Home Food: Recipes from the founder of #CookForUkraine

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I tried the Cypriot salad, the tomato rice and potatoes of my childhood. There are so many others I want to try too. Crank up the oven temperature to its highest setting and put the butter in the tray over a medium heat. Use a large spatula to scoop the potatoes gently into the tray. Throw in the garlic and rosemary, swirl the tray, transfer to the oven and roast for 30 minutes. If the potatoes are not sufficiently crispy after that time, cook them some more. Olia Hercules’s fourth cookbook, Home Food: 100 Recipes to Comfort and Connect, is personal. Her mom’s crisp yet tender potatoes. Her husband’s beets and feta. Her friend’s family’s octopus with garlic. And this wintery, tangy salad—which could go with any of the above. It was not, as Ms Timoshkina told ITV News, a coincidence they show to fundraise through food as they felt it is a way of helping people understand the conflict on a very human level. Hercules’ cookbooks are special not only because of her recipes – many of which are new to readers in the UK – but also due to her evocative writing. Many cookbooks these days have essays written alongside the recipes but not everyone has the skilled writing style of Hercules. She is a natural storyteller who enables the reader to feel they are sitting under the trees with the Hercules family eating a summer feast. Hercules has written movingly about her family so that we feel we know them. Followers of her social media account have been kept up to date with recent events in Ukraine and the challenges facing her family and friends. I wondered whether it might be rather trite to review a cookbook under these circumstances. Still, perhaps at times of stress – political and personal – the ability of food to unite and comfort is as important as ever.

Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect by Olia Hercules Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect by Olia Hercules

Spread the bean paste over a large plate, pour over the red oil and fried garlic, and serve with good bread or raw vegetables – anything crunchy is great. Pumpkin and orange kolach (pictured above) Ms Timoshkina and Ms Hercules, who met at university in London 15 years ago, are both passionate about food and work with food. When I serve the big jelly for a bunch of close friends or family, I normally give everyone a small plate and a spoon, then we all just, well, jiggle the jelly for fun before diving into it tipsily. You might not think you would be interested in a book celebrating the food and flavours of the Caucasus…but you would be wrong. Olia Hercules is a great storyteller who will take you on a journey through the region without you ever having to leave the sofa” Sunday Time Ireland Whaite, John (2015-06-21). "Olia Hercules: the chef bringing East European food to our tables". Telegraph.co.uk . Retrieved 15 December 2016.Put the butter and 150g caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk until fairly fluffy. Break the egg yolks with a fork and gradually add them to the mix, whisking them in well as you go, then whisk in the vanilla extract and cheese. Transfer the mixture to another bowl, then fold in the semolina or polenta (if you use the latter, you’ll will get a cake with more texture).

Home Food by Olia Hercules | Cookbook Corner | Nigella Lawson Home Food by Olia Hercules | Cookbook Corner | Nigella Lawson

But I know exactly what they will taste when they open that jar. So to me that was just like even talking about it now just gives me goosebumps and like, it's just so powerful." Stewart, Victoria (2015-06-22). "Meet Olia Hercules, the ex-Ottolenghi chef putting Ukrainian food on the map in London". The Evening Standard . Retrieved 14 December 2016. Put four tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat – it should cover the base of the pan, so add a little more, if need be. Mamushka came out of a big jumble of things that were happening to me in 2014. I lost my job, I was a single mum, my son Sasha was nearly two years old. I was alone in the UK with no job and no prospects. Parallel to that, the Maidan [uprising] happens and the war starts in the Crimea. So it began, actually, as me writing down names of recipes in my notebook as a way of just doing something, and not sitting around and plunging myself into depression. Then I ended up getting this book deal, miraculously, everything came together. I never looked for an agent or to publish, it was just for me.Olia lives in London with her sons Sasha and Wilf, and husband – fellow food writer and photographer Joe Woodhouse, writing, cooking and feeding her unceasing curiosity by researching food culture and culinary traditions of countries less explored. Exotic, earthy dishes, vibrant colours, big flavours. This is real cooking, written about with so much love’ Diana Henry For sure Towpath on the canal in London, also 40 Maltby Street and Rochelle Canteen. You get the gist: restaurants that use really good ingredients and you can feel the skill in cooking, but it’s not fussy. Melt 25g of the butter in a frying pan on a medium heat, add the apples and cook for two to three minutes on each side, until they start to turn golden. Sprinkle in the brown sugar, cook the apples for another minute on each side, until caramelised, then transfer to a bowl and leave to cool slightly. Ukrainian-born food writer Olia Hercules serves up two simple springtime recipes from her homeland to highlight the efforts of a major fundraising initiative for Unicef

Olia Hercules’ springtime recipes | Food Cook for Ukraine: Olia Hercules’ springtime recipes | Food

Home Food takes readers on a culinary journey through the places Hercules has lived and the influences this has had on the food she enjoys cooking and eating at home. She grew up in Ukraine, moved as a child to Cyprus and as a student to the UK where she studied Italian and International Relations. Her language studies took her on to Italy for a year abroad. Later she trained as a chef and began to write. In addition to writing three critically acclaimed cookbooks, Hercules is also credited with the launch of the #CookForUkraine movement. In this deeply personal cookbook, she pulls inspiration from her childhood in Ukraine, as well her years spent in Cyprus, Italy, and England.” The first word that springs to my head is wiiiiine! I really miss Ukrainian wine: natural, low-intervention wine of a kind that is very fashionable now. It would be a dream if I could drink that all summer. A charity that started off as an idea between a Russian chef and her Ukrainian friend has raised tens of thousands for Ukraine families and children impacted by the war.Firstly I absolutely loved the stories that Olia shared here, it was a lovely personal touch that I loved reading. Missing, Sophie (17 May 2015) Olia Hercules and the food of warm Ukrainian summers The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 10 October 2021. Hercules’ very honest, very human confessions and personal stories are endearing, and they engender trust in her recipes and with her as a person. Even if you don’t cook any of the 100 dishes offered in Home Food: 100 Recipes to Comfort and Connect, the book is worth owning for its profound insights into small things that have great meaning in life. Hercules’ beautiful, affirming tales celebrate our humanity, while her mostly easy recipes open the door to a new palette of cooking flavors and techniques.”