This coming week's instalment of The Challenge has started a bit early, but I'm using meat from the butcher's counter which isn't vacuum packed and so on and needed to be used within the next few days - today seemed the best thing to do with it. I've today made two things but one can't be enjoyed for several weeks, unfortunately - both are Russian dishes, as per The Challenge's designated country for this coming week, but I'm cheating a tiny bit in that all of my source books tend to define "Russian" recipes as pre-1991 Russia, i.e. the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and so I'm going with "former USSR" rather than "Russia" for this week!
My first foray into Soviet cooking was the one I can't eat for several weeks is solenyye ogurtsy (соленые огурцы) or as my recipe book
calls it, smedomi (смедоми), but I can't find that name used elsewhere anywhere! What, pray tell, is solenyye ogurtsy? Fermented, brined cucumbers, that's what! Some would say "pickled cucumbers" but they're not pickled per se, they're brined. What does this do? The brine is high in salt and contains a little acidity, which kills a lot of Bacteria [sorry, I can't write "bacteria", the word is always rightly styled "Bacteria", as I'm a taxonomist!] and fungi present but makes the conditions perfect for lactic acid Bacteria (LAB) such as members of the genera Lactobacillus and Lactococcus. What do these bugs do? They firstly break down the big carbohydrates like starch in the cucumber, resulting ultimately in production of glucose and other sugars - these are then fermented - this is an oxygen-independent process in which the LABs decide they don't want to use oxygen like pedestrian organisms, they want to use something else instead - that something else being pyruvate - so they firstly glycolyse the sugars into pyruvate and then ferment that into lactic acid (and minor amounts of other fatty acids), which then pickle the cucumbers, giving them a sweet, tart taste - much like sauerkraut, which is produced in exactly the same way!My second attempt was tonight's meal (and I say "attempt" as whilst it was delicious, it wasn't filling at all) - a spicy Georgian stew known as kharcho (харчо) in Russian, or as kharch'o (ხარჩო) in the original Georgian. The recipe that I used came from Elena Makhonko's The Food and Cooking of Russia
and to be honest, I felt it looked very, very bland - no spices at all, aside garlic and chilli. So, I did some googling and I found that the traditional spices used include paprika, Turkish smoked red peppers, blue fenugreek and coriander seed. I'm fresh out of fenugreek (blue or otherwise) but did have some smoked paprika which kind of merges the first two on the list and some coriander seeds - so I decided to use those - I've had this tin of smoked paprika for about 10 years but the seal is brilliant and the flavour and aroma are still strong and bright so I've kept using it!
I also decided to add some peppercorns and some allspice as that appears a lot in Russian food and I love the taste and finally I added a new ingredient I just got today that I've never even seen before but I've managed to get it into both of my recipes today - long pepper (Piper longum L.) - which is a catkin-type thing that's apparently hotter in flavour than black pepper (Piper nigrum L.). I procured some today in my Waitrose delivery and thought I'd throw some into these recipes alongside my usual Bristol blend, which is a mix of green, black, white and pink peppercorns and allspice berries. The former three peppers are actually the same thing - P. nigrum - just harvested at different ages and treated differently. The pink peppercorn is actually not a pepper at all but from Schinus molle L. bush, which is more closely related to the cashew tree than to the pepper!
The recipes I found for kharcho used lamb-on-the-bone but I didn't feel like using it as it's very expensive and so, in the interests of (a) saving money and (b) staying in the spirit of The Challenge to use things I don't usually use, I elected to use oxtail - that is to say the vertebrae and surrounding tissues from a cattle [yes, "a cattle" or "a cattlebeast" is right, not "a cow" as that only applies to females of the species, not the species as a whole, which is "cattles", not "cows"] - which is a lovely meat but must be cooked quite slowly. This kharcho recipe takes about an hour and a half, which is a bit quick and has left it a bit tough really but it did make for a lovely gelatinous, rich gravy forming, which was worth it! Traditionally, a long grain white or brown rice would be used for this recipe, but I elected to use Thai black rice because it has a really nice nutty flavour and harder texture which I thought might add a little bit of "bite" to this stew. The colour also works well in the red sauce.
