#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The idea came to Andrey Anikiyev in Latvia, where the chef collected the ingredients for future dishes in the forest. This approach turned out to be close to the Russian: he decided to replace Italian pasta and Japanese sushi in his native Arhangelsk region with authentic northern dishes – fish, game and wild plants.
“Yes, you can go to the museum, where they will share Pomeranian recipes, references to certain manufactories. But, in my opinion, when presenting a dish to guests, it is wrong to refer to books or the Internet”, Andrey Anikiyev told a journalist from the People of the North online publication.
To collect old recipes, the chef went on a journey through his native region. On a gastronomic tour, he learned how to cook the most delicious pike, bread in fish brine, as well as a recipe for sushja – dried Pomor fish.
“An old resident of the Vorzogory village said that in their family house they kept sushja in bags on the stove. At the right moment, they took it out, sent it to a cast iron pot, filled it with water and put it in the oven. At the same time, the stove was covered with clay and left for a day, and in the evening the pot was removed from the stove. During this time, the fish was saturated with moisture, and gave the broth its rich taste. Subsequently, they prepared fish soup with the broth”.
The chef adds new flavors to old recipes. For example, fish soup is served with White Sea algae, and fish brine cakes are served with sour cream, soaked cod and sauerkraut.
On his next trips, Andrey Anikiyev plans to learn the secrets of cooking dishes from mushrooms, berries, upland game and seaweed – all this will get onto the pages of a northerner’s recipe book.
Let us recall that Norilsk is currently undergoing a transformation of the gastronomic industry: chefs and restaurant owners are being trained at the Siberian Federal University. This year, for the first time, guests of the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum tasted traditional Taimyr cuisine. The meat of deer living in Taimyr was recognized by experts as the richest in macro- and microelements. Taimyr char is also among the record holders – scientists have found that in terms of the content of useful nutrients it is richer than valuable sea fish.
Also, This Is Taimyr said that in Norilsk, author’s northern ice cream and coffee with venison is cooked. Spring fishing for ‘cucumber fish’ – smelt – is an old tradition that gathers dozens of fishermen on the Yenisey river in April and May. Norilsk cooking began in the kitchens of wintering geologists – geologists borrowed the first recipes from the indigenous peoples of Taimyr.
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Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photos: Nikolay Shchipko, Denis Kozhevnikov and Olga Polyanskaya (archived editorial)
