Not Your Babushka's Farmers' Market

Food sanctions and a weak ruble have caused culinary despair in Russia, but not for the shoppers at Moscow’s oldest farmer’s market, Danilovsky, which dates to the founding of the adjacent thirteenth- century monastery of the same name by Prince Danil Alexandrovich.

Danilovsky Market’s hipster makeover is reinventing the way Muscovites think about food. Walk into its trademark rotunda, and you might wonder if you’ve stumbled into London’s Borough Market by mistake. In addition to a major facelift of the market stalls, there is pleasant and comfortable seating (attracting “latte and laptop patrons”), and new cafe tenants offer everything from Vietnamese Pho to grilled Cypriot halloumi.

Olga Kukoba, Danilovsky’s Creative Director, said that the market makeover is a passion project for restaurant titan Ginza, who took over management in spring 2015.

“I think there was a real concern that we would execute the cafe project in the manner of a shopping mall food court — with global fast food outlets,” she said.

Indeed, Ginza’s earlier attempt to replace Tsentralny Rynok in downtown Moscow with a high-end, top-floor supermarket left a bitter taste in many Moscow mouths. But with Danilovsky more thought has gone into the concept and the execution.

“We developed the concept from a core belief that a market is first and foremost a place of exchange: not just of goods, but also of ideas and culture,” said Kukoba, who oversees events such as the market’s regular candlelit dinners, movie screenings, and harvest festivals.

But how do Danilovsky’s traditional patrons regard the recent changes and innovations to their neighborhood market?

Pensioner Klavdiya Ivanovna has lived in the neighborhood all her life. On a bitterly cold day in December she paused to check out the bustling Vietnamese Pho stand.

“I don’t recognize half of the things they sell here these days,” she confessed, waving a hand at the halal meat counter, Asian food kiosk, and Italian delicacy shop. But she said she has watched the recent changes with interest, pleased that the prices for traditional basic food staples have not soared, as many feared. She hasn’t tried a new cafe yet, but she might — probably not the Pho, she said, laughing at a spontaneous invitation — but she might buy some of #ProPelmeni’s pre-made dumplings to cook at home.

#ProPelmeni’s stand is a master class in the wonderful world of dumplings, all made with farm fresh meat, vegetables, and other high quality ingredients. The busy stand offers the option to eat freshly-boiled fare in the market, or take home pre-assembled Russian-style pelmeni made from lamb, pork, game, or beef. They also offer pelmeni’s more exotic cousins: Central Asian mantiy, Georgian khinkhali, and Chinese jioazi.

Gourmet Pelmeni

Dough*

1 pound (500 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
4 medium-sized eggs, at room temperature
4 Tbl (60 ml) warm water

Filling
1 pound (500 grams) boneless duck breast, skin on
½-pound (250 grams) baby spinach
½-pound bacon or pancetta, finely diced
1 shallot, minced
1 cup (125 grams) yellow onion, minced
2 Tbl unsalted butter
½ tsp powdered allspice
¼ tsp powdered cloves
½ cup dried tart cherries, finely minced
1 Tbl fresh orange zest
3 Tbl chopped parsley
1 Tbl sherry vinegar
¼ cup Marsala wine
1 cup tvorog or ricotta cheese, drained
1 large egg yolk
1 cup Asiago cheese, finely grated
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450º F

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, and then pour the eggs and water into it.

Toss and knead the dough with your fingers until it holds together, adding more water as needed to ensure that the dough comes together, but taking care that it not stick to the bowl.

Form a ball from the dough and knead it on a floured surface for 3-5 minutes until the dough develops elasticity. Place the kneaded dough in a greased bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Leave to set for one hour.

While the pelmeni dough rests, prepare the filling.

Place the pancetta or bacon in a frying pan and fry until the fat renders. Remove the cooked bacon with a slotted spoon, keeping the rendered fat in the frying pan. Drain bacon on paper towels and cool to room temperature.

Score the fat side of the duck breasts, then fry them in the bacon fat over medium heat for 6-7 minutes. Pour the sherry vinegar and a dash of Marsala wine into the skillet and let the liquid bubble. Then transfer the duck breasts to an ovenproof pan and roast for 10-15 minutes in the 450º oven. Retain the duck fat in the pan(s).

Cool the duck breasts to room temperature, then slice off the fat and discard. Shred the duck meat and place in a large bowl with the cooled bacon.

Cook the shallot and onion in the duck fat until it is translucent, sprinkling with salt and pepper, cloves, and allspice. Add the onion mixture to the duck and bacon with the remaining pan juices and toss to combine.

Wipe out the skillet, then melt the butter and cook the spinach until it is completely wilted. Place the cooked spinach in a colander and press with the back of a large wooden spoon to drain all of the liquid. Chop finely.

Pass the duck, bacon, and onion mixture through a meat grinder or food processor fitted with a steel blade.

Toss the drained tvorog or ricotta with the beaten egg yolk and grated Asiago, then add the spinach and chopped parsley. Fold in the duck mixture and knead briefly with your hands to combine. Add a few robust grinds from a pepper mill and a generous pinch of salt.

Set the mixture aside to allow their flavors to combine.

Assembling pelmeni can be a great group activity, but to save time, I suggest a sturdy metal pelmenitsa like the one I purchased in Moscow about 18 years ago. These can be bought outside of Russia from specialty food stores, occasionally from eBay, or from major online retailers, but eschew the flimsy plastic models.

Assemble the pelmeni

Dust a wooden cutting board (and your pelmenitsa) with flour.

Divide the dough into eight pieces. Work with two pieces at a time and keep the others covered with a damp tea towel.

Roll out the dough into a smooth circle a bit larger than your pelmenitsa, then lay it gently over the machine. Pass your rolling pin very gently over the dough to define the outlines of the individual pelmeni.

Roll the filling into small balls roughly the size of a marble. Place one ball inside each pelmeni outline in the pelmenitsa.

Roll out the second piece of dough like the first, then lay it over the filling balls. Now use more pressure to roll the dough over the pelmenitsa and cut their sides.

Flip the pelmenitsa over and ease each individual pelmeni on to your floured board. Sprinkle lightly with flour.

Repeat with each of the pieces of dough and the accumulated scraps.

Don’t hesitate to freeze the surplus pelmeni if you want to save them for another day. Simply place the wooden board inside a freezer and leave for 2-3 hours. You can then store the pelmeni in an airtight container for up to six months.

If serving immediately, refrigerate the pelmeni as you make them, so they don’t lose their shape. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add several generous pinches of salt and a dash of olive oil. When the water comes to the boil, carefully drop the pelmeni into the water one by one. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the pelmeni bob to the surface.

Serving options

Russians tend to eat their pelmeni with a simple garnish of rich sour cream, a dash of tart vinegar, and chopped dill. These “gourmet pelmeni” also work well in a light and tangy chicken broth with a dash of sherry and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

* Thanks to Katrina Kollegaeva of Russian Revels for the pelmeni dough recipe and the invaluable know-how! I’ve tried many pelmeni dough recipes in my time, and this is the best!

Making pelmeni can be time-consuming, which is why Russians often turn the task into a bit of a party, gathering many friends to produce mounds of pelmeni that can be enjoyed and then stored for future use.

Pelmeni are considered the world’s first flash frozen food, developed in the tundra of Siberia by nomadic tribes who carried these small dumplings with them throughout their lengthy wanderings and depended on the light and portable fare – easily frozen and stored for long periods – as their primary sustenance.