Slava, Author at Kitchen Epiphanies

Black Sea Fish Soupwith Spicy Sauce -Chornomorska Yushka with Salamur

Leave a Comment / Dining & Travel, Savory Dishes, Seafood, Soups, Ukraine / By Slava

Fish soup, called yushka or ukha (юшка or уха), is a classic dish, popular throughout Ukraine. This Black Sea Fish Soup, called Chornomorska (Black Sea) yushka, a version prepared along Ukraine’s southern shore where saltwater fish are abundant, can be easily prepared anywhere where fresh saltwater fish are available. Yushka is one of the oldest …

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Melopita –Greek Honey Cheesecake in Phyllo-Nut Crust

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Custards, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Greece, pastry, Tarts and Pies, Uncategorized / By Slava

Easter is cheesecake time at our house. I prepare Ukrainian cheese desserts for the holiday each year and experiment with cheesecake recipes from other cuisines. This year, I am adding melopita to my dessert repertoire. Its Greek name, comprised of two words – mela, which means honey, and pita, which means pie, implies that it …

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Pickled Shrimp

Leave a Comment / Savory Dishes, Seafood, Starter, United States / By Slava

Enough winter! It’s February, and we are spending several weeks in New Orleans, away from Chicago’s lingering cold. Here, spring is coming early. Spring fruits and vegetables and baskets of seafood—crawfish, shrimp, scallops, and finfish—are filling local markets. Eager to take a break from months of meat stew, pasta, and chili diet, I am inspired …

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Chocolate Mocha Karpatka

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Custards, Desserts, Dining & Travel, pastry, Ukraine / By Slava

This Chocolate Mocha Karpatka is my adaptation of a Polish cake that became popular in western Ukraine during the final decades of the 20th century. The original Karpatka is made from choux pastry with a vanilla crème pâtissière filling. My version flavors the cream puff dough with chocolate and the filling with coffee, a delightful …

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Meatball Chili

Leave a Comment / Beef, Dining & Travel, Entrees, Meats, Pork, Savory Dishes, Soups, United States / By Slava

This Meatball Chili is my make-ahead-keep-in-reserve dinner this month. Each December, I focus on baking cookies, breads, and cakes, pickling herring, making pâtés, and curing meats for our traditional Scandinavian and Ukrainian Christmas celebrations. Other meals throughout this month are often thrown together at the last minute from leftovers and pantry ingredients. This year, I …

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Light Brandied Fruitcake

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Fruit Desserts, pastry / By Slava

The holiday season is fast approaching, and baking is on my mind. This year, I will avoid a December baking crisis and follow my mother-in-law’s practice of spreading holiday baking over two months, baking those items that can be preserved or frozen before Thanksgiving and baking more delicate cookies and tarts in December. I am …

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Pumpkin Noodle Babka or Kugel

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Custards, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Ukraine / By Slava

This Pumpkin Noodle Babka is my recreation of a fall dish Babunia, my Ukrainian maternal grandmother Julianna Bulawka, improvised for Didunio, my grandfather Vasyl Bulawka. It unites sweet cheese, sour cream custard with egg noodles and pumpkin, Ukraine’s favorite fall ingredient, in a noodle bake (she called harbuzova babka* or kugel (гарбузова бабка or куґель) …

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Kapusnyak – Ukrainian Sauerkraut soup

Leave a Comment / Dining & Travel, Entrees, Meats, Pork, Soups, Ukraine, Uncategorized / By Slava

Ukrainians love soup — hot, cold, meat or vegetable-based. It’s served daily in homes and restaurants regardless of season. Borshch, the quintessential Ukrainian soup, is a culinary staple recognized worldwide and inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2022. While borshch is consumed year-round, cooler weather restores the taste for …

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Portokalopita – Greek Orange Cake

Leave a Comment / Cakes, Custards, Desserts, Dining & Travel, Greece, pastry / By Slava

At the end of a recent seafood dinner in Washington, my dining companions and I were presented with a splendid arrangement of Greek desserts. The assortment was familiar: baklava —caramelized phyllo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey, ekmek kataifi –crispy, golden shredded phyllo with creamy custard, soaked in lemon scented …

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Ras el Hanout Cauliflower Wedges with Mashed Chickpeas

Leave a Comment / Dining & Travel, Entrees, Morocco, Savory Dishes, Vegetables / By Slava

This Ras el Hanout Cauliflower Wedges with Mashed Chickpeas recipe is this year’s addition to my plant-forward repertoire. It illustrates how seasoning with an unusual spice blend can amplify the flavor of a common vegetable. When I was growing up in Maryland, Mama and other family cooks cooked vegetables they knew. Thus, my vegetable diet …

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Author name: Slava