Stuffed cabbage leaves
Traditionally, we use firm white cabbage leaves here, so if you want more of a traditional taste, please use those instead of the Savoy. They may need to be blanched for three minutes instead of two. My grandmother used to make a version without tomatoes and using whole sauerkraut leaves and pork belly. The combination of sharp cabbage and luscious pork is incredible. I add barberries to my holubtsi to achieve that sour note, but you don’t have to if they are hard to find.
Serves 6 (makes 12 parcels)
sunflower oil 2 tbsp
onion 1 large, finely diced
carrot 1, peeled and grated
caster sugar 1 tsp
tomato purée 1 tbsp
fresh bay leaf 1
chopped tomatoes 400g tin
water 400ml
Savoy cabbage 1, 12 leaves, separated
minced beef and minced pork 250g each
white long-grain rice 160g, parboiled for 5 minutes and drained
barberries 40g (optional)
To serve
dill ½ small bunch, finely chopped
soured cream 100ml
sourdough bread
Make the sauce first. Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy-based flameproof casserole dish. Fry half the onion and all the grated carrot over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes until soft. Add the sugar and tomato purée and cook for 1 minute. Add the bay leaf, tomatoes and the 400ml water. Season well with salt and pepper.
Blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 minutes, then refresh them in cold water and drain well on kitchen paper.
Mix the minced meats, rice, the barberries, if using, some salt and pepper and the remaining diced onion in a bowl. Place 50g of the filling on to each cabbage leaf and fold up into parcels.
Place the parcels on top of the sauce, folded side down, tucking them next to each other snugly so they don’t unravel. Cook over a low heat for about 45 minutes or until cooked through.
Serve with the chopped dill, a dollop of soured cream on the side and sourdough bread.
Ukrainian beetroot broth (borshch)
Stock is very important here, and the meat should be well marbled, or it will never become meltingly soft.
Serves 4
beetroot 200g, peeled and cut into matchsticks
potatoes 200g, peeled and chopped
sunflower oil 2 tbsp
onion 1, finely chopped
carrot 1, peeled and roughly grated
red pepper 1, cored, deseeded, chopped
tomato puree 1 tbsp
beef tomato 1 (skin discarded), roughly grated
white cabbage ½ small, shredded
red kidney beans 400g tin, drained and rinsed
For the stock
oxtail or fatty beef short ribs 500g
onion 1, peeled but kept whole
bay leaf 1
cold water 2.5 litres
To serve
soured cream 100ml
dill ½ bunch, chopped
To make the stock, simply place the meat, whole onion, bay leaf and water in a large saucepan. Season the water lightly and cook over a low heat for 1 hour. Skim off the scum with a spoon from time to time.
Remove the onion and bay leaf then add the beetroot and potatoes to the stock, season well with salt and pepper and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and carrot and cook over a medium heat, stirring, for about 5-7 minutes until the carrot is meltingly soft and is about to start caramelising.
Add the red pepper and tomato purée to the onion and carrot and cook it out for 2 minutes, then add the grated fresh tomato, stir and reduce slightly before adding all of this to the broth. Finally, add the shredded cabbage and beans to the broth and cook for about 7 minutes until cooked through.
Serve with a dollop of soured cream and chopped dill.
Armenian roasted vegetables
You should try cabbage wedges the way they are roasted here – delicious.
Serves 4 as a side
cabbage 150g, sliced into 3 wedges (keep the core in – it’s the best bit)
carrot 1, peeled and thickly sliced
courgette 1, thickly sliced
celery sticks 2, thickly sliced
onion 1, small, quartered
cauliflower 200g, stalks and florets, chopped
red pepper 1, cored, deseeded and roughly chopped
olive oil 3 tbsp
beef tomato 1, thickly sliced
dill 1 tbsp, chopped
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Place all the vegetables except the tomato in a large roasting tin. Pour over the oil and season well with salt and pepper. Mix everything together with your hands and pop in the oven for 30 minutes until the edges of the vegetables start to char.
Arrange the tomato slices on top, season and place in the oven for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle over the chopped dill and serve.
Garlicky Georgian poussins
This is the most popular Georgian dish outside Georgia and the first dish my mother taught me. The trick is to keep the hob on the lowest setting. As for the weight, my mother often used my dad’s old-school circus dumbbell. It was probably not the safest option and I now use my granite mortar, but a couple of food tins should also do the job.
Serves 2
poussins 2
garlic cloves 4, finely grated
sea salt flakes
cayenne pepper ½ tsp
butter 40g
sunflower oil 1 tbsp
tarragon, basil, parsley, dill ½ tbsp each, chopped
To serve
good bread
tkhemali (Georgian sour plum sauce, available online or in specialist shops, such as dachashop.co.uk)
Spatchco*ck each poussin by cutting it along the backbone with a knife or scissors. Flatten them with the palm of your hand, then rub with the grated garlic and season generously all over with salt and the cayenne pepper.
