Anna Kharzeeva's Russian Weeknight Dinner_0193.jpg

Shared by Anna Kharzeeva
Recipe Roots: Kyiv, Ukraine > Moscow > Sydney > Moscow > Tbilisi, Georgia > Moscow

In Moscow of the 1980 and 1990s, there was a network of babushki, or grandmothers, shuttling across the city on buses and subway cars, clutching containers of culinary staples of the Soviet diet for family members who lived across town, says food writer Anna Kharzeeva. Her grandmother Elena was one of these women. She would pour bouillon into plastic bottles, fill old sour cream containers with beef patties called kotlety, and wrap up her signature sponge cake called biskvit.

Elena would march with the meal from her apartment, which she shared with her mother Moun'ka, to the apartment where Anna lived with her brother and mother. “I was raised by my mom and my grandmother and great-grandmother,” says Anna. “It was a very strong female line.” The recipes of her family and childhood trace back through four generations of women to Kiev, some 500 miles from Moscow, which her great-grandmother left for Moscow in 1926.

Moun’ka’s mother was “the last person to observe any Jewish tradition,” in the family, says Anna. They never met but, “my great-great-grandmother doesn’t feel so far away. I grew up hearing about her,” she adds. In their family, like many other Soviet Jewish families, religious traditions faded. “I feel like I grew up without many traditions…. The Soviet Union replaced the old traditions with traditions of its own,” Anna explains.

Few Jewish recipes were part of the family repertoire by the time she was born in 1986. The staples that defined their family kitchen were Soviet and Russian. There was sour cabbage fermented at home, a chopped salad of cucumbers, potatoes, apples and beets called vinaigrette, soups like borscht, plov (a rice dish from Central Asia), and always biskvit. Elena’s cooking was influenced mostly by her mother, but also by recipes she exchanged on note cards with friends and “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” a cookbook published by the Soviet government aimed at creating a national cuisine.

“The ‘90s was supposed to be a very difficult and hungry time [but] I don’t remember any of that,” says Anna. Her mother and grandmother made sure food was in their apartments. But, Anna didn’t learn to cook the family recipes or help in the kitchen as a child — that came later when she was living in Australia with her now-husband. “I remember calling my grandmother from this neighborhood in Sydney,” she says. Anna was hosting her now-in-laws and wanted to prepare a Russian meal for them, so she asked her grandmother how to make borscht. “She sort of laughed... and I wrote it all down,” Anna recalls.

Back in Moscow, Anna expanded her culinary repertoire when she started a culinary club for students she was teaching English. And, in 2014, she started to cook through many of the recipes in “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food.” In a sort of Russian riff on “Julie & Julia,” Anna asked her grandmother’s opinion on the recipes and for stories, noting them in her 2020 book “The Soviet Diet Cookbook.” The result is charming, peppered with personal stories, and offers a look into how Soviet cooks like her grandmother Elena made their own renditions of national dishes.

Sadly, Elena passed away earlier this year from COVID complications. For her wake, Anna and her brother made their grandmother’s stuffed hand pies called pirozhki. “It was an important [moment] of connection and memory,” says Anna, adding that she’s grateful she wrote down her recipes when she did. “I open my book and she’s alive in it.”

Bouillon With Rye Croutons

Makes: 6 to 8 servings
Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
For the bouillon:
½ pound bone-in chicken or turkey pieces, dark meat
1 pound bone-in beef short ribs
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
1 carrot, cut in half crosswise
1 medium-sized celery root, peeled and cut in half
¼ bunch fresh dill
¼ bunch fresh parsley
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

For the croutons:
4 slices rye bread (such as borodinsky), cut into ½ inch cubes
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation
1. Make the broth: Place the chicken and beef into a large stock pot and cover with about 12 cups of cold water. Turn the heat on to high and bring to a boil. Skim any impurities that rise to the top. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 hour, skimming the broth occasionally.

2. Make the croutons: Place a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the cubed pieces of bread to the dry pan and toast them for a few minutes, tossing often, until they are dried. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt, and continue to fry the croutons until they are a deep golden brown and crunchy, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat onto a paper towel-lined plate to cool.

