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 32 - 早餐 - China

CONGEE with YOUTIAO

Congee is a food I've been familiar with for a long time.  There are tons of restaurants across the Toronto area named after this dish and I've seen many a co-worker devour a bowlful for lunch.  But I've got to admit, up until now I've never had any inclination to give it a try.

Besides the foreignness of eating limp rice in the morning, consider its appearance.  As a mass of congealed off-white gruel, congee sure isn't winning any beauty pageants.  Creative sprigs of green from assorted toppings do help, until the spoon goes in and finds the often offensive mystery meat!

So imagine my surprise when despite my trepidation, I discover Congee to be.... amazingly delicious.  Comforting even.

Of course, it helps that this particular Congee was made by me with very little in terms of scary ingredients.  And actually, there are very few ingredients at all that go into Congee - something I'm learning is a plus when cooking a tasty breakfast.

Besides being the breakfast of choice for China, variations on Congee are popular all across Asia.  The recipes vary quite a lot but they all centre around rice that has been cooked to the point of disintegration in many times it's volume in water (8:1 is a common ratio).  Congee doubles as a nutritious meal and a great way to use up left-overs.  It is also commonly seen as an excellent pablum for babies and tonic for the sick.

Congee in China is most often served with Youtiao (seen above).  Here's what Wikipedia had to say about this salty doughnut-like pastry:

The Cantonese name yàuhjagwái literally means "oil-fried devil" and, according to folklore, is an act of protest against Song Dynasty official Qin Hui, who is said to have orchestrated the plot to frame the general Yue Fei, an icon of patriotism in Chinese culture. It is said that the food, originally in the shape of two human-shaped pieces of dough but later evolved into two pieces joined in the middle, represents Qin Hui and his wife, both having a hand in collaborating with the enemy to bring about the great general's demise. Thus the youtiao is deep fried and eaten as if done to the traitorous couple. In keeping with the legend, youtiao are often made as two foot-long rolls of dough joined along the middle, with one roll representing the husband and the other the wife.

Saucy!

I had every ambition of making these at home but a little research showed that these are a bread best left to the pros.  (If you're in Toronto stop by King's Noodle where you can buy Youtiao to go).

The Congee variation I made featured a healthy dose of ginger and chicken.  The texture was smooth and far from being exotic, the flavour was rich and familiar.  It had all the goodness of home-made Chicken Soup with the soothing "stick to your ribs" heartiness of Oatmeal.  I liked it so much that I ate it for a good five days afterwards.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

At it's easiest, Congee is as simple as boiling together water and rice.  With just a little additional effort it can become worth getting up for.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:

For Sustainability:

For Costability:

Traditionally Congee has also been used to feed many people with little food.

For Overall Appeal:

Congee caught me by surprise and I am delighted.  I guess I should've known that several billion people couldn't be that wrong....

For next week, I leave you with a riddle.  What food is both a vegetable, starch and sandwich casing all at once?

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 18 - Bracaist - Scotland

OATMEAL PORRIDGE

As the weather's become colder I've been searching for more hearty breakfast options.  Scottish Oatmeal seemed an obvious winner to chase away the upcoming winter blues.  I know you're thinking, "Oatmeal?  That's boring...."  Well although it is true that eating oatmeal porridge for breakfast is common enough in the West, (although it actually has never been a favourite of mine) it turns out that there's more to Oatmeal than first meets the eye....

Oatmeal has been a staple in Scotland for centuries (at least since Medieval times) as oats are the best crop suited for growth in their blustery climate.  Oatmeal was as common to the Scotch as Ollebrod was to the Danes.  Apparently they used to make it into a thick paste that they would keep cold in a "porridge drawer" for days.  (That's right, furniture designed just for breakfast purposes...)  When the mass of cold porridge got too hard (read congealed) to eat as a porridge they would just slice off a piece and fry it up!   Mmmmmm...

But don't worry, we're not featuring old sliced porridge here today, just the fresh stuff.

Our search for "Scottish" oatmeal in Toronto was surprisingly confusing.  There were dozens of oatmeal porridge products to chose from at the grocery store but I suspected that all those Quaker Oats Instant varieties were a far cry from what the Scots would've traditionally enjoyed.  We settled on the Steel-Cut variety for maximum rustic heartiness and some Devon Double Cream for maximum decadence.  (Sidenote:  I later discovered that the traditional Scottish oats are processed by being ground by a millstone and are called "pinhead" oats.)

Our breakfast was warm, hearty, and enjoyable enough that I ate the left-overs all week until they were gone.

Oatmeal Trivia:

-  Oatmeal purists insist that Oatmeal needs to be prepared with a wooden Spurtle not a spoon.  This apparently avoids the dreaded lumps.

- Oatmeal needs to be stirred clockwise.  (With your Spurtle of course.)  To do otherwise might invite bad luck and the Devil.

