Ukrainian Super Food - Horseradish! Хрін

miller nurseries

If you have ever been in a Ukrainian home, you quickly recognize the beet relish made with horseradish as a favourite! This special condiment is served often, in so many different ways. But more about that later.

Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) хрін  is a wonder food. It is a perennial plant originating in south-eastern Europe (Ukraine area?) related to cabbage and mustard, and has some similar qualities, but interestingly enough, recently received attention for its cancer-fighting compounds. Glucosinates increase the liver's ability to detoxify carcinogens and may support the suppression of tumor growth. Horseradish has up to 10 times more of this wonderful compound (the stuff that gives it the hot taste) than broccoli.

Horseradish has a centuries long tradition. A tea brewed from its flowers can help fight the common cold, root tea makes an expectorant, root mash can treat joint pain, raw leaves are a natural analgesic, and the ancients pressed leaves on the forehead to eliminate a headache. Horseradish infusion is known to have antibiotic properties against certain fungi.

Not a scientist, I can attest to horseradish's appeal, especially when I am under the weather. It just calls out to me! I have been known to take the horseradish and ground beet mixture straight, or heaped on breakfast toast. The juice does wonders on my sinuses and throat. My body seems to know it is good for me. My insides thank me too. If it happens to eliminate cancerous tumors, or whatever therapeutic power it has, I am so blessed to have loved it for itself first. It tastes great. Maybe if I get in the habit of eating it often, as my ancient family must have done, it will help me stay healthy a long time. Hope so!

Horseradish isn't hard to grow.  All over Calgary, in back alleys and hidden behind fences or in wild places no-one cares for, some industrious acolyte has planted a little slip of horseradish - and it has grown to giant size.  It is resistant to low temperatures, and droughts.  It grows well in shade, in warm areas, and places rich in humus.  It can grow two metres tall!  It can be really annoying though if you plant it in a domestic plot because it is almost impossible to remove.  It has a tap root that grows forever.

If you have horseradish in sight, you can harvest the leaves, the stem, the roots - oh so many uses!

Try this beet and horseradish relish! Буряки з хроном  4 cups ground cooked beets, 3/4 cups ground horseradish, 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 cups vinegar.  Combine the ingredients and seal in jars.  You can vary the amount of horseradish according to taste.  (It is best to grind the horseradish the old fashioned way with a meat grinder, but you can also chop the pulpy bits into pieces and process in a food processor or blender.)

Mysterious Mak - Poppyseed

amk2012

The poppy flower is but the beginning of a delicious journey in the human tradition.  Red, beautiful, growing, scattered by the wind, seeded by nature or by hands, the poppy is essentially a weed, a hardy wild flower that has possibly 6,000 years or more Ukrainian culinary tradition.

amk2012

First, grow a lot of poppies to maturity.  Enjoy the beauty.  The petals will fall and the seeds will gradually dry to maturity. Before the holes in the top of the head release the seeds, bring in a bouquet of dried poppy stocks to dry further.  Pop the tops off and drain the seeds into a bowl, then sift out all the excess bits.  Keep the seeds frozen until use.

Before modern technology, in traditional use, one would grind the poppy seeds using a mortar and pestle, a large one called a makitra, макітра, and makohon, макогон.  The poppy seed releases a white liquid that smells a bit like almonds.

I have seen recipes using dried poppy seeds, but the product is much different from traditional East European cooking. While Baba used the makitra and makohon, it is safe cooking practice to quick scald the seeds before use.  Moistening the seeds, then grinding them in a blender produces a creamy, soft and white paste that makes for delicate and delicious culinary use.

amk2012

Being present in the moment, you have to consider how much time, care and love traditional delicacies require.  Imagine grinding your poppy seed in this tool, which sits nobly on my shelf as a reminder of how Baba spent a lot of her winter evenings.

Can you recommend a method that has worked for you?




http://ukrainiancalgary.blogspot.ca/2012/12/little-black-poppy-seeds.html

Another Great Ukrainian Cookbook!

