The date on the top of my notes is 'March 2018'.
It's been a very busy several months with sewing deadlines, and now finally we're getting back to this project.
I have to say, I struggled with Eastern Europe. There are many small countries with their own cultures, but the food patterns are fairly similar and a lot of them are based around bread.
When trying to stay gluten free, there were several things I wanted to make but decided not to because I didn't think I could do it justice.
First we tried a dish that I had heard of years ago and has never gotten around to trying.
Polish Strawberries and cream...
...on pasta.
It's been a very busy several months with sewing deadlines, and now finally we're getting back to this project.
I have to say, I struggled with Eastern Europe. There are many small countries with their own cultures, but the food patterns are fairly similar and a lot of them are based around bread.
When trying to stay gluten free, there were several things I wanted to make but decided not to because I didn't think I could do it justice.
First we tried a dish that I had heard of years ago and has never gotten around to trying.
Polish Strawberries and cream...
...on pasta.
I've eaten a lot of pasta dishes in my day, but I can't say that I've ever had a 'dessert pasta'.
Even this is not considered dessert, but a summer snack. Strawberry season is short, and they are eaten fresh in every way possible.
Because this is more of a snack or lunch than a dessert, it is not very sweet.
Perhaps it's just my North American palette that was hoping for something sweeter, but we weren't quite sure how we felt about it. I think with some tweaking it could be really good, although maybe not authentic.
Also from Poland, and creeping in to Ukraine, pierogies!
I used the gluten free pasta dough that I also used for the samosas and Chinese dumplings.
Worked pretty well!
We stuffed them with mashed potatoes, onion, and bacon.
I've never been a huge pierogi fan. I prefer smaller pockets with beef in them like tortellini.
It was fun to make them ourselves though, and definitely better homemade than from frozen.
A reoccurring meal all over Eastern Europe is cabbage rolls.
We chose a recipe form Romania, where they are called sarmale.
Pork and heaps of fresh parsley and dill are mixed with rice and loaded in to blanched cabbage leaves.
To be truly authentic you are supposed to use sour cabbage leaves, which have been fermented in brine, similar to sauerkraut.
Toby was not a fan, even though we like all these ingredients separately.
It's a LOT of work for something that a family can eat up in one sitting.
Another Ukranian item we made was potato pancakes called deruny.
Potatoes are an important staple over here with whole cookbooks devoted to them.
Potatoes are an important staple over here with whole cookbooks devoted to them.
These pancakes are not like their lacy cousin the latke, they are made with very finely grated or pureed raw potato so the appearance is more like a traditional pancake.
The taste, however, is nothing like a traditional pancake.
They are not sweet, and when cooked right they taste like the hashbrown patties we know and love.
Most recipes squeeze all the potato liquid out and this one did not, which I think made it a bit harder to cook. When I cooked it in a lot of hot oil they crisped up, but were still a bit soggy when they cooled, and when i cooked them without oil so they weren't soggy they got quite bitter.
Regardless, Toby liked them!
It's supposed to be a 'quick meal' but it took forever to grate the potatoes so I probably wouldn't do it again unless it was a special meal.
From Bulgaria we made tarator soup.
This delightfully cold yogurt soup would be perfect on a balmy day on the back patio.
I found it very similar in flavour to a Greek tzatziki spread, and the tartness of the Balkan style yogurt gives an extra bit of freshness to this dish.
This delightfully cold yogurt soup would be perfect on a balmy day on the back patio.
I found it very similar in flavour to a Greek tzatziki spread, and the tartness of the Balkan style yogurt gives an extra bit of freshness to this dish.
Toby loved it and drizzled it over his deruny for a fun topping.
Lastly from Hungary we made goulash.
Goulash is a meat stew which is heavily seasoned with paprika. In North America we associate this term with a ground beef and pasta dish, but it's actually a very hearty stew.
I'm used to making beef stews with lots of chili and oregano and black pepper, but this recipe is only flavoured by onion, garlic, and paprika (1/4 cup of it!).
It was actually pretty good. I thought the paprika would be too overpowering but it was just right.
Paprika is a spice that is not actually made from crushed seeds, like most spices.
It's make from dried and crushed sweet red peppers so when cooked it lends a warm roasted pepper flavour to the dish. There are several ways to prepare the peppers for grinding which results in slightly different paprika flavours. Hungarian paprika is sweeter and less smokey than other kinds like Spanish paprika.
Goulash is a meat stew which is heavily seasoned with paprika. In North America we associate this term with a ground beef and pasta dish, but it's actually a very hearty stew.
I'm used to making beef stews with lots of chili and oregano and black pepper, but this recipe is only flavoured by onion, garlic, and paprika (1/4 cup of it!).
It was actually pretty good. I thought the paprika would be too overpowering but it was just right.
Paprika is a spice that is not actually made from crushed seeds, like most spices.
It's make from dried and crushed sweet red peppers so when cooked it lends a warm roasted pepper flavour to the dish. There are several ways to prepare the peppers for grinding which results in slightly different paprika flavours. Hungarian paprika is sweeter and less smokey than other kinds like Spanish paprika.
We're now busy planning meals for the Mediterranean!
Happy Eating!!
