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To get you in the mood for cooking, here’s a sweet Masha i Medved cartoon with the Bear, the Panda, and Masha in the kitchen (share it with your kids… you DON’T need to know Russian to get the point)…
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Editor’s Note:
Show some creativity! You could replace the rice with kasha or barley (or use short-grain rice in place of long-grain or add some wild rice), or you could use diced bell pepper and drained diced tomatoes instead of the mushrooms. Want to chop up a jalapeño and toss it in? Hey, be the first Mexican Russian cook on the block… or, it is the first Russian Mexican? You could use a mushroom sauce or a sour cream (or yoghurt) sauce with dill. Of course, if you wish to go the traditional route, the customary vegetable oil is sunflower oil. MILLIONS of babas CAN’T be wrong!
Hey, Orthodox people, if it’s one of the four Lents, omit the dairy products… remember, Baba has a broom and she knows how to use it! WHACK! “What kind of atheist are you?” WHACK! “This is a Christian house, you disrespectful lunk! WHACK! “Now, go to confession!”
BMD
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Cabbage rolls stuffed with various ingredients is a very popular dish in Russia. It’s common not only in Russia, but also in Balkan ethnic cuisines, as well in other parts of Europe (such as Finland and Sweden), and in the Middle East as well. The cabbage rolls are “golubtsi” in Russian, and the word sounds like the Russian word for pigeon… “golub”. Apparently, in the 17th century, when French cuisine was gaining unprecedented popularity in tsarist Russia, it was fashionable to eat pigeons prepared on a grill in the open air. Later on, in similar fashion, cooks used the grill to prepare cabbage rolls called “fake pigeons”… that’s where the name comes from. Traditionally, golubtsi have rice and minced-meat filling. Nowadays, people prepare a vegetarian version with rice, mushrooms, and a vegetable filling. The process of making cabbage rolls is time-consuming and requires certain skills, but the result is worth the effort.
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Preparation
Ingredients:
(For 8-10 pieces)
- 1 large cabbage
- 7 oz (200 g) uncooked rice, cooked in the usual way
- 10.5 oz (300 g) mushrooms, chopped
- 2 onions, diced finely
- 2-3 carrots, diced finely
- 7 oz (200 g) curd
- 4 tomatoes, drained, roughly chopped
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
- salt
- ground pepper
- herbs for seasoning, to taste
Method:
- It’s better to use a larger cabbage. Remove the cabbage leaves, cutting them from the stem one by one, trying not to damage the leaves. You should cut down the thick part at the bottom of each leaf to make rolling easier. Then, blanch the leaves, putting them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until they soften, but before they cook through. Remove the leaves from the water and set them aside.
- To prepare the filling, put the oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, sauté the chopped onions and carrots for a few minutes until the onions are translucent, then, add mushrooms and seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, herbs). Mix it together thoroughly and let it cook for a few minutes more, stirring frequently. Tip the contents of the pan into the cooked rice and stir it well to combine.
- Put 2-4 tablespoons (30-50 ml) of filling on a cabbage leaf (near, but not at, the bottom of the leaf), fold the sides over the filling, fold the bottom over the filling, and roll it up from the bottom to make an envelope. Many recipes recommend that you fry each roll on both sides. It doesn’t make a huge difference, so you can skip this step if desired.
- Simmer the cabbage rolls in the sauce until done.
Sauce Preparation:
The simplest way to prepare the sauce is to take vegetable stock (Maggi cubes will also do) and mix it with water, curd, spices, and chopped fresh tomatoes or tomato paste. Pour this mixture on your cabbage rolls and bring it to a boil. The sauce should cover 2/3 of the rolls. To serve, pour the sauce over the rolls. Usually, people add sour cream when they serve this dish, but in this recipe, the amount of curd in the sauce is enough to meet the necessary level of sourness.
To prepare the non-vegetarian (read “original”) version of this dish, use a mixture of rice, minced meat of choice (7 oz (200 g)), onion, and spices. You could also add an egg to bind the mixture together. The cooking time will be longer than it is for vegetarian rolls, but simmering for 30 minutes should suffice.
Priyatnogo appetita!
2 October 2013
Yelena Revinskaya
Russia Behind the Headlines
http://rbth.ru/arts/2013/10/02/golubtsi_veggie_take_on_old-time_favorite_30453.html
Voices from Russia 
Uniate Priests Campaigning for the Overthrow of the Ukrainian Government
Tags: Catholic Church, Christian, Christianity, Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church, EU, European integration, European Union, Galicia, Galician Uniate, Ivano-Frankovsk Oblast, Kiev, Maidan, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Ukraine, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Uniate, Western Ukraine, YouTube
The demonstrators are a minority… even of Galicians. They’re pro-American dupes… they know not what they do, in many cases. After all, their clergy and hierarchy lie to them. Be forgiving of individual Uniates… show no mercy to their propaganda, though. The priests of the legit canonical UOC/MP are on the Maidan spreading Christ‘s message of peace and reconciliation. The Uniates and schismatics are there advocating the violent overthrow of the government. I know which one I favour… do you?
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According to Interfax-Religion, priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKTs) condemn believers who disagree with the European integration of the Ukraine. In particular, an online video showed Uniate priests, backed by shouts of “ганьба” (ganba: shame) from the crowd, trying to overpower their Eurosceptic opponents on the Maidan, but the police protected the Eurosceptics from the Uniate mob. A source close to the UGKTs told Interfax-Religion on Tuesday that on 20 November, when the idea of pro-EU demonstrations on the Maidan arose, UGKTs priests in all parishes and seminaries sprang into action, urging their faithful to go to Kiev. The source stated, “They formulated a clear action plan on what to do on the Maidan… what to say and how to say it, and how to oppose other factions to block alternative viewpoints from reaching the government. They had a goal… they wanted to take part in régime change. Priests are still stirring up their flocks to go to Kiev, even though there’s no longer any genuine solution possible through the Maidan demonstrations“. The other day, much controversy erupted over a YouTube video showing Uniate priest Mikhail Arsenych in Ivano-Frankovsk Oblast calling in a sermon to have a “discussion with bullets” with opponents of European integration.
10 December 2013
Pravoslavie.ru
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/news/66578.htm