Happy Friday! Hope everyone has fun and relaxing plans for the weekend. It's a rainy day in DC and all I want is to stay in bed watching movies, but alas that's just not happening.
Instead, I wanted to share with you one of my childhood memories. As I've mentioned many times, I grew up in Moscow, Russia. My family cooked all the time, coming up with easy and filling combination of ingredients from whatever was available. We were a middle class family, but I remember staying in line for eggs and bread: things weren't readily available as they are in the US.
Neither my mom nor my dad are fussy cooks. My mom would never apologize if something did not come out exactly as she planned. We ate what was given to us or else...well, maybe not my brother :)
Some of my favorite food memories include simple dishes: boiled corn or boiled shrimp {with heads still on}, a big pot of polenta mixed with feta, or an omelet "surprise," a dish my parents served often on weekends where they added various leftovers into the whisked eggs.
Although my parents also made elaborate dishes {my dad makes amazing borscht***, and my mom bakes a wonderful sour cream cake}, this idea for what to do with strawberries is something they taught me that I still make decades later.
You might find this combination odd, but I dare you to try it!
All you need are sweet strawberries, sour cream and sugar.
Mix the sugar with the sour cream and then dip your strawberries into this silky mixture that has both sweet and sour flavors. {You can do the same with other berries.}
***My dad insists there should be no t in borscht, but the spellcheck is telling me otherwise.
http://goo.gl/v0HFW
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother always served us sour cream & berries growing up! I remember blueberries & strawberries the most. Love the photos :)
ReplyDeleteYay! Glad others have similar memories :)
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you!
My favorite Soviet memory is bread with a thick layer of cold butter topped with granulated butter.
ReplyDeleteI remember as a child seeing my Mother peel an apple and pour French Dressing over it. At first I thought it was sort of an odd combination, but after tasting it, I was hooked. My brothers would never try it, so it was my and Mom's special treat!
ReplyDeleteOh, we also had strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar -- I still remember the beautiful, long-stemmed fruit my dad used to bring home from the farm stand. Lovely memories :)
ReplyDeleteI too am from ex-Soviet Union and am a foodie :) Here is my recent blog post that tells a story of "going home"
ReplyDeletehttp://cuceesprouts.com/2012/08/russian-gazpacho-okroshka/
My Grandmother also did a treat similar to this for us when we went to visit her. She had whole berries, then we dipped them into a bowl of Sour Cream and then rolled them in a bowl of brown sugar. They were awesome and we still make them for dessert every now and then.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing! Love the idea of brown sugar and that you did this together with your grandmother.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always taught me to do this with bananas. We would stir slices into sour cream and sugar. It's the only way I'll eat sour cream. I used to put it on toast.
ReplyDeleteoy. I loath bananas ;) But I ♥ sour cream!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I remember - she called it smetana! I might have to have this again soon!
ReplyDeleteNow I remember - she called it strawberries & smetana!
ReplyDeleteThis is the best breakfast ever! We did this in Poland and here in the states- also works great with blueberries or raspberries. Go Eastern Europe! =)
ReplyDeletewoot woot ;)
ReplyDeleteDo you have a recipe for борщ? I'd love to have one from you!
ReplyDeletehere you go: http://www.mangotomato.com/2011/06/recipe-for-russian-borscht-or-at-least.html I'm also planning to make an updated version in October, so stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteSpasibo! Yummy :)
ReplyDelete