Week 30 - завтрак - Russia

SYRNIKI, OLADI, and BLINI

We are fast approaching Easter and here I am with a blog entry from way back on Pancake Tuesday.  Too much breakfast, so little bloggin time....

For those uninitiated to the tradition, Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras is the hurrah before the season of lent.  Christians all over the world get ready for this austere season of reflection and fasting by doing what else...partying and eating pancakes!  

This year Jon and I went all out and tried not just one new traditional pancake but three.  As it turns out Russia, and much of Eastern Europe in general, is crazy about pancakes.  Some statistics even state that Russia has over 70 different varieties.  That's a lot of pancakes but for our purposes we narrowed it down to the three most popular:  Syrniki, Oladi and Blini.

Syrniki:

Syrniki are primarily made from Tvorog, a soft white cheese (similar to ricotta or cottage cheese) that is very common in Russian cuisine.  Mixed together with just a little flour, sugar, and egg, Syrniki were very simple to cook.

They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a very distinct, rich flavour.  They are commonly served with some sort of jam, icing sugar and sour cream.  Sour cream with sweet was a new concept for me, but it really worked to balance the cloying cheesiness of the Syrniki.

Oladi:

Oladi fall closest to the North American concept of a pancake.  In fact, the recipe is almost the same as buttermilk pancakes, except Kefir is substituted for buttermilk.  Kefir is a milk beverage that is very popular across Northern and Eastern Europe.  It's made by introducing Kefir grain to milk and fermenting it.  Half way between yogurt and milk, I'm not sure I would drink it straight but it made delicious pancakes.

Oladi are small and quite puffy on the pancake scale.  They have a tender crumb (probably as a result of the hard working bacteria in the Kefir) and a delicious crispy outside.  Like Syrniki they are enjoyed with jam and sour cream.

Blini:

Blini are the classic Russian pancake, and the one you've probably heard the most about.  In Russia there are whole cafes devoted to the blini and it's many, many variations.  They can be served as a savoury snack (with caviar, smoked salmon and cream cheese) or as a sweet (apples, strawberries, sweetened sour cream, syrup, etc.).  We were fresh out of caviar so we enjoyed them sweet with some Canadian maple syrup.

As this was the third pancake, I kept it simple and used a box mix I picked up at a local Russian Supermarket to make the Blini.

The inner food snob in me was prepared to turn up my nose but they cooked up beautiful.  Just check out their delicate lace-like tops.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

They are pancakes after all.


For Guestability:

These would be great for guests.  They smell amazing cooking, make a great presentation and of course, taste great.


For Sustainability:

Those Syrniki kept me going well until lunch.  In fact, they were hearty enough that we enjoyed the leftovers as a filling supper the next day!


For Costability:

With the exception of the Kefir and Tvorog, no extravagant ingredients were needed.  And if you were normal and making just one recipe, it would be very budget friendly.


For Overall Appeal:

Who doesn't love pancakes?  Syrniki, Oladi and Blini all have tremendous appeal. In fact, I've been saving this breakfast for months until Pancake Tuesday gave me the excuse I needed to eat three different kinds of pancakes in one go.  Try one, you won't be disappointed!

I've been searching for a special Easter breakfast to feature next week but have come up empty-handed.  Instead I've decided to honour the new Pope and see how Argentineans break the fast....

Week 29 - Kwizija - Bosnia and Herzegovina

BUREK

It seems the world is rediscovering the Balkans as a beautiful and inexpensive tourist choice these days.  A friend who recently went to visit, extolled it's virtues and when asked if they had any exceptional food didn't hesitate to answer, "Burek."


Bosnian Burek is a puff pastry made with ground meat, onions, and a touch of paprika.  It's artfully swirled into a spiral shape and served warm with yoghurt.
 They are primarily a street food and are found in specific bakeries called Burekdžnica. 


Versions of Burek can be found all over Eastern Europe and even into Arabia.  Some versions feature cheese, others vegetables like spinach or squash and yet others have various meat and veggie combos.  You could even say that Bougatsa, from Week 5 - Greek Breakfast (still my favourite breakfast of all time) is a distant relative to the Burek.

Unfortunately there are no Burekdžnica near us in Toronto, so I had to try my hand at this Balkan delicacy.  I was dubious that I would be able to achieve the thin layers of pastry indicated in the recipe, but almost like magic, the dough easily stretched to see-through thinness and was really easy to work with. After making the meat mixture, I rolled it and doused it in copious amounts of butter and oil.  The aroma of it baking in the oven was mouthwatering and worth getting out of bed on a cold March morning...

Altogether, Burek was delightful, especially fresh from the oven.  The pastry although still flaky was a bit more chewy than store-bought phyllo.  For my taste, ground beef is a bit heavy in the morning but the yogurt really helped to lighten it up.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Well, maybe I didn't just whip this one up in five minutes, but honest, it wasn't so bad and could totally be made ahead.