Another great Ukrainian Cookbook to tell you about!

amk2012

This is the most recent publication of the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, Hanka Romanchych Branch in Saskatoon!  This is the home organization of the Savella Stechishin of Traditional Ukrainian Cookery fame.  And now the ladies have continued in the fine tradition, and published a beautiful, new collection entitled From Baba, With Love.

From Baba,With Love is truly a lovely recipe book.  With full colour pictures, and ethno-cultural background, it is full of newly adapted recipes that use contemporary methods and technologies.

Because I know you will want to get yours quickly, here is the contact information to the only store in Calgary that carries the book! You may want to order several to have as gifts to share the whole year long!!

Contact the lovely ladies at - The Ukrainian Museum of Canada - Calgary Collection -

St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cultural Centre

404 Meredith Road NE

Calgary, Alberta T2E 5A6

For more Information, phone 403 264 3437.

Taste Baba's Cooking

The smells of home cooking, of Baba's cooking!  What could be better!

If you are a Ukrainian food enthusiast, you know the time, care and talent it takes to make beautiful traditional dishes to serve to your family and friends.  It is a bit challenging, but the accolades and compliments are always motivators.

And you can always prepare for feast days in advance - when you  have the help of some other person's Baba -  like the lovely ladies of Baba's Own Ukrainian Food in Edmonton!

Did you see Baba's Own Ukrainian Food in the Edmonton Journal on Wednesday November 14th, 2012 in the "FOOD" section under "TASTE ALBERTA" (E3) ? If not click this link to view and read the article: 
http://www.smhg.ca/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XeMGuJkavhY%3D&tabid=69&mid=684 

The Most Loved Ukrainian Cookbook!

Cooking is soul work, at least in a Ukrainian home.  You can always order in pizza, or get a bucket of chicken, but traditional Ukrainian foods are a trip down nostalgia lane.  Making pyrohy, kolach (braided circle bread), holubtsi (cabbage rolls), no matter whether you are using instant ingredients, or a stand mixer, still require tender loving care, lots of handiwork and an admiring audience.

So, for the best known and perhaps the best loved Ukrainian cookbook I reach for my Savella Stechishin cookbook.  Traditional Ukrainian Cookery by Savella Stechishin was published by Trident Press in Winnipeg, Canada in 1984. (ISBN 0 919490-36-0) So, I have the Fourteenth Edition!

Interestingly enough, the book was initiated by the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada as a national organization project, and first published in 1957.  But it was the product of much love and dedication, and took a long while from conception to publication.

The way I heard it, Savella Stechishin was among the first Ukrainian women to attend University in Saskatchewan, earning a Bachelor in Home Economics.  She was also an early leader in the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, and felt the importance of sharing modern cooking techniques to the rural Ukrainian women on the prairies.  Safe methods, sanitation, canning, preserves, entertaining, and displaying foods for bake sales or banquets - these were her lecture and presentation topics.  In turn, these women shared their fabulous recipes, lovingly passed down from generation to generation.  So the cookbook, is the product of endless hours of fieldwork among the UWAC of the day.  And with the publication of this book, community organizations could sell their wares and fund the building of many community halls, gathering places, and churches.

Truly a person with a vision, Savella Stechishin can be honored for being the first, most popular Ukrainian Cookbook writer in North America.  Since then, Ukrainian food has come out of the farm kitchen and into the supermarkets everywhere in North America.

Have you ever found another cookbook like it?  Which are your favorite recipe books?  Where can you get the most authentic recipes? I am hopeful you have some gem in your cookbook collection to recommend!

ps  I just checked Amazon and perhaps you might be amazed to know a book in new condition costs $516 and a used one for $116.  So, take care of yours - it is a collectors item!! I know my mom's is already in shreds!.

http://www.ukrcdn.com/2009/12/07/a-ukrainian-canadian-julia-child-and-more-savella-stechishin/