Historic Food Images 4: From L'viv

My last trip to L'viv was also my last chance, this visit, to look for historic photos related to food.  The craft market in L'viv, near the opera house, yielded some fascinating images.   Above, some proud (and well-dressed) workers at a flour mill.  Below, a stylish sip of something.

I can't quite tell what's going on in the image below.  A bride?  The slat basket over the one man's shoulder is a really familiar, well-used form even today.  Just last week I saw many people coming in on the trains to Kyiv with this over their shoulder, filled with berries or cherries and covered with a cloth.   Anyone able to tell us what's happening here or where the image might be from?

And just because it's a beautiful image, this color postcard of apples.  Enjoy!

Red and Green: Market Report, June 27

Some photos from a quiet Sunday at the market in Podil, in Kyiv.  I was struck by all the red and green, of tomatoes, salad greens and herbs,  pickles (of course),  green onions, currants, and green walnuts.

I've had pickled walnuts with tea--and they're great!  I couldn't find a specifically Ukrainian recipe but here's one recipe from allrecipes.com.  I don't remember the taste of cinnamon and other spices in the ones I had here.  I'd love to have a recipe from Ukraine--anyone have one to share?

Pickled Walnuts

• 4 pounds fresh young black walnuts
• 3/4 cup salt
• 4 cups malt vinegar
• 2 1/8 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root   

1. Use rubber gloves to handle the young walnuts and pierce each one a few times with the tines of a fork. Watch out for the clear juice this produces. It stains a dark, espresso brown and is a natural dye. Place the walnuts into a bucket and fill with enough water to cover. Stir in 3/4 cup of salt to make a brine. Soak walnuts for 1 week, then drain and make the brine again. Soak for 1 more week.
2. After the second week, drain the walnuts and lay them out on trays to dry in an airy place. In a couple of days they will turn black. Once they have all turned black, they are ready to pickle.
3. In a large pot, stir together the malt vinegar, brown sugar, allspice, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Bring to a boil and then add the walnuts. Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
4. Spoon the walnuts into sterile jars and fill with the syrup to within 1/2 inch of the top. Seal with lids and rings. Store in the refrigerator or process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature and store in a cool dark place.

Berries, Berries, Berries and Cherries

This week appears to be the height of berry and cherry season.   At the market today there were sweet and sour cherries, strawberries, wild strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, all in great abundance.  Many of them were displayed in handmade splint or willow baskets.  Ukrainians enjoy the berries fresh but also turn them into preserves--a compote, or even into cherry. blueberry or strawberry varenyky.  The Gourmanderie blogger tried making blueberry ones--you can find their recipe and photos of the result. here.

Enjoy the look of summer while I enjoy the taste of sun-warmed berries.

 

Above, my wild strawberries gently wrapped for me to carry home.

Granny Wrinkles shares her Reed Recipes

Peace Corps volunteer Barbara Trecker, living in a village in the Danube River Delta, is working with a non-profit environmental organization, Zhavoronok.  After a conversation about The Pickle Project she generously sent me a copy of their newsletter which included this article about the many benefits of reeds.  The article is narrated by "Grandmother Wrinkles,"  a Danube Delta marsh turtle.  Here's Grandmother's take on reeds and their culinary uses (and that's Grandmother Wrinkles at the end of the post)

Today I will introduce you to one of the most numerous inhabitants of our wetlands - reeds. Meet the reed, find its many uses,  and try to prepare a meal from my recipes. Believe me, reeds are very, very helpful and very, very tasty.

If you only knew how wonderful the reeds are that grow in our marshes! They cast a high solid wall, but when the wind blows, the cane leaves turn their edge and the stem bends easily, but does not break. Reeds are flexible and very durable! They can be used to build houses and shelters.

For many animals, the reeds are home. How many spiders, bees and insects are found in the crooks of the cane stalks! They like reed thickets, as do muskrats and pelicans, herons and ibis. Also, wild cats, wild boar, and raccoon dogs.  Birds hide in the reeds, and fish. The “White Cupid”, for example, loves the sweet tender tip of the cane. Since she cannot reach the tip, she grabs the lower branches of the stem with her mouth and pulls it up so the top will not fall into the water.