For Degree of Separation:

Pretty much anything with meat (that's not bacon) gets five Cheerios in this category.

For Guestability:

Although a bit weird for guests, you gotta admit it's quite impressive looking...

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

For Overall Appeal:

This was perhaps not the most delicious breakfast we've tried, but it was oddly satisfying.  In the future I might bring this back as a supper food.

It seems the Jumbo Breakfast Roll is not the only breakfast food to be immortalized in song!  Check out "Burek" by Bosnian musician Dino Merlin:

Week 28 - Iran - حلیم

HALEEM

Over the past few years I've become quite enamored with Persian cuisine.  With it's abundance of herbs, unique ingredients and sweet and sour flavour combinations it draws me in every time.  So on a recent outing to Khorak Supermarket (my favourite Persian grocery store in Toronto), I was stoked to come across a pre-made container of Haleem, a traditional Persian breakfast often eaten during Ramadan.

I usually prefer to make breakfasts as home, but Haleem although simple in ingredients (wheat and turkey) requires long hours of cooking.  (Before modern kitchen appliances it was simmered all night long in large wood-fired cauldrons.)  In fact, it is such a long process to make that it is tradition to make a huge patch and then go door to door sharing it with your neighbours.  

It's a distant cousin to Khichdi, which you may recall from Week 3: Indian Breakfast.  Basically, it's a thick porridge made from meat (usually turkey) and wheat that is simmered until the texture of both becomes a homogenous mush.  It's   often garnished with clarified butter and cinnamon.

Unfortunately we found this breakfast a little underwhelming.  It was neither sweet or savoury.  The turkey taste was definitely present and so was the sweet cinnamon topping.  Perhaps it's one of those breakfasts you have to grow up with because mainly we just found it confusing.

After mentioning our Haleem experience to some of my co-workers, one of them remarked that she had made some herself that week-end!  She was generous enough to bring in some of her homemade stuff so that I could compare.

Her version was a variation from Ethiopia and was considerably more delicious that the Iranian grocery brand.  Instead of turkey it was made with goat and being from Ethiopia, the cinnamon was replaced with spicy Berbere butter.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

Wheat, cinnamon and turkey are not a combo I ever imagined gracing my breakfast table.

For Guestability:

I imagine if you had guests from Persia they would adore it, but for my family, probably not.

For Sustainability:

Supposedly very calorically dense, this is a stick to your ribs kind of dish.

For Costability:

With a price similar to a box of Cheerios, Haleem was very reasonably priced.

For Overall Appeal:

I really wanted to like Haleem.  Unfortunately, it was just a little too far out of my comfort zone.  As an aside, I would like to urge everyone who hasn't sample Persian cuisine to give it a shot.

Next time - the Balkans!

Week 27 - Ireland

JUMBO BREAKFAST ROLL

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  And what better way to get the fun started than with the Irish Jumbo Breakfast Roll.

The Breakfast Roll is ubiquitous in Ireland as a quick breakfast for construction workers, students and anyone eating brekkie on the go.  They're commonly found at gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets and newsstands.  An ingenious idea really, the Breakfast Roll takes the epic Fry-up and sticks it all on a demi-baguette for easy eating.

A product of the Celtic Tiger construction boom (1995-2008), the Breakfast Roll  has become so associated with Irish pop culture that it spawned a hit song!

For our version of the Breakfast Roll we fried up some hashbrowns, breakfast sausage, bacon, eggs, tomato and a side of baked beans.  (The real Irish Breakfast Roll would probably also have black or white pudding and a generous dollop of ketchup or brown sauce.)

This is one hearty breakfast.  In fact, we were only able to make it through half a sandwich each.  According to internet sources, a whole sandwich averages well over 1000 calories!  It was definitely satisfying, but I found it difficult to enjoy all the different taste sensations going on at one time.  When I'm eating bacon, I want to be able to enjoy the awesomeness that is bacon, you know? (So maybe not worth all those calories.)

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Although it takes some juggling to make sure everything is ready at the same time, it only took about 20 mintues to prepare the Breakfast Roll.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

More an on-the-go food, I wouldn't recommend serving this one to guests.  It would be akin to serving take-out McDonald's McMuffins.  (In fact, I read a rumour that Irish McDonald's actually has a version of the Breakfast Roll on their menu.)

For Sustainability:

Bam!  This is one hearty breakfast, worthy of a "Hungry Man" breakfast.

For Costability:

If you pick one of these in Ireland, it'll set you back around $5 Cdn.  Making one at home was a bit more, about $20 in groceries.  (This buys enough to make several servings.)

For Overall Appeal:

The Breakfast Roll was pretty good, but didn't knock my socks off.  As an on-the-go option it would be awesome, but as an at home meal, it was not as interesting.  The flavours became too muddled together for my taste.

