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​Books | Podcasts | History | Cuisine | Travel | Cruises ​

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Happy Boxing Day!

Whether you celebrated Christmas yesterday or just enjoyed the Saturday, I hope the day was peaceful, devoid of diagnoses, and full of delicious things to eat and drink!

It is a pleasure to welcome so many new readers to the newsletter this week! I hope you will enjoy the recipes from my weekly The Moscow Times food column, and find my book, podcast, film, and TV reviews of interest, as well as my intermittent musings on travel and cuisine from my engagements as a cruise ship lecturer.

I’ve just returned from almost a month on board Viking Venus in Greece. It was a delight to return to Greece, particularly during the cooler and far less crowded months. I lectured on the Byzantine Empire, The Military Orders of Knights, the Cult of Artemis at Ephesus, and Homer’s Epics. If you are interested in learning more about my cruises, have a look at my cruise schedule.

I got home from Greece on December 23 to find our tree fully trimmed with the lovely collection of ornaments begun by my parents, which they divvied up between my sister and me several years ago. We have tried to keep up the tradition of adding to the collection, which includes souvenirs from travel, milestones such as graduations, ephemera such as party invitations to a beloved event, and other inside jokes.

Christmas Eve was the usual flurry of cooking and I must say that although I thoroughly enjoyed letting Chef Kurt handle that side of things for much of December, it was nice to be slicing and dicing in my kitchen again! I even tried my hand at cinnamon rolls, which didn’t look great, but tasted quite spectacular. I’ll be working on perfecting them in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

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Recent Recipes from My Kitchen

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In yesterday’s The Moscow Times column, I ruminated on the ways I like to entertain during the holidays. Longtime readers of this newsletter know that I’m a big fan of the “spreadable,” and have amassed a big collection of appetizers from the four corners of the globe: hummus, labneh, That Eggplant Thing, Pkhali, Whipped Bryndza, and many sour-cream based spreads. In the article, I noted that a loaded tray of charcuterie, bread, cheese, and some of these flavorful spreads often suffices as dinner when we are too lazy to leave the fireside and there is plenty of wine flowing.

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Anything salmon-based is a hit, and my Russified version of classic French Salmon Rillettes is the perfect dish to take you from opening presents in your pyjamas to a sleepy mid-afternoon binge watch, and right into the cocktail hour. Inspired by versions from David Lebovitz and Dorie Greenspan, this spread combines poached salmon with smoked salmon ends and some of the best complimentary ingredients for both: mayonnaise, sour cream, dill, horseradish, and mustard. And these needn’t break the bank: the article includes some thoughts on how to bargain for the end pieces of salmon with your friendly fishmonger. (My fishmonger is really grumpy, but he’s got the freshest stuff for miles around, so I put up with it!).
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Not every spreadable works all year around, but this one is as good on a steamy hot July weekend as it is “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Add a bottle of wine and a fresh baguette, claim your place fireside and enjoy!

​Read the Article and Get the Recipe​

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In last week’s The Moscow Times column, I offered my favorite comfort food, which I rather longed for while on the Viking Venus. I came down with bronchitis during the first few days. A day in bed and some powerful antibiotics from the wonderful ship’s doctor put me right in no time. But I would have loved a pot of my favorite Tvorog Dumplings in Horseradish Dill Broth. In it, I fused the Italian concept of “malfatti” or “misshapen” dumplings, made from the dumpling filling with no casing. Though the original Italian recipe calls for spinach and ricotta, I use Russian tvorog and a ton of leafy greens.

​Tvorog dumplings can be served with any kind of sauce you like: from pesto to Bolognese, but when I’m under the weather, I reach for the best possible chicken broth, which I spike up with sautéed leeks, horseradish and more fresh herbs. The result is one of the more comforting dishes in my arsenal: perfect if you are feeling fragile or ill, or just a little down.

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I served a big pot of this the day after Thanksgiving and one guest kindly said, “I feel I’m being healed from the inside.” It is a great antidote to all the rich food that is often commonplace during the end of the year's holidays. I’m certainly planning on putting it into rotation early in 2022.

​Get the recipe and read the article here.​

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From the Archives

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With Christmas behind us, thoughts turn to New Year’s. And while I will gear up to make Russia’s classic mayonnaise-y salads: Salat Olivier and Herring Under Fur Coat, I always have something made with lentils ready for January 1. I don’t like New Year’s Eve very much: my dream arrangement on December 31st would be to clean the house, try to reunite the orphaned socks in my scarily large collection, pull my tax stuff together and go to bed around 9:30 stone cold sober. That’s not an option: Russia’s primary end-of-the-year holiday is New Year’s Eve, so it is a marathon of mayonnaise and champagne.

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But I LOVE New Year’s Day! A fresh diary, a clean slate, new goals to outline. And lentils, which the Italians believe offer good fortune for the coming year. Here are a few lentil recipes from the archives!

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​Lucky Lentils for a Prosperous New Year​
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This is a favorite New Year’s Day dish, which pairs lentils with duck and pomegranate seeds. Delicious and lucky!

​Sausage & Lentil Stew​

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This is my go-to lentil stew with French garlic sausage.

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​Lentil Soup Four Ways​

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This was an early and very popular #QuarantineCuisine piece, which offers a template for a basic lentil recipe and four ways to customize it with different ingredients and spices.

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What I'm Watching

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I’ve been leaning in to my jet lag with a break in the afternoon to watch the newest season of Bonus Family, (Swedish for “step family”) which is one of my favorite Netflix shows, now in its fifth season.

