Picture Reveals End of Gas Stations [WSW Logo]( [Divider] A note from the Editor: Wall Street Wizardry is dedicated to providing readers like you with unique opportunities. The message below from one of our business associates is one we believe you should take a serious look at. [divider] Meat features in many borsch recipes. However, Ukranian chef Ievgen Klopotenko makes a vegetarian version with potatoes, red beans and cabbage â and of course, beetroot as the star. C Cooks and wait staff were criss-crossing behind chef Ievgen Klopotenko at his award-winning 100 Rokiv Tomu Vpered restaurant in Kyiv when he launched into a poetic discussion about borsch. It's a category of food unto itself, he exclaimed; it's the feeling of a mother hugging their child, it's the backbone of Ukrainian strength and culinary identity. The chef paused every now and again to answer a question or give instructions in Ukrainian. Then he was back at it, proclaiming his love for all things borsch and Ukraine. [jump to recipe] Foreign media have referred to Klopotenko as the Jamie Oliver of Ukraine or even as the country's most famous chef. Such praise would once have seemed unlikely. Klopotenko said that he was just cooking eggs "and nothing special" when he was 18. He didn't grow up cooking or learning from his parents or grandparents. Rather, Klopotenko describes himself as "a chef inspired by the internet" because it was a video of Gordon Ramsay that motivated him to follow this path. The internet opened him up to the broader culinary world. All he knew at the time were foods of the former Soviet Union. But online, he could suddenly find videos on how to cook steak, pasta and many other dishes. "I saw that in the world exists different ingredients and products," he said. "That's why I started to cook." Klopotenko and his business partner, Inna Popereshniuk, opened 100 Rokiv Tomu Vpered in March 2019. It was Popereshniuk who called him around 04:00 on 24 February 2022 to let him know that the Russian military had begun their invasion. He said he spent the first week with his parents just outside Kyiv before going to Lviv in western Ukraine for about two months. While there, he opened another restaurant, Inshi bistro, where he started feeding refugees free of charge. Meanwhile, 100 Rokiv Tomu Vpered only closed for two days. On 26 February, it re-opened to serve food for the army, territory defence and people in bomb shelters. Borsch, a culinary symbol of Ukrainian identity, was among the dishes served. You'd think a Ukrainian chef might get tired talking about borsch, but Klopotenko welcomes the opportunity. "It's like a song," he smiled, before transitioning into a swift rendition of Haddaway's What Is Love (Baby Don't Hurt Me). "Borsch is pure love." For Klopotenko, borsch transcends soup. He stressed the cultural importance of the dish. Borsch is a surname, the name of different cities and it plays prominently in different Ukrainian proverbs. "Each family has their unique recipe, so [borsch] is our symbol of Ukraine. It's very important for our culture." Like most Ukrainians, Klopotenko grew up eating borsch. His mother made it two different ways: mild; and acidic with beans. The sour version was always his father's favourite. But no matter where he went â to school, visiting friends or to different villages â the borsch was always different. The conversation quickly shifted into the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine. It's a natural transition because borsch has long been a cultural sticking point between the two countries. Klopotenko believes Russia has unjustifiably tried to lay claim to borsch. Although neighbouring countries do have their own spins on a beetroot soup, he insists that borsch is 100% Ukrainian. (Credit: Raj Valley/Alamy) (Credit: Raj Valley/Alamy) "It was first mentioned in 1548 in the diary of a German traveller who tasted the soup in a market near Kyiv," he said. "But like many aspects of Ukrainian culture, it was absorbed and appropriated by the Soviet Union." Klopotenko compares borsch with pizza. You can eat pizza in the US or China, but its roots are still deeply Italian. The same goes for borsch. "Borsch is one of our symbols that they wanted to take from us," he said. "I'm not on the front line, I'm on the food line. That's why I have to fight here." "I'm not on the front line, I'm on the food line. That's why I have to fight here." That's why he turned to Unesco. As he saw it, they were an authoritative, international body that could back up Ukraine's