Potato Salad

It was January when I last blogged. It was cold and the food was suitably wintry - Ukrainian food is good for riding out the coldest of months. Since then I've travelled, tasted and cooked my way around a very hot South Asia. I have lots of new recipes to share, but for now, something more homely - a goes with anything, easy to prepare potato salad. 


Baba used to make this with salad cream. This is my version - and it has Baba's seal of approval. To ring the changes add diced cooked carrot and/or peas (which technically would make it a Russian salad) 


Seves 6 as a side dish 
500g waxy potatoes, preferably baby ones, skin on 

3-4 eggs

200g kubasa (ham or any other cooked salami is good too)

1/2 a white onion, finely diced

3 or 4 gherkins, cut in small dice 

Mayonaise (I use Hellmann's)

Salt and white pepper 

Dill 

Cover the onion liberally with salt and set aside (I put it in a small sieve). Boil or steam the potatoes, leave to cool, then cut into halves, or quarters, if large. Boil the eggs so they're hard (but not too hard) boiled (7 or 8 minutes is plenty) then leave to cool before cutting into six. Cook the kubasa in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, peel while warm, and cut into dice, then combine in a bowl with the potatoes, gherkins and 2/3 of the chopped egg. 

Next, rinse the salted onion under boiling water - you should be left with something softer and less harsh tasting. Drain well and add to the other ingredients. Add mayonaise (3 tablespoons, or enough to cover), salt, white pepper and a little chopped, fresh dill (not too much or it overpowers the whole thing). Mix well and top with the remaining egg segments, and a little more dill for colour. 

Baba's Borsch

Until a couple of weeks ago this recipe was a closely guarded secret. The secret ingredients might come as a surprise - but don't be tempted to leave them out. It really works. 

Serves 8-10

3 large (approx 6 small), fresh beetroot, peeled and left whole (use vacuum packed beetroot if it's easier, but adjust the cooking times if you do - just simmer until the water turns purple)

1.5 - 2 litres water (if you have homemade stock use this from the start)

Chicken or vegetable stock pots 

1 medium white onion, finely diced 

2 medium carrots, diced

1 stick celery, finely chopped (optional)

1 stick leek, finely sliced (optional) 

3 leaves whites cabbage, tough core removed, finely shredded

1 bay leaf 

Salt and pepper 

Olive or groundnut oil 

1 cup milk 

1 cup tomato ketchup

Handful each of fresh dill and parsley

Peel and cook the beetroot in boiling water until tender (this will 
probably take 30-40 minutes). Remove the beetroot and set to one side to cool. 

Top up the liquid (add another half a litre of water) then add the stock (if you're using the pots). Next add the carrot, celery and leek (if using) and bay leaf. Simmer until the vegetables are al-dente (they shouldn't be quite cooked yet). 


While the vegetables are cooking, grate the beetroot. Fry the onion in a separate pan until soft - once it's nearly ready add the cabbage to the soup and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add the grated beetroot, along with the fried onion, seasoning and ketchup. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so until all the vegetables are cooked through. Stir in the herbs. 

Remove the soup from the heat and add the milk Stir and serve. 


Serve with rye bread or with a plate of boiled potatoes on the side (they should be soft boiled or mashed; the idea is that you scoop it onto your spoon, dip into the soup and eat). Or you could try it with a spoonful of sour cream (smetana) on top. At Ukrainian Christmas (Cvyt Vechir) borsch (made with vegetable stock - you can't eat meat before midnight) is served with vushka (small dumplings filled with mushrooms - a bit like Ukrainian tortellini).

Mushroom Gravy

The classic accompaniment for vareniki and holubtsi (rice filled cabbage rolls). The quantities here are approximate: the sauce should be rich, earthy and deeply mushroomy.


