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Since my ukrainian wife arrived here in kent I've been introduced to a whole new diet. Pots of simmering borsch, galoopsie, buckwheat, vareniki and a whole lot of other stuff. Maybe one day I'll even get a liking for salt fish with my beer! and cracking those little sunflower seeds hardly seems worth the effort!

She just loves all the Chinese, Indian and foriegn restuarants which we have nearby and delights in finding new foods on our trips to the supermarket. Despite her new found liking for all these things I'm glad to say she hasn't put on an ounce. Sadly she misses black bread and we've been unable to find any at all.

Does anybody have a recipe?

... in response to strange foods, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

If you ever have seen that t.v show: Fear Factor, they eat some discusting foods as a challenge. My wife thinks that she would win every time...becuase she enjoys those types of foods.

My wife brought home one of her Russian "delicacies" the other day...it was headcheese(a type of fatty deli meat), I took one look at and thought ...oh no! I politely told her that I would not be offended if she did not share it with me(smile). She once opened a package of raw bacon, and started to eat it....I quickly told her that although it was smoked for flavor, it was not safe to eat raw..she was dissapointed that it shrink so much when it was cooked. She told me that in Moscow, she ate it right out of the package all of the time...untill later I found out she was talking about broshutto(sp?) which can be eaten that way.

She is always checking out the "entrails" section of the meat dept. Sometimes I give her a dirty (you are not going to eat that are you?) look and remind her that the children will not eat cow brain, pigs feet and chicken gizzards. She just tells me that she ate them as a child and likes to try them again...I tell her fine, it is her "treat"...she does not need to share.(smile)

So for you guys that are just now going through the process...be prepared to stock the freezer with the entrails, and other non-esentials!

apk

... in response to Re: strange foods, posted by Apk1 on Aug 30, 2002

I agree it can be pretty horrible at times, she once told me that as a child one of her favorite treats was to chew on a raw pigs ear, and her discription of the preparation of black pudding from pigs blood in the kitchen left me feeling ill.

She always makes boulion soup from the chickens giblets and is now looking for a source of pigs trotters. I have to decline these delicacies. My wife was very disapointed to find bacon with so much meat on it, nothing like their Salo in Ukraine where everybody eats it with raw onion.

Another thing that surprised her was my strange fixation with eating burnt bread (her words) with my breakfast.

She is always bringing back herbs from the fields and nuts and berries from the forest and complains that she hasn't been able to find any mushrooms.

... in response to Re: Re: strange foods, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

AHH, shrooms...

My wife told me that when her family stayed at thier datcha, they all went to the forest to pick mushrooms.
 I asked her, how did you know if they are safe to eat?
Her reply...we don't, so we boil them to make them safe to eat.

When I was in Moscow I stayed in her flat, we would travel to the supermarket and buy our ingredients to prepare our meals togeather. I showed her how to make an "American" salad, complete with "raw" button mushrooms. She hesitated to eat the shrooms, but trusted me...I told her that they probably do not sell toadstools in the supermarket, and it should be safe to eat. Well....she really liked it, and now she eatss fresh mushrooms all the time (uncooked).
 She saw a toadstool in our yard once, she asked me about it...I asked her which do you prefer? "bolied or fresh"?
....she threw the toadstool in the garbage, and never asked about it again.

... in response to strange foods, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

This is for electric machines.  I found it on the web but have yet to try it.
_________________

"I have been looking for a good Russian Black Bread recipe. This one is the closest I have come. The vinegar adds a bit of a bite, but believe me, with cheese it is marvelous." (NOT my quote)

1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon caraway seed
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed (optional)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Place ingredients into the bread machine in order suggested by the manufacturer.
2. Use the whole wheat, regular crust setting.
3. After the baking cycle ends, remove bread from pan, place on a cake rack, and allow to cool for 1 hour before slicing.

Enjoy!... and let us know how it tastes!

... in response to Re: strange foods, posted by robobond on Aug 30, 2002

Here's another. (again, NOT my quotes)
_______________

"I've finally found  recipes for bread machines that actually
work in my Welbilt. This is adapted from _Bread Machine Baking:
Perfect Every Time_ by Lora Brody and Millie Apter, William Morrow &
Company publishers, ISBN 0-688-11843-7. I borrowed the book from my
local library (great source of cookbooks, BTW)."