3. Once the broth has simmered for an hour, add the onion, carrot, celery root, dill, parsley, salt and pepper. If too much water has evaporated, add enough to cover the ingredients. Simmer the broth for another hour, until the meat is fully cooked through.

4. Reserve the chicken and meat on a cutting board. Strain the broth, discarding the vegetables. Shred the reserved meat, and add it back into the pot, along with the strained broth. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

5. To serve, add a few ladles of hot broth and meat into a bowl, and top off with a handful of croutons.

Make ahead: The bouillon will store well in an airtight container in a refrigerator for up to 1 week. Alternatively, the bouillon can be stored in a freezer for up to one month.

Kotlety (Russian Beef Patties)

Makes: 8 to 10 patties
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
3 slices of white bread, crust removed and soaked in water
1 pound ground beef
1 small russet potato, peeled and grated
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons bread crumbs

Preparation
1. Drain the soaked bread and add to a medium mixing bowl. Add in the ground beef, potato, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Mix until combined well.

2. Form the mixture into 8 patties, about 3 to 4 inches wide and about ¾ inch thick. Transfer the patties to a plate. Pour the breadcrumbs into a separate shallow bowl.

3. Heat a large skillet with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches of 2 to 3 patties at a time, coat the patties in breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes on each side.

4. Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel. Serve warm.

Vinaigrette (Russian Chopped Salad)

Makes: 4-6 servings
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
4 red potatoes, peeled (about 1 pound)
2 beets
2 medium sized carrots, peeled
2 small cucumbers, diced into ¼-inch pieces
1 green apple, cored and diced into ¼-inch pieces
½ cup sauerkraut
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Preparation
1. Boil the potatoes, beets, and carrots separately in salted water until fork tender. The potatoes and beets will cook for about 35-45 minutes and the carrots will cook in about 15 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets, and dice the vegetables into ¼ inch pieces.

2. Place the potatoes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, apple, and sauerkraut into a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, and sugar in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined.

4. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and gently stir the salad until evenly coated.

5. Serve at room temperature.

Sour Cabbage

Makes: 2 quarts
Total Time: 3 days

Ingredients
1 large green cabbage
1 carrot, grated
3-4 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Water

Preparation

1. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage. Place a few cabbage leaves in one layer into the bottom of a 3 quart dutch oven that is lined with enamel. Save a few more leaves for the top of the sauerkraut.

2. Remove the core of the cabbage and thinly slice the rest of the cabbage using a knife or mandoline. Place the cabbage and carrot slices into a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt and sugar. Massage the mixture with your hands for 3 to 5 minutes until liquids begin to release and the cabbage becomes more tender. Add the mixture into the pot and press it down with your hands. Cover with one layer of the cabbage leaves.

3. Place a plate that fits into the pot over the cabbage leaves and press down. Place a 3 quart glass jar filled with water on top of the plate to press the cabbage down. Add enough water into the cabbage to cover the cabbage and the plate that is on top of the cabbage. Set the pot aside in a dark, cool place for 24 hours.

4. After 24 hours, take the glass jar and the plate off of the cabbage. Leave the cabbage uncovered for 1 hour. Cover the cabbage with a new plate and jar of water and let the cabbage rest for 24 more hours. Repeat this process one more time. After the cabbage has been resting and fermenting for 72 hours total, discard the large leaves, and pack the sour cabbage into a large sterilized glass jar or into a few small glass jars and refrigerate.

5. Enjoy the sour cabbage and store for up to 1 month in the refrigerator.

Biskvit (Orange Sponge Cake)

Makes: 1 7-inch cake
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Zest of 1 orange
6 large eggs
1 cup sugar
Confectioner’s sugar for garnish (optional)

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 3 inch deep 7-inch round springform cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Place the flour and orange zest into a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.

3. Crack the eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk the eggs on medium speed for 1 minute. Increase the speed to the highest speed and gradually add the sugar, beat the mixture for 5 minutes until it is pale and has tripled in volume. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour and zest. Mix until the flour is just incorporated into the batter.

4. Transfer the batter into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and rest for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake onto the cooling rack making sure it is right side up.

5. To serve, sprinkle confectioner’s sugar on top (optional). Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 2 days.

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