The End of This Blog

After I returned to the U.S. from Russia, I struggled to figure out how to continue this blog. While I wanted to continue to explore Russian food, I felt it would be difficult to commit to writing a blog about food from a country I no longer lived in.  I started a few different blogs but have had trouble keeping up with any of them.  I hope to start something new soon.

Vegetarian Food in Russia

Vegetarianism is not widely understood or popular in Russia, but I have discovered that it is not too difficult to be a vegetarian in Russia, in you are not too strict about your diet and if you use a little creativity.

Of course, it's easy to cook a vegetarian diet for yourself because the country's grocery stores offer a wide range of vegetables, fruits, and starches. Although traditional Russian cabbage and potatoes may not round out a vegetarian diet, other offerings will. Green, red, and yellow peppers are easy to find in Russia; tomatoes are popular; and mushrooms come in a surprising number of varieties.

When eating out, there are decent options for the vegetarian diner. Although sometimes finding vegetarian dishes can be difficult, for the most part, it is not too large of a challenge. Russians like their meat, but they also like dairy products quite a lot. (If you are a vegan, living in Russia would be QUITE difficult!) Pirozhki and sloyki (types of Russian pastries) and bliny (thin Russian pancakes similar to crepes) can easily be found filled will cabbage, various types of cheese, potatoes, and mushrooms. Khachapuri is a Georgian pastry filled with rich, mouth-watering cheese. Fried eggs and omlettes are relatively easy to come by, and the old stand-by of "rice with vegetables" often yields a delicious meal (after explaining for several times that you do not want meat to go with this!).

Japanese food has become remarkably popular throughout Russia, and in some cases, it seems like every fourth restaurant serves some form of it. Miso soup, cucumber and avocado rolls, vegetable fried rice, or vegetable soba or udon make for a great vegetarian meal.

If you are willing to eat a little meat broth in a pinch, soups can sometimes be a reasonable compromises. In many restaurants, soups like borsht (beet soup) can easily be served without the beef chunks they oftentimes add in later, and sometimes soups made with chicken broth are intentionally served without any meat. (If you eat fish, you are even more in luck, since Russians love fish. You will be able to find numerous fish-broth soups such as ukha and will enjoy baked fish, smoked salmon, and caviar.)

However, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, it is increasingly possible to find dedicated vegetarian restaurants! The one pictured above (Jaggarnath) is located near the center of Moscow, not far from Red Square, and features a cafe and a grocery store. Although the general theme is Indian-influenced, you can find vegetarian foods and spices from Asia and other parts of the world. Tofu, vegetarian sausages and caviar, and soy products can all be found in the store. The buffet-style cafe features delicious and relatively inexpensive vegetarian dishes that will be such a feast to your eyes you will likely have difficulty choosing what to eat! Below is a sample of a meal I recently had: bean sprout salad with tofu chunks, Asian-flavored stir-fry and an all-natural ginger drink. All for 190 rubles, about $6!

Honey Wine

A great way to warm up on a chilly Russian winter day evening is to drink some hot medovukha, or honey wine. This traditional folk drink can be found in bottles at grocery stores but is also sold at outdoor holiday markets, where I recently tried some. It's sweet and slightly alcoholic flavor is appealing, while the warmth of the liquid going down your throat on a frigid day will help keep you going when you feel you have reached your limit!

Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Pie)

As a vegetarian, one of my mainstays in Russia has been khachapuri. Although khachapuri is a Georgian dish, it is extremely popular throughout Russia and can be found at both roadside food stands and in fancy restaurants.

Authentic Georgian khachapuri is a little like a pizza or the Turkish pide. Even within Georgia there is some variation, but khachapuri is typically a round of leavened bread filled like a pizza (or in some cases like a calzone, with bread on top) with a mound of mouth-watering cheese. Some Georgian versions also include melted butter and/or a raw egg. All are served hot so that the cheese is stringy and soft.

In Russia, there are even more versions of this delicacy. It seems that Russians and other ethnic groups have adopted the idea of khachapuri but modified it to fit their desires. For example, although traditional khachapuri is about the size of a plate, most khachapuri sold at roadside food stands is smaller: about the size of the somsa or pirozhki sold along side it. Oftentimes it is filled with a variety of cheeses, sometimes the slightly sweet tvorog.

At Central Asian food stands that specialize in somsa (meat-filled Central Asian pastries), khachapuri is sometimes made with unleavened, flaky dough so that it is similar to a somsa. While on a trip to Yaroslavl, I even had khachapuri with cheese and mayonnaise!

