From Russia with Food

Grocery shopping at Trade Fair, my neighborhood supermarket, I was always baffled by the dried salt cod display. (In)conveniently stuffed between the chili peppers and yucca root in the vegetable isles, it permeates the air with its salty, fishy smell slightly reminiscent of sweaty feet. I’ve always been curious about this haphazard placement of dried fish among more conventional fare, especially since in Ukraine dried fish is used as a snack to complement beer and vodka on long, pre-sunrise fishing trips. I’ve made this treat with my friends using freshly caught bullhead - a small and slimy thing resembling catfish, about the size of an average adult’s palm. We put a hook at the end of a fishing line, baited with little balls of moist bread, and lowered the line into a lake until a bullhead took the bait. Once we had a dozen fish, we gutted them, put a hook through their mouth, rubbed them down with salt and hung them up to dry outside in the sun. Hopefully the flies didn’t lay eggs in the fish, and after a few weeks it was done - a salty snack you pulled apart with your fingers or absent-mindedly sucked on while your teeth ached from the salt. I’d never consider cooking the thing, however, and was surprised (and slightly terrified) when, digging around for something creative to do for this project, I stumbled over dried salt cod used as a main ingredient in Jamaica’s national dish of saltfish and ackee.

Picking a recipe for Project Food Blog’s challenge #2 was a neurosis-inducing doozy. My Eastern European background negated the possibility of cooking things most would consider unusual or uncomfortable. Tongue? LOVE IT! Gizzards? Bring ‘em - I’ve eaten them fried, boiled and baked. Brains, sweetbreads, feet, jellies - we make them all, and I’ve grown up eating a lot of this stuff for breakfast while most American kids scarfed down processed eggs and bacon. I wanted to do something unfamiliar and out of my comfort zone, so I turned to the tropical flavors of Latin America and the Caribbean for inspiration. When salt cod appeared in preparations of two national dishes - Portugese bacalau and Jamaican saltfish and ackee, I finally had it. The Jamaican recipe seemed more interesting, and included other ingredients I’d never heard of and would never consider using - ackee and cassava root. Flavors of the Caribbean, strange ingredients, a relatively unfussy preparation and an excuse to drink Jamaican beer while cooking? Done and done.

Saltfish and ackee is a classic Jamaican dish traditionally served with a starchy side of fried plantains, crispy breadfruit or bammies - fried flatbreads made with grated cassava root and coconut milk. The salt cod is prepared by soaking it in water for 24 hours and cooking it with onions, sweet and spicy peppers, tomatoes and ackee, a fruit native to West Africa which was imported into Jamaica in the 18th century, most likely on a slave ship. Ackee is poisonous if not prepared properly, so in the US it is only available in canned form, the toxins having been previously removed by boiling it for 30 minutes. Unusual AND dangerous - this just keeps getting better and better. The biggest dilemma of this challenge, deciding on a recipe aside, was finding the ackee. Trade Fair came through, thankfully, with a tiny shelf full of Jamaican produce, hidden out of sight in the very back corner of the supermarket. Tropical produce normally runs up a hefty bill, but I had no idea that a can of what essentially looks like veiny fava beans would set me back $12.99. The salt cod was $8.99 a pound, costing me over $20 just for the basics - this stuff better be worth it!!

I hunkered down to make the dishes, beer in hand, terrified boyfriend sitting nervously on the couch and dreading the time of tasting this unusual meal. I tried to make the recipe in the most classical way, only substitution being a Serrano chili instead of the recommended Scotch Bonnet or habanero chili. My stomach is very sensitive to intense spice, and I figured that eating a poisonous fruit was dangerous enough.

When the soaked salt cod was boiling, it filled my apartment with an unappetizing, intense fishy smell (I don’t think it will EVER come out!) I had to boil it longer than the recommended 20 minutes, because after 20 it still had a slightly rubbery consistency. 35 minutes seemed to do the trick, and after flaking, chopping and prepping I threw the onions, peppers, butter and thyme in a wok. Easy peasy. The bammies were a little bit more challenging, because I grated them on a large grater (like one would potatoes for latkes), and they didn’t want to come together into a flat disk. I finally wrestled them into staying together and put them on two skillets with butter, hoping against hope that they wouldn’t fall apart as I flipped them. Some stirring and into the wok went the fish and the tomatoes. The bammies, in the meantime, got a nice bath in a pot full of coconut oil for 5 minutes and back on the frying pans they went. After the soak, they were a lot more easily manipulated into a pancakey shape, and after about 5 minutes were nice and golden brown on both sides - releasing a delicious coconut aroma. The saltfish and ackee, in the meantime, started to smell heavenly, releasing the scents of all the vegetables combined with the fish. I carefully folded in the ackees after about 10 minutes and, once the whole thing was heated through, it was done.

