Recipe of the Day: Spiced Wine

 
Warm up with something nice and spicy.  A spiced wine is similar to mulled wine which is a common drink across Europe.  Notable parts of continental Europe that produce spiced wine are Germany and other German-speaking regions with their Glühwein; Poland’s grzane wino; Romania’s vin fiert; Moldova’s and Russians izvar; Italy’s vin brulé; and Latvia’s karstvīns.  Nordic countries have their version as well which is called Glögg, and Great Britain also has a taste for this spiced wine which they call, well, mulled wine.  Even though this spiced wine seem to be more popular in the colder countries in the Old World, Chile actually has a type of spiced wine as well called navegado.

     Usually, the main thing about spiced wine is it is simply a tasty mix of a wine base and additional spices.          Some of the spices that are typically found in this concoction are cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and even peppercorns.
  Making spiced wine is not that hard; the secret, however, in coming up with a good tasting wine is a good recipe.  Here is a recipe shared by John Besh for a nice hot spiced wine that you can easily mix up in your kitchen.
INGREDIENTS
2   bottles light-bodied red wine
1 1/4   cups sugar
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
3   black peppercorns, crushed
2   cardamom pods, crushed
One 3-inch cinnamon stick, crushed
1    clove, crushed
1/2  cup kirsch

DIRECTIONS
Combine the red wine, sugar, and the zests in a large saucepan.  Put all the spices in a packet or a tea ball, and put it in the sauce pan.
Simmer the wine over moderate heat.  Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat, take out the tea ball or spice packet, and then stir in the kirsch.
Serve hot.

NOTE
You can make spiced wine ahead.  Just keep it at room temperature, and then reheat before serving.

Russian Honey Layer Cake “Medovik”

Good Morning! Today i cooked Russian Honey Layer Cake “Medovik”-a great dessert for my lovely husband.He will love it!

    Long before sugar was easily available, honey was Russia’s primary sweetener, used in many different aspects of cooking: to ferment drinks such as mead and kvass (link to earlier article) and in baking cakes and  cookies such as gingerbread (link to earlier article.) Honey was also a reliable medicament, both topical, as a salve, internal to relieve fevers and chills.   In Russia today, honey, jam, and hot tea are still considered the first line of defense for a range of ailments.
    Recipes for honey cakes abound in Russia.  Along with gingerbread, Western Russian traditional honey cakes are often prepared with walnuts and apples, bringing together the flavors of the three August harvest festivals, known in the Christian liturgical calendar as the three “Saviors.” August 14 is “Medoviy Spas,” or “Honey Savior” considered the first day when honey can be gathered from the hives and combs.  August 19 marks “Yablochniy Spas” when apples and other fruits are ripe for picking.  These are followed on August 29 by the oddly named  “Not Made by the Hands Savior,” during which nuts take center stage.
  Making Medovik is a multi-stage process, involving cooking the separate cake layers one by one in the oven.  It also requires chilling the tort overnight in the refrigerator.  Plan accordingly.

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 2 eggs
• (16 Tbl) 225g sweet butter
• (1 cup) 110g sugar
• (4-5 cups) 440 - 550g all-purpose flour
• (2 Tbl) 30 ml dark honey (the darker, the better)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

For the Filling

• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk
• (1 cup) 236 ml sugar
• (12 Tbl) 170 g sweet butter (at room temperature)
• (6 oz) 170 g cream cheese (at room temperature)
• (1 cup) 236 ml sour cream

For the Topping

• (2 cups) 475 ml walnuts (crushed in the food processor)

Equipment

• An 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan
• A rolling pin
• Wooden skewer
• Parchment paper

