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 24 - 설날 - South Korea

TTEOKGUK

Happy Lunar New Year!

Today I'd like to write a bit about the Korean holiday of Seollal (the Korean Lunar New Year).  Like most of Asia, Korea celebrates not only the Solar New Year on January 1st but also (and with bigger celebrations) the Lunar New Year.  This year the Lunar New Year fell on February 10th, and since celebrations last for three days, that right near the end of the celebrations today.

Activities during Seollal are much like most holidays in the world - families get together, gifts are given, food is eaten and games are played.  What we're concerned with of course is the food.

On the first day of Seollal it is traditional for Koreans to dress in their Hanbok (traditional Korean attire, see picture of me to the right) and pay respect to their ancestors by bowing and presenting ritual foods.  After this they eat the traditional breakfast of Seollal, Tteokguk (rice cake soup).  Eating this soup is very important to the New Year proceedings as eating a bowl on New Year's morning is believed to add a year to your age.  It is so integral that a common New Year's greeting is, "How many servings of Tteokguk have you had?" (Having more than one bowl is actually common.)

Tteokguk was never a favourite of mine, probably because I couldn't wrap my head around the Korean Rice Cake.  Far different from the Western incarnation of a Rice Cake, Korean Tteok is actually made by pounding cooked rice into oblivion and then reforming it into solid shapes (kind of like an Asian pasta).  It's used for sweet and savoury dishes and is a common ingredient in Korean cuisine.  As for flavour, there really is none, it was the texture that got me.  I'm a big texture girl and Tteok is rubbery, gummy, and slippery all rolled into one.  Not my thing.

But lucky for my breakfast blog, Jon loves Tteokguk!  In fact, whenever we go for non-BBQ Korean food he orders Tteokmanduguk, which is just Tteokguk with Mandus (pork dumplings) thrown in for fun.

Tteokguk is made from a beef broth, boiled with tteok and features seaweed and egg as toppings.  For our feature on it we decided to go out (since I was not interested in having gallons of Tteokguk left-over...) to a classic kind of Korean establishment.  In Korea, you pick your restaurant by what you want to eat that night.  You want BBQ Beef, you go to the BBQ Beef restaurant, Pork, the Pork restaurant etc.  However in every town (and I mean probably every), there will be a cozy place that serves an assortment of cheap and cheerful Korean food.  Most dishes will be under 5000 won (or $5) and might include Kimbap (think Korean sushi), Ramen, Mandu, and an assortment of Guk (soup).  Our favourite haunt like this in Toronto is called Thumbs Ups and is pretty authentic, down to the dishware and the cute frilly aprons on the teenage boys serving.

I'm going to break my rules here and forgo the Verdict, because well, I didn't eat any soup. Oh no!  I didn't gain a year.  Ha ha!  Now Jon and I may finally be the same age.....

Instead please enjoy some pictures taken from our time in Korea around the holiday of Seollal (we visited the Korean Folk Village):

The following pictures were taken in Busan a couple of weeks into the New Year. The bonfire is celebrating Daeboreum, or the first full moon of the New Year.  When we waited in line to watch this we had no idea what we were in for.  The bonfire was extremely intense with ash and cinders flying all over the place.  The whole ceremony took several hours and included speeches from dignitaries, singing, some very beautiful traditional dancing, and much prayer and excitement when the Full Moon finally rose...

Thanks for indulging me in a little trip back to our wonderful time in Korea.

Next time, we'll see what's happening for breakfast in Italy!