cultural connection to borsch. Klopotenko and his supporters gathered 700 pages of documents and sent them over to the organisation. In July 2022, the culture of Ukrainian borsch cooking was inscribed into Unesco's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. "Ukrainian borsch [â¦] is an integral part of Ukrainian family and community life," reads the decision, noting that the vote was fast-tracked given the ongoing war and "its negative impact on this tradition". In lieu of visiting Ukraine, Klopotenko says there's no better way to understand Ukrainians and their strength than by cooking borsch. And while meat features prominently in many borsch recipes, Klopotenko points out that the dish started out vegetarian. Potatoes and tomatoes entered the equation following European colonisation of the Americas. Meat still didn't come until later on. "We started to add meat only like 150 years ago," he said. "Before that, it was just the beetroot and the vegetables you could find in the garden." Klopotenko emphasises that there is no exact recipe for the dish. But for his vegetarian borsch, he starts with preparing the stock with celery root, onions and carrots. "You boil it for 40 minutes," he explained. "And that gives you a nice base for the borsch. It's like the first layer." The second layer brings "the intensity" of the beetroot, and Klopotenko advises using as much as you can. It doesn't matter if it's fresh, grated or baked, he said, and a little beetroot juice won't hurt either if you have it on hand. For the third layer, you can add whatever local vegetables you have. Klopotenko said Ukrainians in the west will use mushrooms from the mountains. But he imagines that home cooks in London might turn to cabbage instead. The final layer adds smokiness. The most popular method to achieve this a century ago was cooking the borsh in a wood-fired oven for about an hour. Now, people add a couple of tablespoons of smoked paprika. But another trick that Klopotenko said they'll do in Ukraine is adding a wood-smoked pear. This, he said, gives off a nice woody aroma. Klopotenko also gives instructions for adding mushroom-stuffed vushka (dumplings) to the borsch, a vegetarian alternative to the more traditional pork ribs. For serving, you can adjust the acidity of the borsch by adding a little sour cream or yoghurt. Ievgen Klopotenko's vegetarian borsch with vushka (Credit: klopotenko.com) Ievgen Klopotenko's vegetarian borsch with vushka (Credit: klopotenko.com) Vegetarian borsch with vushka (dumplings) By Ievgen Klopotenko (serves 6) Time: 2 hours 50 minutes Ingredients For borsch broth 2 beetroots 150g red beans 3 litres, plus 150ml water ½ cabbage, quartered 1 carrot, washed and unpeeled 2 onions, halved ¼ celery root, peeled 2 tbsp oil 1 sweet red pepper, peeled 10 sprigs of parsley 3 bay leaves 5 dried allspice berries ½ tsp salt, plus extra to taste 1 lemon 1 tsp sugar For vushka dough 300g flour 150ml water â
tsp salt 2 tbsp oil, plus extra for sprinkling For vushka stuffing 3 potatoes 1 onion 200g champignons or oyster mushrooms 100g white mushrooms (fresh or frozen) 50g dried white mushrooms 2 tbsp oil Method Step 1 Soak the dried white mushrooms water for at least 30 minutes. Wash 2 beetroots, put them in a saucepan and fill with water. When the water boils, simmer the beetroots for one hour. Set aside. Step 2 Pour 150ml of cold water in a saucepan with the red beans. Cook them for 1 to 1.5 hours. Set aside. Step 3 In a saucepan with 3 litres of water, add cabbage, carrot, onion, celery root, sweet red pepper, parsley, allspice, bay leaves and salt to taste. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat. Step 4 Meanwhile, make the dough for the vushka. Mix 300g of flour, 150ml of water, 2 tbsp of oil and 2/3 tsp salt in a bowl. Knead dough until elastic. Cover and set aside for now. Step 5 For the vushka stuffing, peel three potatoes and cut into medium pieces. Put them in a saucepan, fill with salted water and boil for about 25 minutes. When the potatoes are ready, mash them. Step 6 Peel and dice an onion. Chop 200g of champignons or oyster mushrooms, 100g of fresh or frozen white mushrooms and 50g of soaked dried white mushrooms into small pieces. Step 7 Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan, then add the onions and mushrooms, spreading them out. Add a little salt and fry until the moisture evaporates from the mushrooms. Step 8 Combine mashed potatoes with fried mushrooms in a bowl. The stuffing for the vushka is ready. Step 9 Sprinkle a little flour