Pelmeni

This Russian national dish is easy to make, albeit I suspect no one would call it quick, but everyone likes it.

For the dough I used this recipe from a German website. Then I made a beef filling and a vegetarian filling.

Dough
400 g flour
2 eggs
150 ml warm water
1/2 tsp salt
Add the salt to the flour then add warm water to the flour and begin mixing. Then add the eggs and knead until all ingredients are well combined. Cover with a wet cloth and let the dough sit for 20-30 min.

Beef filling
1 lb ground beef
1.5-2 onions, blended
2 tbsp soft butter
salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, parsley
Combine all ingredients. Done.

Potato filling
boiled potatoes
milk
butter
1/2 onion
salt, pepper
Cut the onion in little pieces and fry until golden/translucent. Mash potatoes with a bit of the water they were boiled in, add milk, butter, onion, salt and pepper.

To form the Pelmeni separate the dough in half and make about 1.5-2 inch thick rolls. Then cut 1.5-2 inch pieces off, roll them into balls, use flour to dust the table and roll the dough balls out into very flat circles.
Then place filling onto a circle, fold it in half making sure to pinch the outer line of the half circle together. Then fold the edges together. (See picture)
Cook for about 10 minutes. Serve with butter and or sour cream.

Beef and Vegetable Stew

Soups and stews are easy to make and can be very tasty.

For this one I used home-made stock made from veggie scraps:

6-8 cups vegetable stock
1 onion, cut
3 carrots, cut in thin circles
1/2 lb ground beef
1 can black beans, drained
2 little yellow squash, cut in quarter circles
1/2 cup quinoa, washed
1 cup macaroni
salt, pepper, cumin, parsley

Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry half of the cut onion for a couple of minutes. Add spices and the cut carrots. Fry for another 5 minutes, then add the ground beef and fry until beef is done.
In a pot, bring the stock to a boil, add salt and spices, then reduce to a simmer. Add beans,  squash, quinoa and macaroni. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the beef-carrot mix.

I first wasn't quite happy with the result because I had forgotten to salt the stock before putting the macaroni in so that they were kind of tasteless although the broth and vegetables had a good amount of spices in and on them. But on the second day the macaronis had sucked up the flavor and it was much better.
I also liked the colors of the dish :)

Picadillo

This Picadillo recipe is one of my favorite recipes. I learned it from a friend a couple of years ago and have made it a couple of times since then.
It is great in tortillas as suggested in the recipe, but I like the rice version just as much. I served it with home made guacamole, grated cheddar and some salad:

Vegetable Stew (with beef)

For this stew I have combined ideas that I found online with what I had in the fridge. This recipe can easily be done without the beef and as a vegan/vegetarian version.

Vegetable Stew

beef for stews (optional)
oil mustard and dressing
4-5 cups of broth
1/2 can of tomato paste
spices: bay leaves, oregano or basil, pepper, salt
3 carrots, sliced
3 big potatoes, diced
5 celery stems, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 apple, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons of flour
3 table spoons of water
In a large pot, fry the beef in oil, mustard and dressing until done on the outside.
Add broth, tomato paste and spices, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30-60 minutes (I used this time to cut the vegetables). Add carrots, potatoes, celery, onion and leek. Cook until potatoes are soft. Add apple, tomatoes and mushrooms and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
Whisk together flour and water and add to the stew, cook for another 3 minutes until the stew thickens.

Outcome:
- I couldn't taste the mustard and dressing at all and I wonder if they are necessary (I think I would have liked a little mustard taste, so I will try to add more mustard next time).
- The stew had a very strong tomato taste which I wasn't expecting since I only used half a can. I want to try to leave that out next time.
- Another thing I wasn't expecting was that I couldn't taste the celery much. I don't like raw celery and for that reason haven't used it in cooking either. Maybe it was masked by the tomato taste, but in the future I will not avoid it anymore.
- I added the apple because some sites say that it goes well will celery or celery root, but I don't think that one apple made much difference. Maybe it was also masked by the tomato taste.
- What I really liked was how the stew thickened slightly with the flour and water mixture that is added in the end.