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Shchi |
Shchi(Russian: ωθ)
An old Russian saying shchi da kasha - pishcha nasha ("Shchi and kasha are our staples" or "Shchi and kasha is the meal of Russian") reflects the place these 2 meals occupy in Russian cuizine to the best. They were most typical and popular meals in the old times in Russia and were served together. Historians suppose that shchi was known long time ago before the adoption of Christianity in Russia.
It has always been considered that cooking Shchi has requie certain skills. Another saysing "Ne ta hozaika chto horosho gotovit, a ta, chto shchi varit" ("The good wife is not that cooks well, but the one that can make shchi" or "Good wife is not the one who speaks well, but who cooks shchi well") proves this statement.
Shchi primary ingredient is cabbage or sauerkraut.
Shchi made with sauerkraut has a sour taste and is called sour shchi.
Yet one can use also use spinach, sorrel leaves or nettle leaves. The meal is then called a sorrel soup.
The base of Shchi is meet, mashrooms or fish meat stock.
Meet shchi is served with a piece of meet, fish shchi - with a piece of fish and mashroom shchi have chopped mashroms in.
Sorrel soup is topped with crumbed boiled eggs.
Shchi is coocked with popatoes or withouit as it was in Russia in old days when potations were unknown.
Recipies:
Shchi with cabbage
Ingredients:
Preparation.
Wash and peel vegetables, wash mushrooms and leave them in water for 3-4 hrs, then boil in salty water and slice. Saute onion, leek, carrots, celery, peeled and sliced mushrooms and tomatoes in bacon fat in a large kettle. Remove outer leaves and core of the cabbage head. Shred the cabbage and put it the pan with boiling meat stock (or water) and let it simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes. Add sauted vegetables and cook for another 15 minutes. Thiken flour browned in butter and diluted with water, with crushed bayleaves, salt and pepper, add cooked meat and simmer for 5 minutes more. Serve with lots of minced parsley, dill and sour cream
No need to thicken with flour if you add potatoes. Potatoes, then are peeled and cubed, and added about 20 min before the soup is finished cooking.
Shchi cooked on fish stock are not dressed with sour cream.
Shchi with sauerkraut or sour shchi
This is soup as well, however, there are cultural and literature references to some liquid in a bottle or a glass that was called sour shchi. This was a kind of brisk bread juice. Shchi with sauerkraut (Russian Sauerkraut Soup) is cooked this way:
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Wash and peel vegetables. Drain the sauerkraut, rinse well and squeeze dry. Then put it in pan with a spoonful of butter or fat some water or stock and smother for an hour, stirring at timers. Saute onion, leek, carrots, celery, peeled and sliced in bacon fat in a large kettle, add tomato paste and smother till they are ready. Add boiling water or stock, peeled and diced potato and boil for 15 minutes. Then add smothered sauerkraut and simmer till the soup is ready. Add salt, peter and minced bayleaves 5 min before the soup is finished cooking. Garnish with the parsley and dill and serve with the sour cream.
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Russian Rassolnik.
A Russian proverb says; "U kazhdoij solenshchiny svoy rassol" ("Every pickles have their pickle juice"). This means that it has always required some skills to pickle vegetables and get a quality jiuce. "Rassol " or pickle juice is a key ingredient of a this true staple of Russian cuisine. Rassolnik is a soup made from pickled cucumbers, pearl barley and pork or beef kidneys. Rassolnik has so many variations (pitersky, moskovsky, troitsky, etc) as pickles vary from household to household. Russians did not only take pickled cucumbers' juice, but also used pears, apples, cabbage or cherries to prepare "rassol". To thicken the soup cereals, specifically barley grits are used.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Cook beef stock separately.
To prepare the kidneys, remove their fat and membrane, cut in half,
cover with cold water, and let soak for 6 hours, changing the water every 2 hours. Pour out the last water.
Peel and slice carrots, onion, parsley and celery stalks and saute in fat or butter. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Dice pickles, put them in the already made meet stock and simmer a little. Strain the stock and add diced potatoes, barley grits, sauteed vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add in the pickles and the salt and pepper.
Slice the kidneys and quickly saute them in butter for some 5-6 min and add them to the soup for the last 5 minutes or so. Add pickle juice as well.
When ready to serve, ladle into bowls, then stir in a big tablespoon of sour cream into each bowl and top with fresh chopped dill.
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Golubtsy (Stuffed Cabbage Leaves).
Golubtsy is a very popular meal of Russian cuisine. Yet historians prove the meal was cooked as far back in Ancient Greece. It appeared in Russia in the 18th century, when French cooking became popular in St Petersburg. The dish earned its name for the French practice of cooking pigeons wrapped in cabbage leaves. The Russian word for pigeon is "golub". The diversity of golubtsy is explained by a great number of staffings used. Besides, not only cabbage leaves are stuffed, but also Savoy cabbage, spinach leaves, beetroot or grapes leaves.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
There are quite few ways of preparing cabbage leaves, yet the only aim is make them soft enough to roll in with the stuffing. You can either boil the whole head of cabbage in salt water during 20 minutes. Then peel off the leaves accurately. Or remove and soak cabbage leaves in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Trim thick centre vein from bottom of each leaf. If you have enough time in advance, it is also recommended to put the whole head of cabbage in a plastic bag, push out the air and put it in the freezer for a day or two. After unfreezing it right in the bag at room temperature, the leaves become soft and easy to peel off.