on the work surface and roll out the vushka dough in a thin layer. Form circles approximately 9.5cm in diameter (approximately the same as a drinking glass) out of the dough. Spread the potato and mushroom fillings onto the dough circles and fold the dough in half, encasing the filling, and pinch to close to form into vushka. Step 10 Bring salted water to a boil in a saucepan and cook the vushka for three minutes. Place the prepared vushka in a bowl and sprinkle a little with oil. Step 11 Peel and grate the two boiled beetroots and sprinkle with lemon juice, 1 tsp sugar and ½ tsp salt. Leave for one hour to marinate. Step 12 Take all the vegetables out of the stock. Discard everything except for the carrots, then grate the carrots on a large grater. Add grated beets, carrots and boiled beans to the vegetable stock. Cook everything together for 10 minutes. Step 13 To serve, put five to six vushka in a bowl and fill with prepared borsch broth. BBC.com's World's Table "smashes the kitchen ceiling" by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future. Dear Reader, Investigative reporter and PhD, Nomi Prins is at
[the FIRST gas station in America]( to no longer offer gasoline. As youâll see in the picture below, all of the traditional pumps are gone! The owner you see in this picture⦠Installed [this new pump]( and never looked back⦠even in the face of high gas prices. And now, heâs revealed to Nomi⦠his colleagues are doing the same. 500,000 more stations are going up nationwide. Itâs a small army of gas station clerks leading this fight. And you WILL NOT be able to fill your traditional gas cans or cars at these upgraded stations. [Click here]( or the video below so you can see⦠[Gas station video]( Sincerely, Maria Bonaventura
Senior Managing Editor, Rogue Economics P.S. Itâs hard to believe how excited these attendants are to make the switch. [Go live on the scene with Nomi]( to see this gas station undergoing a radical change. Rolled cabbage leaves are stuffed with a mixture of potatoes and buckwheat, simmered in a rich tomato-red pepper sauce and topped with a dollop of sour cream. A An array of vegetables and starches were laid out on a metal kitchen counter: a plate of blanched Savoy cabbage leaves, a bowl of creamy mashed potatoes, a side of fried onions and a cup of boiled buckwheat groats. "Ukrainian cuisine is comfort food," said Yurii Kovryzhenko, the chef and mastermind behind Mriya Neo Bistro, a new Ukrainian eatery in the West London neighbourhood of Chelsea. "We enjoy fresh ingredients with simple flavours." This ethos is centre stage for his holubtsi, cabbage rolls crafted with simple but complementary ingredients, creating a dish that is subtle, comforting and flavour-forward all at once. [jump to recipe] A heralded name on Ukraine's culinary scene, Kovryzhenko happened to be in London for a food project with the Ukrainian embassy five days before the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022. Amidst the uncertainty of the war, he remained in London, and in late August, launched Mriya with a few other Ukrainian transplants, who are working tirelessly to keep their culture alive. Mriya translates to "dream" in Ukrainian, a sentiment at the heart of the food and the space that blends the old-world traditions of Ukraine's coastal and mountain villages with modern innovation and creativity. Variations of holubtsi can be found in cuisines across European countries, including Ukraine, Poland, Greece, Romania and Finland, as well as Turkey. Although the exact lineage of the dish can't fully be traced, a version of stuffed cabbage known as "holishkes" has been part of Jewish cuisine for approximately 2,000 years. The name "holubtsi" is derived from the word for pigeon in Ukrainian: holub. In a bygone era in Ukraine, a local dish served at aristocratic feasts was prepared by wrapping pigeons in cabbage leaves and cooking them on a spit or grill. Over time, while the cabbage leaves remained, the birds were swapped out for grains, vegetables and other types of meat, such as pork or veal. "This dish is now eaten as part of everyday cuisine in Ukraine," Kovryzhenko said. "But it used to be only enjoyed as a celebration food at Christmas or during weddings." While eaten more regularly, holubtsi still features as part of an elaborate Christmas Eve dinner known as Sviata Vecheria, consisting of 12 traditional meatless dishes (in Ukraine, Christmas Eve is the final day of a 40-day Nativity fast leading up to Christmas Day). Yurii Kovryzhenko, chef at Mriya Neo Bistro