👉 Kourabiedes are the snow-white butter cookies that fill every Greek home at Christmas. They are short and crumbly, full of toasted almonds and buried under a thick blanket of powdered sugar – so much that it is a family joke who ends up with sugar on their clothes. Greeks…
👉 Bûche de Noël is the cake every French family puts on the Christmas table: a light chocolate sponge rolled around whipped cream and covered in glossy chocolate ganache, scored with a fork so it looks like a log of wood. It goes back to the old tradition of burning…
👉 This is the salad that appears on almost every Georgian table, from a simple family dinner to a big supra feast: juicy tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers with red onion and lots of fresh herbs, dressed with a creamy sauce of ground walnuts, garlic and Georgian spices. The walnut dressing…
👉 Penovani khachapuri is the flaky, quick version of Georgia’s famous cheese bread. Instead of a soft yeast dough, ready puff pastry (penovani means ‘foamy’ or ‘flaky’ in Georgian) is wrapped around a filling of salty imeruli or sulguni cheese, folded into a square envelope and baked until it puffs…
👉 Kuchmachi is a beloved Georgian dish of chicken giblets – hearts, gizzards and livers – simmered until tender, then fried with onion and garlic and finished with ground walnuts, coriander, blue fenugreek and a shower of pomegranate seeds and cilantro. It comes from western Georgia, where it is served…
👉 Chvishtari is a rustic cornbread from Samegrelo in western Georgia: fine cornmeal kneaded with plenty of grated sulguni cheese and a little butter, shaped into small flat cakes and fried until golden, with cheese melting out of every crack. It is the cheesy cousin of plain mchadi and a…
👉 Chanakhi is a rustic Georgian stew of lamb, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and lots of fresh herbs, slowly baked in individual clay pots called ketsi. The meat and vegetables cook in their own juices, so the result is tender, rich and full of summer flavour without any frying. It is…
👉 Kupati are Georgia’s homemade sausages: coarse pork mixed with lots of onion, garlic and warm spices like khmeli suneli, coriander, cinnamon and a hint of cloves, stuffed into natural casings, briefly boiled and then fried or grilled until crisp. They come from the western regions of Imereti and Samegrelo,…
👉 Kotlety are Russia’s favourite everyday dinner: soft, juicy meat cutlets made from minced pork and beef with milk-soaked bread, onion and garlic, coated in breadcrumbs and pan-fried until golden. Every Russian grandmother has her own recipe, and kotlety with mashed potatoes or buckwheat is the taste of childhood for…
👉 Vinegret is a bright, colourful Russian salad of diced cooked beets, potatoes and carrots mixed with crunchy dill pickles, sauerkraut and onion, dressed simply with sunflower oil. Its name comes from the French vinaigrette dressing, but the salad itself is completely Russian – a fixture of New Year tables,…
👉 Holodets (kholodets, studen) is the famous Russian and Ukrainian meat aspic: tender pieces of pork, beef and chicken set in a clear, savoury jelly made only from the natural collagen of the bones. It takes time but very little work, and no New Year table in Russia is complete…
👉 Kapusniak is the classic Polish sauerkraut soup: a warming, slightly sour broth made with pork ribs, sauerkraut, potatoes and carrots, seasoned with bay leaf, allspice and caraway. It is everyday comfort food in Poland – cheap, filling and even better the next day – and it is made in…
