Russian themed Dinner!

My Russian dolls from Ukraine. 

It's really special when you can take part in trying out another person's culture and cuisine. We had the pleasure of having our Russian pastor over for dinner and had fun enjoying some Russian cuisine together!

I did some research on Russian food before attempting to create something and headed straight to all recipes.com which I trusted would have some great home-cooked type of Russian food, and it did! I found a recipe to make Chicken Kiev, Kartoshnik, and a Ukrainian Apple Cake.

Chicken Kiev 

Chicken Kiev is basically herbed butter wrapped in chicken and then rolled into bread crumbs and fried. There is a bit of a process to it but worth it because it turned out great. It's also one of those recipes you can tweak and add whatever herbs you want. I baked these in the oven for about 40 minutes instead of frying them. <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-kiev/detail.aspx>

Kartoshnik

Kartoshnik is Russia's version of mashed potatoes. But not just simply mashed potatoes like we would prepare them, but this also has eggs, cheese, and baking powder which creates a fluffy cake-like mashed potatoes. To give it some great flavour after reading some of the reviews of it turning out bland, I added some bacon and sprinkled the top with some of the bacon pieces and some dried thyme. This side dish was really good even if it just was 'mashed potatoes'. <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kartoshnik-with-cheese-and-onions/detail.aspx>

For dessert, I found a recipe for an Ukrainian Apple Cake called a Yabluchnyk which sounded really nice and rustic. The base is a dense cake texture and the top is sliced apples with a strudel creating that traditional cinnamon aroma while it's baking in the oven. <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ukrainian-apple-cake-yabluchnyk/detail.aspx>

Yabluchnyk

Overall, I survived creating some Russian cuisine with a little Canadian flare! ;)