in the West London (Credit: Yurii Kovryzhenko) Yurii Kovryzhenko, chef at Mriya Neo Bistro in the West London (Credit: Yurii Kovryzhenko) According to Kovryzhenko, the first step to making holubtsi is to separate the cabbage leaves and blanch them so they're malleable. While white or Savoy cabbage can be used, Savoy cabbage leaves cook more quickly. After the cabbage leaves are cooked, they are filled with a spoonful of stuffing (Kovryzhenko uses mashed potatoes, boiled buckwheat and fried onions) and rolled tightly. "Boiled buckwheat is Ukraine's 'superfood'," Kovryzhenko said. "At my grandparents' house in the countryside, we used to cook buckwheat with condensed milk and sugar for breakfast â perfection!" Other variations may include ground pork or veal mixed with rice during non-fasting times. The potatoes can be substituted for a dry Ukrainian cottage cheese or mashed white beans. Holubtsi from the Carpathian Mountain region deviate even further from the typical recipe, serving up pickled cabbage leaves filled with corn grits or grated potato and topped with a mushroom sauce. On the Crimean Peninsula, which has a Mediterranean-like climate distinctively warmer than the rest of Ukraine, holubtsi are made with grape leaves instead of cabbage. In an upcoming menu at Mriya, Kovryzhenko plans to serve holubtsi wrapped in courgette (zucchini) flowers, echoing his "tradition meets innovation" philosophy. Once assembled, the holubtsi are ready to be simmered. "Line the pot with a few cabbage leaves so the rolls don't burn," instructed Kovryzhenko, as he added the holubtsi and covered them with a tomato-red pepper sauce. "First, bring the pot to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer for about 15 minutes." An enticing aroma wafted through the kitchen, signalling that the holubtsi were ready to eat. They sat before me immersed in a rich tomato-red pepper sauce and topped with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of young parsley leaves and a drizzle of the house oil. The herbaceous green oil is created from a blend of a neutral-flavour oil like sunflower or grapeseed oil, garlic, parsley and dill, all of which are staples of Ukrainian cuisine. Sour cream is also added to many dishes â including borsch, varenyky and holubtsi, to name a few. My knife sliced smoothly through the tender cabbage leaves and the potato-buckwheat mixture. The sauce balanced the bitter cabbage, while the fresh herbs and sour cream enhanced the simplicity of the potatoes and buckwheat, striking the perfect balance. Yurii Kovryzhenko fills cabbage leaves with about a tablespoon of the stuffing (Credit: Alicia Erickson) Yurii Kovryzhenko fills cabbage leaves with about a tablespoon of the stuffing (Credit: Alicia Erickson) Holubtsi recipe By Yurii Khovryzhenko (makes 24 pieces/6 portions) Ingredients For rolls 27 Savoy cabbage leaves 1kg potatoes 1kg buckwheat groats 800g onion 100g vegetable oil salt ground black pepper For tomato-red pepper sauce 5 red peppers 600g carrots 600g onions 70g vegetable oil 2 garlic cloves, grated 150g tomato paste 150g sour cream (for those fasting or for vegans, omit) water ground coriander seeds smoked paprika salt ground black pepper Method Step 1 In a pot of boiling water, quickly blanch the cabbage leaves (1-2 minutes); they soften quickly. Step 2 To prepare the stuffing, boil and mash the potatoes. Bring the buckwheat to a boil and then simmer until water is absorbed (about 15 minutes). Finely chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil until golden. Mix everything and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Step 3 Lay out the individual blanched cabbage leaves and remove any tough parts from the leaves. Fill the leaves with about a tablespoon of the stuffing and then carefully and tightly roll the leaves. Set aside. Step 4 To prepare the sauce, roast the red peppers until tender. Remove seeds and skin and cut into pieces. Step 5 Shred the carrots on a coarse grater. And finely chop the onions. Step 6 Fry onions and carrots in vegetable oil in saucepan until golden. Add roasted red pepper, grated garlic and tomato paste. Simmer for 10 minutes. Step 7 Blend this mixture in a blender until smooth. Add sour cream and enough water to achieve the consistency of very liquid sour cream. [divider] [WSW footer logo]( You are receiving this e-mail because you have expressed an interest in the Financial Education niche on one of our landing pages or sign-up forms on our website. 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