My boyfriend and I loaded our plates, apprehensively, splitting a bammy in half and adding a tablespoonfull of saltfish and ackee. He was giving me a funny look, so I took a bite first. It was…DELICIOUS! My boyfriend, who hates coconuts and wasn’t too pleased about this dinner selection, cleaned up his plate and went back for seconds. I would have never imagined that such a wonderful combination of Caribbean flavors could come out of something that used to, essentially, smell of salty feet. The peppers and tomatoes complemented the salty codfish perfectly, and ackees added a creamy, slightly bitter flavor to the whole dish. I imagine this would be even more delicious made with fresh ackees, because there was definitely a slight tinny flavor to the canned variety. I read that ackees taste like scrambled eggs - this is incorrect. They have their own distinct  flavor and taste like nothing I’ve ever had before. They are sweet, creamy and have a lightly bitter aftertaste. The bammies added a touch of a coconut flavor, after soaking up a lot of the coconut milk, and made this dish distinctly tropical and amazing. I’m very happy that I had a chance to participate in this challenge, because otherwise I would have never cooked this wonderful recipe. It put me outside my comfort zone and gave me a new perspective on discovering unknown flavors of traditional international cooking.

You can find the recipe below, or just google “saltfish and ackee” and make your own version of this delicious Caribbean classic.

Ingredients for saltfish and ackee:

1/2 lb dried salt cod
1 can of ackees, drained
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 a hot chili pepper (recommended Scotch Bonnet/habanero)
1 sweet bell pepper
1 tomato
1 sprigs fresh thyme

Start by soaking salt cod in a pot of cold water overnight, minimum for 8 hours but ideally for 24 hours, to remove most of the salt. Keep the pot in a fridge and change water several times (at least 3) during the soaking process. Bring a pan of water to a boil and simmer the fish over medium fire for 20 minutes or until the fish is tender. Remove from fire and allow to cool. Chop the onion, bell pepper, chili pepper and tomato. Salt cod is usually sold boness in the US, but if you were unlucky enough to purchase salt cod with bones in it, you’ll have to remove them before flaking the flesh of the fish. Melt butter in a frying or saute pan and stir fry the onion, black pepper, bell pepper, chili and thyme for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are starting to get tender. Add the tomatoes and saltfish and stir-fry for another 10 minutes, until everything is tender but not mushy. Add the ackee and cook until hot throughout - be really gentle when stirring to avoid breaking up the delicate ackee. A good technique to use here is turning the mixture gently with two forks. Take off the fire and place in a big bowl.

For bammies:

1 lb cassava root
1 pinch salt
1 can coconut milk

While the saltfish and ackee are cooking, peel and grate the cassava root into a bowl. Upturn shredded cassava into a clean kitchen or paper towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Add salt and mix until combined. Divide the mixture into  one-cup sized portions. Flatten each portion into a disc shape, about 1/2 inch thick. Melt some butter in a frying pan and add the flatbread. Fry each bammy over a medium heat for 9 minutes per side. Remove from the pan and soak in coconut milk for 5 minutes, then replace in the pan and fry until the bammy is light brown in color. Serve alongside the saltfish and ackee.

My father was my cooking hero growing up. He was the one who prepared most of our meals when I was small and taught my 18-year-old mother how to cook (he was 38 when they got married). Dad grew up in Abkhazia and Georgia, countries renowned for their use of spices and fatty meats like mutton in food preparation, so when he cooked Russian dishes he always spiced them up in a fashion uncharacteristic for frequently bland, sour-cream-laden Russian food. I loved his cooking, even when it was so heavy that you felt full after half a bowl of borscht spiced with pepper, dried nuts and dried mushrooms. He was the first and biggest influence in my cooking style, my love of experimentation, exotic spices and travel.

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One of my favorite childhood recipes is the Russian beet salad. It is a popular celebration appetizer, variations of which appear on holiday tables, picnics and cook-outs throughout Eastern Europe. It is traditionally served cold or at room temperature with a variety of pickled vegetables, other savory salads and an arrangement of cold cuts. There are many different versions of the basic recipe, making it adaptable to an array of tastes and eating preferences. The recipe below is my preferred version, prepared simply with beets, caramelized garlic and onions, sour cream and mayo. If you don’t like the creamy dressing or are vegan, it can be easily substituted with a little olive oil, or an olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzle, without compromising flavor. Those who prefer a sweeter appetizer can add plumped raisins to the recipe (at the same time as the onions.) Nut lovers will find that adding half a cup of lightly toasted pine nuts or walnuts to the salad makes this recipe even better and gives it an additional crunchy texture.

