Summer? Time for Shashlik

In the same way that Americans think of hamburgers and hotdogs as summertime, picnic food, Ukrainians think of shashlik.  Shashlik is what Americans call shish kebab,  marinated meat on a stick (I can hear Anthony Bourdain, who wasted his trip to Ukraine,  raving about meats on sticks in other places, but I believe he missed the Ukrainian version).  You can order in restaurants and in Simferopol,  we even found stands selling it in the big outdoor markets (below) but it's really picnic food--even in the rain as my friend Anatoly demonstrates above.

As Barb Wieser's post noted,  Ukrainians are serious about their outdoor food.   And shashlik is one of the most serious,  cooked, as in grilling in this country, most often by men. Of course, the recipes are as varied as the people who cook it.  Here's one, via the Everything About Ukraine website, supposedly from a famous Georgian singer:

The meat (he uses either beef or mutton) should be absolutely fresh. Cut it into medium sized pieces and mix with onion, salt and black pepper. Onto this, he pours "Adzhika" (a garlicy, hot pepper sauce). But never adzhika bought in a store, he insists, only the homemade kind sold in the bazaars. Add some freshly squeezed lemon juice to this (the more the better!) Then let it all sit for half an hour. The "secret" of this recipe is to use dried grape vines for the grill. That gives a unique, piquant flavor to the shashlik.

 It's not surprising that a Ukrainian website features recipes from Georgia, as shashlik is found all over the former Soviet Union and usually attributed to the cooks of the Caucausus region.  According to Glenn R. Mack and Asele Surina in Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia it is the national dish of not only Georgia (called mtsvadi),  Armenia (khorovats) and Azerbaijan (kebab) despite the fact that the words shasklik and kebabs are both of Turkic origin.

Whether it's along a riverbank over a campfire;  outside at your dacha,  or in the market at Simferopol,  shashlik symbolizes a relaxed,  yet important,  summer approach to a meal.  To accompany Anatoli's cooking in the top photo,  I remember new potatoes sliced in half with a piece of salo and plenty of salt,  wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals.  They were a delicious accompaniment to the meat from the grill, and together the  makings of a memorable meal with Anatoli and Anya,  and Anya's parents at their dacha on a warm May evening.

From Georgia, or ?

The wisdom of crowds helped us learn a bit more about one snack we saw in a number of different markets (although I don't remember seeing them in Kyiv or L'viv).  They were long, skinny brightly colored treats (above) that were hung up in markets, at vendors of dried fruit and nuts.   One night we ordered a sampling of sweets in a Georgian restaurant in Donetsk and realized one of the treats on the plate was a cut-up version of what we'd seen.  It had a nut inside a sort of hard jelly.  The texture was sort of like fruit leather, but sweet and crunchy at the same time--maybe a little grapy? Hmmm?  What was it?

So we put a picture up in one of our market reports and had a number of responses, all of which testify to the cross-pollination of food in Ukraine (and to the power of crowdsourcing!)  That's not surprising given the country's important place on both sea and overland trade routes.   Food traditions in Ukraine have come from what the land itself can produce, but also from traders coming across the Black Sea;  settlers coming down from Russia, Turkey,  and the Caucauses--and now, of course, from around the world.

This treat is called churchkhela in Georgia,  rojik in Armenia, or  Üzüm pekmezi (grape molasses) in Turkey.  It's nuts strung out along a string and then dipped repeatedly in grape juice mixed with flour and sugar. A Google image search shows me mostly natural colors,  but these brightly colored ones (probably food coloring) appear to be a newish innovation.  Thanks to Florian Pinel, who blogs at  Food Perestroika:  Adventures in Eastern Bloc Cuisine,  here's a recipe:

Churchkhela
10 qt grape juice [white or purple depending on your color preference]
1 lb sugar
2 1/4 lb flour
2 lb walnuts halves (or almonds, dried fruits…)

• In a pot, reduce the grape juice over low heat for about 3 hours, progressively stirring in the sugar.
• Whisk in the flour [to avoid lumps, I would place the flour in a large bowl and progressively pour in the liquid while mixing] and return to a boil. The resulting mixture is called tartara.
• Thread the walnuts onto 1 ft-long pieces of string. Dip the strings into the hot tartara several times to obtain the desired thickness. Hang to dry for approximately 2 weeks, until the churchkhelas are still soft, but not sticky.
• Wrap in towels and allow to mature for 2 to 3 months. The churchkhelas will develop a thin layer of powdery sugar.

Florian's site is a great look at both Eastern European restaurants in New York City and his travels throughout Eastern Europe.  Check it out!

Inside detail photo from SF Weekly