Banosh

Make a tasty, hearty, nourishing banosh! Banosh (also spelled banush) is a dish from the Hutsul cuisine of the Ukrainian Carpathians — no traditional feast there is complete without it. Back home there's even a festival in its honor, and the name is said to come from the Banosh surname. The ingredients were on hand in every household, since nearly everyone kept sheep and cows — which meant there was always sour cream and sheep's-milk brynza.

Traditional banosh comes in a few versions — with pork cracklings, sheep's brynza, or porcini mushrooms — but the base is always the same: cornmeal and sour cream. It has to be sour cream, which gives it that signature tang; you can't swap in heavy cream here. If the sour cream is very thick, thin it with a little water or milk. Easy to make!

Вера faith

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Cornmeal

100

Sour cream

500

Brynza (sheep's-milk feta)

200

Pork belly (instead of belly, smoked fatback, neck, or cheek also work)

200

Sugar

Salt

0.5

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 29 % 10 g

Fats 43 % 15 g

Carbohydrates 29 % 10 g

243 kcal

GI: 20 / 0 / 80

Cooking method

Cooking time: 40 min

Step 1:

Ingredients.
Step 2:

In a heavy-bottomed pot, bring the sour cream to a boil, then add the sugar and salt.
Step 3:

Then, stirring constantly, pour in the cornmeal.
Step 4:

Turn down the heat and keep stirring until it's done.
Step 5:

The finished banosh will pull away from the bottom and sides of the pot, and tell-tale droplets of butterfat will appear on the surface of the porridge.
Step 6:

Cut the pork belly into pieces and fry in a skillet until golden and crisp.
Step 7:

Serve the banosh hot. Top with the fried pork belly and pieces of brynza — but don't stir it together; everyone helps themselves to as much as they want. You can also set the brynza and pork in two separate piles alongside rather than on top. Enjoy!