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Good news Astorians - there’s a (relatively) new joint in the neighborhood. It’s a much healthier alternative to your usual grease-dripping fast food, but that could be the Russian in me talking (meat & potatoes, anyone?) It’s called “La Papa” and they sell…baked potatoes. Sure, they also fiddle in soup, paninis and various Turkish drinks, but their main staple is baked potatoes - made ready to order - with your choice of UNLIMITED toppings for a whopping $6.00. Think about it - they have the biggest baked potatoes I’ve ever seen (in fact I’ve wondered if maybe they import the things from Chernobyl) with any and all toppings you could ever want for just $6. They are a full meal, and I can barely ever finish one.

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This is the perfect springtime recipe! It combines the wonderful flavors of zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, tomato, thyme and herbes de Provence into a flavor combination that is guaranteed to melt in your mouth in a symphony of delight and put you in a good mood. It’s not heavily spiced or salted, to let the vegetable flavors combine and stand out on their own. It’s really perfect and ingenious and is my new favorite vegetable dish (thank you thank you thank you SK!). It’s gorgeous and pretty easy to make, and can either stand on its own or be served as a side dish to a number of meats and fish.

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I haven’t had too many days off lately, and the ones I did have inevitably fell on what most 9-5ers would call a workday - Monday or Tuesday. Normally I’d use that time to catch up on some serious naps, but recently my schedule got all wonky when, for no good reason and without explanation, I started waking up at 8:30 AM. This stumped me - what’s a night owl to do when the boyfriend is at work and it’s bright and sunny outside? Why, start a new exercise routine called “walk around New York City until my legs feel like noodles,” of course! Along the way, I ran across two beautiful murals and visited Crumbs Bake Shop on Lexington between 44th & 45th Street and shared my opinion.

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I have a few favorite food haunts in Astoria. Having lived in the area for almost five years, it’s difficult to skip the comfort of the preferred to experiment with new restaurants, especially on a splurging budget as tiny as mine. It happens occasionally, however (trying new restaurants in Astoria is one of my New Year’s resolutions), and in mid-January I went to check out a German restaurant called Wunderbar German Grill & Bierhaus that the boyfriend has been raving about since he attended their opening a year ago. I’m fairly harsh when judging German food - having been to Germany, I’ve frequently been disappointed with German restaurants in New York City. They are either bland and overpriced, or try too hard to make gourmet food out of what should essentially be just variations of meat, fat and carbohydrates. Thankfully, Wunderbar doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not and serves great, filling German meat & potatoes at prices that won’t cripple your wallet (unless you plan on drinking enough beer to requisition a little push-cart for homeward transportation.)

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A few weeks ago I was foraging through my refrigerator in search of likely dinner suspects and came up with nothing much. I had a few leeks, eggs, onions, some salad-things and the makings of what could be turned into miso soup. My wallet was feeling similarly empty, so instead of straining the budget by going shopping I gathered what I had and decided to make the soup and an easy veggie galette. This savory pastry is relatively easy to make, delicious and CHEAP! Apart from the leeks, most ingredients that go into this recipe should already be stashed somewhere in your fridge or pantry. Leeks and caramelized onions provide a wonderful sweet flavor to the recipe and the eggs add substance and creaminess. It can be eaten for breakfast (although I’d suggest making it the day before and keeping it covered with plastic wrap overnight to eat in the morning - that’s too much work before coffee for ME, thank you very much), lunch or dinner and goes well with most light sides - be they soup, salad or sauteed veggies.

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Not only is this entry entirely late, it’s also very cheeky. You see, in Communist Motherland(s) of the USSR, we didn’t celebrate Christmas. In fact, most people didn’t openly celebrate any sort of religious holidays. Oh, sure we’d still decorate various evergreens and pester Grandfather Frost for presents, but this whole thing was buried under the lovely catchphrase of a “National Holiday.” A USSR Hallmark, if you will (although the way I understand it, it’s very much a Hallmark holiday in the USA these days, too.) This is an entry about Soviet celebrations and a few cold appetizers that you might try, and consider making a part of your holiday tradition.

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The first time I had the pleasure of being acquainted with Vesta was in October 2008. I’d just gotten off the bed after my knee surgery - two weeks of lying on a mattress later - and my mom (who was taking care of my walkless ass, bless her soul) decided that we needed to get me out of the house and go out to dinner. We were driving by this little place, located a mere block and a half away from my apartment, when I asked her to finish the evening there. Two crutches in tow, I ambled in. It was opening night. In hindsight, it was probably the best foodie decision I ever made. I’ve brought many friends here since, and everyone has always been delighted. Naturally, when the boyfriend’s friends from upstate New York came to visit last weekend and we woke up slightly hung-over on a Sunday morning, I suggested relieving our troubled stomachs here over brunch. We stayed for two hours, and I doubt they’ll hesitate to visit again the next time they’re in town.

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