Alissa Timoshkina shares ideas from her cookbook for a delicious Mother's Day meal

For some of us, Mother’s Day might not necessarily be a happy occasion; instead it may be a source of anxiety and sadness. Perhaps your mother is no longer here, perhaps it is a reminder of your troubled relationship with her or with your own children, or it might also trigger painful memories of the missed opportunity to become a mother. This year, with the coronavirus pandemic, we are all faced with an unprecedentedly complex situation…

However, I hope we can use this difficult time to finally focus on the one Mother we all have - our Planet. Amongst the devastation to human life, the new lifestyle forced upon us by the virus is bringing positive change to the environment and I hope we can find some gratitude within ourselves as we acknowledge this. Despite the current hardships we are all united in our experience of it and the importance of sharing a meal together has never been more poignant. I hope this mother’s day you will be able to gather around the table with your loved ones. 

Here are some ideas for a meal that I have put together for you using recipes from my cookbook Salt & Time. 

A RUSSIAN WELCOME

RYE BREAD CROSTINI WITH DILL BUTTER, FRESH RADISHES AND CHARRED SPRING ONIONS

A more elegant take on a classic Russian welcome snack, these crostini taste as good as they look. Welcoming someone to your home with bread and salt is a very old Slavic tradition that survives into the present-day language. While no-one greets their guests with a large chunk of bread and a small bowl of salt anymore, saying that someone gave you a ‘bread and salt’ welcome means you were treated very generously by your hosts. These recipes are inspired by the old Russian tradition, cobbling some of the classic flavour combinations such as rye bread, butter, dill, beetroot and spring onion, while throwing in a few unorthodox flavours too. Feel free to experiment with these, swapping various ingredients around or inventing your very own Russian-style rye crostini.

Serves 4 – 8

4 slices of dark rye or Borodinsky bread
100g of unsalted butter
2 large pinches of Maldon salt
100g of fresh dill
8 spring onions
2 tbsp of unrefined sunflower oil
8 radishes

Lightly toast the rye bread on a dry non-stick frying pan or in a toaster. Set aside to cool down.
Using a food processor or a hand blender mix the butter with salt and fresh dill until a light fluffy green paste is achieved. This should not take more than 2 minutes.
Heat a griddle pan and lightly brush the spring onion with oil before placing it on the griddle.
Char on each side for approximately 1 minute or as long as it takes for the distinct grill marks to appear.
Wash the radishes (remove the leaves if they come with) and slice into thin discs.

To serve, smother each slice of bread with approximately 15g of dill butter. Cut in two, if serving 8 people as finger food, or leave 4 slices whole if serving as an entrée.

PAN-FRIED COD WITH MARINATED VEGETABLES

Another staple of Soviet cuisine, this dish tastes a lot better than it looks. I have always been a fan of cod smothered in a lightly pickled sofrito of carrots, onions and peppers, however, its rather sloppy appearance never made me want to serve this dish at a dinner party. And then one evening, on a lovely dinner date with my partner in Cape Town, I hit the culinary jackpot when the most gorgeous plate of cod and carrot cooked three ways landed on my table. There it was, the good old Soviet ‘fish under a marinade’ only as if it had undergone a much-needed makeover. I could not wait to get back to my London kitchen to test this new version! The final result left me very pleased: I could finally share my favourite ‘ugly’ dish in a new rather dashing guide.

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main 

For marinated vegetables
125ml of apple cider vinegar 
70ml of water
2 tbsp of caster sugar 
1 tbsp of salt 
1 small garlic clove, minced 
2 carrots 
1/2 red pepper 
1/4 white onion 

For the vegetable puree 
1 onion 
1 red pepper
1 carrots 
2 tbsp of sunflower oil
1 pinch of salt 
2 tbsp of tomato puree 
4 tbsp of water 
2 tbsp of chopped dill 
1 tsp of white wine vinegar 
2 medium or 4 small fillets of cod 
1 tbsp of sunflower oil
Maldon sea salt to taste

First, let’s pickle the vegetables. To make the marinade mix apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt and garlic in a large bowl. Give it a good whisk with a fork to dilute the garlic a little. Peel and ribbon the carrots, thinly slice the onion and red pepper and place all vegetables in the bowl with the pickling mix. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Next, we will make the vegetable puree upon which our crispy fried cod will rest. Roughly chop the onion and pepper, grate the carrot and fry in 2 tbsp of sunflower oil with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, water and chopped dill, and fry for further 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. 
Transfer into a food processor and blend with a tsp of vinegar until a smooth puree is created. 
Set aside and keep warm.

