3 autumn recipes with baked vegetables from Russian chefs

1. Corn in cheese sauce with crab meat and red caviar

Andrey Palesika, Erwin.RekaMoreOkean (Erwin.RiverSeaOcean) restaurant

Usually, corn is eaten boiled in Russia, but when baked with cheese and seafood, it turns into a restaurant-level dish. This culinary masterpiece combines the natural sweet notes of corn and the slightly salty taste of cheese, caviar and crab meat.

Ingredients (one serving):

• Corn – 1 cob
• Cream 33% - 100 ml
• Melted cheese – 150 g
• Butter – 10 g
• Garlic – 5 g
• Parmesan cheese – 20 g
• Red caviar (trout) – 10 g
• Crab meat – 50 g

Instructions:

1. Open up the corn leaves, carefully not to damage the corn. Cut out the cob and boil it with a small amount of salt for 30 minutes in boiling water.

2. Then cut off the corn kernels from the cob and roast them in a pan until golden. Add garlic, cream and melted cheese.

3. Bring to a boil and evaporate the cream until it thickens.

4. Put the resulting mixture back on the corn leaves, add crab meat, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 180ºС for 5 minutes until crisp.

5. Decorate with red caviar before serving.

2. Baked eggplant with feta cheese and tomatoes

Vladimir Chistyakov, GRACE Bistro 

In this dish, warm eggplant is successfully complemented with slightly sour tomatoes and sweet chili sauce. Mint, cilantro and Tahini sauce with its piquant nutty flavor give the dish a real zesty taste.

Ingredients (one serving):

• Eggplant – 150 g
• Butter – 50 g
• Feta cheese – 60 g
• Tomatoes – 70 g
• Red onions – 10 g
• Sweet chili sauce – 15 g
• Tahini sauce – 20 g
• Fresh mint and cilantro – 5 g

Instructions:

1. Make diagonal cuts from an eggplant half and add butter. While baking, it’ll boil and the eggplant will be evenly heated. Put it in an oven preheated to 200ºС for 10-15 minutes.

2. Cut feta cheese into cubes and sprinkle randomly on the eggplant, put in the oven for 2-3 minutes to let the cheese melt and spread a bit.

3. Cut the tomatoes into slices, thinly slice red onion into half-circles, mix the vegetables with sweet chili sauce.

4. Pour Tahini sauce on the baked eggplant with feta cheese. Plate the vegetables in sweet chili sauce, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and mint leaves.

3. Cabbage steak with cream sauce and crab meat

Alexander Anoshkin, Lark Cafe 

A quarter of a cabbage head looks much more impressive on a plate than the finely-chopped fried cabbage that was made by women back in Soviet times. A sauce based on fish stock with crab meat and caviar allows you to serve such a dish even for a celebration dinner. In its presentation, the dish will remind Americans of Russian wedge salad.

Ingredients (for two servings):

• Cabbage – 1/4 of a head
• Butter – 1 tablespoon
• Dried cumin – 1/4 teaspoon
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
• Pepper to taste
• Crab in its own juice – 50 g
• Dill for decoration – 5 g
• Red caviar for decoration – to taste

For the sauce:

• Garlic – 1 clove
• Onion - 1/2
• Thyme – several twigs
• Cream 33% - 100 ml
• Fish stock – 200 ml
• Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
• Butter – 1 tablespoon

Instructions:

1. It’s more convenient to bake cabbage whole on the stalk (one head makes about eight servings), but we’ll use a quarter of a baked cabbage head for a steak for two. The rest is stored in the fridge.

2. How to bake a cabbage: cut a small cabbage head in four equal parts such that the leaves remain on the stalk. Put a quarter of it on baking foil, then sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper, add a spoon of butter and wrap tightly, leaving no holes through which steam or juice could escape. Bake the cabbage in an oven preheated to 200ºС for two hours. You can test if the cabbage is ready by the stalk – a knife should easily cut through it. When that’s achieved, cut the cabbage into two thinner pieces and peel off a couple of outer leaves.

3. The sauce: put a small pot with a thick bottom on medium heat, add olive oil and butter; then fry finely chopped onion, garlic and outer cabbage leaves. Add thyme twigs and a pinch of salt and continue to fry, stirring. Afterwards, add the juice that was leftover after the cabbage baked, as well as cream and fish stock. Add salt, then reduce heat and cook for five minutes on a slow boil. Remove from the heat, let it cool a little, crush in a blender and press through a sieve. If the sauce is too thick, water it down with fish stock.

4. Put a pan on medium-high heat, add olive oil and butter, and sear the cabbage first on one side, then on the other side. Turn the cabbage, pour sauce on it and cook for a couple more minutes, pouring more sauce. Pull the crab meat into threads.

5. Take the cabbage off the heat, put onto plates and serve with thick cream sauce, crab meat, red caviar and dill.

READ MORE: 8 Russian dishes made with pumpkins that are perfect for autumn