Kulich and Paskha: two recipes from 'Beyond the North Wind'
Darra Goldstein shares two Easter treats from her new cookbook ‘Beyond the North Wind, Russia in Recipes and Lore’
This week, to mark Easter, we have two very special recipes for you. It is Roman Catholic / Anglican Easter this weekend and Russian Orthodox Easter next weekend, so you have a stretch of time to make the traditional Paskha (Easter Cheesecake) and Kulich (Easter Bread).
The recipes are 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, for example in these recipes Goldstein writes of the Kulich that: ‘old-fashioned cooks actually turn the loaf out onto a down pillow and carefully roll it from side to side until it’s completely cool so that the loaf doesn’t lose its shape.’ (FYI this is non essential, although apparently you have to be in a patient frame of mind to make it successfully). A resourceful tip she gives for the Paskha is that you can use a clay flowerpot if you don’t have the traditional wooden mold.
While these recipes are full of the goodies that have been not allowed during the long lenten fast, such as butter, cream and eggs, the book is full of leaner 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.
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