Finally, pan fry the cod to perfection. Heat up a tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan, and when the oil is very hot but not smoking, add the cod fillets skin down. Season with salt and fry without disturbing for 5 minutes. Carefully turn the fillet over and fry for another 2-3 minutes. You will see how the flesh will change its colour from translucent to solid white. Season the crispy skin with more Maldon salt and transfer to a paper towel, while you prepare the plate.

To dish up - add 2 tbsp of vegetable puree in the middle of the plate, proudly place the perfect cod on top and decorate with a handful of marinated vegetables. Make sure you drain the excess pickling juice before adding them to the plate. Drizzle with some sunflower oil and drop a few springs of dill to add a touch of green.

GLAZED COOKIES WITH PLUM JAM

The official Soviet repertoire of confectionaries was rather limited. If you wanted to treat yourself to some sweet goods from a bakery, a canteen or a food shop, you were faced with the line-up of the usual suspects: a puff pastry cone with cream, a tartlet with jam and egg white cream spiked with crazy food colorants, a chocolate ‘potato’ cake (a simplified version of the Italian chocolate salami) and bright pink glazed cookie sandwiches with plum jam. The cookie sandwich was my number one choice no matter what! It must have been its shiny pink coating that never failed to attract me. Truth be told, the cookie did not taste that good, but I hardly knew any better at that age. Luckily today I have the chance to turn the mundane Soviet creation into something more flavourful and appealing. I love cooking with plums and have recently discovered that a combination of tarragon and rose water goes incredibly well with the tart sweetness of the plums. So voila, finally my Soviet childhood delight has acquired a more sophisticated flavour profile!

Makes 20-24 cookie sandwiches

For the plum jam
1kg of ripe but tart plums
300ml of cold water
Large bunch of tarragon
1kg of jam sugar

For the cookies
115g of butter, softened
115g of caster sugar
1 egg
½ tsp of vanilla extract
240g of plain flour
6 tbsp of cornflour
½ tsp of salt

For the icing 
100g of plum jam
225g of icing sugar
2-3 tbsp of boiling water 
1 tsp of rose water

To make the jam:

Stone and cut the plums into quarters. Place in a large pot with 300ml of water and a large bunch of tarragon, bring to boil and then simmer on medium heat for 20-30 minutes or until the plums are soft and supple, and the liquid has reduced.
Add the sugar and mix thoroughly until all the crystals have dissolved and the mix is no longer grainy. Boil on high heat for 5-8 minutes. 
You can test the jam for its setting point by placing a drop on a chilled saucer. Let the jam cool a little and them push with your finger. If the jam wrinkles then its ready to be put into a jar. If it does not, then bring back to boil and cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Test again.
Discard the tarragon before placing the jam into a sterilised 1l jar. This recipe yield more jam than you will need for the cookies, but that’s always good news, right?

To make the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375F and line two baking sheets with baking paper. 
Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric hand held mix or stand mixer until pale and fluffy.
Next, mix in the egg and vanilla extract until well incorporated.
Add the flour, cornflour and salt and mix on a low-medium speed. The mixture will look very dry but keep on whisking until bigger clumps are formed and you can easily bring the dough together with your hands.
Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until 4mm thick and chill on a baking tray in the fridge for 20 mins to firm up.
Once chilled and firm, remove the dough from the fridge and, using a 48mm cookie cutter, cut the rounds and place onto the lined baking sheets.
Bake for 8 mins until the dough is cooked but not coloured. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on the baking tray.

To make the icing:

Pass the jam through a sieve, discarding any of the pulp that won’t go through into the bowl. Mix in the icing sugar until you have a pink ball of dough (it may seem like it won’t come together properly but it will!) then gradually stir in the water and rose water until the mixture is the consistency of thick cream. 

To assemble your cookies:

Cover one cookie disk a heaped tsp of icing and let it set for a few minutes. Place a heaped tsp of jam onto the other cookie disk and cover with the iced cookie.

Enjoy as part of a Russian tea party spread or just eat them standing in the kitchen with a glass of milk. 

Alissa Timoshkina

@alissatimoshkina
www.alissatimoshkina.com

Alissa’s cookbook Salt and Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen is out now. Order your copy through the Pushkin House bookshop – we offer delivery from as little as £2!