Take Eastern European food out of the box
Don’t confine cuisine to winter
Dear America: It is time to take Russian and other Eastern European food out of the heavy, hearty, wintry box to which you’ve assigned it. (It would also be wise to stop assuming anyone who speaks Russian is inherently tricksy and engaging in subversive political maneuvers, but first things first; we’re here to talk about food.) Russian food is more than stroganoff. Ukrainian food is more than borsch (not borscht, which is explained below). Georgian food is more than khachapuri. Because of course they are, because nothing in this world is contained in a tidy compartment of our own stereotypes.
It may surprise you to learn that the countries of Eastern Europe – which for our purposes means former Soviet nations, including but not limited to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Azerbaijan – are not always shrouded under a bleak, gray overcoat of darkness.
“We do a lot to remind people that Russia and Eastern Europe have summer, too. Siberia has summer, too,” says Bonnie Frumkin Morales, chef and co-owner of Kachka and Kachinka in Portland, Oregon. “Especially the first couple years that we were open, we’d see a real drop in the summer time. Normally Portland restaurants see an uptick in the summer, but our busiest [season] is in the winter.”
When summer arrives in Eastern Europe, so too can hot and sticky days that stretch late into the evening and enable a bounty of seasonal produce to emerge. Naturally, the people of these countries have quite a few ways to enjoy their spoils.
Take southern Ukraine, the birthplace of London-based chef and cookbook author Olia Hercules. “Our winters are mild, our summers long and hot, and our food a cornucopia of color and flavor,” she writes in her first cookbook, “Mamushka” (Weldon Owen, 2015). “The summers are so hot that the fruit we grow is everything that a perfect tomato should be – sweet, meaty, but also juicy ...” she adds in the headnote to a simple cheese-stuffed tomato recipe.
Summer means peaches, too, and Georgia (the country!) grows (and exports) them. For a spicy, surprising and refreshing salad, dress sliced peaches with lemon juice, tarragon and garlic, as Hercules does in “Kaukasis,” her second book on foods from Georgia, Azerbaijan and beyond.
Cold soups are a popular tradition in nearly any warm climate, and Eastern Europe is no exception. Think thin broths with tart sorrel, sweet or savory fruit-based soups, cold borsch topped with sour cream, and okroshka, a bowl of chopped cooked vegetables topped with kefir or kvass, a lightly fermented soda often made from dark bread. (In Ukrainian and Russian, borsch is spelled without a “t” at the end; as Morales writes in “Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking” (Flatiron Books, 2017), the extra letter was added at some point in Germany – along with some extra consonants: In German, it’s “borschtsch.”)
And what is summer without a grill? Across Eastern Europe, you’ll likely find the mangal, a charcoal grill on which all things skewered are cooked. It spread throughout the Soviet Union from the southern parts of the Soviet bloc (think Azerbaijan and Armenia). “Because of that cross-pollination of cultures, you see people in Belarus, where my family grew up, cooking within that cross-cultural lexicon,” says Morales.
Dachas, summer homes of variable size that typically include at least a small garden plot, allow people to live seasonally, off the land. “Tomatoes and cucumber are the bread and butter. Everybody grows them and eats them fresh and puts them up for winter,” says Morales. The vast forests provide an even larger bounty of wild berries and mushrooms, ripe for foraging.
Russian and Eastern European preserving techniques deserve an article of their own, but for the final days of summer, we’ll stick to celebrating the fresh, which brings us to kompot, a nonalcoholic fruit punch. “In the summertime, people will just take whatever fruits are going bad and steep them” in water and sugar, says Morales. “You eat the little pieces of fruit and sip the liquid as you go. It’s cooling, it’s fruity, it’s light. I pine for fresh fruit kompot.”
In a brilliant move, Morales suggests topping a portion of kompot with a scoop of ice cream and a generous splash of club soda (rendering it a touch more American, don’t you think?). In the interest of research, we also tried it spiked with – you know what’s coming – vodka (it very effectively tamed the drink’s sweetness). Either way, drink it cold, and know that come winter, when it’s dreary and gray the world over, you can make kompot with dried fruit and pine for warmer days to come.
Summer Fruit Punch (Kompot) 10 servings (makes 9 to 10 cups)
Known as kompot in Russian and Eastern European cuisine, this is a clever and nonalcoholic way to use up random bits of summer fruit. In her cookbook, “Kachka,” chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales brilliantly suggests turning this into a float by serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and topping with club soda.
