Authentic Russian Cuisine

Ingredients:

4 lb mushrooms (or 2 kg)

Set for salting:

30-40 g (1.2-1.5 oz) salt
Garlic, dill, pepper
Horseradish leaves
Black currant leaves
Bay leaves
Spicy (aromatic) pepper
Whole cloves

Method:

Soak the mushrooms in 3 – 4 parts cold water per part mushrooms.
Change the water twice daily, for 3 days.
Keep the dish with the mushrooms in a cold place.
Then, drain well.

Stir all ingredients for salting mix.
Divide the salting mix into 3 parts.

Place 1/3 of the salting mix on the dish bottom, then place half of the mushrooms in, tops facing down, and place another 1/3 of the salting mix over them.

Then, place the second half of the mushrooms tops down in the dish, and cover with the last 1/3 of the salting mix.

Place a flat circular wooden board to cover this and put some weight on it.

After 1-2 days, the mushrooms will decrease in volume, and the board and weight will be covered in juice.

Let sit for 10-12 days in a cold place (in a refrigerator but not in a freezer).

After that, the mushrooms are ready, and you can serve them as an appetizer or as part of a garnish.

Keep in cold place.

Ingredient:

1 medium squash (or 1 lb young green squash)
2-3 tomatoes
0.3-0.5 lb feta cheese, or other soft salty cheese
3 eggs
0.5 cup milk
Basilica, parsley, spices and salt on taste

Method:

Peel the squash, and slice into thin circles.

Bring 1 cup water to boil in a wide saucepan, place the squash slices into the saucepan, and boil for 5-7 minutes.
Then, drain.

Slice the tomatoes and cheese into thin pieces.

Pre-heat an oven to 200 C (390-400 F).

Cut the greens into small pieces.

Sprinkle a baking dish with vegetable oil, place the squash slices into the baking dish, cover with a tomato slice layer, sprinkle with greens, and cover with cheese slices.

Sprinkle with greens, cover with a tomato slice layer, and then with a squash slice layer.

Sprinkle with cheese crumbs and spices, pour the egg-milk mix over it, and place in the oven for about 20 minutes.

After it’s ready, slice, and serve hot with sour cream.

Ingredients:

1 fresh rainbow trout
3 tbsp ground almonds
1 egg white
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt on taste

Method:

Peel, clean, and wash the trout.

Mix the flour, ground almonds, and salt.

Whip the egg white to strong foam.

Roll the trout in whipped egg white, and then in the flour-almond-salt mix.

Heat the skillet. Pour the vegetable oil in the skillet.

After 1 minute, place the fish into the skillet, and fry it for about 7-8 minutes per side.

Serve with a green salad, lemon slice, and tomato slice.

Note:

You can substitute trout with a sturgeon or halibut steak.

Ingredients:

0.5 lb wheat flour
0.5 lb butter
0.5 lb sour cream
5 tbsp sugar
3-4 apples
3-4 tbsp raisins
0.25 lb ground walnuts
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp jam or preserves (not very sweet)
Sugar powder, vanilla, salt on taste

Method:

Warm (not melt!) the butter, and whip for 3 minutes.

Add the sour cream, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla sugar (or 2 drops of vanilla essence, and a pinch of salt.

Whip until an even consistency.

Add the flour, and make dough.

Put the dough in a plastic bag, and place in a refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Wash the apples, remove their cores, and chop into thin pieces.
Note: Peeling the apples is optional.

Add 3 tbsp sugar, raisins, walnuts, jam, and cinnamon. Mix well.

Divide the dough into 3 parts.

Sprinkle a surface with flour, and roll each part into 1/5”-thick rectangles.

Divide the apple mix into 3 parts, cover the dough parts with a thin layer of the apple mix (leave 1” edges on sides uncovered).

The most important part is to roll each dough part without any tears. The dough has to be whole!

Pre-heat an oven to 180 C (380 F).

Place all 3 rolls on a non-stick baking sheet (or sprinkle a normal baking sheet with flour).

The dough edges have to be facing down.

Bake for about 30 minutes (until a light yellow crust develops).

Sprinkle with the sugar powder.

Slice and serve immediately, or cool, and keep in a refrigerator.

Note:
This dish came to Russia from Austrian cuisine.

Ingredients for 4:

4 large red, yellow, or orange sweet peppers
1 lb ground beef
0.5 cup rice
2 medium onions
1 large carrot (or 2 medium ones)
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup Mayonnaise
2 tbsp sour cream

Method:

Wash the peppers; remove the seeds and stalks.
Wash once more.

Boil the rice until it’s halfway ready (half of the usual boiling time), drain, and cool.

Peel the onions and carrots, wash, and chop into fine pieces, or cut into small pieces.

Stir-fry the carrots and onions until they turn light yellow, and cool.

Mix the ground beef with the carrots, onions, and rice; stir well.

Stuff the peppers with this mix.

Blend the tomato juice and Mayonnaise to get sauce for the peppers.

Place the peppers upright into a sauce-pan, and pour the sauce into it.

The sauce has to be up to 2/3– 3/4 of the peppers’ height.

Bring to boil with high heating and right afterwards turn the heating to very low, just high enough for weak boiling.

Cover with a lid, and boil for 30 minutes.
Flip the peppers, and cook for 30 more minutes.

Serve with sauce and sour cream.

Note:

Originally, this was a Bulgarian dish, but it has become a part of Russian cuisine.

