Introduction to Atyrau, Kazakhstan

I have recently moved out to Atyrau in Kazakhstan to spend a few weeks with my wife who works here.  Atyrau is not a place that is rich in extra curricular activities, nor is it a place blessed with the bounty of the garden, farm, dairy, orchard, green house or even can or deep freeze.  The national dish is Beshbarmak which is boiled horse or mutton on noodles with boiled onions and sometimes potatoes.  The head is presented on special occasions.

One of my main occupations here is to do the cooking, the main challenge being, doing the shopping.  

The problem with shopping is twofold, finding product and understanding what one is buying (and for how much).  In the last two years or so the shelves of the supermarkets have become far better stocked, and there are now vegetables in the market from all over Europe, tomatoes, celery, peppers and lettuce are now there to accompany the ubiquitous potatoes, carrots, beets and onions.  There are also more exotic vegetable making their appearance, parsnips, avocados, chicory and fennel, though not as routinely.  There was a rumour that somebody had seen green beans, but I have seen no evidence and been unable to verify if this is true.

The supermarket shelves have many canned goods, though not always of suitable quality.  The corn was not worth eating, for example, as it lacked sweetness and was tough and starchy.  There is tomato paste in huge tins, but no canned tomatoes (or vary rarely).  Dried herbs are hard to find but there is fresh parsley and basil and dill is used as decoration on any savoury dish.  It is impossible to find whole wheat flour. 

The biggest problem is there is no fresh milk or cream, just UHT, so we bring in skimmed dried milk powder.  Plain low fat yoghurt is not always easy to find but flavoured is available.

Fruit and vegetables are more expensive than meat.  There is beef, lamb and horse.  There is rarely pork in this muslem country.  The problem is identifying the cuts (cuts may be rather too precise a term).  There is a organ meat.  

The stores do not allow photographs to be taken, but I have snuck a few! The collage below is of Rahat market.

The picture below is in the meat counter of Ramstore.  The white "meat" top right is actually mutton fat from the tail of the fat-tailed sheep, you can read more on this link.  It is quite popular.

Foods are not always presented in the most appealing way.

More of Ramstore.

So with this as background, I will be blogging some of my food experiments in KZ.  The kitchen we have is far from unsatisfactory, though not designed for serious cooking.  The oven is rather lightweight and electric, but I have from the US an heavy duty Avantco induction top which is VERY efficient.

I have also brought out my PolyScience Sous Vide heater. And we have bought extra pots and pans here as there is a reasonable professional kitchen supply shop nearby (in case we need a walk-in fridge, not very likely as it is -26C outside today!).

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes/Sunchokes

One of the several books I received at Christmas was called "Bought, Borrowed, Stolen".  

It has some interesting recipes, and some not so interesting ones.  But what caught my eye was a piece that said the author had learnt in a restaurant in San Francisco (what a coincidence) that artichokes could be cooked and eaten with the skin on, and they taste better.  Now I have to confess that steamed artichokes have never rated very high on my flavour scale.  Realtively speaking they make zucchini seem like taste bombs.  So I was interested in trying this.  Results below.

Washed and scrubbed artichokes.

Rubbed with sunflower oil and salted with kosher salt

Then roasted in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes till the skins are crisp and the centres are soft.

They were quite tasty!  A definite improvement on the steamed version.


There is only one problem with these vegetables, they contain a lot of inulin which is a fructose based carbohydrate which humans have difficulty digesting as we are lacking the natural enzyme to break them down.  So according to the gospel of Mr McGee  "On Food and Cooking"  the "beneficial bacteria in our intestines feed on them instead, in the process generating carbon dioxide and other gases that can cause abdominal discomfort."  You have been warned!