Plov is a rice pilaf with lamb or beef which is one of the signature dishes of Central Asia, served for example, at weddings. We had it at least twice on our recent trip to Central Asia. It is also popular in other parts of the former Soviet Union. As a sign of that, this Read More …
During World War II, large numbers of Koreans were deported to Soviet Central Asia. When we visited Central Asia last month, we saw lots of Korean women in the markets selling various salads, especially we saw heaps of carrot salads (in Russian Morkovcha). The carrot salads were invented as a substitute for kimchi, since the Read More …
This is a second attempt at Samsa in which I used rough puff pastry, which we liked better than version 1. Otherwise, we made it exactly the same way. Dough 1 lb. Rough Puff Pastry Filling 11 oz. (310 grams) 30% fat lamb or beef 2.5 Tbs. fish sauce 2 Tbs. chicken stock (or ¼ Read More …
We recently took a trip to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A common dish on breakfast buffets and appetizer menus was a flaky savory pastry filled with lamb, beef, or pumpkin called samsa or somsa. Here is my first version of making it at home. I adapted a recipe from Food52.com in which the author went Read More …
We ate this Turkish dish for lunch in Khiva, Uzbekistan. It is a layered dish with the base being an eggplant puree similar to baba ghanoush, then a layer of lamb cooked with cumin, then yogurt, then butter, and last the garnishes of sumac and parsley. The only time-consuming part is charring and cooking the Read More …
This is an adaptation of a cookie recipe brought from Ukraine to the US in 1910, passed down to a granddaughter, and printed in Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Cookies. It makes 48 cookies and takes about 4 hours including chilling time. The recipe calls for Prune Butter as a filling and suggests fruit preserves as Read More …
Holubtsi are the Ukrainian version of the stuffed cabbage rolls which are popular throughout eastern Europe. This version is adapted from the deconstructed holubtsi in Yevhen Klopotenko’s cookbook The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen: Recipes from a Native Chef. Rather than making a filling and putting it inside rolled cabbage leaves, this version makes patties of the Read More …
The Russian Tea Room is an iconic restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Carol and I have eaten there at least once during one of the times I was working in Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s. It published a cookbook in 1981 and at some point in the early 1980s I copied Read More …
I was reading Alissa Timoshikina’s cookbook “Salt & Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen” and spotted a recipe for Olivier Salad, which is more commonly known throughout the world as Russian Salad. (I remember eating it once in Buenos Aires.) I made a batch in part to use up some roast turkey breast meet. I Read More …
Khachapuri is a very popular dish in the Republic of Georgia. Anna suggested it for lunch, and I made it based on a recipe in kingarthurflour.com. It takes a total of about 2 hours, including about 30 minutes in the oven. (I made a double recipe of the dough and used one of them to Read More …