Week 36 - сніданок - Ukraine

KASHA

"Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, give dinner to your enemy."
                   -Russian/Ukrainian proverb

As I've gotten older and explored other cultures I've found myself more curious about my own cultural heritage.  Like many Canadians, I have roots in several different countries and we've explored some of their breakfasts already (the Full English and Danish Ollebrod).  Today, we're going to look at Kasha, a buckwheat porridge, and see if it ignites my Ukrainian spirit.

Kasha is an ancient breakfast that is enjoyed in many ways across Eastern Europe.  It can refer to various grains (wheat, oats, barley, millet, or rye) but for our purposes let's look at buckwheat groats.

Buckwheat groats (which are actually a seed) are astonishingly good for you.  A quick google search shows sites claiming that buckwheat groats are high in amino acids, protein, vitamins and fiber.  They're also touted as a strong preventative measure for a number of ailments including cardiovascular disease and are friendly to those suffering from Ceiliac disease.  You could almost say buckwheat is the new quinoa...

But how to prepare it for breakfast.  Simple really.  You boil the Kasha with water or milk (about 1:2 ratio) on the stove top until the Kasha has reached the desired consistency.  Similar to Oatmeal, everybody has their preferences - some like it soupy and mushy, others prefer it crumbly and a bit drier.  Once it's done you can top it with various toppings.  We went with butter and honey and just a touch of cinnamon.

At first bite Kasha was delicious.  The texture was really the starring feature.  It was a little toothsome but also crumbly.  The flavour was nutty and smoky, owing to the fact the groats are roasted, and something about it really evoked a Eastern European atmosphere.

However, I found an entire bowl of Kasha to be overwhelming.  Perhaps due to the high fiber content, it sat in my stomach like a bowl of lead.  And sad to say, I didn't come close to finishing my bowl.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

If you have a long morning ahead, consider Kasha.  We weren't hungry for a looooong time after just half a bowful!

For Costability:

If you can find an Eastern European market this stuff is cheap.  For quite a large bag we paid only about $2.

For Overall Appeal:

Kasha was a nice change from oatmeal and if it didn't bother my stomach so much, I would explore more recipes.  (It can also be eaten as a savoury side dish for supper.)  I would urge everyone to try it.  The taste was definitely interesting and with such a long list of benefits, it seems worth adding to your diet.

I'll leave you today with some fun Kasha quotes I found:

"He has Kasha in his head." - He's a mess.
"Cabbage soup and Kasha are all we need to live on." - Shows the importance of Kasha to the Russian/Ukrainian diet.
"He ate too little Kasha." - He's weak.

And my favourite....

"You can't make Kasha with him." - He's useless.

Week 35 - ארוחת בוקר - Israel

MATZO BREI

Matzo Brei is a simple breakfast made by frying Matzo (a thin cracker-like unleavened bread) with egg.  Similar to French Toast, Pain Perdu and Torrijas in execution, Matzo Brei is normally served during the Jewish holiday of Passover. (During this holiday all leavened grains are forbidden.)

You don't have to search very far to find people claiming to have the "definitive" Matzo Brei recipe on-line.  As an easy home recipe, Matzo Brei is the kind of comfort food that has thousands of variations - each of which is "the best".

Matzo Brei can be served sweet with cinnamon sugar or savoury with garlic and onions.  It also can be made with a wet consistency that almost resembles a Fritatta or it can be made more on the dry side.  We made sweet of course, (cause that's how we roll) but check out this video where renowned architect Frank Gehry talks about his preference:

After Torrijas, Matzo Brei (as prepared by me) just didn't compare.  I found it dry and lacking in flavour and upon taking a bite Jon pondered, "maybe you made it wrong?"  The truth is that maybe I did.  Maybe our preferred Matzo Brei is savoury, or maybe we would've liked it with more egg.  In any case, a recipe as popular Matzo Brei absolutely deserves another shot.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

Matzo Brei rivals Hagelslag in simplicity.  From start to finish in under ten minutes.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

A tricky call.  As primarily a holiday breakfast, Matzo Brei seems fancy enough for guests.  And yet there is a certain austerity to it that makes me hesitate to serve it to guests.

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

At it's barest minimum Matzo Brei requires only three ingredients!  Matzo, eggs, and some kind of fat to fry it in.  Beyond which, part of Matzo Brei's charm is that it was partially developed as a way to use up extra Matzo during and after Passover - extra points for being economical.

