Borshch
Originally borshch comes from Ukraine. However it is popular in Russia and many other Eastern and Central European countries. Borshch is a soup with the beetroot and cabbage as the main ingredients and is characterized by deep red colour.
There are many recipes of preparation of borshch. Every hostess prepares it individually. Some like it sweet and mild, others prefer it zesty. It can be hot and cold and have a legion of variations in different cuisines depending on the ingredients and the way of cooking. Hot meat borscht is a typical Ukrainian lunch meal.
Ingredients:
Preparation.
It is important to cook the stock and vegetables correctly, strictly
observing the proper order in which the ingredients are added.
The stock is prepared first:
Beef bone (meaty pork bones, or chicken as an alternative),
with an addition of root vegetables, such as onions, carrots,
and parsley stalks, should be simmered for at least 1,5 hours.
In the process of cooking a bone will be selected by gelatine. Therefore borsch will have a very good taste and consistency.
Then filter the stock and separate cooked meat from bones. The meet is returned to the pot,
while the bones and vegetables are thrown away.
Meanwhile, thinly shred 1 medium-size cabbage, peel and shred beets, and dice peeled potatoes. Shredded beets have to be sprinkled with lemon juice not to lose their deep colour. Add potatoes, beets and cabbage to the pot, and simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are soft.
"Zapravka" is cooked separately by pan-frying finely chopped or grated vegetables. Grate peeled carrots and beetroot, chop onion and saute this mass in fat. The onion goes first and is fried until translucent. Add about 2 tbsp tomato paste, salt, sugar and pepper to taste, and saute for about 10 minutes more. Peeled and chopped tomatoes can go as an alternative to tomato paste.
Add "zapravka" to the pot and simmer for additional 5 minutes.
Remove the borsch from the heat, check again for the spices and sprinkle with the
minced garlic, 3 tablespoons each parsley and dill and some minced garlic.
Let stand at least 15 minutes before serving.
Serve with sour cream
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Vareniki.
Vareniki (varenyky) are the kind of dumplings with different fillings.
They are the essential part of Ukrainian cuisine.
They are cooked for Christmas, Easter, christening party, birthday party, religious holidays and weekend dinners.
In Ukrainian tradition on the second day of wedding celebration the newlywed bride is served vareniki for breakfast.
Vareniki is a true family meal that makes all the family gather for dinner. It is one of the top popular meals in Ukraine.
Hardly any Ukrainian or Russian writer would miss a colourful description of how vareniki are cooked or eaten in his vision of
Ukrainian lifestyle and habits.
Ukrainians are re so much fond of this meal that erected a monument to vareniki.
It shows Cossack Mamay (a Ukrainian folklore hero whose fondness for vareniki
was narrated by both Taras Shevchenko and Nikolay Gogol) eating vareniki from an earthenware pot, with a huge
crescent-shaped varenik behind him. It is located in Cherkasy, Ukraine.
The key feature of well-prepared vareniki is about 1-2 mm thin unleavened dough.
The fillings vary from sweet to savoury: cherry or other fruit, cottage cheese,
mashed potatoes, cabbage, liver, fish (salmon and pike-perch) and mushrooms.
The name varenik (varenyk), in fact, simply means "boiled thing," from the adjective
"varenyy". Sometimes vareniki are not boiled but cooked with steam to make them big and juicy.
A sample recipe:
Ingredients:
Dough.
Preparation:
Like pelmeni, making vareniki consists of 2 steps- making the dough and making the filling. The dough is very simple: combine the flour and salt, mix in the oil, beaten eggs and water and knead the dough until smooth. Cover and let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes.
For vareniki with mashes potatoes take one onion, peel and chop it, saute
until translucent in fat or vegetable oil, mix with mashed potatoes, add salt and pepper.
For vareniki with cottage cheese, mince the cottage cheese (curds), add butter, a pinch of salt and mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Roll out the dough into a very thing layer, cut out round pieces (usually with a cup or glass), grease each piece with beaten egg white, wrap the filling in and stick the edges with fingertips. Put into boiling water and cook till they go up to the surface. Take out with perforated spoon and serve hot.
Vareniki are typically topped with fried salo bits (shkvarky) and onions and accompanied with sour cream. Sweet, fruit-filled vareniki are served with sour cream and sugar. Vareniki can also be prepared in big amounts and preserved in a freezer.
Another variant of this meal is lenivye vareniki (Lazy vareniki). They are a kind of dumplings made by mixing farmer cheese with egg and flour into quick dough. They are very similar to Russian galushki. The dough is formed into a sausage 2 cm thick and then cut diagonally, quickly boiled in salted water and served with sour cream or melted butter. It takes about 15 minutes to cook the meal, which explains its name.
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Chicken Kiev/Kotleta po Kievski/ Kiev-style chicken cutlet.
Simply this meal is pounded chicken breast, rolled around cold garlic butter with herbs breaded and either fried or baked. It necessarily has a chicken shoulder bone in it. There are various versions of this meal background and the Ukrainian origin of the meal is quite questionable. However Chicken Kiev has become trademark of Kiev and is known all over the world. It is served in most world restaurants where it has this name.
One version suggests that the meal has a French origin, its recipe was created by French restaurant-keeper Nicolas Appert who named it cotelettes de volaille. The Russian food historian William Pokhlebkin claimed that Chicken Kiev was invented in the Moscow Merchants' Club in the early 20th century and was renamed Chicken Kiev (kotleta po-kievski) in one of the Soviet restaurants in later years.
It is known however that originally Chicken Kiev was prepared from veal. It was Kiev (name unknown) restaurant-keeper that put the bone inside and rolled meet around butter. The meal had so big success that won fame to its inventor and still remains top popular order of those interested in Ukrainian cuisine.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Wash and dry breasts, remove skin, place smooth side on cutting board, and pound to flatten to about 1 cm thickness. Prepare butter: combine the butter with minced dill, lemon juice and minced lemon peel, salt and pepper. Press garlic through the garlic press and mix in with the butter. Roll into sausage shape and put in a plastic bad in a freezer for 35 minutes. Then wrap the breasts around each piece of butter, creating packets. Dip in flour, shake off excess flour and pat flat in your hand, dip in beaten eggs and roll in breadcrumbs. Refrigerate in a freezer for 15 minutes. Fry in butter until golden brown. To make the original form, put chicken shoulder bone half inside while wrapping.
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