2013
UN experts said that people should eat more insects. Could we get used to that, especially, if it became fashionable? Here’s how Sergei Yolkin sees it.
14 May 2013
RIA-Novosti
2013
To cook a dish with coconut milk, it isn’t necessary to buy that expensive canned Thai stuff. To learn how to “milk” a coconut properly, look at this caricature by Sergei Yolkin.
24 April 2013
RIA-Novosti
Red-dyed Easter eggs from Belarus
This post of yours reminds me of something I’ve pondered over the years. This salad is real food. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is there’s often a correlation between how long someone’s been Orthodox and how much of the fake stuff (soy cheese, soy milk, fake meat, etc) someone uses while fasting. It seems the less time they’ve been Orthodox, the more of this shit they eat. Some of the konvertsy stay in this mindset for years. I once scandalised a new konvertsy by offhand mention of my lunch… I’d had a McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish during Lent. Oh, the horrors!
Of course, this is just another example of how the konvertsy think their (modern) ways are best. The traditionally-Orthodox countries have been doing the Lenten thing for centuries, so, there are many recipes to be had out there on the ‘net. However, do the konvertsy take advantage of this wonderful Orthodox culinary heritage? NO! Aside from hummus and pita bread, that is. They’d rather eat the soy crap rather than real food.
This is just another example of the konvertsy rejecting everything culturally Orthodox. You should see some of the crap konvertsy bring to church to be blessed on Easter. No kulich, no cheese paskha, no red-dyed eggs. They whine, “It’s too difficult”. Puhlease.
This is truth… nothing for sinful ol’ me to add…
BMD
Lenten dishes don’t have to be boring and unappetizing. Makfa has products that’ll help make your meatless table healthy, nutritious, varied, and tasty. For this recipe, you’ll need:
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Parboil the carrot, onion, and pepper; take them out of the water after about a minute or so after the water returns to the boil. Then, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it until its al dente, according to the package directions. Whilst the pasta cooks, mix the onion, mushrooms, and tuna fish together well. Drain the pasta well, shock it with cold running water, but leave it slightly wet. Mix the pasta with half of the mayonnaise. Put half the dressed pasta in a serving dish and spread it out evenly. Strew half the pepper and carrot over the salad, covering it evenly. Spread the tuna mixture evenly over the first pasta layer. Strew over the remaining pepper and carrot (reserve a small piece of carrot for the top decoration), spreading it evenly. Place the remaining half of the dressed pasta over the tuna mixture, making sure that it covers it completely. Spread the remaining mayonnaise over the pasta, but do NOT mix it into the salad. Make an outline of a cat with the olives; use a piece of carrot for its tongue. Strew over parsley as a garnish.
The method for this is similar to that used for the more-famous Selyodka pod Shuboi (Herring under an Overcoat).
ОЧЕНЬ ПРИЯТНЕЙ!
March 2011
Makfa Pasta
Klub Makfa
http://www.makfa.ru/club/contest/4/39/
NB:
Makfa is one of the largest pasta makers in Russia, based in Yekaterinburg… this gives you an idea of MODERN Russian home cooking. Besides that, it tells you that keeping of the Lent isn’t just for monastics any more. Although, of course, most lay people don’t follow the whole-banana monastic rule, nor should they.
BMD
If you want the recipe for the Mushroom Solyanka above, click here (it’s in the editor’s note after the main body of the post)
Doctors interviewed by RIA-Novosti recommend that Orthodox Russians should include vegetables, vegetarian soups, as well as cereals and beans in their Lenten diet. It is advisable to stick to a five-meal schedule to avoid stress to the body. Great Lent on the Orthodox calendar began on 18 March, seven weeks before Easter Sunday. Of the four major Lenten periods, it’s the most important, longest in duration, and the strictest. It lasts for six weeks, so, it’s also called the Holy Forty Days (святой Четыредесятницей)
Leonid Lazebnik, President of the Russian Scientific Society of Gastroenterologists, assured us that there’s no harm to health from normal Lenten abstinence, saying, “Abstinence isn’t harmful to anyone, except for the chronically-ill, diabetics, those with kidney disease, and cancer patients”. According to Candidate of Medicine Alfred Bogdanov, the head of the clinic at the Institute of Nutrition (NII) of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (RAMN), stomach ulcer, gastric and duodenal ulcers, gallstones, and severe cardiac disease are also contraindications to abstinence.
Dr Lazebnik also noted that the Lenten diet isn’t so much a restriction on the amount of food as it is a restriction on eating foods containing animal products. According to Dr Bogdanov, during Lent, many make the mistake of thinking that it’s necessary to limit one’s food intake. In such a case, it could worsen problems with bile or erosive processes in the stomach and duodenum. Vladimir Ivashkin, the chief gastroenterologist at the RF Ministry of Health, believes that no medical condition can forbid someone following the Lenten abstinence, if they have a desire to carry it through, but he said, “However, you must take as a general rule that you must consume at least 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day”. In Dr Bogdanov’s view, the main physical problem in following the Lenten abstinence is a lack of protein intake, so, he said, “Therefore, you should replace animal protein with plant protein sources such as beans, soy products, and cereals”.