Qovoqli Manti

When I lived in Uzbekistan, my host mom used to make me delicious homemade qovoqli honum (is this the correct spelling??), which is a steamed, rolled dumpling filled with pumpkin. I recently had the chance to eat at an Uzbek restaurant in Tatarstan and was excited to see that they served qovoqli manti, pumpkin-filled dumplings that are similar to honum.

These qovoqli manti were delicious and tasted very authentic, minus the chunks of beef fat I sometimes found in pumpkin manti in Uzbekistan. I am used to eating manti and honum with qatiq (a type of plain yogurt) on top. Here they were served with an herb yogurt, which was also delicious.

In addition to manti, we had Uzbek flatbread and black tea that the server poured into a teacup and back into the pot three times, as is a tradition in Uzbekistan. The food was served on traditional blue-and-while Uzbek china, and in the background there was Uzbek music playing. All of this made me miss Uzbekistan and my friends there!

Tatar Pies

While in Kazan for a week and a half, I've been exploring Tatar food again. Tatar food includes elements of Russian and Central Asian cuisine, as well as unique regional dishes.

One of my favorite aspects of Tatar food are the many pastries. I've already written about gubadiya, which is a pie filled with rice, kort (a curd cheese), and raisins. I've also written about kystybyy, which are like tortillas filled with potatoes. In addition, there are pastries filled with chicken and rice and other assorted elements.

For an American, however, one of the most exciting elements of Tatar cuisine is that there are pastries that look like American pies! The slice above is from a pie made with dried lemons, apricots, and prunes. The tartness of the lemons mixes with the sweetness of the apricots and prunes for a sharp but sweet dessert. Delicious! There are also pies made with sour cream (and sometimes cranberries) that look and even taste somewhat like cheesecake.

Bitochki

I have recently discovered "bitochki." Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good translation for bitochki; my favorite online dictionary says they are "round rissoles" or "minced collops," which means absolutely nothing to me. My guess is that the word comes from the Russian verb "bit," which means "to beat, strike, or smash." In fact, this is what bitochki are: pancakes made of flour and some kind of smashed/grated vegetable. They are very much like potato pancakes, which most Americans are familiar with, but are often made with vegetables other than potatoes.

The plate of bitochki above are cauliflower bitochki. I have also tried broccoli and squash bitochki, which are both very good. All have a mild flavor and basically taste like a mildly flavored pancake. However, they oftentimes have a very strong scent! The first batch of broccoli bitochki I bought to take with me to a group gathering smelled so strongly of onions and garlic that I thought maybe they had gone bad! My friends assured me that they hadn't, and we all gobbled them up.

Traditionally, bitochki are eaten warm with sour cream, but I personally like them just as much cold and plain, eaten like a piece of bread! They make for a fast and filling snack when I'm on the go!

To my surprise, I have seen some things labeled "bitochki" that I did not expect, like the potato pattie below. I have seen these thicker patties, which usually are made only or primarily from potatoes rather than a mixture of the vegetable with flour, labeled both "bitochki" and "potato cutlets." They are also delicious but are much thicker and more of a pattie than a pancake. I'm not sure the way I eat them is traditional, but I enjoy them with fried vegetables like you can see in the picture below and often some sour cream on top.

Tvorozhniki: Another Tvorog Creation

Since I bought 400 grams of tvorog the other day and am leaving for a trip this weekend, I have been eating a lot of tvorog this week. One of my favorite ways to eat it with simply with honey or cranberry jam and smetana drizzled over the top, but today I decided to try a new recipe: Tvorozhniki Po-Suzdalski (or Suzdal-Style Tvorozhniki). Suzdal is a historic city located about 20 miles north-east of Moscow.

The photo of tvorozhniki in my Russian cookbook shows a bowl of white amorphous balls of tvorog that look sticky and are sitting in a small amount of water. It didn't look the most appealing, but the recipe sounded easy, so I thought I would give it a try. The end result was a little different than the picture in the book and different than I expected, but I enjoyed it.

Tvorozhniki Po-Suzdalski (Suzdal-Style Tvorozhniki)
Makes 1-2 servings

100 grams tvorog
1 egg
Flour (up to 5 teaspoons)
Pinch of salt
Honey and sour cream for drizzling on before serving

Thoroughly mix tvorog, a pinch of salt, and one egg. It will form a very wet dough. Add flour by the teaspoon to thicken . I mixed in 4 heaping teaspoons, until the dough reached the consistency of oatmeal (see pictures below).













Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a small amount of vegetable oil. Drop large spoonfuls of the tvorog dough into boiling water. When they rise to the top, remove them with a slotted spoon and put them on a plate. There will likely be small chunks of tvorog that escape, and you can add those to the plate as well. (They taste just as good as the larger chunks!) When all have been cooked, drizzle with honey and sour cream and enjoy.













The picture on the left is my final product. It is somewhat difficult to see, but there are several masses of tvorozhniki on the plate. Unlike the picture in my cookbook, I had many small chunks rather than large round masses. To get larger masses that stick together, you probably need to add a little more flour to the dough.

Nonetheless, my tvorozhniki tasted quite good. They were the consistency of very soft scrambled eggs and even tasted a little like them, but with a sweet tvorog flavor. Paired with honey and sour cream, they made for a warm, soft and slightly sweet brunch!

Tvorog & Syrniki

Tvorog is one of the most interesting and, in my opinion, delicious Russian dairy products. It is literally "curd cheese," and is often translated as "cottage cheese," but it is very different from American cottage cheese. As you can see in the picture on the left, it looks like curds of cheese but can also be pressed together in a more solid block that slightly resembles cream cheese. It is slightly chewy but generally soft and a little sweet. It comes in several different versions. The one in the front of this picture is "skim," while the one in the back is "rich" (whole-milk). You can also buy it with raisins, apricots, and other dried fruits mixed in.

You can do any number of things with tvorog, from eating it straight or with sugar to putting it inside bliny (crepe-style pancakes) to baking it into cakes. You can also make "syrniki," which are patties of tvorog that are fried and usually topped with sour cream and jam or honey. I have tried these several times, having purchased them in premade from from the grocery store and reheated them, but today I decided to try to make my own.

I have two Russian cuisince cookbooks -- one in English that is aimed at foreigners and one in Russian aimed at Russians. I tried the recipe in the Russian version and have listed it below with recommendations. The syrniki turned out well, and I highly recommend the recipe.

Syrniki

Makes 6 medium-sized patties

200 grams (about a cup) tvorog

1 cup flour

1 to 1.5 TBSP sugar

1 egg

Salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp)

Oil for frying

Mix tvorog, flour, sugar, egg (beaten), and salt in a bowl. Form small balls with the dough by rolling it in your hands. Then smash these balls so that they form flat patties. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Put two patties into the skillet at a time and fry on each side. When golden, remove and keep warm until all are prepared. Top with sour cream and honey or jam.

When I made mine, I added a little too much flour, and they tasted slightly too doughy, so I recommend starting with 3/4 cup of flour and working your way up to a full cup, possibly adding more if necessary. I also recommend not skimping on the salt. For me, this addition really makes or breaks the overall flavor.

There are some reicpes that call mixing in grated carrots, apples, and raisins, which would also be delicious.

If you are in the States, you can often find tvorog for sale at Russian and European grocery stores, and I hear you can make it yourself, but I don't have an exact recipe. I'll work on finding one and try it when I get back to the U.S. The biggest challenge in the U.S. is that most milk is pasteurized, which makes it hard to make your own curd cheese.

A Sampling of Two Russian Dairy Products

Dairy products are one of the highlights of Russian cuisine, and there are several products that are difficult to find in the U.S. that are very common here. Two of these are kefir and ryazhenka.

Kefir has become more popular in the U.S. recently, and I have seen in sold in some American grocery stores, but usually with fruit flavoring added. In Russia, kefir is sold as a natural dairy product without added flavoring. In fact, "all natural" is an important aspect for many Russians when buying products and especially when buying dairy products, although fruit-flavored yogurts are also quite popular.

Kefir looks like a cross between milk and yogurt, with an-ever-so-slightly chunky texture, and it has a sharp bite to it. It is made using a bacteria culture to ferment milk, and historically, people did this at home, but today most Russians buy kefir in a package at the grocery store. I have looked for fresh kefir at the markets here but have not seen any.

Ryazhenka is similar in flavor to kefir but milder. It is less sharp but still slightly sharper than plain yogurt, and it has a smooth texture. As you might be able to see in the picture below, kefir (on the left) is pure white, while ryazhenka (on the right) has a brown tint. This is because ryazhenka is baked fermented milk. this was historically made by baking fermented milk in an oven or on low heat on the stove for several hours, but again, Russians today usually just buy it at the grocery store.



Most Russians simply drink kefir and ryazhenka straight, but if you want, you can use them in other ways. They are good mixed with fresh or dried fruit and nuts, and I enjoy substituting them for milk with granola and muesli or pouring a little on top of oatmeal. I have also heard that ryazhenka can be used as a substitute for buttermilk when making pancakes, but I have not tried this myself. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas about how to eat kefir and ryazhenka!