Feast from the East: Commissioned bread recipes from displaced Ukrainian chefs

Spotlighting some of the region’s richest cinematic fruit, Feast from the East is a celebration of the food, feasts and famously fertile soil of Eastern Europe. Streaming on the Cinema of Ideas from 27 June – 11 July, the programme includes Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Earth and Mykola Shpykovskyi’s Bread, as well as a ‘dinner-table’ discussion with experts on Soviet cinema and a cooking masterclass with chef and activist Alissa Timoshkina. Tickets are free, but we encourage donations, which will be split between two fundraising campaigns in support of Ukraine.

To accompany this season, we commissioned Ukrainian chefs Katrya Kalyuzhna and Viktoriya Popin to share a delicious selection of bread recipes. Testifying to the potential and diversity of the humble loaf, the two chefs share a range of sourdough bread recipes, ranging from a wheat bread with sesame and flaxseed, to a Cossack-inspired millet bread with fried onion and dried dill.

Katrya Kalyuzhna

I am Katrya Kalyuzhna, aka @seldonenko on Instagram. I am a Ukrainian cooking blogger, studying sourdough bread making, fermentation, preserving and slow cooking, and currently living in Lviv. I recently became internally displaced because of the russian-Ukrainian war, which started on February 24, and my native region of Kherson was occupied by russian invaders.

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All oven temperatures are for conventional ovens. Reduce all temperatures by 20°C if using a fan oven. Please see the end of the second recipe for various ways of baking with steam.

Millet Bread with Fried Onion and Dried Dill

I am from Southern Ukraine; specifically, from a town called Kakhovka in the region of Kherson, which devastatingly is currently occupied by russia. Millet has always been widely-grown in Ukraine, especially in the South, and so is a staple of Ukrainian cuisine. Creating this recipe, I was inspired by ‘Kulish’ – the traditional Ukrainian millet porridge invented by the Zaporozhian Cossacks during their long military campaigns.

Ingredients

• 120g sourdough starter 
• 70g millet flour 
• 50g whole wheat flour 
• 440g all-purpose flour 
• 420g water
• 10g salt
• 1 small fried onion
• 30g vegetable oil (for frying)
• 1 teaspoon dried dill

Recipe

• Chop the onion and fry in the oil on a medium heat until golden brown, then leave to cool.
• Dissolve the sourdough starter in the water in a big bowl, then add the flour and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and leave on the worktop for 30 minutes.
• Add the salt, fried onion, dill and knead it thoroughly until it is smooth and soft. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and set aside for 4-5 hours until it doubles in size.
• Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a surface dusted with a little flour, shape into a ball, transfer into a prepared bread proofing basket to rise, then keep in the fridge (+5°C) for 12 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 240°C, using both upper and lower heat. 
• Turn out the loaf from the basket onto a baking tray. Score the bread surface. Put the tray in the middle of the oven and bake the bread with steam* for 25 minutes, then let the steam out, turn down the heat to 210°C, and keep baking for 20-25 minutes or until light brown.
• Let the bread rest for 4 hours.

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Whole Wheat and Rye Bread with Buttermilk

Wheat and rye are the most popular crops in Ukraine, so it only seemed natural to mix them in a single bread recipe, for a highly aromatic and flavourful loaf that combines two traditional ingredients.

Ingredients

• 120g whole wheat sourdough starter 
• 420g buttermilk 
• 150g whole rye flour 
• 250g whole wheat flour
• 160g all-purpose flour 
• 12g salt
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Recipe

• Dissolve the sourdough starter in the buttermilk in a big bowl, then add the flour and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and leave on a worktop for 30 minutes.
• Season with the salt, caraway seeds and knead thoroughly until smooth and soft. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and set aside for 4-5 hours until it doubles in size.
• Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a surface dusted with a little flour, shape into a ball, transfer into a prepared bread proofing basket to rise, then keep in the fridge (+5°C) for 12 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 240°C, using both upper and lower heat.
• Turn out the loaf from the basket onto a baking tray. Score the loaf’s surface. Put the tray in the middle of the oven and bake the bread with steam* for 20 minutes, then let the steam out, turn down the heat to 210°C, and keep baking for 30 minutes or until the loaf is a medium brown.
• Let the bread rest for 5-6 hours.

*Below are various ways of baking with steam:

• Spray the loaf and hot oven inside with warm water prior to baking (my preferred method).
• Pour 100g of boiling water into a vessel placed at the bottom of the oven, or inside a clean tray on the lower shelf.
• Place a big metal bowl over the loaf to keep the steam inside and moisten the bread’s crust during the first 20-25 minutes of baking.
• Place some ice cubes inside a clean tray on the bottom of the oven.

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Viktoriya Popin

My name is Viktoriya Popin; lawyer by profession, but cook by soul. I am from Khmelnitsky, one of the main cities in the Podillya region, and currently living in Poland, with the family of my Polish husband. Almost 12 years ago, I launched my cooking site, Picante Cooking, which has grown to become one of the largest single-authored cooking sites in Ukraine. 

