beat together the eggs and milk for the omelet. Spray the pan with vegetable oil and roast the pumpkin seeds alone some more, if you want them crusty or golden colored. Then add the Pringle chips and pour over with the egg and milk mixture. Cook until firm. You could also add some tomatoes at the last minute for a fresh burst of flavor.

Kulich (Russian Easter cake)

6 cups flour
6 eggs, whites and yolks separate
½ qt milk
3 cups sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract
10 ½ oz margarine 6-8 oz raisins/citrus peel
gum drops, sprinkles, frosting or other decorations

          Before mixing, make sure all ingredients are warm about room temperature. In a large bowl mix together all of the milk, half of the flour and half of the sugar. Place in a warm spot to rise until the mixture doubles in size, about 1½ - 2 hours. Beat the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar until white, and add to the dough. Melt the margarine in a microwave oven (about 20 seconds on medium) and pour half of it into the dough. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the dough, along with vanilla extract. Finally, mix in the remainder of the flour. To have a good quality dough, you would have to knead it for a long time either with your hands or a mixer. To do it by yourself, put the dough onto a clean surface, wash your hands thoroughly and grease with margarine before kneading. While kneading, repeat the procedure a few times, and knead until the dough does not stick either to your hands or the table anymore. Also small bubbles will appear in the dough. When you have reached this point, put the dough back into the bowl and let it rise for 1½ - 2 hours more. Add the raisins you can change the amount, but they have to be dry. For the cake mold, it is best to prepare one with tall walls and a small diameter, because these cakes are usually cone or pyramid shaped and rather small, so that this amount of dough would actually fit a few. A tall fluted or Bundt pan would work. Grease the mold with vegetable oil, dust with some flour and fill up half way. Let the dough rise half hour more in a warm spot until it fills up ¾ of the mold, then bake at no higher than 300 F for about 1½ hours or until the top is dark golden brown and the cake is dry all the way through. Because the dough is allowed to rise so many times, the cake will be very light. If the cake seems to burn before it is done, the humidity might be low, so you could put a tray of water into the oven. The important thing to remember if you do that is not to let the water in the tray dry up, because it might overheat and cause damage to your oven.
          When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and cool on its side (this is the traditional Russian way of doing it, although I do not know how exactly it helps in the process). When cool, you can decorate your cake with frosting and sprinkles, or anything else you can think of. Have fun making this one and hope you enjoy it!

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