Directions

	1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C)
	2. Prepare four or five pieces of parchment paper 10”x10” inches (25cmx25cm).
	3. Place the tin of sweetened condensed milk into a large saucepan and fill with cold water. Cover and place on medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for two and a half hours. Check the water level periodically and add more to ensure the tin is covered with water. When finished, remove the tin with a pair of tongs and set on a cooling rack to come to room temperature (at least two hours). Do not try to open the tin while the mixture is still hot!
	4. Sift the flour, spices, and salt together and set aside.
	5. Place a large glass bowl or the bowl attachment of a standing mixture over a saucepan of simmering water. Place the eggs, butter, sugar, and honey into the bowl and whisk gently until the mixture is completely combined and velvety. Do not let it over boil.
	6. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the soda. Whisk vigorously for thirty seconds.
	7. Beating constantly with an electric mixer or whisk, add the flour mixture in ½ cup batches until the dough is elastic – the ideal will be something between the four and five cups of flour. You should be able to easily roll a ball of dough between your hands without it sticking to them.
	8. Divide the dough into 8 or 9 balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
	9. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour onto a one of the prepared sheets of parchment paper laid flat on your working surface. Use a rolling pin dipped in flour to roll a ball of dough out to 1/8” thickness.
	10. Use the bottom of the 8-inch spring form pan to trace a circle of dough. Remove the trimmings and set them aside. Place the parchment paper with the dough onto a baking sheet and place in the middle rack of the preheated oven. Cook for three to four minutes until the cake is golden brown. Remove parchment paper with cake onto a cooling rack. Repeat with all of the dough balls and let cool for one hour. Reuse the  parchment paper as soon as the cake has cooled for fifteen minutes.
	11. Roll the trimmings out and bake them as one sheet of dough – don’t worry about the shape since you will crush them for the topping. Set aside.
	12. Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a standing mixer and beat until they are creamy and combined.
	13. Add the sugar and beat until absorbed.
	14. Add the condensed milk and sour cream and beat for thirty seconds. The mixture should be shiny and smooth.
	15. Chill the filling for thirty to forty minutes. Reserve 1-½ cups of filling to ice the edges of the Medovik.
	16. Line the bottom of the spring form bottom with parchment paper cut to fit.
	17. Place a cake layer on the spring form bottom and top it with ¼ cup of filling. Spread the filling evenly across the layer with a cake knife. Place the next cake layer on top of the filling and repeat with all of the cake layers, ending with a layer of filling on top.
	18. Carefully insert the wooden skewer into the center of the cake through all the layers. This will hold the Medovik together as the biscuit absorbs the filling.
	19. Wrap the assembled tort in a layer of parchment paper and gently fit the rim of the spring-form pan around it. Do not force the rim to close completely, but gently ease the rim snugly around the cake.
	20. Place in the refrigerator for at least five hours, but ideally more like twelve.
	21. Crush the layer of biscuit cake made from the trimmings by pulsing it in the food processor together with the walnuts. Toss the mixture gently to combine.
	22. Remove the Medovik from the refrigerator and frost the sides with the remaining filling. Sprinkle the top and sides with the topping and serve. Priatnovo Apetita!(Enjoy!)

Teach your kids using Russian Nesting Dolls

Matroshkas-They come in all shapes, sizes, and numbers of pieces per set.  The most basic sets are 3-5 pieces with simple paintings.  Not only are they beautiful as decoration, but they are also a great tool for teaching educational concepts.  The ideas listed below are geared for toddlers to early grade school children.  You can take each idea and make it more challenging or provide more support (depending on what your child needs)  I have given you some examples on how to do this!  Because this toy is adaptable to teaching a variety of concepts, it is a great sibling learning activity.  All of these activities can also be done in the language of your choice - making it a great language learning experience too!

1. To start at the very basics, Matroshkas are great for teaching NUMBER CONCEPTS and COUNTING.  Don't just have your children count each piece, give them the numbers too! You could mix a couple sets together to get into higher numbers for children who have already mastered numbers 1-5!  If you have a bunch of sets, like 3 sets of 5 piece Matroshkas, you could even use them for basic multiplication.  The possibilities are endless!

  2. They are also great for letting kids practice their FINE MOTOR SKILLS.  Opening and closing these little sets takes coordination and hand muscles.  Some sets are easier than others, but with practice, they are able to open and close them independently. 

3.Then there is the classic, ORDERING or SEQUENCING by size.  Encourage your kids to put them in order from big to small AND small to big.  If  your kid puts them in order from big to small, You may say, "Can you put them in order from smallest to biggest?"  You could also say, "How fast can you assemble the Matroshkas and put them in order from smallest to biggest."  This way, she is given a 2 step direction, can practice her fine motor skills and ordering by size, while getting a challenge by racing the clock!  

4.  Oh, but you cannot forget the power of VOCABULARY!  I am already starting to use these words with you, but kids do not always have the understanding of vocabulary.  It is important to use and explain the size words; small, medium, big, short, tall, smaller, smallest, bigger, biggest, tiny, tinier, tiniest and any other words you may want to use to describe size. (This vocabulary is in our K and 1st grade state math standards)

 5.  When they have the concepts of ordering and the vocabulary mastered, you can start to COMPARE!  You can show them one Matroshka and have them find another one that is smaller than the one in your hand. (or bigger) Then, have your child pick one and ask you to find one that is smaller or bigger. 