Solenyye Ogurtsy - Brined Cucumbers
(Makes 2 × 1L screwcap Kilner jars
- that is well over 20 servings)(Total cost: £3.76 - less than £0.18 per serving)
8 cups of water
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp salt
2 large cucumbers (they should weigh about 500g each - you need 1kg cucumber)
10 garlic cloves (peeled and lightly bruised)
6 springs of dill
2 small bay leaves
20 peppercorns (I was using Bristol blend, so 4 of each colour therein)
4 allspice berries (on top of the ones in the Bristol blend)
4 long pepper catkins
[Optional: 10 blackcurrant leaves - I didn't have access to any so omitted them]
[You could also add mustard seeds, grated fresh horseradish and juniper berries]
Prepare the Kilner jars first by taking off the lids and putting the jars into the oven, lying on their sides, and turning the oven to 100°C (same for fan ovens) and letting them heat up. Once the oven reaches temperature, leave the jars in for 5 minutes and then turn the oven off and open the door. After a few minutes, remove the jars carefully and put them upside down on a trivet to cool slightly. Meanwhile, put the lids into a small heatproof container and cover with water that boiled 30 seconds ago in the kettle and leave submerged until needed.
Put the water, salt and vinegar in a pan and heat rapidly to the boil, stirring to ensure that all of the salt has completely dissolved. Bring it to a rolling boil and then take off of the heat and cool for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the cucumbers by removing any packaging - do not wash the cucumbers - and running your unwashed hands all over them - this is to ensure they have lactic acid Bacteria on the surfaces as packaged cucumbers are often quite sterile. Cut the ends off of the cucumbers and cut them into spears - I cut each cucumber in half and then cut each section longitudinally into quarters. Put the cucumber spears into a large bowl for about 5 minutes whilst you prepare the jars.
Turn the jars over and drop 10 peppercorns, 2 allspice berries, 2 long pepper catkins and 2 garlic cloves into each jar. If you are using blackcurrant leaves, you should add a few at this stage and layer the cucumbers with them. Push a spring of dill into each jar and curve them around the bottom. Start cramming the cucumbers into each jar, packing the spears in tightly. Once you're halfway up the jar, add another sprig of dill and a garlic clove. Once you reach the top of the jar, add a final sprig of dill, 2 garlic cloves and the bay leaf. Pour the hot brine into each jar, filling them almost to the top. Fish the lids out of the hot water and seal the jars immediately. Mix by inversion so that there are no air bubbles in the cucumber and leave the jars at room temperature overnight and then refrigerate for at least 3 weeks before consumption.
Kharcho - Georgian stew
(Serves 2 as a main course - no accompaniment is needed other than perhaps some bread)
(Total cost: £4.54 - £2.27 per person)
350g oxtail (for me, that was 4 segments, 2 large, 2 small)
6 cups of water
1 bay leaf
5 peppercorns (I used Bristol blend, so one of each peppercorn)
5 allspice berries (on top of the one from the Bristol blend)
1 long pepper catkin
1 medium onion (peeled and cut into slices)
2 echalion shallots (peeled and cut into slices)
3 garlic cloves (peeled and cut into slices, not crushed)
1 medium-heat chilli (de-seeded, de-pithed and cut into slices)
2 tbsp tomato purée (I used cherry tomato and vegetable purée)
1 medium tomato (cut into wedges)
1 tsp smoked paprika ("hot" not "sweet" variety)
1 tsp coriander seeds (crush just before adding to the stew)
8 cherry tomatoes (left whole - I used these to use them up, a second medium tomato would do)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup Thai black rice
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Put the water, bay leaf, peppercorns, allspice and long pepper into a large cooking pot and heat on the stove. Add the oxtail to the water whilst the water is still luke-warm but not when the water is completely cold either. Bring the water to the boil with the lid off and then simmer for about 5 minutes before skimming any brown foam off of the water, putting the lid on and simmering for one hour.
10 minutes before the oxtail is ready, lightly fry the shallots, onions and garlic in the oil until the start to soften - about 5 minutes on a medium heat.
Add the tomato purée and mix well, then add all of the tomatoes and stir again and cook for 1 minute with constant stirring.
Put the lid on and cook for about 30 minutes or until the rice is cooked but still has "bite". Fish out the bay leaf if you can find it.
Serve by transferring the oxtail into bowls using tongs and ladling the vegetables and gravy over it.
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