Banosh
A creamy Hutsul cornmeal porridge from the Ukrainian Carpathians, cooked in sour cream instead of water or milk and finished with crackling and crumbled brynza cheese.
About this dish
Banosh belongs to the Hutsuls, the highland shepherds of the Carpathian Mountains, whose herds gave them a surplus of dairy but little wheat, since grain barely grows at that altitude. Cooking the cornmeal in sour cream rather than water is the whole point of the dish and what separates it from every other cornmeal porridge in the region — it turns a plain grain mush into something rich enough to be a meal on its own, topped the way a shepherd's kitchen would have had on hand: rendered pork fat and the local sheep's cheese.
- Gluten-free
- Not vegetarian because of Lardons (bacon cubes)
- Contains dairy because of Sour cream, to serve, Brynza (Carpathian sheep's cheese)
Ingredients
- 150gLardons (bacon cubes)
- 100gOnion
- 500gSour cream, to serve
- 150mlWater
- 6gFine sea salt
- 200gCornmeal
- 150gBrynza (Carpathian sheep's cheese)
Instructions
Fry the lardons in a dry pan over medium heat until crisp and golden, then add the chopped onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.
10 minTip: Let the fat render out of the lardons slowly before adding the onion — that fat is what will fry the onion and later carry flavour through the whole dish.
In a separate pot, warm the sour cream with the water and salt over low heat, stirring until smooth.
3 minTip: Keep this gentle — sour cream can split if it hits a hard boil, and a split base will never come back together once the cornmeal goes in.
Pour in the cornmeal in a thin, steady stream while whisking constantly, then switch to a wooden spoon and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring often, until thick and pulling away from the sides of the pot.
15 minTip: Add the cornmeal slowly and keep whisking through the first minute — dropped in all at once, it clumps into lumps that no amount of later stirring will fully smooth out.
Spoon the banosh onto plates, top with the lardons and onions and their fat, and scatter crumbled brynza over the top.
2 minTip: Serve it straight away — banosh firms up as it cools, and the whole point of the dish is that first spoonful while it's still pourable and the cheese is just starting to melt into it.