To be honest, when the first time this recipe caught my eye, the associations arose strange. Not very appetizing.
The village, a huge wood-burning stove, on that stove is a cauldron in which bread is cooked for pets - pigs. A good owner, you know, will not only wash the potatoes for the pigs, but also peel them. The village friends of my childhood were indignant at such a reverent attitude towards pigs, because they had to peel potatoes ...
But then I thought, where did such prejudices come from? There are many food combinations that seem wild at first and then delicious. Sea salt caramel, for example. Or tropical fruits with hot chili peppers.
Vaughn, business partners from Turkey, when they come to us, to Moscow, shy away from dishes that contain both salted fish and sweet beets. The most daring at first shy away, then try. They are surprised, they say unusual, but... delicious.
With all this in mind, should I condemn Mulgipuder?
This is an Estonian variation of mashed potatoes, most often the recipe is found with an extended name - urban mulgipuder.
We take:
Kilogram of potatoes
120-150 g of pearl barley
150 g raw pork belly
2 medium onions
salt
Ideally, you still need milk to serve - but for every person, culinary courage has limits, so I will not impose.
How we cook:
Boil the pearl barley for a couple of minutes in boiling water, rinse, dry on a towel and fry in a pan until golden brown.
We clean the potatoes, send them to the pan as a whole, add the pearl barley there, fill it with water (a little more than a liter) and send them to cook for an hour and a half - we look at the barley for readiness.
While the potatoes with pearl barley are boiled, we make bacon cracklings, and then - in the lard melted from the brisket, fry the onion with quarter rings until golden brown.
By the end of cooking, all (almost) the liquid should boil out of the potatoes with barley, so we salt and knead the brew with a pusher.
Serve hot, first with mashed potatoes, and on top - cracklings with onions. Milk is recommended separately (washed down), but I can’t go for such heroism, there’s no way.
As for me - the dish has a right to exist, although... strange, very strange. On the other hand, almost everyone likes stewed cabbage with barley, although it also seems strange at first.
How do you feel about such recipes - are you taking risks or is it, do we have other culinary traditions?