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!

Pork Ribs

 The pork ribs await treatment

They are trimmed of excess fat and the underside with is scored through the membrane.  The rib rub stands ready.


The rib rub consists of:


Paprika (smoked good) 1/4 c
Powdered thyme           2 tsp
Cayenne                      1/2-1 tsp
Dried mustard               1 tsp
Black pepper                1 tsp
Ground coffee               1 1/2 tsp
Garlic powder               1/2 tsp
Onion powder               1 tsp
Nutmeg                        1/4 tsp

 It is rubbed into both sides of the rack of ribs.

 The rack is vacuum sealed

 Maybe a little too tight this time as some blood runs out,  I'll do better next time.

 It is pit in a water bath in an oven at 170F and cooked for 24 hours.

 When taken out there is about 3 tbsp of liquid that has been released.

 I make a sauce.  The ingredients are:


60g         Ketchup
10g         White wine vinegar
2 tbsp     Brown sugar
1 tsp       Tamarind sauce
1/2 tsp    Worcs Sauce
1/2 tsp    Onion powder
1/2 tsp    Yellow mustard powder
1/4 Tsp    Cayenne pepper
3 tsp       Juice from cooked meat
3 tbsp     Water


It needed more sweetness, I'll use molasses next time.  But it was not really about the sauce/glaze, it was the meat texture that I was interested in.

 The ribs are basted with the sauce and browned under the broiler/grill

 It came out very dark but was not burned.

Inside it was pink and quite juicy.  It had the texture of a soft ham rather than the sinews of shredded pork.  Quite different!

The Steak

Last night I took a 8oz fillet mignon and vacuum sealed it, put it in a water bath, and then in an 170F oven for three hours.

Before bed I took it out of the oven and water bath and put it in the fridge.  This morning I took it from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature.

As you can see it is still pink but some blood has leeched out. But the meat is cooked, it is not raw.

I now wanted to heat it to eating temperature so I put it in a pan with water heated to about 130F to 133F which is the temperature for medium rare beef.  

I left it in the water bath for about 30 minutes.  Then I opened the bag and poured out the juice.  There was 2 tbsp which seemed like quite a lot but the meat was still very soft.

The piece of meat on the right has some fine pepper on it which was the only seasoning I put on it before it was vacuum packed. I oiled both sides of the steak and salted and peppered them both.

I put a non-stick pan on the hob and got it hot (at about a setting of 7, maximum 9).


I could have used a griddle pan and gone for the nice seared markings giving it an authentic steak house or barbeque grill look, in fact I should have probably used a really hot barbeque grill and got some charcoal flavour on it.  But I didn't because it is raining outside (second time in over six weeks) and the griddle pan is cast iron and I was feeling too lazy to clean it for one experimental steak that I would be eating alone.  I didn't think anyone would know but now I have to come clean and admit my laziness.  I cooked the steak for about 30 seconds on each side, and also on the edges.  I held the steak on its edge with tongues to do this when it wouldn't balance.

 Below it is balanced on its edge...it only needed a few seconds like that, to get some colour.

When it was properly coloured all over I took it out and rested it for a couple of minutes.  I don't know if it really needed resting as the slow cooking  sets the liquids in the meat, and it hasn't had the cold steak hot pan shock and contraction.  But I did it just in case, figuring it wouldn't do any harm.

Finally it was time to plate and cut.  It was evenly pink throughout without the few millimeters of outside well cooked meat that is normal even with a rare steak.  The blood did not run out onto the plate which stayed blood-free through for the full course.

 There is a singe slice in the picture on  the left.  On the right is a picture of the plate when all was eaten.  As you see, no blood.

Next time I'll finish it on the barbeque, and maybe invite some of you to join me!

First Steps: The Egg

A few days before Christmas my beloved wife said that we had to go and collect some Christmas gifts that she had ordered on the web....for me!  

We walked over to our Post Box only to find that the gift weighed 53lbs, and the large shopping bag we had brought was not going to accommodate an 18 inch square 53lb box, even if we could carry it, which we couldn't.  So we took the two small packages and went back later for the Big One.

I was actually quite puzzled that she had managed to buy my Christmas gift without having any idea of its size, how can that happen?  I know how much earrings weigh.

So, you wonder, what was in the box.

This is the cookbook (set) that everyone has been talking about, and least those "everyones" that talk about cookbooks.  It is a bible on food and cooking as praised for its photography and for its wisdom.  I could go on and on and bore almost all of you, but for the interested here is the link to more details- modernistcuisine.com

And above you see the happy recipient.  

In those little boxes we could carry were some of the kit one needs to do some of the unusual cooking.  Between Christmas, when we were busy together and with friends and family, until now, I was only able to do the odd bit of reading.  I should say I also received 5 other cookery books to read, so I have a backlog.

However today I decided to have a better look at the wilder side of modernist cooking.  I started with a spreadsheet of my new ingredients.  

This is quite important as playing with these ingredients is more like "doing" chemistry than cooking, unfortunately something of which I have had too much experience!  These are not our usual or usually combined ingredients, and many are tasteless, just there for the effect!  So I decided some homework was necessary.

Having done that, and remembered very little, I decided it was time to give it a go!  

I had some left over coconut milk in the fridge, and had been wondering what to make with it.  I had also seen a few years ago a chef making sweet "fried eggs", but do not remember who so cannot give credit.  I decided this might work and my DVD that came with the supplies gave just such an example, almost.  It was yogurt not coconut milk, but otherwise looked fine.  

The "egg yolks" were sweetened pureed mango, and the egg whites were coconut milk, sugar, water and kaffir lime leaf infusion.  The white was set with agar agar, and the yolks contained calcium lactate and were set in a bath of sodium alginate. 

And this is how they turned out...the better ones, there were a few less attractive specimens that I ate.

I put them in a black fry pan for effect.  On white plates they hardly showed. The liquid is just water, and they are, of course, cold.

I decided to smush them with a fork so you could see how runny they were.  

So, bottom line, how did they taste?  Well, I am not a big runny egg fan, but the yolk was very good.  However the white was a bit rubbery, the lime was a nice addition but the coconut wasn't quite robust enough for the mango.  

I am wondering how I can get the white softer without loosing the look, I know I can add freeze dried coconut powder to kick up the flavor.  I am also considering adding some "toast" to give a crunch.  Would crispy grilled pineapple work?  Finally I want to put a couple of slices of my home made bacon along side, but I will cure it with a lot of molasses to make it very sweet (as Blumenthal does with scrambled egg dessert accompanyment: short video, click here)