Welcome to Russia on a Plate, a website dedicated to my new book and "New Russian" cuisine.
I am on a quest to break stereotypes about Russian food and show the world that Russian delicacies are not limited to caviar and vodka. The food represented in my book takes in flavours from all around the former Soviet Union, from hearty dishes from the west, to spicy dishes from the south.
This is a fresh and exciting opportunity for an adventurous foodie to explore an unknown territory of true Russian cuisine, and a chance to finally dispel the myth of Russian food of being boring, uninspiring and bland!
Welcome to my world
New Recipes!
I've updated my Seasonal Plate section with a host of new recipes - click here to check them out!
Into the Woods
Mushroom is the king of autumn. It rules the kitchen table this time of the year and mushroom picking experts use every opportunity that comes their way to go mushroom picking.
Mushroom picking can be easily classified as a type of sport. You have to be a real enthusiast, be quite fit (as it requires a lot of walking and kneeling down!) and have a competitive spirit- in the end everyone is counting who has gathered more yield…. And there could be mushroom wars! I have been involved in this activity just once in my life – only because I was extremely unsuccessful. I definitely can't call myself a mushroom picking expert but cooking mushrooms is a delight.
Russians are very passionate about it and claim to be very knowledgeable about the subject. If the truth were known the hard job starts when they proudly usher their brimming baskets into the kitchen. Forest mushrooms require a lot of tender loving care – sorting them out, cleaning them, soaking… But when finally all the boring chores are done and you drop mushrooms into a frying pan for them to squeak and bounce in foam of hot butter, then you realise that it's worth every minute of it… After you have indulged yourself in eating mushroom fresh from the forest and exhausted all the methods of cooking them, there are quite a lot of ways to savour mushroom season longer. You can pickle, marinate, air dry mushrooms at your heart's content… In this case you can enjoy the mushroom season all year round…