Notes about Recipes in this book

• Caspian anchor

  • MissKoo on February 12, 2026

    Served this as starter cocktail for cookbook dinner largely based on Caroline Eden's cookbook Samarkand. The buckthorn juice is notably expensive and I could only source it online. The juice is, as described, mouth puckering, but combined with simple syrup and vodka makes a very nice sour cocktail with a bright color reminiscent of turmeric or even pumpkin. This would be particularly refreshing on a hot and steamy summer day. Because of the expense of obtaining buckthorn juice I would probably not repeat but it was a very good cocktail with unusual flavor profile.

• Canned peach and sour cream cake

  • jungliemonkey on November 24, 2020

    I should have added my sour cream bit by bit to the icing to get the consistency right, as mine turned out far too liquid! However, the cake itself was a triumph. Light, moist, and delicious. Will definitely be making this again.

• Russian Easter bread (Kulich)

  • joanne_rrfnxi on April 15, 2026

    Delicious! My dough didn't rise well possibly due to adding a bit of semolina and almond flour as I didn't have enough bread flour, or leaving the dough to rise outside and it starting to rain, who knows. So got a rather cakey result. Made a mascarpone lemon icing and decorated with dried fruit. Delicious and recommend! Makes one large loaf if you decide to go down that route rather than tins. Might double it next time.

• Steamed pumpkin khunon

  • jungliemonkey on November 29, 2020

    The amount of dough here actually rolls out to more like 5x30cm for each. With the amount of filling I had, that made 12 good-sized dumplings, with dough left over. Delicious, particularly with a small amount of sour cream and the accompanying hot sauce recipe!

• Mikhail Kurzin's meat dumplings brought to life

  • jenburkholder on March 24, 2023

    Very good. Made vegetarian with Impossible and subbed a 12 oz pack for the 8 oz of meat, not changing anything else. The salt and spices were fine with this larger quantity of mince, but likely would have been too much otherwise.

• Sultan Kurgan tofu

  • jenburkholder on January 07, 2022

    Really great and very easy. We let the sauce reduce for a minute before adding in tofu/peppers and that was a good choice, it tightened up nicely. The green bell pepper could be subbed for a lot of things (green beans spring to mind) or just omitted. Aromatic, lightly sweet, and pantry-friendly. Will repeat.

  • TrishaCP on February 28, 2022

    This was an easy and tasty dinner. Next time I would reduce (probably by half) the amount of Szechuan pepper, which was just too prominent to me, but that is personal preference.

  • London_Mummy on February 24, 2026

    This was a fun recipe to make, different from usual in both preparation & flavour. I normally avoid deep frying anything, in order to reduce saturated fat, but in the wintery weather, a bit of fat can be good! I substituted according to what I had to hand: seitan for tofu; red & yellow peppers for green despite the injunction not to (Aldi red & yellow peppers seem bitter enough to me); lemon juice for Chinkian black rice vinegar; Korean plum wine for Shaoxing rice wine; brown basmati for generic rice.

• Sour cherry borscht

  • jungliemonkey on November 24, 2020

    I was a bit short on sour cherries, so made up the difference with golden berries, which were probably a bit much... However, "user error" aside, this borscht was absolutely fantastic! Deep, rich, and tasty.

  • mjes on May 22, 2021

    Okay, I was watching Great British Menu and noting all the beets ... which led me to thinking of Eastern European borscht ... which led me to my cookbook with a variety of Russian borscht ... which made me think that I'd seen an interesting Central Asian borscht recipe somewhere. Thank you EYB - I found it! I used dried sour cherries and ignored the gherkins to serve but, oh my, this is an excellent borscht. Grating the beets and carrots kept an interesting texture. I'd love to know that it taste like the next day but am not sure how much one would have to make for there to be any left after dinner, evening snack, midnight snack ... did I say I loved it!

  • meginyeg on January 05, 2022

    This was delicious. I used garlic broth leftover from a Kachka dish instead of beef broth. I love the dried cherries.

• Cheat's laghman

  • stepharama1 on January 14, 2022

    Truly excellent -- however, I used the broth from Nigella's "Wide Noodles with Lamb Shank in Aromatic Broth on page 57 of "Cook, Eat. Repeat" because using beef stock didn't seem that it would produce the flavor expected. In my experience, Laghman is based on an aromatic lamb broth. Since the title of the recipe is "Cheat's Laghman," I can't quibble.

• A Soviet sanatorium appetiser

  • jenburkholder on September 17, 2022

    Tasty, subtle salad / dip. I mixed in the mayonnaise and subbed dried dill for fresh (fresh would have been better).

• Eat Your Books by Jenny Hartin

  Through the author’s thoughtful narrative I am taken on a trip through Central Asia and gifted with beautiful photography and dishes that make me feel as I am along with her on this journey.

  Full review