Since I often write about the overlap between Soviet food and Jewish life/food, I started thinking about how Jewish holiday foods may have started to develop in the Soviet Union, had it been permitted — much like it has here in North America. Since zakuski — appetizers — are such an important part of the Russian celebratory table, I developed these mushroom savoury hamantaschen, with […]
A quintessential and much-loved Russian soup, rassolnik is a pickle soup, with barley, beef and potatoes – and lots of pickles and pickle-juice. It’s long been a staple of Russian households and survived through the Soviet era, to be brought over with Soviet-Jewish immigrants going back to the 1970s. Traditionally made with beef and pork kidneys, I make mine with beef brisket bones and, occasionally,
The next book on my Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10 list is Anya von Bremzen’s culinary memoir, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing, which brings fresh meaning to the food on our tables.
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking Continue Reading
I finally made the kompot. What’s kompot? Russian kompot is essentially a homemade fruit juice. It’s been around for centuries and is popular in Russia and the former East Bloc. I only recently learned that what I always thought was kompot was actually compote, which is also made with cooked fruit, but has less liquid and is eaten, rather than drunk. Compote is French, and
Russian Kompot: I’m probably doing it wrong (with recipe) Continue Reading