Eating Like The Russians Do

Tonight I am sitting in front of our television, watching the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. I always enjoy watching the Olympics...they've been a regular fixture on my televisions since childhood. I was able to land a broadcasting internship during the Salt Lake City Olympics back in 2002, and I consider it a highlight of my college years. Nathan and I prefer the Winter Olympics to the Summer Games, in part because we grew up in Colorado, a winter-sports hot spot. Nathan likes to watch the skiing, since he spent many weekends on the slopes as a boy. I am a sucker for the speed skating and bobsledding, myself. I could never do any of these things, but I really admire and respect the athletes for what they do!

This year, I am especially excited to watch the Olympics because they take place in Russia, a country near and dear to my heart. I find myself unreasonably excited every time I see Cyrillic writing on the Olympic banners, or hear Russian being spoken in the background (and foreground!). My attachment to Russia began as a child; my mother was a Russian major in college and she filled me with a desire to learn more about that country. Many of these desires were fulfilled as a young adult, when I was blessed to serve a mission for the LDS Church in Moscow. It was a challenging but immensely rewarding experience and I learned so much. The mission was a deeply spiritual experience in which I grew closer to God and was able to help others do the same. At the same time, I grew to love the people of Russia, their culture, their music, and their food.

Yes, their food! I realize Russia is not a country known for its cuisine. And that's understandable; on my mission, I discovered (and was served) a lot of really, ahem, interesting food, some of which appeared mysterious and/or dangerous. However, there is a lot of Russian food that is quite delicious as well, if you will take the time to look for it. They don't have a lot of fancy ingredients; Russian meals tend to use lots of meat, potatoes, and other root vegetables. But they find lots of variety in the way those ingredients are used. While Russian food will never be my favorite, I have found it serves as good "comfort food," especially in cold weather.

So when winter rolls around, I often find myself longing for borscht (the classic Russian soup made with cabbage and beets, topped with sour cream). Unfortunately, my family does not share my affection for Russian cuisine. Nathan and the girls are all grossed out by anything with beets in it, and they are iffy on cabbage as well. That narrows the options somewhat on what I can prepare for them.

But this last month, I really wanted borscht; I just couldn't cater to my family's limited palates any more! However, my borscht recipe makes quite a lot of soup...enough to feed a small crowd. What to do? Invite friends over to share it, of course! In fact, I decided to take it one step further...I "upgraded" my borscht dinner into a large pot-luck, in which everyone who came prepared a Russian dish of their own. I have a fairly large collection of Russian recipes: appetizers, salads, breads, and desserts. I e-mailed more than a dozen of these recipes to my interested friends; we planned on having quite a large gathering!

For the dinner, I decided to make the borscht (of course), as well as the "Olivier" salad, which is a super-fancy potato salad that includes peas, carrots, and ham. I love it (And Nathan actually really likes it too, which is a plus when we're trying to finish off leftovers). I also decided to find some actual Russian-style black rye bread and sausage as appetizers. Luckily there is an Eastern European food market up in Tucson, so before the dinner, I headed on up to pick up some authentic imported food.

I loved talking to the Ukrainian store owner; he was a really nice guy who gave me a discount on everything because I was able to speak Russian with him (with a small degree of success). I found the food pictured above; the bread was from Lithuania, but it definitely had the right "Russian" flavor (American rye bread just isn't the same!).

I got Russian mayonnaise for the "Olivier" salad; it didn't end up tasting all that different from the American variety, but I was happy I got it anyway. The shop-owner helped me select a small Russian sausage (they would frequently serve it at tea-time or as an appetizer). Russian sausage is probably not the world's best; it is usually really fatty and a little bitter to the taste. It's really distinctive though, so I didn't want to do the party without it!

I also found this "delicious" stuff...

KVAS!! For lack of a better description, it's Russian root beer. It's made from fermented rye and barley (translation: rotten bread...YUCK). The sweet European store-owner asked me if I wanted the entire keg of kvas that was sitting in his refrigerator. Ummm...no. One bottle would be quite sufficient, thank you. It's hard to explain the taste...it's carbonated, but pretty bitter. There's almost no sweetness to it at all. Maybe it's something like what beer tastes, but I wouldn't know!

Some of the other foods I had people make were:
-Pelmeni: Russian "ravioli". Small dumplings filled with meat and boiled. Jani cooked an "Alaskan" version of pelmeni, which was a little spicier than the Russian variant and very yummy!
-Pirozhky: These are baked calzone-style pies. Sometimes they're filled with meat; other times with cabbage or potatoes. For my dinner, my friend Shannon made the meat and cabbage varieties.
-Vinegret: Another Russian potato salad, this time with pickles and beets. My friend Bethany made this. Very tasty!
-Another beet-based salad, this one with minced garlic and pickles in it. Soo delicious (in case you can't tell, I acquired a definite taste for beets while on my mission). My friend Lexi made a large bowl of this!
-Plov: A Georgian rice pilaf, with diced meat, garlic, carrots and onions. Very fatty and delicious, especially prepared by my pal Amanda.
-Bean salad: This salad involves mashed white beans, mingled with fried chunks of rye bread. Kind of wierd but very filling and flavorful. My friend Sarah put this together.
-Julien: A very creamy side dish; basically, it's sliced mushrooms in a heavy cream sauce. Shannon made this as well, and it was divine.
-Golubtsi: Cabbage rolls, stuffed with meat and rice. An acquired taste, but I've come to really like them. My friend Amber made these.
-More rye bread! I know I'd already bought some loaves, but my friend Amber wanted to try her hand at it. And who was I to refuse?

This is the store-bought bread

Here are some other foods I assigned, that didn't make it to the dinner (the ladies who volunteered weren't able to make it)
-Ikra: Eggplant "caviar," a savory appetizer that works well as a spread on bread or crackers.
-Blini: essentially Russian crepes. They are thin pancakes that can be filled with either sweet or savory fillings. Very popular and easy to make.
-Priyaniki: Russian honey cookies. Most Russian desserts aren't very sweet; that country is not as in love with sugar as America is. These cookies are very filling, though, and just sweet and flavorful enough.
-Russian tea cakes: small, nutty cookies dusted with powdered sugar. So delicious, especially with hot drinks.
-Russian egg salad: pretty self-explanatory. Lots of eggs and lots of mayo!

In the end, about a dozen people or so showed up, along with several of their kids (whom they wisely fed beforehand; I suspect most of them wouldn't be too keen on the dinner!). Our kids were able to play and have fun with the visitors; the adults were able to try out a whole bunch of new foods and hang out for a while. I was happy that most of my friends seemed to actually enjoy their food and want to try it again later! That was very good to hear, for a number of reasons. I will definitely be doing this dinner again sometime (especially if it is the only way I can make borscht!). It is nice to share little bits of other cultures with my friends, and it made me appreciate Russia all over again.

Here's my plate; I saved a lot of room to pig out that night! (bowl of borscht not pictured).

When you feed someone in Russia, you say "Na Zdorovye! ("To your health")". I hope it's something I can say to other dinner guests many times in the future. Now, to return to getting my Russia fix at the Olympics!