Porridge. You’re cooking your cereal? For sure! It ranges from boil-in-a-bag buckwheat to smooth semolina porridge, sometimes with tiny lumps – a nightmare for kids who grew up in Soviet daycare. The easiest way to master it is to get a quick-cook variety of buckwheat or oatmeal and bring it to boil in some milk or water and add sugar and salt to taste. Sprinkle it with dried fruit or sliced bananas and you can tick off “healthy and delicious” for the day.
Syrniki. Mix cottage cheese with some flour and an egg and fry it up. What could be easier, right? I managed to botch this project earlier this month when my syrniki stuck to the frying pan, but even if they didn’t look picture perfect, they still tasted great, especially with a few berries on top.
Pelmeni. You’re slurping meat-filled dumplings before 10 am? You bet! A freezer staple, they’re the kind of breakfast that makes you skip lunch. I like to explore the different varieties and sizes. Or maybe I just like that they’re a perfect vehicle for my secret sauce of ketchup, mustard and sour cream.
Lazy vareniki. You love those slimy buggers? You better believe it! It’s as if dumplings hooked up with syrniki and decided to leave the filling out their relationship. You still mix up cottage cheese with flour and eggs for a doughy mixture that you cut up in pieces and boil. Serve with jam and butter.
Stuffed blini (crepes). You can get ambitious and make these from scratch, but at 8 am, I raided the freezer to find two excellent options: one with ham and cheese and one with cherries. I made both and considered them the main dish and the dessert.
Cooking’s not your thing? The fridge section of even the dingiest convenience store is loaded with yoghurts and kefirs, and the fast food chain Teremok is serving breakfast all day through January.
