Belarus - home cooking

In a rare development, only days after posting the latest review (despite how long that actually took to write) I was ready to tackle the next country! Unfortunately, I hit another stumbling block when it came to finding a restaurant in London that served Belarusian cuisine. Although there are several Russian and former Soviet bloc restaurants, I wasn't satisfied that any of those specialised in food from Belarus. So it was back to the kitchen...

The research I did before the meal indicated a clear favourite national dish of Belarus - draniki. This is a kind of potato pancake which is often eaten on its own, with sour cream or some other kind of dressing. However, I also discovered it was a perfect accompaniment to machanka, a creamy pork stew. The decision was made. 

At the time I didn't realise that I was about to break a long standing self-imposed rule regarding the kind of food I should never cook again. An explanation is coming up.

The time involved in cooking both parts worked out quite well. First up was the stew which, like most stews, can be cooked for anywhere between 1 and 3 hours. In this case, that flexibility was a real advantage.

I started with 600g of pork. I chose pork steaks, which I cut into substantial chunks. I'd actually recommend buying a different cut of pork and chopping this into larger cubes. My chopped pork ended up being quite long and thin as the steaks were only about 1cm thick. I cut off some of the rind, but didn't go overboard as this would add to the stew.

Lard. Something I've never cooked with before. Incredibly cheap. And incredibly bad for you. And a regular addition to this recipe - starting here with one tablespoon of lard, which I used to fry the pork until browned, then set aside. In the same pan/lard I then fried one chopped onion for around four minutes, before adding the pork back to the pan along with 250ml beef stock, five bay leaves and 250ml of water. Finally, I stirred one tablespoon of plain flour into 250ml warm water and added this to the pan. Then, the heat was cranked up a little and this cooked for around 90 minutes.

The next stage, after 90 minutes had passed, was to add 200ml of sour cream and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Then it's back on to simmer for another 30 minutes.

30 minutes. Half an hour. Enough time, so I thought, to cook the draniki. For this I had already peeled five potatoes, chopped one onion and two garlic cloves. I then blended these together with a hand blender, which was really quite difficult as I didn't have a container big enough, so had to do this in batches. There went some of my time.

Next I added some salt and pepper and one whisked egg, and mixed it all together well. At this point it's wise to strain away some of the water as you don't want the mixture too wet. I neglected to do this, and I paid the price.

Lard. Again. Into the frying pan and then, when hot, add a spoonful of the draniki mixture. Don't do what I did, which was add a few spoonfuls. What you're left with is too bloody big to manage! At this point it is much like cooking a pancake. Which I promised myself years ago I'd never do again. Never do pancakes, or anything which has to be of a certain consistency, or needs heat of a certain temperature, or anything which involves egg, or needs to set. And yet here I was doing exactly that.

Time was passing. It was cooking. Slowly. The bottom seemed to be cooking well. The top... wet. Now the bottom was starting to burn. The top? Wet. If I can just somehow flip it over now. Slop. I was left with a ball of slop. In the bin it went.

I could already feel the anger. At this point Elle came home from work. She stayed well away at first. She's seen this before. Later I think the pity set in and she started to help out.

But this point I'd taken the machanka off the heat, as it was more than done. I actually managed to do a few decent looking (smaller) pieces of draniki which I was happy with. Elle did a few more. Finally, 45 minute late, dinner was served.

The machanka is probably the most enjoyable home meal I've had in this project yet. The pork was beautifully cooked, and the creamy sauce was really rich and thick. Calorie conciousness had to go out the window here. I had already seen how much cream and lard and pork had gone into this, and now I was tasting the reward. A very decent portion too. Any more and it might have become a little too sickly. But it was just the right serving.

The draniki. Meh. Don't get me wrong, it was quite nice but I wasn't happy with the consistency. It was cooked - yes - but not well cooked through. It was still quite moist and I'm almost certain it shouldn't have been. Nonetheless, it was used on its own and with the stew. Another substantial portion.

Despite my age old promise to myself not to cook anything pancakey again, I would've been disappointed to have stopped myself from attempting the draniki as it was so tradtionally Belarusian. So I'm glad I tackled it, and ended up with something edible. But I'm so looking forward to leaving it to the experts again when we attempt the next country.