Machanka is a very traditional Belarusian dish of meat stewed in broth. It's traditionally eaten with pancakes. I found several versions of the dish, but decided on this one (Machanka in the Minsk's style) because I liked that it incorporated sour cream to the stew. Sour cream is a very traditional Belarusian staple, and I wanted to make sure that something I made featured it.

This stew if very rich so count on only being able to eat a little bit of it. It was surprisingly tasty, though, and we both very much enjoyed it.

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Machanka

Ingredients

• 1 lb stewing pork
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp. beef or pork stock
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to taste

Instructions

Cut pork into bite-size pieces. Melt butter in a saucepan and fry the pork until dark. Add 1 cup of stock, bay leaves and salt, cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until the pork is half done.

Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, saute the flour for a couple of minutes. Add 2 tbsp. of stock and mix well. Strain and return to saucepan. Add sourcream and salt to taste. Mix well and cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat oven to 350F.

Put pork in baking dish, cover with sour cream sauce and bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until done. Serve with pancakes.

Adapted from Belarusian cuisine