-  Oatmeal is friendly to gluten allergy sufferers and is actually very healthy.  It's a low GI food that packs in vitamins and protein and can lower your cholesterol.

-  Oatmeal traditionally is eaten standing up.  No clue why....

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:







A wee bit of care was needed to prevent this from being a lumpy mess, but it was certainly doable on a week-end morning.

For Degree of Separation:







For Guestability:






I suppose this depends as always on your guests, and how you dress it up.  Probably not my top pick...

For Sustainability:






Here's where Oatmeal shines.  A heaping bowl of this and you're good till late lunch.

Overall Appeal:







Here's the thing, a well made bowl of Oatmeal served with some sugar, fruit and Devon cream is delicious; a cold slice hacked from inside a drawer....not so much.

We're coming up fast onto some fun Christmas breakfasts!  But first, join us next time as we make a quick trip to Tunisia.

Week 15 - Ethiopia

GUNFO

Ethiopia has a rich culinary tradition and breakfast is no exception.  For the Ethiopian Breakfast entry I could've chosen to make Fit-fit (shredded injeera with spices), Dulet (a spicy meat dish), Fatira (fried pancake with egg and honey), Chechebsa (spicy pancake), or Kinche (spicy cracked wheat).  But for some reason I settled on Gunfo - Barley Porridge with Spicy Butter.

Unfortunately for me, (and my poor mother who was visiting at the time), Gunfo is probably the least delicious of the breakfasts we've made so far.  Even my Ethiopian colleague commented, when she found out we made Gunfo, "Oh no!  Gunfo is not delicious!"  But I digress...

Niter Kibbeh

Gunfo is a stiff porridge made traditionally from barley flour (wheat flour can be substituted).  It's formed into a volcano shape and in the spout you pour Niter Kibbeh (clarified butter infused with garlic, ginger and other spices) and top with a generous helping of Ethiopia's favourite spice mix, Berbere.

Berbere Spice Blend

As we already had some Niter Kibbeh on hand (who doesn't?), and my Ethiopian co-worker had been extremely generous and gotten me some Berbere spice straight from Ethiopia, Gunfo was a snap to prepare and extremely inexpensive.  Just stir water and barley flour over low heat until it forms a thick paste and, presto, you have Gunfo.

As for how it tasted:  I won't say it tasted bad, it was just that the barley flour porridge was extremely bland and had a unpleasant paste-like texture.  The Niter Kibbeh with the Berbere spice was fantastic however.  It was deliciously buttery and spicy and gave a good inkling that probably the other breakfast options that incorporated it would've been great...

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:





Gunfo took a measly 10 minutes on the stovetop to prepare.

For Degree of Separation:

For Guestability:





Sorry Mom!  But thanks for being such a great sport...

For Sustainability:







A little hard to judge as I don't think either of us ate enough to tell.

For Overall Appeal:






I quite enjoy Ethiopian food on the whole, but Gunfo was not something I want to add to my normal breafast rotation.  Perhaps later I'll go back and try one of the other breakfast options Ethiopia has to offer...

Next up, a quick bite in Cuba!

Week 11 - Samoa

SUPOESI

Okay, so we didn't really go on vacation to Samoa (that would've been wonderful), but we did spend a lovely weekend visiting family in Ottawa.  I wasn't inclined to force a random breakfast upon them, but everyone was enthusiastic to join in our project.  So I brought out a recipe I've been saving for awhile - Supoesi, a breakfast soup from Samoa.

I don't have a lot of information about Supoesi and the breakfast culture in Samoa.  From what I've read, food is quite important to Samoans (as it seems to be in most countries) and their national cuisine features lots of local fruit and vegetables like coconut, breadfruit, taro, and bananas.

Supoesi is quite a simple recipe and features only five ingredients - papaya or paw paw, water, coconut milk, sugar and tapioca flour.  It took a while to boil the papaya down to a mushy texture, but other than that it was a snap to prepare.

I've read that even in Samoa, Supoesi isn't a universally loved dish and the taste test results among us reflected that.  I personally didn't enjoy it very much.  It tasted like melon (I hate melons) and had the texture of tapioca pudding.  However, there were several in the crowd that seemed to like it.  And I even heard tell that some ate it days later as left-overs!

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:







For Degree of Separation:







Like Chilaquiles this isn't even close to your morning bowl of Cheerios.

For Guestability:






Everyone was very polite about eating it, but I don't think it has a very big wow factor.

For Sustainability:







I think we all cheated and had some toast with our Supoesi.  Actually, I'm not sure if people in Samoa eat it by itself either.

For Overall Appeal:







This gets a solid three Cheerios rating.  In general, I don't feel completely comfortable judging other countries' breakfasts when I know so little about them and I prepare the recipe myself.  Who knows, maybe I absolutely missed the mark when I prepared it?

Next week - Oktoberfest...