Food review by James Hill

Mark Bradford was in the kitchen today presenting us with a Ukrainian-themed meal. A lot of effort and research was obvious in today's lunch.

Canapés

• Kielbasa and cucumber on crostini  
  Cream cheese and butter on Ukrainian “crostini”, Ukrainian salami topped with Ukrainian dill. Served cold. 

• Ukrainian perogies
  Dough: flour, sour cream, butter, eggs 
  Filling: potato, cheddar cheese, cream cheese 
  Served warm with crème fraiche and parsley. 

• Ukrainian blini with gravlax
  Topped with crème fraiche, Ukrainian black sea trout, dill and Ukrainian caviar from Odessa.

Good comments on the canapés from the floor. The blinis were light and perfect for the gravlax and caviar. The perogies had more substance with good overall flavour and taste.

Main

The main course today had many elements all coming together to give us a good example of typical Ukrainian food.

We had Chicken Kiev, a chicken breast filled with cream cheese, unsalted butter, garlic and parsley …a good herby filling with a hint of garlic …it sat on some creamy mash with parsley.

Surrounding the chicken was Deruny, a Ukrainian potato pancake and Holubtsi, Ukrainian cabbage stuffed with the best Crimean tomatoes, cumin, onions, parsley and dill. There was some sour cream and green onion garnish and a very tasty homemade beetroot ketchup of cooked beets, apple cider vinegar, cloves, onion and coriander.

Well done, Mark.

Bread

Mark arranged for a mixture of bread from Baltic countries to go with the main and cheese.

Estonian Black, Riga sweet and sour and Litewski a Lithuanian bread made with Rye and wheat flours.

Cheese

Our cheese course today was presented by Gary Linnane, our acting cheese master. It was an Italian washed rind, cow's milk cheese Mauri Taleggio DOP.

Mark served this with some buckwheat wafers, Turkish figs and a Ukrainian blackcurrant jam.

The micro-climate in the natural caves where these cheeses are matured, high in the Alps, encourages the development of a unique flora on the outer rind. Washed and brushed several times over a month, the cheese develops a thin bloom flecked with blue penicillium moulds. Beneath the rind, the ivory chalky texture of the cheese begins to change slowly as it ripens, becoming buttery and soft. The creamy texture, when balanced with the delicious yeasty taste provided by the rind, is one of Italy’s best kept secrets. Mauri Taleggio is considered one of the finest DOP cheeses made in Italy.