Dr Ivashkin reminded us that the Lenten abstinence only restricts animal products, and that there’s no restriction on any other sort of food. Dr Bogdanov thought that plant foods in the diet shouldn’t be limited to raw vegetables and fruits, and salads, noting, “It’s important for those following the fast to eat hot vegetarian dishes. Hot cereal and fruit are best in the morning; in the evening, one should have a hot vegetarian meal. In addition, the body requires simple carbohydrates in the form of juices and fruit throughout the day to avoid hypoglycaemia… a pathological condition that results in reduced blood glucose levels. Besides this, one must drink at least 1.5-2 litres of fluid a day. You shouldn’t even exclude appetisers and first courses from your dinner. Be sure that you eat some soup… vegetable, with no meat, vegetarian, to ensure normal function of the gastrointestinal tract”.
How to diversify the Lenten table: online conference with Anna Ludkovsky (in Russian) >>
Dr Ivashkin doubted that you’d lose weight if you follow Lenten abstinence, but he said that if a person has strong will and desire, nothing is impossible, saying, “To lose weight, you must have the will to restrict your meals to three times a day, with at least six hours in between each one”. On the other hand, Dr Bogdanov said that one should adhere to a five-meal schedule… three main meals and two snacks. He said that there’s no point in changing one’s level of physical activity during Lent, saying, “Only limit excessive exertion or carrying heavy loads. If someone swims or goes to the gym, there shouldn’t be any problem at all”.
18 March 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/society/20130318/927744514.html
Editor’s Note:
I prefer to get my “religious” news from secular, rather than religious, sources. One reason is that I want to show you how thoroughly Orthodoxy permeates the home countries. It’s why we should send all priestly graduate students and all church secular workers following higher studies to the homelands… they’d have the experience of living in an Orthodox milieu… they’d find out that the Orthosphere is like everywhere else. It’s full of saints and decent folks (yes, the monasteries are full)… it’s full of stinkers and slinkers (yes, the prisons are full, too)… it has high culture (the Tretyakov and the Bolshoi, anyone?)… it has low-brow entertainment (some of which is quite good, indeed. Don’t knock it; Comedy Club isn’t all bad). It has good beer (Baltika’s good shit, kids… have it with a plate of raki)… it has rotgut samogon vodka and Portvein 777 (“Three Axes”) which can embalm the dead (I guarantee that any student would down it at least once… chalk it up to education in real life). In short, they’d find out that Orthodoxy wasn’t a ghetto enterprise. It’d open their eyes and, perhaps, chase out some of the notional idiocies that are floating about at present.
In short, the Lent was made for us… not us for the Lent. Keep a sane and balanced POV, kids… remember, Patriarch Pimen Izvekov positively blessed the eating of fish during the Lents by layfolk. By all accounts, Pimen did time in the camps and was a VOV vet, so, he had the moral cred to speak. Don’t let idiots advocating monastic disciplines sway you… such rules are for monks and nuns living under obedience and in community, they aren’t for us. Keep it focused and keep it sane. Remember the point… to be able to celebrate Christ’s Holy Resurrection in the proper spirit. Now, that’s a GOOD place to stop…
BMD
I did something “special” for my Nicky on Defenders of the Fatherland Day, as we Russians consider it “Men’s Day”. I made him a special breakfast of scrambled eggs (with a spot of tarragon stirred into the eggs before cooking), hash browns with sour cream (potato pancakes would work fine, too), and mushrooms sautéed together with onions and breakfast sausage in butter bound with sour cream. To make the mushrooms, you start by melting 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. When that melts, add half a medium onion or a whole small onion, sliced thinly. After the onion starts to wilt and separate (about five minutes), add a small can of sliced mushrooms (7 ounces (200 grammes) net… 4 ounces (115 grammes) worth of mushrooms) and about a 1/4 teaspoon of tarragon (crumble it up between your thumb and forefinger as you add it… it helps); mix it together thoroughly. Let it go for about another five minutes. Then, slice up two breakfast sausages thinly and add them to the pan. Let that simmer away for about another five minutes. When the sausages have taken on some colour, add enough sour cream to bind it all together, but not overly-so. I’d say you’d that you’d use about 1/2 cup of it, but I’d start with 1/4 cup’s worth, and work my way up. Let it come up to speed by heating it for at least 2 minutes, stirring it about with a heatproof spatula.
Serve it… you’ll get a “growl” of pleasure from your “bear”, too! I guarantee (to steal a line from the late Justin Wilson)!
BMD
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