July 01, 2013

Some Like it Cold

I've always loved the evocative Russian phrase babye leto — old ladies’ summer — that describes those brilliant early fall days when old women and young folk alike bask in the last warm rays of the sun, which feel all the more precious as summer draws to a close.

Things are quite different in midsummer, when the sun feels less like a friend than a foe. In English we call that oppressive time the “dog days” of summer, when nothing seems to bring relief. But the Russians know how to stave off heat-induced tempers with a wonderful array of refreshing, cold soups. My favorite among them is okroshka. The soup’s name comes from the Russian verb kroshit, to crumble or mince. Okroshka is basically a liquid salad, bursting with all manner of fresh summer vegetables and herbs. To me, it is a quintessentially Russian dish in its use of the freshest garden produce and homemade staples from the pantry.

Okroshka started out as a peasant dish, or — if you believe the tale that circulates on numerous Russian websites — as a specialty of the Volga boatmen. The story goes that the boatmen were fed porridge in the morning; for dinner they were given dried fish (vobla) and kvass, that slightly alcoholic home brew made from black bread. Many of the boatmen had terrible teeth (if they had teeth at all), and dried fish can be tough and quite hard to chew. So the boatmen would soak it in the kvass to soften it. Soon they began adding vegetables — mainly boiled potatoes, radishes and cucumbers — to make the mixture more filling, and okroshka was born.

This story sounds apocryphal to me, but it’s a fact that minced vegetables mixed with kvass are delicious. Okroshka soon moved from the countryside to the cities, making its way onto the tables of the nineteenth-century’s finest gastronomes. Today, okroshka is a featured summertime dish on the menus of some of Moscow’s trendiest restaurants, including Nostalgie and Vogue Café.

Okroshka lends itself beautifully to improvisation. The ingredients almost always include cucumbers, radishes, scallions and dill, as in the recipe below, but you can also add boiled potatoes, carrots or beets; parsley and tarragon will heighten the flavor. If you like your soup with a bite, simply mix in some grated horseradish; for piquancy add sliced salted mushrooms.

The purest version of okroshka consists simply of minced vegetables over which kvass has been poured, yielding a light yet satisfying dish. But many Russians prefer to add cooked meat or fish to make the soup more substantial. Okroshka presents an excellent solution to any summer leftovers problem. Finely chop some cooked chicken, beef, turkey, veal, pork, tongue, or even mild sausage, then add the meat to the soup (a mixture of different meats tastes best). Or make an okroshka with fish, as those boatmen are said to have done. Any firm fish like whitefish or cod is good.

As for the soup’s liquid component, the classic Russian version uses kvass mixed with sparkling water. That recipe proves a little difficult for most of us in the States, as it’s hard to find good kvass in this country unless you make it yourself. Most of the bottled kvass sold through Russian markets is far too sweet, and it’s important that okroshka have a refreshing tang. My solution is usually to make okroshka in the Central Asian style, similar to the cold Uzbek soup known as chalop, which uses plain kefir and water instead of kvass. This type of okroshka is just as refreshing, and you’ll also benefit from a generous dose of calcium. If the weather is terribly hot and you fear tempers are rising, just drop some ice cubes into the soup before serving and everything — and everyone — will cool off.