Around the World in 12 Dishes: Russia

This month’s virtual trip in Around the World in 12 Dishes was to Russia.

For our food dish, we decided to make potato pancakes and eat them for a fun Russian-themed lunch.

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I needed help to find Russian food to cook, so I turned to a new blog discovery, Natasha’s Kitchen. Natasha has an entire category devoted to Russian/Ukrainian food. When I saw her recipe for Easy Potato Pancakes, I knew the girls would enjoy cooking them and eating them.

First things first, we had to mash some potatoes.

Potatoes are a very popular food choice in Russia; they’re also a very popular food choice in our household. It was the perfect choice.

So, mash, mash, mash we went. The girls took turns until the potatoes were very thoroughly mashed. I kept the mashed potatoes on the stiff side since they were going to be made into pancakes.

Next it was time for the mixing.

I followed Natasha’s recipe exactly, only omitting the onions to ensure the girls would actually try these.

We mixed, formed them into pancaked and dredged them in flour.

Finally it was time for Mom to take over. The girls watched from a safe distance while I fried them up.

We added a spoonful of sour cream on the side for dipping and paired them with some sliced apples for a light lunch. I chose the apples because I noticed they were quite prevalent in many Russian dessert recipes. All in all it was quite the yummy lunch!

We started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and then moved northeast into Stockholm, Sweden. Our third station now is Moscow, capital of the vast country that is Russia.

• March 4 – First country was the UK
• April 1 – The second country was Sweden
• May 6 – The third country is Russia

How to join the fun! (Thank you Glittering Muffins for compiling all of this information.)

• • Cook a dish from Russia: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Solyanka, Borscht, Shchi, Pelmeni and Pirozhki.
  • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
  • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
  • Read a book: We recommend “The Littlest Matryoshka” by Corinne Demas Bliss
  • Fun fact: Every day over 9 MILLION passengers ride the Metro, Moscow’s vast underground subway system. In a single day, an average of 9915 trains operate between 5am – 1am, making the New York subway system seem like a miniature child’s toy.