1 white onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
Small carton of mixed mushrooms (approx 8 medium sized), roughly chopped
Handful dried mushrooms (porcini are good), soaked in boiling water
1-2 tbsp plain flour
Salt and black pepper
Soy sauce
Butter
Light olive oil
Chicken stock
1 bay leaf


Fry the onions on a low heat in oil, butter, and a good tsp of salt until soft and golden. Spend at least 10 minutes doing this - preferably longer - so that the onion is almost jammy in texture. Add the garlic and fry gently for a couple of minutes, before adding the mushrooms. Fry until soft. Add the bay leaf. 

Add the drained porcini (reserving the liquid) and fry for another couple of minutes. If the mixture is dry, add a little more butter then sprinkle in the flour and stir well (the mixture will seem lumpy but don't panic - it won't be lumpy in the end).

Now add the mushroom liquor and the chicken stock (about 500ml), stirring continuously until you have a thin roux.

Season to taste (I like lots of pepper) and add a splash of soy sauce (a couple of drops of Worcestershire sauce can be good here too). Simmer for 15 minutes and serve.

Vareniki

Ukrainian grandmothers everywhere love to boast about how many vareniki their grandchildren can eat.  And whenever you call round to Baba's, she's usually making vareniki. As soon as we got in from school Baba would have a plate of vareniki ready for us on the table. My brother and I would compete to see who could eat the most. He invariably won, easily polishing off 16 in a sitting, but I always put up a good fight (I could manage at least 12). Now, 200 miles from Baba's, we get food parcels of frozen vareniki and little pouches of her gravy, ready to serve at a moment's notice. 
Delicious, comforting and quintessentially Ukrainian.

Makes 6 main course servings (approx 45 vareniki)


For the potato filling 
1lb King Edward potatoes 
1 tsp salt 
175g Lancashire or Wensleydale cheese (or to taste)
A knob of butter (optional)
Salt and white pepper 


Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft. Drain and dry over a hot stove. Mash and allow to cool slightly before adding the cheese, and butter if using. The mash should be firm and fairly dry. Add seasoning and leave to cool while you prepare the dough. 

For the dough
1lb/450g plain or 00 flour
2tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium egg, beaten (you may not need it all) 
1/2 tsp salt
A jug of water 


Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add the oil, half the egg (if it needs more liquid, add the rest later) and the salt. Now add water gradually, mixing with a spoon to bring the ingredients together. 

Use your hands to form a smooth dough. It should be soft, but not wet. On a floured board, knead the dough until elastic and shiny (this will take anything from 5-10 minutes). You can leave the dough to sit in the bowl, covered with oiled cling film, for up to 30 minutes. 

Roll the dough on a lightly floured board to roughly the thickness of a 10 pence piece (a couple of millimetres max). It might be easier to deal with half of the dough at a time, in which case leave the rest under oiled cling film or a damp cloth). Use a round cutter or small glass (Traditionally Baba uses an empty Nutella glass - which I have done here) to cut out circles of dough. Take one circle at a time and stretch a little by pulling out the dough - a bit like making pizza. Then use a teaspoon to spoon balls of the potato mixture onto the dough; put the filling on one end - just below the middle and not too close to the edges - and fold the other half of the dough over to make a half moon shape. Pinch the edges to make sure the dough is sealed and the potato won't escape during cooking. Continue until all the dough is used up (you may not need all the potato). Lay on a floured baking sheet, leaving space between each varenik so they don't stick. Cook immediately, or freeze on the baking sheets before transferring to food bags. 

To cook
Add vareniki to a large pan of boiling water. Stir once and leave to simmer. The vareniki will rise to the surface after a couple of minutes, at which point you should cook for another minute. Add a glass of cold water to stop the cooking, and spoon out carefully using a slotted spoon. Serve on hot plates, with mushroom gravy, onions fried in butter until just the wrong side of golden, sour cream (smetana) or tomato ketchup.

Variations
Add onions fried in butter or vegetable oil to the potato mixture instead of, or as well as, the cheese. Or replace the potato filling with sauerkraut. Cherries are a popular sweet filling (these are often deep fried and served dusted with a little icing sugar).