Solidarity with Ukraine: Sunflowers, deconstructed borscht and a crispy holubtsi

In solidarity with Ukraine, Monday night’s Charcuterie 13.0 featured a celebration of traditional Ukrainian foods, interpreted in a new way.

As many of you know, my children are third-generation Ukrainians (their grandparents fled Ukraine after World War II), and my daughter visited Lviv, Ukraine, in 2018 with her aunt.

Charcuterie 13.0: Ukrainian Edition

Borscht is a big deal in Ukrainian cuisine, so my special Irish guy and I decided to do a deconstructed borscht, with roasted red and yellow beets, caramelized onions and creme fraiche with herbs.

Holubsti, a stuffed cabbage roll, is another staple. It’s often called, affectionately, “beef on a leaf.” For the charcuterie board, we wanted nothing soggy, so I roasted purple cabbage and grilled beef sausage, then brought them together on an almond-flour cracker with creme fraiche and caramelized onions.

To decorate the board, I added sunflowers. Sunflower seeds are sprinkled around the petite brie and featured in the sunflower butter.

On the white-blue marble board, you see roasted red and yellow beets, sheep’s milk cheese with a floral crust, roasted cabbage, grilled beef sausage, persimmon chips and (in a nod…