Hello Claire. Can you please tell us a little about yourself, where you live and your Substack publication?
Hello everyone, I’m Claire. I’m a Brit living in rural Bulgaria (in the beautiful Balkan Mountains) with my partner Rob and our seven cats. Yes, seven. What can I say? We can’t resist a cat in need.
I’ve been a freelance writer and ghostwriter since 2014, but began to seriously move into food writing in 2023, after winning the (UK) Guild of Food Writers Newcomer Award. My Substack, Auntie Bulgaria’s Kitchen, is all about growing, cooking and eating plants, with a dash of life in Bulgaria.
Can you please describe the layout of your kitchen, how much of a role does it play with your family?
When we bought the house, it had no kitchen or bathroom. There was only a sink in the corner of the room, behind a curtained-off area that functioned as a wash space. It took us a while to get around to building a kitchen – we had some major jobs to do first, including the bathroom, central heating, replacing all the windows, and getting the house rewired. For months, our ‘kitchen’ comprised a sink, a plank of wood balanced across two chairs, and a table left by the previous owners.
It took years to get the kitchen exactly how we wanted. My partner built most of it himself from scratch (plus we bought a couple of standalone IKEA trolleys), and we tried to reuse as much as we could. For example, some of the shelves are made from old beehive boxes. And we turned an old woodburning stove – which was beautiful, but too rusty on top – into a mini worktop.
The kitchen is the largest, warmest room in our house, and the place we – and the cats – gravitate to every day. With handmade wooden windows, lime plaster walls, wooden counters, oak beams, and a large woodburning stove (that powers the central heating system), it’s a rustic space. It’s also quite an awkward space – we have three low windows and four doors (including the front door) all coming off this one room, which left us a bit limited in terms of layout. It’s quirky, but I love it.
We’re also lucky to have a separate walk-in pantry (the dream!), and an outdoor ‘summer kitchen’ – a common feature in Bulgarian village houses.
What are your most used kitchen gadgets and kitchen gear, that you cannot live without?
I can’t do without a good knife and chopping board, a mandoline for making quick work of cabbage (I make a lot of sauerkraut), and a stick blender. I also have a little Nutribullet blender that’s enormously useful – I use it for smoothies, nut-based sauces, even blending up granulated sugar to make emergency icing sugar.
It’s not exactly a gadget but I’m also grateful to finally have a working electric oven after 10 years without one. (I’ve been baking and cooking in a woodburning stove.) Having invested in a range oven last year, I can finally say the kitchen is ‘finished’.
You moved to Bulgaria from the UK, can you tell us something about this? How different is life like compared to life in the UK?
We moved here because we couldn’t afford to buy a house of our own in the UK – certainly not with a big garden. We heard the house prices were low in Bulgaria, and that was all it took to get us on a flight! We fell in love with the Balkan Mountains, arranged a few house viewings, made an offer on a house, and were home owners within six weeks. (I’m cutting out a lot of the famous European bureaucracy, but you get the idea – it was quick.) That was in 2010. In 2011 we drove from the UK to Bulgaria with a car-full of belongings to start our new life.
We live in a mountain village around 80km from the capital, Sofia. The pace of life is so much slower than the UK. Our neighbour has a donkey called Marko. The local sheep herd passes by our house every day in summer. Everyone knows everyone (not always a good thing), and there’s always time for a coffee or rakia. Whenever I go back to the UK, I’m shocked how much of a rush everyone’s in.
How would you describe the regional cuisine where you live? Are there fresh food markets, or farmers markets available?
The food is similar to neighbouring Greece and Turkey – albeit with a lot more pork. Meat is a big part of the diet, but Bulgarians also love their vegetables, beans, salads and pickles. And dairy, especially a white cheese called cirene, which is similar to feta.
We grow a lot of our own fruit and veg, but the quality of produce at the markets is incredible. Picture enormous pink and red tomatoes that taste better than any tomato I’ve ever had in the UK. Leeks the length of my legs (seriously). Huge bunches of herbs. And glossy red peppers sold in 5kg net bags.
Is there anything about your kitchen that you would like to change or improve on?
It sounds boastful, but after so many years working on the kitchen, it’s exactly as we want it. I sometimes wish it overlooked the garden. We have a big veg garden right outside the back door, but unfortunately, the kitchen is at the front of the house. But then, in the middle of a Balkan winter, when the veg garden is bare and neglected, I’d rather not see it from the kitchen window!
I’m also very tempted to get a pressure cooker but struggling to think where we’d put it.
What tips can you give us that will help keep our kitchens neat and tidy and easy to manage?
I have to tidy as I go when cooking, otherwise I feel overwhelmed. This means packing away ingredients as they’re used and washing up while things are simmering. If I’m prepping lots of veg, I keep a bowl next to the chopping board for peelings and scraps (to go in the compost bin), whereas my partner will leave garlic and onion skins strewn all over the chopping board – it drives me insane. (I drive him equally insane with my backseat cooking.)
Also, I rarely peel butternut squash, sweet potatoes or potatoes. It’s fiddly, time consuming and unnecessary. The skins taste great. Just give them a scrub.
How many cookbooks do you have and do you have any favourites?
Probably between 50 and 60 – too many to have in one place. They live in the kitchen, the spare room, and there’s usually one or two on the floor next to the bed (I read them like novels).
I love cookbooks that transport me to another place, like Olia Hercules’ ‘Summer Kitchens’ (very reminiscent of the summer kitchens of Bulgaria). I also enjoy cookbooks with a narrow, obsessive focus, like Joe Yonan’s ‘Cool Beans’. These days, most of my cookbooks skew vegetarian or vegan. Two recent favourites include ‘Tenderheart’ by Hetty Lui McKinnon and ‘Big Vegan Flavor’ by Nisha Vora.
Do you have a favourite recipe that you would like to share with us?
It has to be my take on mekitsi (Bulgarian breakfast doughnuts) – delicious, tangy, flat doughnuts, typically eaten with jam and white cheese. Everyone should try them.
Have you had any kitchen disasters that you can share with us?
So many kitchen mishaps over the years, but nothing worth losing sleep over. There was the time we cooked a huge batch of onion soup, only for one of the cats to (somehow) push the entire pan over. The soup sprayed up the kitchen wall and across the floor – which, as we were still in the process of renovating, was a bare, unsealed concrete floor. We lived with a lovely brown stain until we finally tiled over it.
We’ve had weevils in pasta and bugs in spices. We’ve run out of gas in the middle of cooking (lots of times, actually – there’s no mains gas where we live, only bottles). We’ve had power cuts galore – including on Christmas Day 2024, when we had no electricity for most of the morning and afternoon. (Christmas lunch was a late, lazy one.)
Nothing much fazes us in the kitchen. (I mean, we bought a house that didn’t even have a kitchen.) If all else fails, there’s always toast and Marmite.
Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us, Claire Ruston
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All images are copyright of Claire Ruston
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Such a lovely story, Claire. And a gorgeous kitchen!
This was such a great read. I loved getting to peak inside your life and your kitchen, Claire! Just reading about your slower paced life made me breath a little deeper and remember that even when problems and challenges arise, there's very little to get upset about. Thank you.