Plachinda (плачинда in Ukrainian; plăcintă in Romanian) is a ubiquitous pastry with sweet or savory fillings, prepared in countries along the western coast of the Black Sea. Before current country borders were established after World War II, Bessarabia (Romanian: Basarabia; Ukrainian: Бессарабія; romanized: Bessarabia), as this region was known, served as a trade route between …
Crimean Tartar Lagman (also called laghman, lağmen, lağmon, lengmen means stretched dough) is a favorite Tartar dish. It is a nourishing, brothy main course full of vegetables, flavored with spices and herbs with or without meat, served on a bed of long pulled noodles. As Tartars resettled to the Ukrainian mainland after Russia’s 2014 forced …
This Braised Beef with Prunes and Winter Vegetables comes from Odesa, Ukraine’s most cosmopolitan city (or Odessa, the Russian transliteration). The dish originated in Odesa’s Jewish community many centuries ago and became part of the city’s multiethnic culinary tradition. For millennia, Ukraine, a country geographically located on the crossroads between Europe and Asia along the …
I would not have enjoyed this Khmer Rice and Pork Soup (transliterated as borbor, bo bor or babor), and other Khmer dishes but for a lenient Cambodian border control agent. On one of our trips to Thailand, an unscheduled opportunity cropped up that was too tempting to pass up. A local TV ad touted Bangkok …
This Mocha Almond Waffle Torte is made with thin, waffled-wheat-flour wafers. Ukrainian cooks layer these versatile wafers, round or square, with an assortment of buttercream fillings, jams and sometimes almond or other nut pastes pressed together as a no-bake dessert. Some versions are served as a torte; others are cut into bars as cookies. I …
No-bake Mocha Almond Waffle Torte –Pischinger, Andruty or Wafer? Read More »
Mounds of multi-hued pumpkins at a local farmer’s market are a sign that fall has arrived. Unlike in America, where pumpkins are eaten primarily in the fall, pumpkins in Ukraine are an important year-round dietary staple featured in soups, pies, combined with millet or rice for porridge, baked with honey, savory tarts, cheesecakes and desserts. …
Sometimes an unconventional combination of simple ingredients produces a winning dish. So, it was with a savory pastry known in Ukraine by two names: Potato Kasha Knysh or Yavoriv Pie. The common thread between the two is a mashed potato-buckwheat groat (kasha) filling. No one knows the name of the cook who first combined mashed …
This Poppy Seed Honey Babka is my variation on a traditional makivnyk (маківник) a poppy seed roll baked throughout Ukraine but has special significance during August harvest celebrations. This year’s Russian invasion interrupted the annual agricultural cycle in many parts of Ukraine. In the east, where hostilities were concentrated, farmers and gardeners planted when they …
This Cherry Tart, Ukrainian Style (vyshnevyi pliatsok – вишневий пляцок) is a popular summer dessert in Ukraine where the cherry season runs from June through July. The Ukrainian word pliatsok describes a flat pastry, sweet or savory. The English word tart is the closest translation since the finished product more closely resembles thin European …
Cherry Tart, Ukrainian Style — Vyshnevyi Pliatsok Read More »
Banosh (banush or tokan) (Ukrainian: бануш, банош, токан ) is a velvety cornmeal porridge, often served with a variety of toppings. It is a beloved dish among Hutsuls, pastoral highlanders who inhabit the forests, mountain slopes and river valleys in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains and in the northern part of present-day Romania. Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains*** Banosh is a …