6. Storytelling.  Now, this Matroshka may lend perfectly to the retelling of the story of the "Golden Egg,"  In the story, the hen lays a golden egg.  The Grandma and Grandpa cannot break it.  A mouse comes along and breaks it with his tail and the Grandparents cry.  The hen tells them not to cry, she will lay another egg that is not golden! 

Don't you fret if your Matroshka doesn't have pictures for storytelling.  You and your kids could make up your own story using the Matroshkas as the main characters.  Older children can write down these stories.  Maybe even take pictures of the Matroshkas on an adventure and have them create their tale online. 

 7.  Last, but not least, I'd like to throw in a little GEOGRAPHY.  What?  With a Matroshka?  Why yes, some, but not all Matroshkas will have writing on the bottom of the largest Matroshka.  Often this will be the name of the artist who painted it and the city where it was made. Many I see will just have "Made in Russia" written on the bottom.  If you are lucky enough to have some writing on yours, break out the Atlas and find where it was made.  No writing?  Break it out anyways and show your kids where Russia is.  Many Matroshkas are made in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.  Can you find those on the map?  If the writing is in Russian (and you can't read Russian) feel free to post a picture of it on our Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russian-Dolls/232182443552784) and I will tell you what it says!

No Matroshkas in your house?  Here is a basic set and a paint your own set!

Russian Tea

 Russian Tea

The alkaloid caffeine is necessary for sustaining the brain active during nightly hacking sessions. A high-quality tea, however, stimulates cathartic sensations even in those, who drink it for the very first time. It is warming one’s body, mind, and soul. Various societies have developed brilliant styles of making delicious tea. The Chinese, the English, the Japanese, and many others have surmounted the art of this delightful beverage. Here are the way of preparing, serving, and consuming tea by the Russians.

Tea leaves and hot water do not essentially make fine tea. In Russia, the tea prepared using tea bags are called "the postman’s tea," since it comes in envelopes. This tea generates a distinctive flavor of cellulose. If you cook the tea leaves, you will get a liquid almost unlike tea, fit for leather tanning, instead of drinking. The Russian process of tea making is a two-stage one; first, you make the zavarka, the tea concentrate, and then water it down with kipyatok, hot, boiled water. Whenever hot water is decanted onto tea bags from a samovar, the outcome is still postman’s tea.

Before any more action, you must keep enough amount of kipyatok, you need it at various stages of the process. Kipyatok is the only water used in the process of tea preparation. Even a little amount of raw water can spoil the tea.

The essential steps of zavarka preparation are to put a definite quantity of tea leaves into some pot, pour kipyatok onto them, one cup for each five teaspoons, in one resolute spurt, stay until all the leaves settle.

At present, you can make your first cup of Russian tea. Pour some amount of zavarka into a teacup and dilute it using kipyatok in approximately 10:1 ratio. The power of the tea reckons on both this ratio and the strength of the zavarka. The tea color must be alike a chestnut.

The choice is yours to choose the ingredients. Different ingredients are used in the preparation of Russian tea, which are water, tea leaves, additions, and utensils. Poor quality water can spoil the best tea, at the same time as cautious treatment and the exact choice of water in addition to the accurate technology can make wonders with your tea. You must avoid poor quality leaves, instead use best quality tea leaves. The additions can be sweeteners, alcohol, and other stuffs. Different sweeteners are used to prepare Russian teas, which are fruit jam, honey, saccharine, sugar, and other artificial sweeteners. The alcohol includes rum, vodka, and other liquors. The other stuffs include baking soda, cream, lemon, and milk. Different utensils like the zavarka pot, the samovar, other water-boiling utensils, the saucer, and the podstakannik are used in the preparation of Russian tea. The average nutrient contents present in Russian tea are calories 32–190, cholesterol 0 mg, dietary fiber 0–1.6 g, protein 0–16 g, sodium 1–75 mg, total carbs 8.4–48 g, and total fat 0–0.2 g.

Most of the procedures in the Russian method of tea preparation are time consuming and might come out unessential at first glance. To prepare a good Russian tea, you must have patience and commitment; every crosscut cheapens the final product. Hence, do not hurry to make it, take your own time. Please keep the Russian proverb in mind: "If you rush, you just make people laugh."