Next time we'll get to that Iran breakfast, stay tuned....

Week 26 - Desayuno - Aruba

PASTECHI

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that before researching this breakfast all I knew about Aruba was that it was in the Caribbean somewhere and featured prominently in the Beach Boy song Kokomo.  I now know that Aruba is off the Venezuelan coast, is part of the kingdom of the Netherlands (sorry no Hagelslag to be found), and has an utterly delicious breakfast treat - the Pastechi.

Pastechi can be found all over Aruba as a roadside breakfast snack (like Canada's Timbits), and have a few variations.  You can enjoy the Pastechi di Keshi (with Cheese), the Pastechi di Pisca (with Seafood) or the Pastechi di Carni (with Beef, spices and often, the dreaded raisin).  I felt like I'd put Jon through quite enough in the last couple of breakfasts, so I settled on the Pastechi di Keshi.

Pastechi are really just another variation on the world's most common handfood - the turnover.  When you think about it everybody has some variation on the handy dough pocket filled with delicious goods:  Eastern Europe has perogies, Asia has Mandu/Gyoza/Dumplings, South America has Empanadas, India has Samosas, etc.  So Aruba and some of the neighbouring islands have Pastechi, a light pie-like pastry that is filled and deep-fried.

And since Aruba has a large Dutch influence, what other cheese is used but Gouda (preferably smoked).  I haven't had a lot of Gouda experience, so was very happy to discover that I loved it.  It was creamy, salty and just perfectly.... cheesy.

The whole Pastechi package together was very satisfying.  I was scared the deepfrying might make the dough stodgy but in fact they were light and delightfully crispy (though the cheese did tend to escape).  And they certainly were "addictive" as I read on other web-sites.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Deep-frying first thing in the morning is always a little scary.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

I think that I would only make this again for guests.  Too much work for just two people, but they would be a hit with company.  Who doesn't love deep-fried cheese?

For Sustainability:

We certainly were full, in a, "Oh my goodness, did we really just eat that entire tray?" kind of way.

I'd like to take a moment to introduce a new category in The Verdict, "Costability".  This is a simple rating of how pricey the breakfast was to make.  Please keep in mind that this is very subjective to my location and certain ingredients may be cheaper/more expensive where you are.  I've decided to include this because I've found vast differences in the grocery costs and I think it's really interesting.  For example, Japanese breakfast at over $60 (!) was by far one of the most expensive, while Ethiopian at well under $5 was the cheapest.

Costability:

A relatively inexpensive breakfast.  The turnover itself used simple ingredients I had available in my pantry.  Gouda was the only item I needed to purchase.

Overall Appeal:

I'm always super excited when a previously unknown food turns out to be the bee's knees!  Pastechi you were a great find.

For something altogether different, next time we check out breakfast in Iran....

Week 25 - Colazione - Italy

BOMBOLONI and CAFFE LATTE

Italian food is arguably the most popular cuisine in the world.  Even when we lived in Korea, eating Italian was considered romantic and chic.  So I have been very excited to try Italian breakfast.  And, (drum roll), it didn't disappoint!

Breakfast in Italy is an entirely sweet affair.  No savoury foods to be found here.  In fact, most of the foods that they eat for breakfast I would normally consider to be dessert:  cookies, biscotti, donuts, some people even report that they eat gelato!  Sounds like my kind of breakfast but I was left thinking that it couldn't possibly be true...

Enter Exhibit A:

I found these Italian Breakfast Cookies at a Walmart located in one of Toronto's largest Italian communities.  Here's what it said on the back:

So I had proof, Italians really did eat cookies for breakfast.  But a dry plate of cookies didn't seem like a very fun entry, so I upped the ante and went to see what I could find at an Italian bakery.

Eating breakfast out at a local Caffe is very common in Italy.  Locals grab a Caffe Latte or Cappuccino and a sweet and most often without even grabbing a seat, they're on their way.  (As a sidenote, apparently the frothy Cappuccino is considered a morning beverage only.)

To best emulate this experience in Toronto we headed to Francesca Bakery, an Italian bakery I've been dying to try for a long time.

Jon had a Caffe Latte and Cannoli (one of Francesca's specialties) and I absolutely devoured a Bombolone.  A Bombolone is a sugar coated yeast doughnut stuffed with creamy vanilla custard.  It is one of the most classic of Italian breakfast treats and it was delectable.  I love stuffed doughnuts in general because they feel so much more substantial and the custard in the Bombolone really hit the spot.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

Confession:  we also had two enormous cheese and stew stuffed Arancini, so this category was compromised.  (It was worth it, Francesca's Arancini were amazing.)

For Overall Appeal:

I could eat dessert for every meal, so Bombolone and Cannoli appealed to me.  Not so sure about those dry breakfast cookies...