She kicked off her culinary career working at London's Union Market before landing her dream job as a chef-departie for Ottolenghi's. After having her son, and filming for The Food Network, Olia has been writing for Sainsbury's, The Recipe Kit, and the Guardian . One of those things that you wouldn't have thought to combine but make so much sense when you think about it. Made this soup and the suggested Moldovan flatbread (made them twice--once for first meal and then, for leftover soup). For example, the chicken broth and dumplings recipe suggest a whole chicken, sectioned into 8 chunks, is boiled as part of the broth.

Mamushka is a celebration of the food and flavours of Ukraine and the "Wild East", with over 100 recipes for fresh, flavourful and unexpected dishes from across the region. After spending a year in Italy, Olia settled in London, pursuing a journalistic career after completing her Master’s degree. I also really enjoyed the “Armenian Roasted Vegetables”, “Potato Cakes with Goats Cheese”, and must try the “Cured Mackerel” and pickled (or soured) recipes. Add the red pepper and tomato purée to the onion and carrot and cook it out for 2 minutes, then add the grated fresh tomato, stir and reduce slightly before adding all of this to the broth.

Knead the dough until it becomes firm and elastic without sticking, then cover with clingfilm and let it rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Finally, add the shredded cabbage and beans to the broth and cook for about 7 minutes until cooked through. Serve the poussins drizzled with the herby juices, or mop the juices up with bread, along with the tkhemali. This book is an ode to all those women (and men) that I was raised by and grew up with, and the food they lovingly prepared. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl, then slowly sift in and mix in the flour – just enough to create a firm dough.

I keep meaning to try with demerara or turbinado, but they turn out so nicely with regular old granulated, too. It was still amazing and well worth the work of chopping, grating and matchsticking all the veggies.

The recipes are a solid combination of bright and fresh, as well as home-y and warm, with a good variety of complexities levels as well. It was probably not the safest option and I now use my granite mortar, but a couple of food tins should also do the job. It was made worse by the fact that Russia was also playing, and many of my cookbooks did not differentiate between Russian and Ukrainian food (or that of any other ex-Soviet country). After finishing school, she moved to the UK where she studied Italian language and International Relations at the University of Warwick.

A really engaging style and an obvious passion for food and family add to the attractiveness of the offerings in this lovely book. a joyful celebration of Eastern European cooking' - Observer'My present to myself: not to be played with until my own writing is done! I'd also suggest to youtube the name of the biscuit to learn about the shaping as the explanation is very vague.

Cook the poussins, cut side down, over a medium heat for 3 minutes, then flip them over and cook them skin side down for 5 minutes. This makes a stickier cake layer than the standard Russian medovik biscuit layer which tastes just as good but isn't probably going to present as well as the latter, due to it's stickiness. Olia was born in Ukraine and lived in Cyprus before moving to the UK to study a BA in Italian, followed by an MA in Russian and English. I always use butter and a teaspoon of vanilla extract; I've also made them with ricotta when out of cottage cheese, and it works beautifully. Like many first-time cookery books that make their mark robustly and deservedly, this one came out of left field: a personal collection of recipes from Ukraine, with influences from Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, Mamushka is a book that isn’t about trends but about telling stories, my favourite sort of cookbook.