I became curious about salting and fermenting vegetables when I lived in Ukraine and this post summarizes what I learned and provides my adaptation of classic recipes to small batches. The first summer I worked in Ukraine, a female colleague returned to the office with red-stained hands after a weekend in their family village. When …
Making Summer Last — Salting and Fermenting Vegetables in Ukraine Read More »
Crimean Tatars, descendants of Mongol-Tatar nomadic tribes, left a legacy of chebureki (plural; singular; cheburek), their special savory meat-filled hand pies wherever they lived in Central Asia, including Ukraine. Chebureki resemble other hand pies eaten worldwide such as British Cornish pasty, Latin American empanada, Middle Eastern börek, Indian samosa, Italian calzone and Ukrainian pyrizhki. While there appears to …
This Chilled Crayfish Soup (холодник з раками – cold soup with crayfish) is one of many cold soups enjoyed by Ukrainians and their Eastern European neighbors. On a hot summer day, Ukrainians substitute a hot meal with a cold soup – kholodnik (холодник from the root word холод, meaning cold in Ukrainian) to refresh and …
This Cherry Almond Solozhenik (вишнево- міґдаловий соложеник in Ukrainian) is a vintage rustic dessert now regaining popularity as Ukrainian cooks highlight their culinary traditions and practices, refuting Russia’s repeated declarations that Ukraine is an invented country, and has no distinctive ethnic culture or traditions. The name “solozhenik” applies to a range of traditional Ukrainian sweets. …
Cherry Almond Solozhenik — a Rustic Ukrainian Dessert Read More »
In my childhood home, a bowl of Green Borshch and a piece of Egg, Scallion and Dill Tart were the harbingers of spring – a sign that the meat and potato dishes of winter months were put aside for lighter meals. Green Borshch or sorrel soup (Ukrainian: зелений борщ or щавелевий суп) is a variation …
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 …
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. …