"From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of his life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything had collapsed into a heap of meaningless rubbish."
Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Recipes: Culinaria: Russia by Marian Trutter
Giyma Khingal
(Ground Lamb over Homemade Noodles)
For the noodles:
2 eggs
Salt
3/4 cup water
Knead all ingredients together to form an elastic dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Separate the dough into 4 portions and roll into balls. Roll the dough balls out to 1/16 in. thick. Cut the rolled dough into rough diamond shapes. Spread the diamonds out and allow them to dry for 30 minutes. When you are ready, boil a large pot of salted water and add the pasta to it. Cook for about 8-12 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.
For the Saffron-Onion Sauce
0.5 g Saffron
7 tbsp lukewarm water
3 onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp butter
Soak the saffron in the water for 3 hours. Heat the butter in a medium-high skillet and saute the onions until tender. Add the saffron infusion and heat through
For the lamb:
1 1/4 lb ground lamb
2 onions, chopped
2 tbsp butter
Melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until tender. Add the ground lamb, browning the meat. Drain off any residual fat.
For the garlic yogurt sauce:
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 cup natural yogurt
Salt to taste
Mix all the ingredients together and let stand - the longer it stands, the more garlic flavor you get. You may want to warm the mixture before serving it.
Putting it all together:
Layer the pasta on the plate, spoon the garlic yogurt over the pasta and top with the lamb. Spoon the Saffron-Onion Sauce around the edges of the plate or drizzle over the whole dish.
The book says that any sort of variations can be made to this recipe, using vegetables or other meats (I'm picturing sauteed mushrooms) but that Khingal noodles are always served with garlic yogurt. Sorry, Jay!
Finding some ingredients is a little harder than others and as I was sitting on the train rolling through the 14th St station, I thought to myself, should I stop here to shop at Whole Foods? And then I thought, nah... And then I couldn't find saffron anywhere in El Barrio or Harlem. We served ours without the saffron onion sauce and I think we really missed out.
But, it turns out that making your own pasta is quite simple. From the Galushki mistakes, I learned to start with a dough that was a little more moist and rolling and cutting it was pretty much a snap. Of course, some of my diamonds were slightly thicker than others and there was a prodigious range of sizes and angles, but in the end, it tasted all the same.
A note about garlic yogurt sauce. Kitchen helper Jay (who despite throbbing hunger pangs, declined my repeated offers to steam him up some Mrs. T's or just order a pizza, too the time to cook the lamb) hates it. I thought it was good, but could see his point that the raw garlic is a bit much. Every internet variation makes their garlic yogurt the same way: with raw garlic. If you don't enjoy that strong flavor, a suggested variation is to heat the garlic in a tiny bit of oil first, not enough to brown it, but just enough to take the edge off of it. Another option might be to try elephant garlic as it has a slightly milder flavor.
We also added steamed spinach to the side, but I thought that would have looked lovely chopped finely, steamed, and mixed right into the lamb.
About the book:
Pierre is a prisoner of war. He has just witnessed the execution, in pairs, of 4 people, he is the 6th in the next pair. His partner (#5) is a young boy. All are accused of arson in Moscow. They take #5, spare Pierre and the others, and execute him and Pierre cannot look away. He is disgusted by humanity, and he is not alone; "'that will teach them to start fires,' said one of the Frenchmen. Pierre glanced round at the speaker and saw that it was a soldier who was trying to find some relief after what had been done, but was not able to do so. Without finishing what he had begun to say he made a hopeless movement with his arm and went away." Nobody relishes the deaths of prisoners of war and it's clear that the French resent having to carry out this order. They are repulsed by it, even. I imagine they hope to make it such a gruesome spectacle in order to "discourage" more arson, looting, and violence.
This is just another in a long list of examples that Tolstoy pulls out to show us how unnatural are the things men must in a war. It is frightening because it is so inhuman and yet, they are still able to do it.
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