Teaching others to cook is my passion and so, in what started out as a hobby, I created my site as a space to publish my recipes for free. Alongside Picante Cooking, I have published three cookbooks, which not only teach how to cook a range of recipes, but also help readers understand the cooking processes involved. I’m a big fan of self-sufficiency in cooking, and baking bread at home is a big part of that. So with my work I try to encourage people to cook and bake with confidence and independence.

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Wheat Bread with Sesame and Flax Seeds

This wheat sourdough bread with sesame and flax seeds is made for all lovers of grainy loaves. It is incredibly fragrant and the seeds, which give the bread a unique taste, also diversify the texture. This bread is a little trickier to bake, because the seeds significantly weigh down the dough, but as long as your sourdough leaven is active, you shouldn’t have any issues.

1. If your leaven is not very active (i.e. the starter has not doubled, or there are a few bubbles) or the room is cold, increase the fermentation time after folding the dough (maybe even doubling the time for cold rooms). You will know if the dough is sufficiently fermented if it moves lightly in the bowl when shaken. Conversely, if the room is hot and the leaven is very mature and active, then the dough will be ready to shape after just 1.5 hours.
2. The same applies to the dough after shaping. The colder the room is, the longer the dough should be left to rise. Unlike yeast breads, here the influence of temperature is much more significant.
3. If you don’t like baking large loaves or find it easier to work with smaller ones, feel free to divide the dough into 2 parts.

Ingredients

Makes one large loaf.

For the sourdough starter:

• 40g active leaven
• 80g/ml tepid water
• 80g bread wheat flour

For the main dough:

• 500g premium wheat flour
• 330g/ml water
• 12g salt

For the seed soaker:

• 100g sesame seeds (I use black sesame seeds)
• 100g flaxseed
• 200g/ml water

Extras:

• Wheat and rice flour mixed in equal parts for dusting

Recipe

1. The evening before the day you’ll be baking, make the starter. To do this, combine all the ingredients for the starter in a small bowl and mix well. Cover with a lid or plate and leave at room temperature for 10-14 hours to ferment.
2. That same evening, combine the sesame seeds and flaxseeds in a deep bowl, fill with water, stir, and leave to soak for 8-24 hours.
3. The next morning, pour all the flour into a deep bowl (or bowl of a mixer), add 300ml of water. Knead the dough so that all the flour is moistened, and leave for 1.5-2 hours to autolyse.
4. After autolysis, add the starter to the main dough and knead until the dough is well combined. Add the salt and rest of the water (pouring the water over the salt to help it dissolve) and knead the dough again until the salt is well distributed.
5. Cover the bowl containing the dough for 30 minutes. Then, carefully scrape the dough from the bowl with wet hands. Stretch it out a bit, and fold it in on itself in thirds (as if you were folding a business letter into thirds, or folding up a wrap), so it forms a loose roll. Return to the bowl. Repeat two more times at intervals of 30 minutes, each time folding well with wet hands. Cover the bowl with a lid and leave for 1.5-2 hours until the dough rises a little.
6. Next, add the seeds, along with the liquid in which they were soaking, to the dough. If the grains do not absorb all the water, knead the dough so that the seeds are distributed as evenly as possible. The dough will become much stickier; just wet your hands more often when working with it – do not add flour.
7. Next, cover the proofing basket or a deep bowl with a clean kitchen towel so that it adheres to the walls of the dish. Dust evenly with a mixture of wheat and rice flour.
8. Take the dough out of the bowl with wet hands and form a loaf. To do this, first fold the dough into thirds (again, as if folding a business letter), forming a loose roll. You can then take the top end of the dough and wrap it down and around (as if you were making a bun) to form a round loaf, or fold the dough into thirds again for an elongated roll. Place it in the prepared dish for the final proof (seam side up!) and dust with the same mixture of wheat and rice flour on top.
9. Lightly cover the loaf with a towel and leave to grow for 2-3 hours. For the last 30 minutes, put the basket/bowl with the dough in the fridge.
10. While the dough is in the fridge, preheat the oven to 250°C and place a cast iron pot or Dutch oven (with its lid) inside. (If you are not baking in a pot, use a pizza stone or baking tray with a pan on top instead, which you will later use as a ‘lid’).
11. When the oven has warmed up and the dough has cooled down a little, take the basket/bowl with the dough out of the fridge, and take the baking dish out of the oven. Carefully remove the lid from the baking dish and in one confident (but careful!) movement, flip the loaf into the baking dish/pan, seam side down.
12. Carefully, without pressing onto the dough, smooth flour over its surface and make a deep, elongated incision with a sharp knife. Cover the pot with a lid. (If you are not baking in a pot, transfer the loaf to a hot baking tray with the seam facing down and make an incision in the same way).
13. Immediately place the pot (or tray) with the bread in the preheated oven. Bake for the first 25-30 minutes with the lid (or, if using a tray, cover with the pre-heated pan you previously placed in the oven), then remove the lid and bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes, until the loaf is well browned and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.
    