For Overall Appeal:

I'd try Matzo Brei again.  I'd be especially interested to try it made by somebody with more cred.  So here's an open invitation - does anybody have an amazing Matzo Brei recipe they'd love to share?  (Or better yet make.)  Was your Bubbe the Matzo Brei master?  How do you like your Matzo Brei?  Let me know....

Next week we go old school as we look into what my Ukrainian ancestors ate.  Will it be delicious?

Week 34 - ăn sáng - Vietnam

BANH CUON

Breakfast in Vietnam is decidedly savoury and usually centres on some form of rice.  If you've had Vietnamese cuisine, many foods eaten for breakfast will be familiar - Pho (meat-based clear soup with noodles and herbs), Banh Mi (a sandwich on French-style Baguette featuring eggs, meat, or pate and fresh herbs and vegetables), and Balut (an almost ready-to-hatch duck egg).  Ok maybe this one doesn't make it to many North American tables but I guarantee that unless you've visited Vietnam or have Vietnamese ancestory you've probably never heard of today's breakfast - Banh Cuon.

Banh Cuon is a very light rice flour crepe that has been stuffed with ground pork, minced shallots and minced wood ear mushrooms.  It is served with sides of fresh cucumber, bean sprouts, Cha Lua (Vietnamese pork sausage) and the dipping sauce Nuoc Cham.

It's Northern Vietnamese in origin and today is enjoyed throughout the country for breakfast and as a late night snack.  (Isn't funny how often breakfast foods double as late night snacks?)

I was hesitant to make this one at home.  The ingredients seemed difficult to find and the crepes are typically made on a special pan that is fitted with a metal hoop that stretches a layer of cloth over the pan.  (Not something I was likely to find at my local Home Outfitters.)  But there were several really great tutorials on-line and in the end I decided to take the plunge.

Finding the ingredients was the first challenge.  I was confidant that my local T & T Asian Supermarket would have everything I needed, however figuring out where they were in the store and identifying them among the hundreds of non-English labelled products was another matter.  Rice flour....check, tapioca starch....check, Nuoc Cham.....check, wood ear mushrooms.... negative.  Where the heck would we find wood ear mushrooms.  They weren't in the fresh produce section and similarly were nowhere to be found among the dried mushrooms.  With some help from my smartphone, I finally found them in a mysterious package labelled - Black Fungus.  Delicious....

I was ready for an equally difficult time with the rice crepes, but following the recipe had little trouble. (Hurray for well-written recipes!)  The filling had a horrendous fishy/pork smell as it was cooking and I started to regret putting Jon through this experiment in Vietnamese street food.  But he's always such a great sport so we plated it up and dug in....

And I am happy to report that it was really good!  I've read that Vietnamese cuisine is based on the yin and yang of the five elements and it turns out this is the beauty of Banh Cuon.  The salty, earthy meat filling (which smelt so off-putting) was balanced by the fresh crunch of the veggies and sweet/sour Nuoc Cham.  There was also a myriad of textures and aromas - soft and silky, hard and crunchy, warm and crumbly.

Correspondence	Elements[5]
	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Spices (ngũ vị)	Sour	Bitter	Sweet	Spicy	Salty
Organs (ngũ tạng)	Gall bladder	Small intestine	Stomach	Large intestine	Urinary bladder
Colors (ngũ sắc)	Green	Red	Yellow	Black	White
Senses (năm giác quan)	Visual	Taste	Touch	Smell	Sound
Nutrients (ngũ chất)	Powder	Fat	Protein	Minerals	Water

The Table of Elements in Vietnamese Cuisine - Wikipedia

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

I have a confession - we made this for supper.  And as a dinner, this was a fun endeavour. But it's definitely way too involved for breakfast.

For Degree of Separation:

Black fungus, fish sauce and ground pork, need I say more?


For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

I expected this one to be expensive, but T & T is one cheap supermarket.

For Overall Appeal:

I can see why Banh Cuon is not more well-known outside of Vietnam.  It's not an easy entry food to Vietnamese cuisine.  However if you are looking for something that captures an authentic morning at a street stall in Hanoi, I encourage you to give it a shot.  Putting together the recipe was my favourite kind of tactile kitchen experiment.

Well cherry blossoms and magnolias have finally blossomed here in Toronto, a sure sign that my entry on Passover breakfast is way overdue!  Check in next time to see us try Matzah Brei...