Cooking with Ish

Yesterday, I made a dish from my dil ( heart) with dill (herb). It seems to go well with the tanginess of citrus fruits or sour cream. Intending to make a beet casserole with a sour cream based dressing, I ended up making Shchi, a traditional Russian cabbage soup. It was simply delicious!

Cooking everyday can become a chore, a humdrum routine, where you are trying to slap a dish together so you can move onto something more exciting! Especially, the winters can get that way, where there are hardly any fresh veggies in the stores and it gets dark around 5 PM. Just about the time, that feels right to curl up with a book or a diary.

Luckily, Eastern Europe came to my rescue. I was going over it for a class, when I remembered the book I had – Traditional recipes from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Last year, I had tried some recipes. Interestingly, there is a lot of love for sour cream and lemon in this region. We love tangy flavors in our food. Also, a lot of root vegetables like beets, turnips, carrots & potatoes can be put to use. Millet, Barley, and Buckwheat are usually ignored when it is warmer, but when it is cooler they are more than welcome.

Recipe : Ingredients
1 large onion sliced
1 turnip sliced thin strips
2 carrots sliced thin strips
2 celery stalk sliced
1 small cabbage sliced
1 tart apple peeled and cubed
4 Bay leaves
1 Tbsp chopped Dill
5 cups Veggie/Beef broth
1 Tbsp lemon juice
dash of black pepper (ground)
Sour Cream

• Saute the onions, turnips, carrots, celery in 2 tbsp of butter for 10 mins
• Add the cabbage, apple, bay leaves, dill and the broth
• Cover and Cook on low – medium heat for 40 minutes or until cooked
• Remove the bay leaves, Add salt, pepper and lemon juice
• Serve with a dollop of Sour cream and a roll of bread.