#31 Russia
- Jen
- Mar 8, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Russia spans ELEVEN time zones. This must be so complicated. Whenever you buy a train ticket, you need to be sure what time zone the destination is in. If you’re in Moscow, you can’t have a Teams call during working hours with someone in the Okha office during their working hours. Do football teams in the Russian Premier League get jet lag every weekend?
Russian cuisine
I don’t think anyone loves soup as much as the Russians. They have so many different types! Shchi is stewed cabbage soup. This reminds me of how Charlie (off of the chocolate factory) and his family could only afford cabbage soup for every meal, every day. Reminder to be grateful not hateful for the lockdown weight-gain hey! Just like for the Bucket family, shchi has been the staple soup feeding Russian peasants for a millennium. It’s so engrained into the Russian way of life that even the rich love it, although they may add herbs or meat to make it actually taste nice.
A soup I’m keen to try, mainly because it’s such a gorgeous colour, is borscht: made in Ukraine but adopted by the Russian Empire; commonly associated with beetroot but can be any kind of sour vegetable soup; may or may not contain meat; can be served hot or cold.
One soup I’m less keen to try is okroshka, a cold soup consisting of raw vegetables, boiled egg and kvass, a non-alcoholic beverage made from fermented rye.
Another thing Russians have traditionally not been able to get enough of is porridge, be that rye, oat, wheat, barely or buckwheat porridge. As well as cereals, other crops that have been grown for centuries include turnips, cabbages and cucumbers.
A traditional Russian meal would be a piece of boiled meat cooked in either soup or porridge. Mmm.
It would be remiss of me to not mention fish. The Russian Orthodox church has strict rules regarding the days on which you may or may not consume meat, so fish has always been an important source of protein. It was often preserved by salting or pickling. Salted herring is a very popular appetizer and usually served with rye bread and vodka. Alternatively, salted herring may be served ‘under a fur coat’…see below.
Blinis to you and me are small discs on which to place smoked salmon or caviar as stand-up nibbles at grown-up dinner functions; in Russia, they’re more like a French crepe, with sweet or savoury toppings and enjoyed during Maslenitsa, also known as “pancake week” during lent. A whole WEEK for pancakes?! Russia 1, rest of Christian world 0.
From the 18th century, the aristocracy were hiring chefs from elsewhere in Europe and the menu somewhat improved. Outside of Tsarist feasts, dishes such as beef stroganoff, which we all know and love, and Olivier salad came on the scene. The latter is the invention of chef Lucien Olivier in 19th century Moscow and was originally a salad of a preposterous assortment of ingredients, including caviar, grouse, smoked duck and veal tongue! Today, it’s basically a fancy potato salad.
With the use of European chefs, desserts unsurprisingly, developed to be quite French in nature. Obviously, there’s one called Napoleon cake, but remember that the French chefs worked for the Russian masters. It’s basically a rebranded millefeuille and should be shaped like Napoleon’s hat and decorated with cake crumbs to symbolise the snow that was the Napoleonic army’s downfall against the Russian winter. Not too dissimilar to Napoleon cake, but less political, medovik is a construction of custard and honeyed pastry layers. Both sound great.
A note on vodka
Russians love it and they’re great at drinking it.
Party like a Russian
White Russian
Well, it turns out that this isn’t actually Russian in origin, but it was still a welcome addition to the meal. This is a cocktail of vodka, coffee liqueur, milk and cream. We also had some Nesquik powder on top…not sure how many mixologists would approve of that but it was yummy!
Salted herring under a fur coat
Why? Because it has a hilarious name. It’s a cold, layered salad of cooked roots and tinned mackerel (herring wasn’t available), pressed into a pan to create a ‘cake’. It’s actually far more enjoyable to eat than it looks or sounds like. It’s completely make-ahead so could be a great summer barbeque side dish if you fancied something a bit different.
Beef stroganoff
Why? Because it’s a classic anywhere in the world. Slices of fillet steak swilling in a sauce of onion, mushroom, sour cream, Dijon mustard and beef stock. Simple yet effective. So quick and easy for a dinner party. For authenticity, this should be served with shoestring fries but pasta and mash are also common accompaniments. I went for sauteed spuds. It was glorious!
Sharlotka apple cake
Why? Because it sounds far easier to make than Napoleon cake. This is a kind of apple cake. London and Paris both have claims on the apple Charlotte or Charlotte à la Parisienne but neither are anything like the Russian Sharlotka, which developed in Soviet kitchens to make use of bare minimum ingredients, sometimes not including any fat. I chose a recipe using a small amount of sour cream (fat = flavour and all).
My Sharlotka wasn’t much of a looker but she was a wonderfully light sponge (I should hope so too after sustaining a blister from my zealous whisking of the eggs!) laced with plenty of apple.
Be hungover like a Russian
I had stumbled across a recipe for another Russian soup that is commonly referred to as “hangover soup”. Solyanka is basically pickled cucumber soup…typically served with vodka, and is said to cure any hangover…
After the German beer hangover four countries ago, I could foresee that partying like a Russian might have similar after-effects so decided it would be clever to have a pot of solyanka ready to go the morning after…but I then decided that a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich was far cleverer than pickle soup and vodka.
Spasibo for having me Russia, I’m off to…LAOS!
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