Grate carrot, chop onion and fry together in oil or butter until tender. Chop parsley, finely chop tomatoes. Boil rice in a salt water until it is almost ready. Mix rice with minced meat and carrots and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. Peel garlic and finely chop or crush in a garlic press. Place one table spoon of prepared meat stuffing in the centre of each leaf. Roll leaves, covering stuffing from sides like an envelope. Put stuffed cabbage leaves down close to each other on a frying pan. Add two table spoons of tomato sauce, 0,5 litre of water or broth. Add it, covering the bottom of the pan. Simmer gently till the meat is cooked through and the cabbage is soft (around 30-45 min). To add the taste put some butter on the top of the rolls before simmering.
Golubtsy are served with sauce in which they were cooked in a deep plate, garnished with sour cream and chopped greenery.
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Pelmeni.
Pelmeni originate from Siberia and are now a part of Russian and Ukrainian national cuisine. Pelmeni are small pockets of dough filled with minced meat and served boiled. Pelmeni were particularly favoured by hunters, who were looking for easy-to-prepare, nourishing food to take with them frozen on long hunting trips in the winter. And originally were cooked from bear meat. Plemeni were also filled with fish, cabbage, mushrooms and preserved in special cellars with ice-covered walls. Russian pelmeni recipe involves 3 steps: making the dough and making the filling and assembling pelmeni. Time-honoured tradition of making pelmeni gathers all family members around the table and makes the process cooperative.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Making filling:
Grind beef and pork twice in meat chopper. Then add chopped onion, salt, pepper. Reserve.
Making dough:
Pour out flour on the table. Form it like a volcano with a hole in the middle. Break an egg into this hole and add water and salt.
Knead on floured surface until dough is elastic, then cover it and wait for 30-40 minutes.
Take some dough and make a "sausage". Cut it into pieces and roll each piece into a circle, around 5 cm in diameter.
Cover the circles with a cloth so that the dough does not get dry while you will be assembling pelmeni.
Put a teaspoonful of meet info each dough circle, fold and stick the edges and put together the "ears" with your fingertips.
Pelmeni can be frozen to be cooked later, or cooked immediately. To cook pelmeni, boil much water, so that they cannot stick to each other.
Salt water. Carefully drop pelmeni into boiling water. Don't forget to stir them from time to time. Boil for 20 minutes.
Pelmeni can be served with butter, sour cream, vinegar or ketchup.
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Guriev kasha.
Guriev kasha is rich flavoured porridge (usually semolina) pudding with fruits, nuts and cream layers. There is no only one recipe though. It is believe that kasha was named after its first admirer and promoter, Count Guriev, Russian Minister of Finance under Alexander I, and a renowned gastronome. Having many variations (depending on the ingredients), it is a very typical Russian meal though. Cooking Guriev kasha means stewing in an oven all the ingredients separately and then the ready meal.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Slice fruit and boil in sugar liquor for some minutes. Take the fruit out and drain the syrup. Caramelize (put in boiling sugar syrup) the nuts and let them dry. Pour most of the cream in a bowl, put on low heat, and skim the skin into a plate. Add semolina to the remaining cream, boil it into a liquid condition, add crushed caramelized nuts, almonds, sugar, and stir. Make a pastry border on a dish; put a 3-4 layers of skin, a layer of kasha. The top layer can be caramelized with gas-burner, topped with fruit, jam and nuts. Almost ready kasha is then put in the oven to make it warm. Serve warm, not hot.
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Beef Stroganoff.
Beef Stroganoff is a classic Russian dish, consisting of strips of lean beef sauteed and served in a sour-cream sauce with onions and mushrooms The meal was named after Count Pavel Stroganov, a noted 19th century gourmet. He is credited for creating Beef Stroganoff. Beef Stroganoff is a rich dish particularly served over rice or noodles.
Ingredients:
Preparation
Cut beef sirloin into thin strips and dredge strips with flour. Melt the half the butter in a big skillet, brown meet in the butter. Remove meat and add remaining butter. Add onions and mushrooms; cook for 5 minutes. Add meat back and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add tomato juice, and water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 hours, or until meat is tender. Taste and adjust seasonings. Stir in sour cream and serve immediately.
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Seld' Pod Shuboj (Herring in a coat).
Seld' Pod Shuboj is a classical Russian cold meal, a popular holiday meal in Russia.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Peel the herring and tale out the chine and the bones Chop thoroughly but do not mash. Put the herring, grated boiled beetroot, grated boiled potatoes, chopped fresh onion, grated boiled carrots in layers and dress each layer with mayonnaise sauce. The meal could be garnished with chopped parsley and dill and chopped boiled eggs. Serve cold.
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Bliny.
Bliny are thin, buckwheat pancakes. Bliny originally come from Russia. They are traditionally prepared at the end of the winter to honour the rebirth of the new sun (Butter Week, or Maslenitsa Classically they are served with sour cream and caviar or smoked salmon. Traditional Russian bliny are made with yeasted batter, which is left to rise and then diluted with cold or boiling water or milk and baked in a traditional Russian oven. These days however they are almost universally pan-fried, like pancakes.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Sift the flour into the bowl, and stir in along with the milk and oil. It is worth warming milk a little in advance. Mix all ingredients thoroughly into homogeneous batter. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Lightly oil the pan. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter, into the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter out evenly. Flip or turn with spatula, and cook for about 1 minute on the other side, or until lightly browned. Remove bliny to a plate. Put a little butter on top, and continue to stack the bliny on top of each other. Serve hot with butter, jam, cavia, honey, etc.
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