After communism, a cuisine is reclaimed

Robin Bisha SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS

Publication Date: August 9, 2006

 
Fifteen years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev was enjoying a vacation at a Black Sea resort – dining, no doubt, on a cornucopia of summer delicacies – when a cadre of his political rivals attempted to remove him from the Soviet presidency.

Although he may have feasted on caviar and endless bottles of vodka – foods we typically associate with Russia – they play a smaller part in Russian cuisine than Americans would expect.

Immediately after the 1917 revolution, the new government tried to replace family and restaurant dining with communal cafeterias in large, urban apartment complexes. This effort failed, but standardization and shortages dimmed the memory of the sumptuous dishes of aristocrats and Russian peasants alike.

When I first traveled to the Soviet Union in the '80s, cookbooks were almost impossible to find in bookstores filled with political monographs. In 1989, we American researchers in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) floundered in the dormitory kitchen and celebrated finding a set of postcards that illustrated the preparation of typical dishes.

Until the '90s, the panoply of dishes made from traditional Russian ingredients was more available to me in the published recipes of exiles of the 1917 revolution than it was to Soviet cooks. In 1994, for example, I served a buttery apple breakfast dish to a teacher from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. She asked for the recipe of this tasty American dish and smiled with chagrin when I told her that it was Russian.

In 1991, reprints of the classic 19th-century cookbook, "The Gift to Young Housewives," appeared on every bookseller's rack, marking the reclamation of Russian cuisine in its native land.

The demise of the Soviet system reinvigorated Russian cuisine.

Dishes adapted to the needs of Russian home cooks, who create the impression of abundance under difficult conditions, had survived. Salads of minced or chopped potatoes, carrots, beets, peas and occasionally chicken or crab, dressed with mayonnaise or sour cream and seasoned with dill or cilantro, give the table a festive appearance. They also help to feed more people with less.

Russians sit down to a table covered with salads, dried or canned freshwater fish and fresh or preserved cucumbers and fresh greens (usually flat-leaf parsley). These appetizers, or zakuski, may accompany a bottle of ice-cold vodka or comprise the first course of a meal.

A typical Russian meal continues with soup – always broth-based rather than cream – followed by a meat or fish entrée with kasha (buckwheat groats), rice or potatoes. Occasionally, the hostess will bake a fruit pie, but most Russians purchase pastries and sweets at bakeries.

Vegetable spreads, called caviars and most often made of eggplant or red bell pepper, are more common zakuski than are the open-faced fish-roe caviar sandwiches served by the very wealthy.

If Gorbachev were having a typical Russian country vacation in 1991, then, what would he have eaten? Russian men grill shashlyk, meat and vegetables on skewers, over open coals. They thread meat carefully on one skewer, vegetables on others, and argue about the merits of marinades versus unadulterated lamb or pork.

Vegetables, usually tomatoes, onions and bell peppers, are grilled to accompany the meat and served with bread and Georgian wine. For dessert, a cake or plate of cookies is served, or perhaps a gingery prianik. Strong black tea follows every meal and is usually sweetened with jam.

Gorbachev also would have been eating fresh fruit. The short Russian growing season bears amazing fruit in August. Cherries and a head-spinning array of berries ripen in gardens and flood farmers markets.

Despite the commercial availability of preserved cucumbers, bell peppers, mushrooms and other vegetables, Russian home cooks are likely to can their own, often from the produce of gardens that surround their dachas. Pickled cucumbers, garlic, mushrooms and red bell peppers dominate the offerings of zakuski during long winters.

Americans are likely to associate Russia with winter foods and root vegetables, which can be stored for long periods, such as potatoes, beets, onions and carrots.
And cabbage.

Russians devour more than seven times the amount of cabbage Americans eat. The dainty salads that fill the Russian table as appetizers often include cabbage. This may be the only leafy green vegetable readily available deep in the winter, and it is preserved in numerous ways.

Russians also enjoy a wider variety of dairy products than Americans regularly consume. Some, such as kumiss, fermented mare's milk, may not thrill Americans, but kefir, fermented cow's milk often flavored with fruit, has caught on here and can be purchased at Central Market and Whole Foods Market.

Smetana is often replaced by sour cream here in the States, but the two are only kissing cousins. Mexican crema comes much closer to the richness of smetana, which is an ingredient in many Russian dishes and an obligatory accompaniment to soups.

Russians have a penchant for gathering wild mushrooms. They also enjoy the domestic white button mushroom as fillings for pies and side dishes baked with sour cream. Sasha's Russian Market in Austin, the nearest place for San Antonians to sample Russian cuisine, serves piroshki (small, savory pies made with a yeast "crust"), including one stuffed with mushrooms.

Vodka often accompanies meals in Russia and is consumed according to exacting etiquette. First, it is not sipped. Rather, glasses are drained following toasts that are proposed with great formality throughout an evening.

Russians always drink vodka with a food chaser, usually bite-sized pieces of dried or salted fish, salami, pickled cucumber, pickled onions or a hearty chunk of black rye bread. Ali Baba's International Market carries both Russian fish and black bread for those who are brave enough to abandon Cosmopolitan mixes and try the Russian way.

PRIANIKI (HONEY CAKES)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
2 cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of nutmeg
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Sift flour with soda. Place honey in large bowl. Add butter, egg, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg to honey and stir for a few minutes. Then blend in flour, and mix to form a soft dough. Drop from a teaspoon onto greased and floured baking sheets and bake 10-12 minutes.
Source: 'The Complete Russian Cookbook' by Lynn Visson

SVEKOLNIK
2-3 medium-sized beets 1 1/2-2 quarts water
Juice from 1/4 fresh lemon
3 hard-cooked egg whites, chopped
2 small cucumbers, peeled, large seeds removed and chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons chopped radish
Mexican crema (preferably) or sour cream (optional)
Trim greens from beets and peel carefully. Place beets in enamel or glass saucepan (to avoid a metallic taste) with water and bring to boil. Boil beets until they yield to the touch of a fork, replenishing water as it boils away. When beets are soft, remove and chop. Retain the water, now the broth for the svekolnik.
Return beets to water and squeeze lemon into liquid. Chill before serving.
To serve, divide eggs, cucumbers, onions, dill and radish equally among 4 soup bowls. Ladle beets and liquid into bowls. Garnish with a dollop of crema, if desired.
Makes 4 servings.
Source: Robin Bisha

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Robin Bisha teaches mass communication at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin. She holds a doctorate in Russian history and has traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union. She was living in Leningrad during the end of the Soviet regime.
 
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