Eastern delight

Eastern delight

Steadily growing in the UK is the appreciation society for eastern European cuisine - and anyone thinking it is all stodge and stews will have to think again.

Since the eastern European countries steadily began joining the EU there has been an influx of people from all parts of the region - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and even Russia. This has influenced what we are now seeing in the marketplace, and is giving food developers food for thought.

And it's not just the new arrivals influencing the food and drink emanating from that part of the world. Britons who have taken to the Balkans because you can fly there cheaply are now frequent visitors. A survey last year showed that places such as Bulgaria and Romania were in the top 10 as destination hot spots.

The retail giants have already started to cater for the Polish market. Sainsbury's Asda and Tesco have all introduce Polish products. Sainsbury's for example has introduced a Polish focused range that includes more than 30 ready prepared dishes, including home favourites such as pickled cabbage, hunters stew and borscht.

But anyone thinking that eastern European food generally was all stodge and stews would be mistaken. There are many filling stews and casseroles but there is a heartiness about the cooking style that fits nicely in with the trend for British cuisine - traditional, fresh, comfort food - but at the same time there are refreshing light dishes predominantly made with fruit.

There is an abundance of sweet and sour tones in the cornucopia of interesting dishes, which according to food writer Silvena Rowe is not surprising. "It is very common in the Balkans to use fruit fresh and even stewed to flavour stews and many other dishes," she says.

Rowe is a leading expert in central and eastern European cuisine, having been born and brought up in Bulgaria where she learnt to cook. Her latest book entitled: Feasts, represents contemporary eastern European cooking at its best, each chapter covering different aspects of the region's cooking styles injected with a real feel for the area.

The unique flavours of the area are in fact provided by fruit, she says, from the sour cherries and plums of the north to the pomegranates and apricots of the south, which are used both fresh and dried.

Meat is a key component of recipes and there are many other ingredients that the cuisine could not be without - yogurt, vegetables especially potatoes and cabbage, nuts, pulses and honey, to name just a few.

Dishes all have that one common denominator - the sharing factor, even the famous ones like beef Stroganoff, which saw some success back in the swinging '70s here in the UK.

There is a boom for menu developers if they dip their toes in the water, as the increase in arrivals in the UK will naturally spark a rise in food for the homesick.
However to gain favour with Brits living here, dishes have to be ones that they will understand, which is something that Rowe is keen to get across.

One of her missions is to get over the point that the food isn't stodge and uses as an example the dish pierogi, which are little dumplings.

"I describe them as being like eastern European dim sum. I'm trying to show that dumplings are delicious home made food - it's like making your own pasta," she explains, adding that she is sure they will be common in this country soon.
This year in fact Eyck Zimmer of the Lowry hotel in Manchester included potato pierogi with the main course in his menu that won him the National Chef of the Year crown.

Getting it right

Rowe says that her book aims to show how this type of food can be made authentically and adds that she doesn't think the supermarkets are getting it right.
"Eastern European cuisine is like Indian cuisine - unless you are brought up with it and understand the flavours, you can't make it," she says.

"If you want to develop Indian food, you ask an expert; so if you want to develop Polish food, you should ask an expert as well, because this food is not something we've been exposed to before. Polish people really do value their own food the most."

Text Sheila Eggleston Photography Jonathan Lovekin