Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking

This fantastic cookbook from the chef at Kachka in Portland, Ore., is by turns funny, moving, informative, and appetite-whetting. Frumkin Morales is descended from a family of Soviet Jewish émigrés, and she exhibits the kind of humor and pathos that must have sustained them during difficult times as she tells sidesplitting family stories, including the time her father discovered a bowl of sauerkraut in a phone booth. A flow chart of quid pro quo under the Soviet system includes the tale of a man who dressed a slaughtered pig in a hat and coat to smuggle it. In terms of the recipes, Frumkin Morales delivers one intriguing dish after another, among them beans flavored with cinnamon, pomegranate seeds, and crushed marigold petals; herring “under a fur coat” (i.e., layered with potatoes and beets); and cold sliced pork loin with a salad of ribbons of celery tossed with a caraway dressing. The Soviet-inspired book design is clever and eye-catching. Spreads include a rundown of Soviet candy and their fancy wrappers and another on the pelmenitsa, a honeycomb mold for crafting dumplings. The logical organization of the chapters thoughtfully breaks the appetizer-entrée-dessert mold—for example, a chapter on the mangal (a Russian barbecue) presents grilled flatbreads sitting aside grilled skewers. (Nov.)