Heat the butter and oil in a large, heavy-based skillet or frying pan. Cook the poussins, cut side down, over a medium heat for 3 minutes, then flip them over and cook them skin side down for 5 minutes.
Lower the heat and place a cartouche (a circle of baking parchment or greaseproof paper) over the birds, followed by a smaller frying pan on top. Weight it all down with something heavy. Cook for 20-25 minutes over the lowest possible heat. To test that the poussins are cooked, pull away at the legs – they should come away easily and the juices should run clear.
When the birds are done, lift them out and rest on a chopping board for 5 minutes. Add the herbs to the buttery juices and cook for another minute or two. Serve the poussins drizzled with the herby juices, or mop the juices up with bread, along with the tkhemali.
Soviet goose noodles
This dish is something our whole extended family adopted: silky noodles, pulled goose and its juices. So simple yet so satisfying. This recipe also works well with duck.
Serves 4
small goose or large duck 1, jointed
water 100ml
noodle dough 1 recipe quantity (see below)
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
green salad to serve
For the noodle dough
Makes 500g
eggs 5, the best quality you can get
‘00’ pasta flour 300-400g, plus extra for dusting
Place the goose pieces in a large, heavy-based flameproof casserole dish. Don’t use any oil, and don’t preheat the casserole – this will ensure that the fat is rendered slowly. Fry the pieces gently on all sides until brown and a lot of the fat has been rendered. You may need to do this in batches.
If there is a lot of fat, skim some of it off, then add the water, season the meat well with salt and pepper and cook over the lowest heat possible, covered tightly, for 2 hours or until tender and you can easily pull the meat off the bones.
Meanwhile, make the noodle dough. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl, then slowly sift in and mix in the flour – just enough to create a firm dough.
Knead the dough until it becomes firm and elastic without sticking, then cover with clingfilm and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Flour your work surface generously. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll out each piece as thinly as you can. Roll up each sheet of dough into a tube and cut across into 5mm noodles. Leave the noodles to dry for 30-60 minutes. Once the goose is ready, cook the noodles in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes.
Either serve the meat pieces on top of the noodles, or pull the meat from the bones and mix it with the juices from the goose, then add the noodles to the meat and give them a good stir to coat them well. Serve with a simple green salad with a lemony dressing.
Armenian pickles
You can buy horseradish leaves and dill stalks in bunches from Polish delis specially for pickling, but if you can’t find them or the blackcurrant and cherry leaves, substitute with spices or aromatics that you like (celery would be great) or simply leave them out.
Makes a 3-litre jar
beetroots 2, peeled and sliced into discs
white cabbage ½ small, sliced into wedges
mixed runner beans or French beans 200g, tailed
spring onions 4
wet (new) garlic 1 head, left whole, outer layer peeled
dill heads or stalks 50g
horseradish leaves 2, or fresh horseradish 50g, chopped
blackcurrant leaves 2
sour cherry leaves 2
water 1 litre
sea salt flakes 3 tbsp
black peppercorns 10
Place the beetroot at the bottom of a warm, sterilised 2-litre preserving jar, then top with the cabbage wedges, beans, spring onions, garlic and all the aromatics, apart from the peppercorns.
Bring the water, salt and peppercorns to the boil in a saucepan, then pour over the vegetables. Make sure everything is submerged, then seal and leave in a warm part of your kitchen (25C) for about 3 days to pickle, then store in the refrigerator. The beetroot will gradually turn everything a deep pink. It should keep unopened for several months.
Apple sponge
Whenever we had a craving for something sweet, my mum would make this.
Serves 6
butter for greasing
eggs 5
caster sugar 200g
plain flour 200g, sifted
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
green apples 4, cored and thinly sliced
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4, and butter a 20x30cm cake tin with a removable base.
Beat the eggs and caster sugar together in a bowl with an electric whisk for at least 5 minutes until very thick, pale and foamy. There is no raising agent in this cake, so the amount of air you beat into it is essential. Gently fold the flour into the egg mixture.
Mix the cinnamon with the apples, then tip the apples into the prepared cake tin and pour the cake batter evenly over the apples. Bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Let it cool in the tin. Dust with some icing sugar, cut into squares and serve.
Summer fruit punch
Makes 1.5 litres
strawberries 250g, hulled
buckthorn berries or gooseberries or chunks of rhubarb 150g
raspberries 175g
blackberries 100g
pears 100g, pips and all, sliced
apples 100g, pips and all, sliced
white peaches 200g, stoned and sliced
cold water 2 litres
clear honey or maple syrup 75g
ice and mint leaves to serve
Place all the fruit in a large saucepan and cover with the water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes.
Stir in the honey or maple syrup, strain and discard the fruit. Chill, then serve in a jug with ice and mint.
Extracted from Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & Beyond by Olia Hercules (Mitchell Beazley, £25). Click here to order a copy for £18.75 from the Guardian Bookshop