    WARNING! If you do not like a rough, very crispy crust (as can happen!), do not brown the bread too much. As soon as you hear this hollow sound when tapping the bread, remove from the oven, and bake for a little less time with the lid on (i.e. 20 minutes). Even if the crust is firm at first, this is normal; it will soften significantly as it cools. Prolonged browning forms a coarser and crispier crust.
14. Take the finished bread out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack and leave until the bread cools down almost completely.

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Buckwheat Bread

This is one of my favorite breads: buckwheat sourdough bread – or, more accurately, wheat-buckwheat sourdough. It has the fabulous distinct aroma of buckwheat, a very delicate crumb, and stays fresh for a long time. For me, this is definitely the taste of home.

I’m afraid I must immediately disappoint those who think that buckwheat bread (both this recipe and store-bought) is only made from buckwheat flour. Bread cannot be made without gluten or its substitutes in the form of various additives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, etc., and a bread is considered a ‘buckwheat bread’ if at least 1/5 to 1/6 of the flour in the dough is buckwheat flour. There is a bit more of it in my bread, but it is still quite bulky and fluffy, because the less gluten-free or low-gluten flour in the dough, the fluffier the bread.

Since there is a relatively large proportion of buckwheat flour in the dough, the leaven must be ripe and very active. The wheat flour should also be strong, ideally wheat bread flour, rather than white flour.

Ingredients

Makes one large loaf.

For the sourdough starter:

• 40g active yeast
• 80g/ml water
• 80g normal wheat flour

For the main dough:

• 350g finely ground wheat wholemeal flour
• 150g buckwheat flour
• 370g/ml water
• 12g salt

Extras:

• Wheat and rice flour mixed in equal parts for dusting

Recipe

1. The evening before the day you’ll be baking, make the starter. To do this, combine all the ingredients for the starter in a small bowl and mix well. Cover with a lid or plate and leave at room temperature for 10-14 hours to ferment.
2. The next morning, pour all the flour into a deep bowl (or bowl of a mixer), add 350ml of water, and knead the dough so that all the flour is moistened, and leave for 1.5-2 hours to autolyse.
3. After autolysis, add the starter to the main dough and knead until the dough is well combined. Add the salt and rest of the water (pouring the water over the salt to help it dissolve) and knead the dough again until the salt is well distributed.
4. Cover the bowl with the dough for 30 minutes. Then, carefully scrape the dough from the bowl with wet hands. Stretch it out a bit, and fold it in on itself in thirds (as if you were folding a business letter into thirds, or folding up a wrap), so it forms a loose roll. Return to the bowl. Repeat two more times at intervals of 30 minutes, each time folding well with wet hands. Cover the bowl with a lid and leave for 1.5-2 hours until the dough rises a little.
5. Next, cover the proofing basket or a deep bowl with a clean kitchen towel so that it adheres to the walls of the dish. Dust evenly with a mixture of wheat and rice flour.
6. Take the dough out of the bowl with wet hands and form a loaf. To do this, first fold the dough into thirds (again, as if folding a business letter), forming a loose roll. You can then take the top end of the dough and wrap it down and around (as if you were making a bun) to form a round loaf, or fold the dough into thirds again for an elongated roll. Place it in the prepared dish for the final proof (seam side up!) and dust with the same mixture of wheat and rice flour on top.
7. Lightly cover the loaf with a towel and leave to grow for 2-3 hours. For the last 30 minutes, put the basket/bowl with the dough in the fridge.
8. While the dough is in the fridge, preheat the oven to 250°C and place a cast iron pot or Dutch oven (with the lid) inside. (If you are not baking in a pot, use a pizza stone or baking tray with a pan on top instead, which you will later use as a ‘lid’).
9. When the oven has warmed up and the dough has cooled down a little, take the basket/bowl with the dough out of the fridge, and take the baking dishes out of the oven. Carefully remove the lid from the baking dish and in one confident (but careful!) movement, flip the loaf into the baking dish/pan, seam side down.
10. Carefully, without pressing onto the dough, smooth flour over its surface and make a deep, elongated incision with a sharp knife. Cover the pot with a lid. (If you are not baking in a pot, transfer the loaf to a hot baking tray with the seam facing down and make an incision in the same way).
11. Immediately place the pot (or tray) with the bread in the preheated oven. Bake for the first 25-30 minutes with the lid (or, if using a tray, cover with the pre-heated pan you previously placed in the oven), then remove the lid and bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes, until the loaf is well browned and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.
12. Take the finished bread out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack and leave until the bread cools down almost completely.

 Feast from the East is streaming on the Cinema of Ideas until Monday 11 July. Book your free ticket now.