Russian Black Bread

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup rye flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon brown rice syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee (powder or granules)*
1 teaspoon minced dried onion or 1/2 small raw onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons caraway seeds

Place all ingredients in the machine. Use dough setting. At the end of
the dough cycle, remove the dough to a non-stick bowl and cover with
plastic wrap. Set the dough in a warm, draft-free place to rise until
nearly doubled in bulk. This may take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.

Prepare a baking sheet or loaf pan, sprinkle with cornmeal. Punch down
the dough and on a floured board, shape it into either a loaf or dome.
Let the bread rise once again until almost doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F
and then lower the oven to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 30
minutes, or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

*I used Postum instead of instant coffee

This bread smells absolutely wonderful while it's baking. It awoke my
housemate from a sound sleep, salivating, and she doesn't even like
onions! Our household of three ate almost the complete loaf with split
pea soup for dinner.

... in response to Re: Re: strange foods, posted by robobond on Aug 30, 2002

Coffee and cocoa? It gets even stranger!

btw whats postum?

... in response to thanks!, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

Sounds like it was first developed as a "health drink"...

From Microsoft Bookshelf '94:

1.   Food and Drink, 1893
C. W. (Charles William) Post, 38, develops Postum to replace coffee with a nutritious beverage of wheat, molasses, and wheat bran. Post is an ulcer patient at the Western Health Reform Institute operated since 1876 by John Harvey Kellogg (see 1895).
2.   Food and Drink, 1895
Postum is introduced as a coffee substitute at Battle Creek, Mich., by C. W. Post, who has quit “the San” uncured and discouraged but has embraced Christian Science. Post sells his Postum in paper bags from hand carts (see 1893; Grape Nuts, 1897).
3.   Food and Drink, 1914
Postum Cereal founder C. W. Post commits suicide May 9 at his Santa Barbara, Calif., home in a fit of depression at age 59. Marjorie Merriweather Post, 27, his only child, inherits the company (see Post Toasties, 1906; incorporation, 1922; Jell-O, 1925).
4.   Food and Drink, 1922
Postum Cereal Co. is incorporated (see Post, 1914; Jell-O, 1925).

The People's Chronology is licensed from Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Copyright © 1992 by James Trager. All rights reserved.

... in response to Re: thanks!, posted by robobond on Aug 30, 2002

Sounds kind of like Kvas that I drank in Russia. When I asked what it was I was told "wheat". They sold it from little tanker trailers on the streets. I've never heard of anything similar around here.

... in response to Re: Re: thanks!, posted by Zink on Aug 30, 2002

Postum is different - non-alcoholic and more similair to coffee than kvass.  In Volgograd I was told they called Kvass 'Bread Beer' or 'Bread Wine'.  Those tanker trailers seemed to be everywhere!  Kvass has a slightly sweet, mild flavor & a low alcohol content w/o the bitterness of hops that true Russian beers have.

From Microsoft Bookshelf '94:

kvass (kväs) noun
A Russian fermented beverage similar to beer, made from rye or barley.
[Russian kvas, from Old Russian kvasù.]

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition is licensed from Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

... in response to Re: Re: Re: thanks!, posted by robobond on Aug 30, 2002

Thanks for the clarification. Vladivostok is also full of kvas tankers. How did you like Volgograd? I spent almost 3 months there last year.

... in response to Re: Re: thanks!, posted by Zink on Aug 30, 2002

kvass is made from fermented bread, maybe someone has the recipe?

... in response to Re: Re: Re: thanks!, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

After 10 minutes of using my super-browser*, I'm gonna bravely go out on a theoretical limb here...  Kvass seems to have evolved (dating back to medieval times) as a peasant's crude attempt (by traditional brewing standards) at utilizing stale bread vs. tossing it!  I chuckle as I say this, but I further suggest that in today's Russia, those tanker trailers seem to have developed into their no-frills version of a Starbucks!

Me, I lost interest in cooking up some Kvass after 1. tasting it,  2. experiencing the cuisine, ambiance and cleanliness of those tanker trailers, and 3. reading in the recipes things like "Ready when the raisins start floating" and "Sieve the stuff one more time"!  LOL!!!  Here are 3 recipes for this "stuff"...

