Taste of Russia
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Russian ‘Olivier’? Why Russia’s most popular salad has a French name - Taste of Russia Ep.1
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Food for warriors: Making ‘Kulesh’ in a WWII field kitchen - Taste of Russia Ep.2
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Suffering for soup: The secret of authentic ‘ukha’ - Taste of Russia Ep.3
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Bugs Bunny’s worst nightmare: Rabbit on the menu - Taste of Russia Ep.4
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Dumpling dilemma: Making perfect pelmeni from scratch - Taste of Russia Ep.5
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Cuisine of Tolstoy’s times: Forshmak, baked apples, and prostovkvasha - Taste of Russia Ep.6
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Belevskaya pastila & Zephyr: Favourite apple sweets of both European nobility & Soviet children - Taste of Russia Ep.7
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‘Blini’ bonanza: Making real Russian pancakes in a real a Russian stove - Taste of Russia Ep.8
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Making ‘borsch’ fit for a tsar & Cossack fighting 101 - Taste of Russia Ep.9
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Battle of the BBQs: American steak vs. Russian shashlik - Taste of Russia Ep.10
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Borodino II: French Onion Soup & Buckwheat Kasha on the battlefield - Taste of Russia Ep.11
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Making Greek Salad à la Russe & Stolen Lamb for a ‘small’ Greek dinner party - Taste of Russia Ep.12
Food for warriors: Making ‘Kulesh’ in a WWII field kitchen - Taste of Russia Ep.2
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and that’s true of many traditional dishes around the world. Once created for lack of better options, some foods win hearts – and stomachs – because they taste great and are easy to make. A good example is kulesh, a millet dish known as ‘warrior food’ because it can easily be cooked on an open fire. It was the staple dish for Soviet soldiers during World War II, and a modified version is prepared in Russian homes to this day.
To learn to make authentic Soviet army kulesh, Oscar and Glen join a group of military reenactors at the famous Khatenki airfield, where the legendary French Normandie-Niemen Fighter Aviation Regiment lived and worked side by side with Russian mechanics.
After chopping vegetables for the dish and wood for fuel, they spark up a real World War II military field kitchen and begin to assemble the ingredients. To Glen’s surprise, they include canned meat compliments of Uncle Sam’s Lend-Lease program. When the kulesh is ready, it needs to be delivered to the troops. Glen is tasked with carrying heavy food containers through the natural obstacle course of a snowy forest while under ‘friendly fire’ from a machine gun. That kulesh had better be good!
For a close up look at an authentic WWII Russian field kitchen, check out Taste of Russia, Episode 2.