We’ve used a blend of peaches, plums, strawberries and chokeberries here, but feel free to include apples, apricots, raspberries, gooseberries, fresh currants, blueberries and/or nectarines.
Make Ahead: The punch mixture needs to be refrigerated for at least 4 hours, or up to overnight.
Adapted from “Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking,” by Bonnie Frumkin Morales with Deena Prichep (Flatiron Books, 2017).
Ingredients
2 ripe peaches, pitted and quartered 3 small to medium plums, pitted and quartered
3 apricots, pitted and quartered (may substitute more plums or peaches)
1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and rinsed (may use frozen)
¾ cup sugar, or more as needed 6 cups water
Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)
Club soda, for serving (optional)
Steps
Combine the fruit, sugar and water in a medium pot over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then re- duce the heat to medium or medium-low – just enough to maintain low, steady bubbling. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the fruit softens (but doesn’t break down or lose its shape).
Taste, and add more sugar as needed, stirring to make sure it has dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for about 4 hours (or overnight), to cool completely. Store it in the pot, or transfer to an airtight container.
Once the punch is cold, ladle both the liquid and some of its fruit pieces into cups or mugs. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and top with a splash of club soda, if using. Serve with a spoon. Nutrition | Calories: 90; Total Fat: 0 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 0 mg; Carbohydrates: 22 g; Dietary Fiber: 1 g; Sugars: 21 g; Protein: 0 g.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Cheese and Herbs 4 servings
Fresh cheese turns a little golden and creates a lovely top crust when baked into the summer’s best tomatoes. If you’re not a fan of dill, you can use basil or another fresh, leafy herb instead.
Find farmer cheese, such as Friendship Dairies brand, at stores such as Harris Teeter, Wegmans or Whole Foods Markets. Or use tvorog from an Eastern European market.
Adapted from “Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe,” by Olia Hercules (Weldon Owen, 2015).
Ingredients
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
4 medium, flat-bottomed vine-ripened tomatoes (about 2 pounds) 8 ounces farmer cheese or tvorog 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Steps
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use the oil to grease a baking dish just large enough to hold all the tomatoes with a bit of space between them.
Cut off the top of each tomato (just enough to cut off the stem). Use a spoon to remove some of the tomatoes’ interiors, while keeping the walls of the tomatoes intact (the walls should be about 1/2-inch thick). Discard the tomato tops and interiors, or save for another use.
Combine the cheese, dill, parsley, salt and pepper in a medium bowl, stirring until well incorporated. Use the mixture to fill all the tomatoes, dividing it evenly, then arrange the stuffed tomatoes in place in the baking dish. Bake (middle rack) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and the cheese starts to brown in spots.
Serve warm. Nutrition | Calories: 140; Total Fat: 7 g; Saturated Fat: 3 g; Cholesterol: 20 mg; Sodium: 280 mg; Carbohydrates: 7 g; Dietary Fiber: 2 g; Sugars: 4 g; Protein: 12 g.
Peach and Tarragon Salad 2 servings
Tarragon is an herb beloved in Georgia, writes cookbook author Olia Hercules in her second cookbook, “Kaukasis: A Culinary Journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Beyond.” She pairs it with ripe, sweet summer peaches – and a few other ingredients – to take the fruit to the savory side.
Serve this slightly tart and spicy salad with grilled pork, lamb chops or roasted summer squash.
Adapted from “Kaukasis: A Culinary Journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Beyond,” by Olia Hercules (Weldon Owen, 2017).
Ingredients
2 ripe white or yellow peaches, pitted and thinly sliced
½ cup seedless green grapes or gooseberries, sliced (may substitute 4 small tart plums, pitted and thinly sliced)
Leaves from ½ small bunch tarragon (from a 0.75-ounce clamshell pack)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
¼ small spicy red chile pepper (such as bird’s-eye), seeded and minced (may substitute ½ small jalapeño pepper)
½ teaspoon sugar or honey
1 small clove garlic, grated Pinch flaky sea salt, or more as needed
Pinch freshly ground black pepper, or more as needed
Steps
Arrange the peaches and the grapes or gooseberries on a plate.
Whisk together the tarragon, lemon juice, chile pepper, sugar or honey, the garlic, salt and a generous pinch of pepper in a liquid measuring cup to form a dressing, then pour it over the fruit. Taste, and add more salt and/or pepper, as needed. Nutrition | Calories: 90; Total Fat: 0 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 75 mg; Carbohydrates: 24 g; Dietary Fiber: 3 g; Sugars: 20 g; Protein: 2 g.