Recipe: Raspberry Kvass from 'Beyond the North Wind'
Darra Goldstein shares this sweet summery drink from her new cookbook ‘Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore’
This recipe is taken from ‘Beyond the North Wind, Russia in Recipes and Lore’, a wonderful new recipe book from Darra Goldstein, for which she headed to Northern Russia and, as she writes in her introduction: ‘sought to discover the benefits of austerity rather than its limitations - how a harsh climate, poor soil, and limited availability of foods can foster an astonishingly complex cuisine characterized by exhilarating flavors and innovative techniques.’ Listen to her in conversation with Pushkin House’s Clem Cecil here.
The book is full of evocative details and flourishes, as well as recipes including many ways to cook buckwheat, a simplified but delicious version of the Coulebiac, and many fermenting recipes including for dill pickles, brined tomatoes, and raspberry kvass. There are a variety of different flavoured salts, rooted in the famous salt from the Solovetsky Islands that made the Monastery there so rich by the end of the seventeenth century. Also check out two Easter recipes which Darra has shared with us to mark Orthodox Easter.
The book is written with warmth and enthusiasm by Goldstein, a long-time Russophile, who has written extensively about Russian food and hospitality for almost 50 years. We heartily recommend.
— The Pushkin House team
