Keeping warm, Ukrainian style
Vasyl Lemberskyy
Owner/Chef – Transfer Pizzeria Café
101 W. Mitchell St.
414-763-0438 • transfermke.com
- (photos by Melissa Merline)
The economy may be suffering, but you’d never know it from the percolating patronage of a restaurant less than a year old: Transfer. Co-owner and, in his own words, “Chef Extraordinaire” Vasyl Lemberskyy grew up in Kiev, Ukraine when it was still a Soviet Socialist Republic. There, the economy left people so destitute that hunger was rampant, and the Chernobyl disaster occurred just a few hours away.
Nonetheless, he worked for Polonez and then opened several restaurants alone and with partners, among them Primavera and Fresche.
At Transfer, the focus is on Lemberskyy-style pizza, pasta and paninis. He is not overly boastful about his cred as a pizza maker, especially considering his product: his crusts, all made daily by hand, are thin enough to be crispy with enough body to hold a luscious chewy center. The garlic pizza is lavished with a creamy sauce and cheese and slides down the throat without being greasy. You won’t find any Ukrainian dishes on Transfer’s menu, so you’ll have to try this hearty winter favorite in your own kitchen.
Zrazy – Vasyl’s Favorite Ukrainian Dish
Zrazy are small potato pancakes filled with meat and fried in fat. Zrazy are usually served with fried pork fat.
2 lbs potatoes
1 lb beef
2 large onions, chopped and fried
2 cups sunflower oil
Salt to taste
Grate half of the potatoes finely. Boil another half in skins. Peel off, grate and add to the uncooked potatoes, then blend and salt to taste.
Boil meat, then grind in a food processor and combine with fried finely chopped onion. Shape small cakes and fill in with meat. Fry in oil until light brown. Serve at once.
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Ulana Tyshynsky
Ulana Tyshynsky, a fourth grade teacher at Forest Home Avenue School, proudly maintains the Ukrainian culture passed on by her immigrant parents. Cuisine is one of the things she values from her heritage. This bread is a holiday tradition but is also made though out the year. It’s best stored in plastic for several weeks to let the honey mellow before serving. A fun fact: many Ukrainians worship in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and celebrate Christmas on January 7.
Medivnyk (Ukrainian honey loaf)
½ cup butter
1 cup dark honey
6 eggs, separated
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ t ground cloves
½ t ground cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 cup golden raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Melt honey and butter over low heat, just to the point of boiling. Cool to room temperature.
Beat yolks with sugar until very light and thick, 10-15 minutes. Add spices and baking soda. Gently add honey/butter mixture.
Beat whites until stiff. Fold whites into yolk mixture. Gradually add flour to batter, stirring gently after each addition. Add raisins and walnuts if desired. Pour mixture into two well-buttered loaf pans. Bake at 300º for about an hour. Cool on wire rack. Wrap when cool.
(From Ulana: Instead of buttering my pans, I line them with aluminum foil, being careful not to tear the foil and avoiding air pockets in the corners. Bonus points: no buttery fingers, no loaf sticking to the pan and no dirty pans to scour. When completely cooled, the loaves, still wrapped in foil, are placed in a freezer bag for mellowing. The aluminum foil peels off very nicely when it’s time to cut into the loaf.)
