Monday, November 2, 2009

What's for breakfast?






With America's current interest in international and specialty foods, you might wonder what gourmet foods to expect here. In reality, Russians seem more sensible. Let's start with breakfast.
GRAINS are their mainstay. Yes, they love other foods, but they have survived on whole grain cereals. They call it porridge or "kasha."

BUCKWHEAT
We see a variety of cereals here, such as oats, rice, and mixed grains. However, most importantly, Russians eat gretchka. гречиха or buckwheat is prepared like rice and served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. (It's the flour in America's buckwheat pancakes or Japan's soba noodles.)

A popular missionary breakfast is Super Gretchka: Scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and sausage or kil' ba-sa, mixed all together with cooked gretchka. Really filling and healthy.

MILLET
Another common cereal here is millet. One Russian sister says, "During the 90's when the shops were empty we ate it," but she thinks it's less popular now. Once we were served millet cereal for breakfast and we really liked it. You cook it like any hot cereal, but stir in milk and a very little sugar at the last. You serve it with butter--no milk.

The fruit picture is cute, but when we showed it to our Russian sister she just chuckled. it may be Russian but it's not typical.




















(pictures from purcell mountain farms; thisfoodthing.com; healthhomehappy.com; FB note.php...75009733)

8 comments:

Melissa said...

LOVED it there, but now I look at it and think about it and almost gag :) The Lord watches over his missionaries!

Anonymous said...

My husband's family is from Ukraine and he loves kasha and buckwheat. In fact we have some in our cupboard right now. He would love for me to fix it for him. His grandmother would cook it and then stir fry it with egg and flavoring. Our kids hated it and I am not fond of it. Maybe I will surprise him and make some for him tonight.

Anonymous said...

Oops this is from Mary Lou and Don

Dena said...

Elder Dewey loves buckwheat. Although, he said it took some getting used to. I think I would miss my Honey Nut Cheerios.:) Thanks for the informative post.

Anonymous said...

I think this could be good. Don't let my siblings know I said this. They will remember how much I refused to eat the cereal we were given. They will think more that their sister Carrie is crazy.

Steve M said...

Hmmm...I just had a bowl of warm cereal made with grains including oats and cracked whole wheat; soy, unprocessed wheat bran, untoasted wheat germ; flax seed...didn't realize I was becoming Russian. :)

Mom in Mendon said...

Minnesota vs Yekaterinburg for the title of coldest cold... How do you vote McO?

Elder and Sister McEvoy said...

That last post was from Elder Mac. (You can see we go between our email accounts.)

If you want to try "gretchka" at home, they say the best to use is "red." The buckwheat kernels generally come in three colors:
black- still has hull; good for sprouting
white-hulled, but not yet toasted; may be bitter
red-hulled and toasted; best flavor

It's not rubbery like whole wheat cereal and it cooks faster than rice. Some chefs consider it a great side dish, such as with quail:

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/elvinphoto/elvinphoto0902/elvinphoto090200051/4287790.jpg