Three things drew me to this book, long before I’d managed to get my hands on it: a deep love of cabbage (‘kapusta’ means cabbage in many Slavic languages); a pronounced taste for Eastern European food; and my admiration of Alissa Timoshkina. In other words, from the get-go Kapusta scores a hat trick for me. And I’m amused to note that when her last book, Salt and Time, appeared on CookbookCorner, it was a cabbage recipe, incidentally, that I shared with you.
Not that cabbage is the only vegetable to be focussed on in this book. While it is certainly emblematic of the no-fuss ingredients that are the backbone of Eastern European cooking, this book also contains chapters on those other sturdy stalwarts, beetroot, potato, carrot, and mushrooms, as well as taking in Dumplings and Pickles & Ferments. And it is a beautiful book. Indeed, I love the cover (in my favourite combination of pink and green) and all of Emma Wells’s enchanting illustrations so much I long for a set of tea towels of them all.
It’s not a vegetarian book but one packed with, as the subtitle puts it, “vegetable-forward recipes”, and from these I must just highlight some initial favourites, in the knowledge that time will inflate this list. For now, I draw to your attention the Piroshki Buns with Cabbage, Spring Onion and Hard-Boiled Eggs; the comforting pasta and cabbage dish, Lazanki; Romani Cabbage and Chestnut Pie; Taratuta (Ukrainian Beetroot, Gherkin and Horseradish Salad); Beetroot and Kidney Bean Stew with Chard and Feta; Rye, Beetroot and Beef Meatballs with Coriander and Gherkins; the Knishes (Ashkenazi Buns with Potato and Sour Cream); Polish Pierogi with Sauerkraut and Mushrooms; Hungarian Goulash; Carrot, Honey and Twarog [cottage cheese] Fritters; and Duck Soup with Wild Mushrooms and Sauerkraut. And now I’ve made myself growlingly hungry! Before I waddle off to the kitchen, I must tell you that the recipe I am sharing with you today, with joy in my heart, is the Tatar Potato Flatbreads, Qistibi.
Kapusta by Alissa Timoshkina (Quadrille, £28).
Photography © Laura Edwards.
