Ingredient posts on this blog describe recipes that function as ingredients in other recipes. These “ingredients” are typically multi-cuisine and occur in a number of regional recipes.
Beef tallow or rendered beef fat is the bovine equivalent of lard. It’s solid at room temperature and keeps well in a closed container. If you have a big cut of meat with a lot of excess fat, save the trimmings and make your own. Even if you have a small amount of trimmed beef fat, you can save it tightly wrapped in the freezer until you have enough to make it worth your while.
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Stone fruit jam is very versatile. It can be used as a filling or topping in kolače/vatrushki, pierogi/vareniki, nalisniki and various other sweet goods from around Eastern Europe. I’ve made it successfully from both plums and peaches. It’s just fruit and sugar; no pectin needed! (If using peaches a little lemon juice is necessary to help it set up properly). And you don’t even need to peel the fruit. An immersion blender will help you get a really smooth consistency.
…Stone fruit jam (plum or peach) Read More »
Vegetable stock forms the basis of a good soup. Soups are an important component of most cuisines and certainly Eastern European cooking is no exception. We will explore several soups, and whenever possible I like to start with a homemade stock. Of course, you can make a delicious and quick soup using a store-bought stock or broth. For this reason, I separate basic stock recipes from soups in case you want to put one together quickly using this convenient option.
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