BON APPETITE!
_________________

1.   Kvass

Classification: kvass, rye, bread Source: message header lost, posted to r.c.b., 2/11/92 This recipe is from the book "Wines, Beers and Spirits by Maurice Hanssen and Jacqueline Dineen, Baronet Publishing Co. New York, 1978. Kvass is very refreshing on a hot summer's day and is quickly made from black bread and yeast. It is quite like weak beer and is fermented and slightly alcoholic, but must be stored in the refrigerator using corks, not screw-in stoppers or else it will go on fermenting and blow. This, to me, looks very similar to the Sumerian recipe which Anchor Brewery of San Francisco recreated a couple of years ago.

Ingredients: (for 10 bottles)

1 pound (1/2 k), Dry Black Bread
24 cups, Boiling Water
1 1/2 lbs (3/4 k) Sugar
2 ounces (56g), Fresh Compressed Yeast
1/2 cup, Sultanas (yellow seedless raisins)

Procedure:

Put the bread into a large container and then add the boiling water. When the mixture is lukewarm squeeze the liquid from the bread very thoroughly, making sure that the bread itself does not come through because this clouds the drink. Add the sugar and yeast, mix, cover and leave for ten hours. Pour the drink into clean bottles, and three sultanas to each, put the corks and tie them down---then refrigerate immediately.
____________________

2.   Kvass

Classification: kvass, rye Source: Ronald Leenes, (romix@bsk.utwente.nl) Issue #819, 2/7/92 I got this recipe from a book called dinerparty a la perestrojka. I tried it once, it tasted terrible, but that was probably due to the fact that the rye-bread was almost burned. This is more or less the description the book gives. Remember this is a recipe for non-brewers. It is a cookbook after all.

Ingredients:

500 grams Rye-bread
8 litres, water
25 grams yeast (the book mentions yeast to make bread)
225 grams sugar
4 spoons of luke warm water
1 lemon
2 spoons of raisins
2 branches of peppermint

Procedure:

Put the slices of rye-bread in the oven (200 degrees Celsius) for about 45 mins, until they're dried. Boil the 8 liters of water. Crumble the dried rye-bread, put it in the boiling water for about 5 mins. Let it the water, and rye-bread rest for 4 hours, covered with a tea-cloth. Crumble the yeast, 15 mins before the 4 hours are over. Mix the crumbled yeast with some sugar and the luke warm water. Let it rest for 15 mins. Filter the water-rye-bread mix in a kitchen sieve. Carefully extract all water from the rye- bread. Wash, and peel the lemon. Add the lemon-peel, the sugar, the yeast and the pepermint. Stir the solution, and let it rest (covered) for 8 hours. Sieve the solution (tea-cloth). Bottle it.Put some raisins, a bit of lemon-peel, and a fresh leaf of peppermint in every bottle, close the bottles, and keep them in a cool place. Ready when the raisins start floating. Sieve the stuff one more time in a tea-cloth. Put the Kvas in the fridge 4 hours before drinking.
_____________________

3.   Stout Billy's Recipe Book

Kvass I   

Ingredients:1 loaf dry dark rye bread (approx 24 slices)
1-1/2 gal boiling water
3 c sugar
2 pkgs yeast
1/4 c golden raisins
Procedure:Put bread in a tea towel & tie bundle securely with string. Put bundle in crock & pour in boiling water. Cover & let set until water is lukewarm. Remove bundle & let drip into clean pan. Pour drip water back into crock, making sure no bread is in the water. Add sugar, then yeast, stir & cover. Set in a warm place 10 to 12 hours.
There will be a slight yeast settlement. Pour the clear liquid into a jug & add raisins. Cork the bottle or put a lid on the jar, but not too tightly, or the cork will blow. Refrigerate for 5 days, then strain before serving. Yield will be about a gallon. ale yeast (I'm using Cooper's Ale Yeast) Water to make up 5 gallons of wort
Specifics:N/A
Comments:These are from the Old Country, so use at your own risk. When I was an undergraduate & Bud came out with the screwtop quart, kvass had a brief vogue, but real dark rye was hard to find!
___________________

*   "dogbone.com"

... in response to Re: Re: Re: thanks!, posted by Pordzhik on Aug 30, 2002

I've got a lot of Kvas recipes in a cookbook I was given. I counted 13 different recipes. The cookbook is in Russian though. I'll translate and post some of the recipes when I have more time.