Although my sour cream sauce split, it came back together with some whisking, and it was very nice with the patties. Blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 minutes, then refresh them in cold water and drain well on kitchen paper.

I’d probably sub halibut or sea bass next time, my catfish wasn’t great but I wanted to be authentic to the recipe and culture.Either serve the meat pieces on top of the noodles, or pull the meat from the bones and mix it with the juices from the goose, then add the noodles to the meat and give them a good stir to coat them well. Once the goose is ready, cook the noodles in a large saucepan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes.

It is much more than ‘just’ Ukrainian recipes, it is a celebration of food eaten in Ukraine – from all over the ex-Soviet Union – each recipe stating which country the cuisine originates from, if not Ukraine. Olia was born in Ukraine and lived in Cyprus before moving to the UK to study a BA in Italian, followed by an MA in Russian and English. Flatten them with the palm of your hand, then rub with the grated garlic and season generously all over with salt and the cayenne pepper. Also, world famous pickles from Ukraine and its neighbour regions are well presented in this wonderful book. My paternal grandmother is Siberian, my mother has Jewish and Bessarabian (Moldovan) roots, my father was born in Uzbekistan and we have Armenian relatives and Ossetian friends.Place the parcels on top of the sauce, folded side down, tucking them next to each other snugly so they don’t unravel. Beat the eggs and caster sugar together in a bowl with an electric whisk for at least 5 minutes until very thick, pale and foamy. I always use butter and a teaspoon of vanilla extract; I've also made them with ricotta when out of cottage cheese, and it works beautifully.

The diversity of the recipes took me by surprise, and has awakened in me an interest in finding out more about the cuisines of Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia – and all the other Eastern European countries.

I keep meaning to try with demerara or turbinado, but they turn out so nicely with regular old granulated, too. It is a beautiful book to begin with; there is at least one picture to accompany each recipe plus pictures of Olia Hercules and her family in Ukraine. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Ukraine itself is vast, with quite different climates in the north, south east and west – so rationally you would expect different regional cuisines.

From Olia Hercules - Observer Rising Star of 2015 "Exotic, earthy dishes, vibrant colours, big flavours. I would certainly try it again – blanching the cabbage leaves a lot longer, and using a knife (instead of just a spoon and fork) to eat it. My husband's family traces to Ukraine just a couple generations back so that's one of the reasons I got this cookbook for him --and I'm the one having fun with it so far.For example, the chicken broth and dumplings recipe suggest a whole chicken, sectioned into 8 chunks, is boiled as part of the broth. I suspected without weights for the ingredients especially the salt and water that this recipe would fail.