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The Cooking Corner                                         by .... Vera Neroni

          Out of the three recipes I am going to introduce today the first two have been widely known in Russia and Ukraine for a long time for their versatility. These two great recipes are an example of how you can make two very different dishes out of the same ingredients. The first one, the potato-meat pudding, has been a favorite in our family for years, and my mother just loves the potato turnovers. Both recipes are easy to prepare, very tasty and filling and with them you can make use of any potato or meat you might have, be it fresh or leftovers. Into each of these recipes you can substitute boiled, baked or raw potatoes, and the filling may also be anything of choice boiled eggs with fried cabbage, fried mushrooms, any other type of meat, etc. Any way you choose to make it, you will still get the same great result something different yet simple that the whole family can enjoy. Here I use meat in both recipes, and all of the different variations are up to you.
          The third recipe, fried apple rings, is an interesting dish that can be used as anything from dessert to snack, even as garnish (although I prefer it as dessert). It is better to use apples that are really sour in the recipe because then there would be a wonderful flavor contrast between the sweet sugary dough and the sour apple. And if you are tired of old desserts, this crunchy recipe is bound to put the twist back into apples!

Potato pudding

• 10-12 (1 kg) medium potatoes (you could also use mashed potatoes)
• 2 eggs
• 300 g (10.5 0z) ground or regular beef
• 2 medium onions
• about 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
• 5 tablespoons butter
• pepper, salt, bay leaves

Makes about 4 servings

          Peel the potatoes and boil them in slightly salty water until ready. Then mash them until there are little or no lumps, add the eggs and salt, and mix well. Take the onions, cut them into small pieces and lightly toast them up in vegetable oil. Boil the beef, ground it in a food processor when it is ready, and add some salt, pepper and the toasted onions. Then take any oven-safe dish you want to put the pudding into and grease it well. Put half of the potato mixture on the bottom of the dish, layer it with the meat, and cover with the remainder of the potatoes. Now you can brush some beaten eggs onto the top, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes (just so that the pudding gets a nice crust on the top), at 400 degrees. Serve the pudding hot, pouring melted butter over it.

Potato turnovers with meat

• 8 medium potatoes
• 500 g (17.5 oz) ground beef or steak
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
  (you could use any other vegetable oil too, but the sunflower oil really adds to the taste)
• salt, pepper, bay leaves

Makes about 4 servings

          Boil the potatoes in slightly salted water, and after they are done, mash them up so that there are little or no lumps; add the egg, melted butter, salt and pepper to taste, and mix well. For the meat filling, boil the meat, then ground it up and fry it with the onion, chopped, and some pepper and bay leaf. Make small patties out of the potato mixture (about 3 inches across). If the mixture is a little too thick, add some sour cream or broth, and if it is too thin add a little flour for more manageability. Put some meat filling onto each patty, wrap it around the meat and pinch the edges. Before frying, roll the turnovers in breadcrumbs, and fry in sunflower oil on a hot frying pan until golden brown on both sides. This dish can be served either separately with mushrooms or a vegetable salad for garnish, or as a side dish to something else.

Fried apple rings

• 2 medium apples (about 500 g)
• melted butter for frying for the dough:
• 100 g (about 5 tbsp) flour
• 3 eggs
• 3/5 cup of milk
• 3 tsp sour cream
• 2 tsp sugar
• salt

Makes about 5 servings

          Wash the prepared apples, peel them and take the seeds out leaving the apples whole, then cut them into thin circular slices, and sprinkle with some sugar. If you are not ready to fry them yet, sprinkle the slices with a little lemon juice so that they dont lose color.           To prepare the dough, first separate the eggs, add sugar, salt, sour cream and flour to the yolks, and milk. Beat the egg whites until stiff, gently fold them into the dough, and mix the dough thoroughly.
          Each prepared apple slice should be dipped into the dough before frying and fried immediately in hot butter on high heat. The apple rings are ready when they are covered in a golden crust.
          You can serve apple slices sprinkled with powdered sugar with a glass of cold milk. They are also very good with apricot jam.

........Enjoy!!

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