Lent menu.

Lent menu.

The longest Lent in Russia is in spring before Easter. It lasts for 40 days and is called the Great Lent. The menu these days excludes meet, fish, eggs, milk, butter and alcohol.

There was no great variety of recipes, most meal were quite similar in Russia in old days. Lenten shchi, ukha, rassolnoe served with pies with different cereal filling were quite popular. The pies were fried or baked in the oven. The fillings included poppy seeds, mushrooms, pees, turnip, cabbage, raisins and different berries. On fish days different kinds of fish mixed with cereals were used for pie fillings.

Pancakes, bliny, khvorosty (crispy fried cookies), kiseli (creamy fruit desserts) were cooked during the Lent period. Russian mainly prepared oatmeal or buckwheat porridge

Even though quality sturgeon caviar was a luxury, pressed caviare was affordable for the poor. Ikryanki (bliny made from caviar dough) were a popular meal in Russia. On the lent days when fish was forbidden to eat Russians prepared sauerkraut, boiled cabbage, various meals cooked from peas, mushrooms, radish and beetroot. All the meals were seasoned with onion, garlic and saffron.

Here are some popular Russian Lent recipes:

Ingredients:

Preparation

Boil bean in water for 45 minutes. Shred the cabbage and add it into the pot, simmer for 15 minutes more. Then add peeled and diced potato. Peel and chop onion, grate peeled carrots and brown together in oil and tomato paste. Add this mixture into the soup, Sprinkle with salt. Add bay leaf, spices, then simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Boil or cook rice in a steamer. Peel and slice onion, carrots, mushrooms, sweet pepper. Put all vegetables in a frying pan and fry in oil till ready. Add chopped parsley and dill 5 minutes before the vegetable mass is ready. Add salt to taste. Serve hot with boiled rice.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Soak washed peas for 4-5 hrs. Drain the peas and boil with slices carrots till ready. Peel and chop onion and saute till translucent. Season the soup with sauteed onion and add salt to taste. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and dill

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Boil oil in a large cooking pot, put peeled and sliced onion and carrots and brown all the mass for 3 minutes. Pour boiling water into the pot, add washed and drained rice and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Boil the pumpkin. Slice the boiled pumpkin, put in a stewpot, sprinkle with bread crumbs, season with oil, sprinkle with sugar and crushed almonds and bake in an oven for 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Soak barley grits for 4-5 hrs. Rinse, drain and boil in big amount of water. Rinse with cold water and drain. Peel and slice apples. Boil the apple peel and wastes, for the syrup. Remove the wastes and peel, add sugar and spices and simmer the syrup for 3-5 minutes. Add slices of apples and potato starch to thicken the soup and simmer for 10 minutes more. Serve the soup with added boiled barley grits.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Peel and cut potato into 4 pieces. Boil it in salty water for 10 minutes. Darin the water and dry the potato. Pour the oil into a cooking bowl and warm it, add ready potato, mix well , so that the oil covers all the potato pieces well. Put the potato into a baking cup in even layer. Add salt to taste. Bake for 1,5 hrs till the potato has golden crispy jacket.

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