I must say this one is no fool. Reeds are not only tasty, but also useful. In the reed leaf and shoots is contained up to 500 mg. of ascorbic acid which is four times the vitamin C in lemons!  Reeds are rich in carotene, cane sugar, and starch. The rhizome (root bulb) is especially high in nutrient value, containing up to 15% sugar and 50% starch. That is why long young shoots and rhizomes of reeds are used as food. They can be boiled, pickled, included in soups, salads, vinaigrettes, purees, and stewed with butter. Autumn and spring rhizomes that are dried, milled and made into flour can be cooked for coffee, baked as bread, and used as a seasoning for various dishes. I think it is high time to introduce reed dishes in your diet! Try to cook the recipes in the next column.

Rhizomes are not difficult to collect in the spring or early summer before the reeds flower, and in late autumn from the bottom of reservoirs with rakes or special hooks. But before you start cooking dishes from the reeds, you must perform important rule of survival school:    Remember! Collect reed rhizomes and young shoots only far away from towns, factories and plants!   

And some recipes from the same newsletter.

Reed Root Salad
300g. reed roots, 60g. grated horseradish, 60g. chopped sorrel,
40g. sour cream, salt to taste

Wash the roots and boil in salted water. With a knife, chop into 2 cm. pieces,
stir in horseradish, sorrel and salt,
then add the sour cream.

Reed Root Puree
 200g. reed roots;  60g. nettle;
60g.onion (10-20); vegetable oil; 
salt and vinegar to taste

Boil the reed roots and finely chop in a meat grinder. Fry the onions and nettles in oil, then add the chopped reeds.
Flavor with vinegar and salt.

Reed Root Coffee
Wash the reed roots and air dry, then  roast in oven until brown. Grind the toasted pieces in a coffee grinder and use like regular ground coffee.

These recipes provide just a glimpse of a way of life that involves making do, with whatever the landscape provides.  I'll never just take a casual look at reeds again, without thinking of Granny Wrinkles and the ingenious ways of finding sustenance in this diverse country.

Historic Food Images 3: From L'viv

Historic food images I purchased at the outdoor market in L'viv.  They appear to be relatively new photographic (not digital) reproductions of historic photos, with no location or other information.   But, a close look reveals some interesting things.  Above, market vendors, in L'viv, I believe, with products for sale.   The crack tells me it's from a glass plate negative, but I can't quite make out what the women are selling--nor do I know L'viv enough to identify the location.  Any guesses?

Here's a closer view in a different photo.  The strings remind me of the strings of dried mushrooms you still see sold here.  Or?

Just a very nice view of a Ukrainian village house.  Based on my limited knowledge,  directly over the fence is a flower garden, with a larger kitchen garden out back.    Today, in some Ukrainian villages houses are hidden behind solid, higher fences--so much harder to take a peek at someone's garden!

It's difficult, anywhere, to find nice photos of people just having ordinary, everyday meals, not holiday ones, not picnics.  So although I didn't know whether this was Ukraine or Poland or somewhere else,  I just enjoyed this man's informal table with his glass of wine and those familiar soup plates that usually contain borscht.  What do you see in this picture?

Market Report: Simferopol, End of May

Simferopol is in central Crimea, a peninsula in the south of Ukraine on the Black Sea.  Outside the city, all the way to the coast, huge orchards of all kinds of fruit trees and acres of vineyards, along with strawberry and other fields stretch away from the road.  And I saw the products of that rich agricultural landscape in the local market a week or so ago.

At the central market,  the green growing season was in full sway.  Spotted at the market were tiny new potatoes and young garlic, all kinds of greens, including mint, fresh peas, and the season's first strawberries (women along the roads were also selling fresh strawberries).

A more experienced market shopper told me that there's a direct correlation between the growing season and quality.  The first of any seasonal produce, like strawberries or tomatoes, are the most expensive; and as the season progresses,  the quality increases and the price decreases (and I assume the reverse happens as the season ends).

White Borscht?

Ukrainians love soup--and hardly a day goes by that they don't eat some.  And it's not Campbells, out of the can, but homemade.   Most familiar is a red borscht, but when I visited Anya's family's dacha, her mother Luda made a delicious soup, okroshka, also called white borscht.   It was served cool (by being kept in the root cellar) and the ingredients included buttermilk, cucumbers, potatoes, hard-boiled egg and spring onions.  Perfectly light and refreshing on a hot day. 

Interestingly, Anya tells me that in Russia, there is also a soup called okroshka,  but it is very different--made with kvas (a fermented beverage made from dark bread) and dried fish.  I'm sure it's tasty,  but Luda's homemade Ukrainian version was great.  Although now they eat it at the start of summer because cucumbers are always available in markets, Anya remembers when it was almost a celebration--the dish made when the first cucumbers arrived in the garden.