Oat Kisel with Almond Pressings

History

Kisel is one of the oldest dishes in the East Slavic repertoire, and its name comes from кислый ("sour"), the flavour of its original fermented form. The archaic kisel was not the drinkable fruit dessert of today but a savoury grain gel: oats, rye, or peas soaked until the starch released and the mash turned lightly sour, then boiled dense, set in a mold, and eaten in slices with milk or honey. Chronicle lore fixes its antiquity: the Tale of Bygone Years (Primary Chronicle) tells how, during the Pecheneg siege of Belgorod in 997, the townsfolk buried tubs of oat kisel and honey-mead in disguised wells and fed the enemy envoys from them, feigning a land that fed itself and so breaking the siege. Molokhovets, codifier rather than inventor, preserves this ur-form intact: her oat kisel is made from pounded oat grits steeped 24–36 hours beside a warm stove to ferment, strained (the run-off called цежь), thickened, molded, and turned out to be eaten — served with almond milk, honey, or molasses. The almond milk substituting for dairy suits the Orthodox lean/fasting table (постный стол), where milk is forbidden. Her kisel chapter catches the dish mid-transformation: alongside this sour oat gel sit the newer sweet berry kisels set with potato starch, the drinkable dessert that spread only as cheap potato starch arrived in the late 19th century.

Ingredients

• stakan oat groats
• stakan water
• almond pressings
• stakan almonds (for the accompanying milk)
• honey or treacle (optional)

Instructions

1. Dry and pound 2 stakans oat groats, winnow off dust; soak in 4 stakans water by a warm stove 24-36 hours to ferment.
2. Strain and squeeze through a sieve; the drained liquid ('tsezh') goes into a saucepan.
3. Warm it, add the almond pressings left from making almond milk, and boil several times, stirring, until thick.
4. Set in a wet mold, chill, turn out; serve with the reserved almond milk, or with honey/treacle in hot water. Add a stakan water for a thinner kissel.