This Swedish drama explores the choppy waters of step families when interior designer, Lisa (Vera Vitali) and high-school teacher Patrik (Erik Johansson) fall in love and leave their respective spouses to build a life together. Their well-intentioned efforts to blend their children from previous marriages (Lisa’s rambunctious son Eddie and her daughter Bianca, and Patrik’s quiet and well-behaved son William) into a family, while maintaining minimally cordial relations with their exes drive the overarching plot of the series.

Both drama and comedy, Bonus Family is well acted by the core cast along with an engaging group of recurring characters. It is also a wonderful look inside modern life in Sweden. I love the look and feel of Lisa and Patrik’s shabby but very hygge house compared with the sleek and very tidy flat of Katja, Patrik’s ex wife, which looks like an IKEA catalog. The show isn’t afraid to tackle difficult questions, and none of the characters (not even William!) is perfect, but you end up hoping they all make it. Enjoy a preview of Season 3 above!

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What I'm Reading at the Moment

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I took advantage of a long travel day on Wednesday (16 hours in total!) to lose myself in Lauren Groff’s latest novel, Matrix: A Novel. This engrossing book charts the life of Plantagenet bastard, Marie de France, who leaves the refined French court of Eleanor of Aquitaine to become the prioress of an obscure priory in England.

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Marie is physically awkward, but soon proves herself well up to pulling the abbey out of poverty and creating a haven for women who don’t quite fit into the strict roles proscribed for them by medieval society. Marie’s success helps to mask her secret longing for Queen Eleanor, which goes beyond a yearning for the rich culture of the royal court.
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​Matrix entirely lived up to its impressive advance billing. The novel brilliantly evokes the early Middle Ages, but also serves up an unforgettable female protagonist who grapples with unrequited love and thwarted ambition, and unorthodox ideas of feminine power.

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My time in Greece included a wonderfully unhurried day at the Acropolis, guided by a friend who is passionate about Greek history and art. I’ve been to the Parthenon several times, but always during the blazing heat with thousands of other people and a limited time frame. This was something quite different: a cool and breezy day with relatively few visitors and no bus waiting at the bottom of the hill. My only regret was that there was not enough time to visit the new Acropolis Museum, but I’ve earmarked that for my next visit in March, when I’ll be lecturing on Regent Voyager.

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To prepare for that visit, I downloaded Mary Beard’s 2010 masterpiece: The Parthenon and am almost finished with this delightful examination of the immense symbolism and significance of the Parthenon from antiquity to the present day. I’m particularly enjoying the way Beard tackles with admirable tact the thorny problem of the ownership of what I’ve recently taken to calling “The Parthenon Marbles,” rather than the “Elgin Marbles.”

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Now that Greece has created the Acropolis Museum, ownership of the marbles will continue to garner headlines not only in art publications, but in major broadsheets as well. While I’ve enjoyed many happy hours in the British Museum’s collection of the marbles, I’m now firmly on #TeamLordByron in terms of restoring the marbles to their original home.

I also enjoyed this podcast discussion about the current state of play of the Parthenon Marbles on Dan Snow’s History Hit, in which Dan interviews Nick Malkoutzis and Georgia Nakou, two Greek journalists and contributors to Macropolis (www.macropolis.gr). It was insightful and provided possibly the best outline of the history of the marbles from 5th century BCE to the present day.

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Listen to The Parthenon for free when you sign up for Audible Premium Plus!

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No journey for me is complete without a major deep dive into the culinary history of the region. I had some marvelous Greek food both onboard and on shore, but the highlight was an afternoon spent wandering through Thessaloniki’s wonderful food market. Every now and then, I need a market fix and the pre-holiday bustle was just the thing! I think I could happily move to a place where the spinach is so hardy and delicious, and the exceptionally good lamb, sardines, anchovies, and, of course, the immense range of olives.

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Greece’s cuisine is an interesting blend of land and sea, a theme that runs through Marianna Leivaditaki’s marvelous book: Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea.

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I visited Leivaditaki’s native Chania, on Crete, and gained a new appreciation for this winning combination of lamb, fish, fresh produce, whole grains and pulses, such as Fava beans, as well as the river of olive oil and honey that ties everything together. Crete is known in Greece as “The Big Island,” and its cuisine is robust and addictive. Aegean goes beyond the well-known Greek classics, providing mouth-watering recipes and photos of approachable dishes such as baked potatoes with shrimp, mussels cooked in ouzo, charcoal-grilled fish, seafood and vegetable salads, and delectable deserts.

If you are looking to go deeper into the Mediterranean Diet, or if you need an armchair journey to the birthplace of Zeus, Aegean is the perfect place to start.

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A reminder that all of my recommended reading suggestions from past newsletters, as well as links to those newsletters are now grouped together on my website at this URL. ​

Stay Tuned!

I’m going to enjoy Boxing Day by binge watching all of the episodes of Succession I missed while away, while I braise lamb shanks for an upcoming recipe, which I will look forward to sharing with you in the next few weeks!

2021 has been a challenging year for everyone, and it looks as if the arrival of Omicron will see the year out. My fervent hope for 2022 is that we see some relief from COVID and a return to something that resembles normalcy. As ever, I am so grateful to you for your interest in my work! Stay safe, and may 2022 bring you delicious and interesting things!

Until then!

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Enjoy the festive season!

Wishing you delicious things in the coming weeks!

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Jennifer Eremeeva

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