Cooking class

Beans are not very popular in Ukraine. Why is this? Black beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, pinto beans- doesn't matter. No one is eating them.

In Nicaragua, it's no problem to eat them every day. Breakfast is (happily) always this:

Okroshka! and other fun

Okroshka days are running short for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, so I wanted to get in my yearly attempt before the falling temps dictate a change of allegiance to borsch. D is the okroshka expert around here. His verdict: awesome! This time I used the recipe from Natasha's Kitchen. It differed from my first go at the soup- no radishes this time, sour cream instead of kefir (which seemed really, really weird but tasted fantastic) and it completely slaughtered our memories of the terrible beer-shrimp broth of 2013.

It's such a lovely soup to make. Chop, chop, chop...

Mix...

Chill and serve!

Chebureki

Even 5500 miles from Ukraine, it's still possible to enjoy some of the same foods : )

Tonight I've been thinking about chebureki, those tasty fried turnovers that I can never refuse to "sample" (by which I mean, of course, to devour 3 or 4 of them). In the Alaska days, D's mom would often make them for the family and I remember thinking they were soooo complicated to prepare. As her and I continue to bond over food though, a discovery has been made: the American-style cheburek is actually so easy to prepare that it's almost scandalous.

So I'm going to show you the process here and I know you'll be scratching your head too over my previous cheburek-preparing fear. Although honestly, back then even making blini was an intimidating idea, so +1 for a couple of years of life in Ukraine!

Ingredients:
Package of tortillas
The filling: Ground meat + preferred spices or cheese 
The usual mind-boggling amount of oil (for frying)

Step 1: Slightly dampen the tortilla with some water. Put a small amount of the filling on the tortilla, fold in half, press to seal.

How to make pelmeni (not really)

Step 1: Pick up your friends. Then go out and gather your ingredients.

This includes making a quick stop for beef/pork at a little red shop covered in sausage advertisements and popping into the neighborhood grocery store for extra flour.


Step 2: Gather the men in the kitchen. (This includes that particular man who's been telling you for days that making pelmeni is women's work and that you're going to be slaving in the kitchen for hours while he drinks beer with the other guys.) Ensure the men have access to liquor.

Step 3: Leave the men to their tasks.

Step 4: Go for a walk with the other women. Watch a rainstorm in the distance, swat mosquitoes, wander into giant cylinders, and come back as dusk falls.

Step 5: Return to find the men still drinking...

... and showing off trays and trays of perfect looking pelmeni!

Step 6: Enjoy a glass of wine while the men oversee the final stages of preparation, aka adding the perfect hexagons to a pot of boiling water and then bringing them to the dinner table.

Voilà!

I totally was not expecting the "pelmeni lesson" to go like this. It almost felt like March 8th (International Women's Day) to get the night off from cooking. Maybe D was pulling my leg the whole time or maybe he was just as surprised as I was to find himself in the kitchen for 3 hours! Hopefully the labor wasn't too backbreaking for them, as they did have a dough machine, a meat grinder, and a special honeycomb-shaped pelmeni maker at their disposal. And that pelmeni- WOW. The best ever!!

One other cool part of the evening was the huge field we walked through. "I've got the biggest backyard in all of Kharkiv!" our host proudly exclaimed when we first arrived.

It was indeed gigantic. I guess that's how Sasha grew to such enormous proportions. Or, of course, maybe he got his hooves on the leftover pelmeni and that's what did it ; )


Have you tried pelmeni? Homemade or store-bought?
If you haven't had the chance yet, would you like to try it someday?

Making borsch (in 8 easy steps)

There are two ways to make borsch.

The first way is to invite over someone who knows how to make borsch.

The other is to roll up your sleeves and get to it.

I prefer the first method, of course : ) but for those of you inspired enough to try your hand at borsch-making, here you go!

Giving thanks по-украински

With a couple of minor modifications, it's fairly easy to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast in Ukraine!

Step 1: Instead of battling the crowds for that last box of stuffing on Wednesday night, you can relax and head to the grocery store two hours before your guests arrive. This will, of course, be on Friday night since Thursday is a regular work day (or night, in my case).

Step 2: Rumors of turkeys are everywhere but the actual bird is much harder to find, so just pick up some roasted chicken. Roasted chicken also has the benefit of being fairly cheap- 25 uah ($3 US) per bird. In fact, the total grocery bill was under $50... for 7 people!

Step 3: Since Ukrainians are excellent cooks, be sure to take others up on their offers to bring a salad/side dish/pie. You won't regret it. Also, if you know any, Peace Corps Volunteers have access to highly-sought-after goods from abroad like gravy mix packets.

homemade pumpkin pie

На кухне: Summer Recipes

Make them quick, before summer ends! ; )

Lenin Avenue Billboard: Okroshka season is open! 10 kinds!

