My mom doesn't feel like much cooking now that I'm out of the house, but the other day I found her making sirniki. These little pancakes are made with tvorog, Russian cottage cheese.
Tvorog is nothing like bland, milky American cottage cheese. Ricotta is a distant relative, but tvorog has a tangy, yogurt-y taste and a thick, creamy texture. It's also known as farmer's cheese, and you can sometimes find it in Russian/European groceries. Making your own is cheaper and usually easier, though. I've seen lots of different techniques for making it--one of these days, I'll post detailed directions, with pix, for mine.
Inspired by my mom, I made a batch of tvorog and whipped up the sirniki on Sunday. I tweaked Anya von Bremzen's recipe from Please to the Table to reflect my Sunday morning laziness. With sour cream and a lump of strawberry jam, they were very good.
I mixed a cup of tvorog with an egg, a couple of tablespoons of flour, a table spoon of uncooked cream of wheat, a tablespoon of sour cream, a couple of teaspoons of sugar, and a dash of salt. Then I formed round, hamburger-sized patties, dusted with flour, and fried in a buttered skillet.
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7 comments:
You can find tvorog in many American supermarkets nowadays. They call it 'farmer cheese'. Friendship and Lifeway are more common brands. I like Lifeway's better as it tastes like you said 'yogurty', especially their 'Swiss style' variety. Lifeway is popular brand in healthfood stores - they're famous for their kefir.
I blogged about sirniki few months ago as well (http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2006/01/cooking-estonian-srnikud-alias-curd.html). Since the EU enlargement, there are lots of Poles living in Scotland, so I can easily get proper tvorog from Polish shops here in Edinburgh now. Lucky me:)
I still can't find cream of wheat that isn't instant in the supermarket. Where are they selling it?
Anonymous--You can use instant, as long as it's uncooked. I'll change the recipe to reflect that.
what's the fat content please?
Judy
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
On the other side, I will be willing to eat carrots for two days if my reward is a plate of sirniki.....
Oh how I love sirniki!!!
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