Holubtsi z Pshonom (голубці з пшоном, millet cabbage rolls)

Before rice became the easy filling, pshono, millet, was already there: tiny gold beads swelling inside cabbage leaves, drinking tomato, onion, carrot, and unrefined sunflower oil until the whole pot smells round and sweet. The rolls look quiet at first. Then you cut one open and the grain spills out yellow, peppery, soft but still itself.

The old non-fasting pot could smell of lard, yes, but this one is built for a vegetarian and vegan table with sunflower oil. That is not an apology. It is the south too, Ukraine in a bottle of oil. Aunt Nadia would have written "until it sounds right" and left me to guess the rest; with millet that means damp and separate, not soup, not dry sand.

The one thing that decides the dish is the finishing zasmazhka, the slow-sweated onion and carrot. It waits until the cabbage and millet have done their quiet work, then goes in near the end so its sweetness sits brightly on the tomato broth instead of flattening into the stock.

Make a big pot. There is no tradition of a small one, and holubtsi are better tomorrow, when the cabbage has given up its sweetness and the millet has learned the sauce by heart. Enough for eight guests or one hungry Ukrainian.