While working on the video project for my Russian 3530 Culture and Cuisine class, I learned a lot about my own family and culture. Most of this stemmed from my grandmothers love of telling stories and expertise as a Ukrainian cook. I remember when we were little my grandmother used to always tell us about our great grandparents and their struggles. She later wrote a book about our families history (at least my fathers side) so as to pass on the information to future generations. Currently, she is working on a book telling the love story of my great-great grandparents.
The creation of the cultural dish of vareniki consists mostly of two ingredients: mashed potatoes and a special dough. Now everyone, including myself know how mashed potatoes are made, but I still chose to include it in the video because it’s absence would greatly diminish the importance of potatoes themselves in my family’s history. Just as the poor Russians during World War 2 treasured potatoes, so does my family. My aunt mostly helped with the creation of the mashed potatoes, that is why we see a different kitchen in the first part of the video. The creation of the special dough (the second main ingredient) took place in my grandmother’s kitchen. She lives in the same house as my uncle, so that she is taken care of. However, she loves to cook so much that my uncle made her a personal kitchen and gave her a section of the house.
Not all recipes remain unchanged over history. However, with such a simple dish, it is difficult to change the ingredients of vareniki. The only exception is the creation of the different stuffings in the dough, then the recipe may change. However, since we were using mashed potatoes for the stuffing, it is a simple, yet delicious recipe that both my mother and grandmother have identical versions of the recipe.
As stated before, I did use my grandmother’s house to make the vareniki, but I used my mother’s old cookbook as my Slavic primary source. It is a book that itself looks to be over 100 years old, maybe it is because of the poor quality of old Slavic book, or the constant use of it that wore it out so quickly. Either way, I know that the old book has become a very important piece of history for our family. So much so that at most family dinners, my mother brings out the book and starts reading about the things we used to do as kids. She recorded a lot of saying we had as she was cooking and we were bothering her because she was already using the book while cooking.
Overall, I learned so much about my own culture. This ranges from familial traditions to Ukrainian facts. I did not know that vareniki were a national dish or that Ukrainians loved it so much that they even built statues of this treasured dish! To me it seems crazy, but when you have nothing but potatoes, water and flour, you have to get creative with your cooking. The best thing about cooking with my grandmother is that she had the chance to tell me even more stories about her life and my ancestors. I know that it was a great moment of bonding and that every Slavic grandparent would love to spend time with their grandchildren to pass down the meaning of their culture. My rating: 10/10, would make and eat the vareniki again.