When the war in Ukraine broke out, Olga Koutseridi, a Ukrainian American baker, writer and historian, felt an urgent need to preserve the traditional Ukrainian recipes she grew up with.
Koutseridi’s ancestors tended gardens outside Mariupol. They preserved the food they couldn’t eat, fermenting tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage and sour cherries. They drank homemade kombucha, kefir and vodka. They made varenyky (dumplings stuffed with sour cherries and cheese) and chebureki (fried pastry filled with meat).
“Maybe now is not the time to celebrate Ukrainian food,” Koutseridi said. “But this feels like the only chance we have to preserve it. … Every time someone makes a Ukrainian dish in an American kitchen, it’s an act of resistance.”
Koutseridi has begun compiling these recipes, with an emphasis on history. She’s contacted Ukrainian food experts around the world (including Olia Hercules, author of Summer Kitchens).
She feels that war is destroying Ukraine’s identity, history and culture.“Now is the time to delve into{the country’s] food in detail,” Hercules said. “There’s so much more to it than borsch.”
Read more (The New York Times)