Ingredients:

For crepes

75 g (3 oz) plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp oil
120 ml (4 fl oz) milk
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped

For filling:

30 g (1 oz) butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
50 g (2 oz) all-purpose flour
120 ml (4fl oz) milk
100 g (4 oz) fresh crabmeat
50 g (2 oz) Osetra (Sturgeon) caviar

Method:

Sift the flour into a bowl.
Gradually stir in the beaten eggs, then the oil, milk and chives and beat to a smooth batter.

Cover and let stand in a refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Lightly grease with the butter and heat a heavy-based pan.
Pour 2-3 tbsp of batter into the pan and cook until golden brown, turning and repealing for the other side.
Remove the crepe from the pan and set aside;

Repeat with the rest of the crepe dough mixture.

Using a cutter, cut out rounds from the crepes, large enough to fit 10 cm (4 in) the non-stick tartlet pans.

Line the tartlet pans with the crepe rounds and bake for about 10 minutes in a pre-heaterd to 200 C (400 F)oven.

Then, remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

To make the filling, heat the butter in a saucepan.

Add the onion and cook until soft.

Stir-in the flour, cooking for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat, gradually stirring in the milk and crabmeat.

Return to the heat and stir until the sauce thickens.

Let to cool.

Just before serving, spoon the crab mixture into the crepe cups and top with caviar.

Ingredients:

1 medium beetroot
2 medium apples
7-10 dried black pitted plums
3 tbsp olive, sunflower, or flaxseeds oil
Spices on taste (optional)

Method:

Boil the beetroot to readiness, then cool, peel, and grate.

Soak the plums in hot water for 20 minutes, then drain, and cut into small pieces.

Peel the apples, remove seeds, and grate.

Stir all ingredients, let sit for 5 minutes, and serve.

Ingredients:

0.5 cup honey
0.75 cup sugar
0.25 cup water
2.5 cup flour
2 eggs
1 stick (50 g) warm butter or margarine
0.25 tsp baking soda

Spices set:

3 whole cloves
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 spicy pepper
Coriander and cardamom (optionally, on taste)

Note:

If you use light-colored honey, add slightly melted sugar to it.

To make slightly melted sugar, put 1 tbsp sugar in a small skillet, and cook on medium heating for about 2-3 minutes, until the sugar turns brown. After that, add 1-2 tbsp water into the skillet, and dissolve the sugar in it. Then, add this liquid to the honey to make its color darker.

Method:

Grind all spices together into a very thin consistency (like thin flour).

Pour the honey, sugar, and ¼ cup water in a sauce-pan, and heat slightly until the sugar dissolves. Stir to avoid burning.

Add 1 cup of the flour and all ground spices. Stir thoroughly with a wide wooden spoon to an even consistency.

Cool to room temperature, and add the eggs, warm butter, baking soda, and 1 more cup of the flour, and make dough.
This dough is very sticky, and it is hard to make dough.

Add more flour if necessary to get dough that’s not sticky but stretchy and easily shaped.

The shapes and sizes of these pryanics are up to your imagination.

Pre-heat an oven to 190-200 degrees C (370-400 F).

Place the pryanics on a baking sheet, grease their tops with blended egg yolks, and bake for 20 – 30 minutes (depending on their sizes).

Note:

You can add ground nuts, lemon or orange peels, vanilla, or raisins to the dough.

You can cover the pryanics with jam, or sugar icing, or with melted chocolate, and let cool.

Or, you can roll the dough into a 0.5” thick sheet, and cut out details for a “pryanic house” for New Year celebrations, and create your own styles of “pryanic houses”.

Pryanics are very ancient Russian sweets.

Ingredients:

1 lb any fish fillets (de-boned, de-skinned)
0.5 lb butter or spread
1 medium onion
2-3 tbsp flour
2-3 tbsp butter
Spices:
1 stalk dill, 1 celery stalk, 1-3 bay leaves, 1 small parsley root, salt, ground red pepper on taste
Optional: 1 ground stir-fried onion, or 2 tbsp ground stir-fried mushrooms, finely chopped greens

Method:

Place the fish fillets in a saucepan, pour one cup of water in, and bring to boil.

Place the onions, parsley root, celery stalk, dill stalk, and bay leaves into the sauce-pan, and boil with low heating for about 20-25 minutes.

Turn off the heating, and let the fish cool in the broth.

Melt 3 tbsp butter in a skillet, and pour the flour in while stirring thoroughly.

Cook for about 2 minutes with medium heating.
Then, pour the milk in, teaspoonful at a time, stirring all the while to get an even consistency.

Note: The consistency has to be like that of thin sour cream.
Let the sauce cool.

Blend the fish until an even consistency, add 0.5 lb butter or spread, and whip for 4 - 5 minutes.

Then, add the sauce, salt, and ground red pepper, and whip until an even, airy consistency.

Optionally, you can add the mushrooms or fried onions.

Note:

You can keep this pate in a refrigerator for up to 12 hours, but to it is better fresh.

Ingredients:

3-4 lb cleaned small fish
¼ cup vegetable oil
2-3 whole cloves
1 tbsp salt
3 bay leaves
Ground black pepper on taste

Method:

Place the fish and all of the other ingredients into a pressure-cooker, or in a slow-cooker.
Add ¼ cup water.
Cover with a lid.

Cook in a pressure cooker for about 1 hour with low heating, or in a slow cooker for about 6-7 hours with high heating.

Afterwards, cool to below boiling and try. The fish bones have to be very soft.

Serve with rye bread. You can place the leftovers in a jar and keep in a refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Note: You can eat this as a main dish with any potato garnish, or as an appetizer.
Note: Removing the fish heads is optional.
Note: This dish does not combine well with seafood!