Okroshka (окрошка) is a cold Russian soup. It's super easy to make and is perfect for hot weather. As you can see in the picture above, the weather isn't really hot here anymore but I still was eager to try making it after finding a simple recipe on Red Star to Lone Star.

На кухне... on the cheap?

We're trying to live on a budget these days. Not that we weren't on one before, but now we're taking it more seriously. We came to Ukraine with over $40,000 in student loans (ah, college) and it's tricky to pay that off while earning a local salary. Luckily D just landed a job so that will give us a little more breathing room once his paychecks kick in. In the meantime, I've been exploring the world of recipes to add some excitement to the kitchen and make restaurants a less-tempting idea. I'm trying to cook cheaply, grocery shopping once a week and using mainly local, inexpensive ingredients.

Like potatoes. Potatoes are definitely cheap. How cheap? This cheap:

12 potatoes. 2 uah... about 23 American cents.

(Mainly) Potato recipes: 

Creamy Cucumber Dressing

Most Ukrainian retailers offer three kinds of salad dressing: balsamic vinaigrette, Italian, and Caesar/some variation of a creamy dressing. It's all hit or miss, as in the first two are always a hit and the last one is always a miss. This summer I've been dreaming of the salad dressings that my colleague Ninetta used to make back in Alaska and share with us at lunchtime..... so good! Unfortunately she never revealed any of her secrets, so I'm searching the internet on my own.

Here's my first attempt: Creamy Cucumber Dressing (recipe courtesy of Chef in Training via eighteen25)

Good for Ukraine- you only need a cucumber, lemon juice, sour cream, sugar, and salt.

How to make plov (for lazy people)

Step 1: Get some spices.

You can buy them loose like this at the market or prepackaged at the store.

Step 2: Add spices while cooking the rice.

Those little berries are like raisins, but better.

Step 3: Fry vegetables and meat.

Seen here: beef, eggplant, and mushrooms. Totally lazy and nontraditional choices.

Step 4: Stir meat, veggies, and rice together. Enjoy : )

Behold, the completely non-authentic version of plov.

Мужчина на кухне 3

Yes, it's time for another installment of Мужчина на кухне! If your Russian is rusty, мужчина на кухне means man in the kitchen : )

First, I'm proud to announce several additions to our gadget drawer, thanks to an entrepreneur who set up a card table in the metro. We bought some cool little knives and devices to do stuff like this:

There's been some teamwork in the kitchen recently, mainly to make pizza. Let's just say a lot of pizza is consumed in this kitchen.

Also, I had a success of my own a while back, using a seasoning pack my mom mailed from the states.

Finally, on to the мужчина part of this entry...

The мужчина has made a lot of tasty soups recently. Every soup turns out slightly different so the idea of having soup never gets old. D has begun buying bulk spices from the Central Market and the "soup spice" packet is pretty awesome. Unfortunately I've been slacking on the soup photos but trust me, his soup = delicious!

I have a very special recipe to share with you. It starts with a famous rock band, Машина Времени (Time Machine) and a rock star. This rock star, Andrey Makarevich, began hosting- what else?- a cooking tv show called смак. One day this rocker shared one of his own recipes and this recipe left a deep impression on D. Or perhaps it was a recipe so easy that he never forgot it. Anyways, we've been starting our days off with these recently.

 1. Cut center out.                                       2. Lightly wet bread.                               3. Add egg to center.

4. Let cook several minutes.                      5. Flip when cooked.                                 6. Add cheese to melt.

And there you have it! Breakfast like a Russian rock star.

Eggplant Boats

A crazy about Ukraine photo recipe. Enjoy :)

+ baking =

Yum!

Merry Christmas!

Merry (Belated) Christmas to all you Christmas celebrators out there!!!!!! I hope you had a wonderful day. We did, starting off with this traditional breakfast from my childhood and ending with late-night Skype calls to family. Skype makes life so much easier. Anyways, back to the breakfast:

It's called a dutch baby. And it's delicious.

In the spirit of the season, I'd like to share the recipe with you. There aren't many meals from home that I can make here, but this is simple enough to practically make anywhere. Enjoy!

Crazy about Ukraine's Dutch Baby recipe
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
Preheat oven to 425F. Pat butter in a 9x13 inch baking dish and set in a 425F oven to melt. While the butter is melting, put the eggs in a blender and blend on high for one minute. Gradually add milk, then flour (slowly). Blend for 30 seconds. Remove baking dish from oven and pour the batter into the melted butter. Return to the 425F oven and bake until puffy and nicely browned, approximately 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, syrup, fresh lemon wedges, yogurt, jam, etc.

It will look kind of like this when you take it out of the oven. We have an old Soviet oven that the gas company guy called "scary" with only 3 temperatures: off, low, and high. Your creation might look prettier after baking but I guarantee you it will taste fantastic however it looks!

Happy Holidays!!