Kulish

The story

Kulish is a thick soup-porridge of millet cooked in a single pot. The word itself means millet porridge in Ukrainian. It was part of the everyday food of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, along with kasha, teteria and solomakha. The supplies behind it were plain and kept well: the ration list of a Cossack artilleryman in the Pereyaslav regiment in 1722 and 1723 allowed him 50 kilograms of millet, 15 kilograms of salo and 55 grams of salt for the year, besides rye and flour. Ukrainians also called kulish polova kasha, or field porridge, because it was as easy to cook on a campaign as at home. Chef Ievgen Klopotenko quotes the old book Ukrainska mynuvshchyna (Ukrainian Past), which says a good kulish was thick rather than runny, and he notes that cooks made it with vegetables and herbs, adding meat when they had it. Serve it in deep bowls with dill, rye bread and pickles, and plan on leftovers: it reheats well with a splash of hot water.