Ukrainian and international home cooking recipes
“Ayuks” earns its keep in the weeks when the garden buries you in zucchini and cucumbers and the freezer is already full. Nothing gets blanched: you grate, chop, and simmer everything together for a quarter of an hour. The quantities run large, into the kilograms, because this is a bulk-canning recipe from the start. The […]
The tongue-in-cheek name “Bachelor’s Dinner” says it all: this is a self-contained preserve you just open and reheat for a full meal. The vegetable-and-rice mixture of tomatoes, carrot, sweet pepper and garlic is filling enough to serve as both side dish and light lunch. The order of adding things matters. The carrot and onion go […]
The banana does double duty here as a thickener: its starchy flesh makes the shake sweet and thick without any syrup. Blueberries and raspberries add color and a gentle tartness that balances the richness of the ice cream. It belongs to the family of American milkshakes. Helpful Pointers Frozen berries will make the shake colder […]
Start with a trick that most cooks skip: before the beef goes into the pot, halve an onion and sear it cut-side down in a dry pan until the face is deep brown, then drop it into the boiling water. Those charred sugars tint the broth and give the meat a faint smoky sweetness raw […]
“Cathedral” borscht is a vegetable-heavy version of the Ukrainian classic: eggplant and green beans join the usual beet and cabbage, and instead of the standard fried base, it’s finished with shpik — cured pork fatback, similar to unsmoked salt pork — pounded in a mortar with garlic. That garlicky lard paste, stirred in off the […]
“Chudesny” (Ukrainian for “wonderful”) is the archetypal pantry salad: four canned things plus crab sticks, tossed together in five minutes. Sweetish corn, tender beans, marinated button mushrooms, and crab sticks play off each other well enough that a big bowl never gets dull. The whole game is draining. Tip the corn, beans, and mushrooms into […]
“Obyedenie” (the name roughly means “scrumptious”) is a crunchy raw vegetable relish that’s ready in an hour, with no cooking or sterilizing at all. Cabbage, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes, and tart-sweet apples marinate in a cold dressing of oil and vinegar, keeping their fresh flavor and bite. The grated tart apples are the clever touch: […]
This hearty preserve rests on a pairing you rarely see in canning: beets and green string beans. The beets bring a dense texture, earthy sweetness, and deep color; the young beans add snap — so the finished jar eats more like a dish of its own than a side. The recipe was shared by S. […]
The secret to these chicken rolls is marinating the lean breast in the syrup from canned peaches: the meat drinks up a gentle fruity sweetness and won’t dry out in the oven, while soaked prunes and crunchy walnuts hide inside each roll. It’s a shape-shifting appetizer, equally at home hot, chilled, or as a lightly […]
Don’t fuss over making this batter look neat – it comes together in a single bowl in a couple of minutes, and that speed is the whole point of a “guest at the door” pie. Grated carrot and coarsely grated tart apple hold moisture in the crumb, so it stays soft for several days instead […]