Vegetables

Fish caviar was very popular in old Russia. This is why people began calling appetizers from minced salted mushrooms, vegetables, and etc. as “caviar”, for example, “mushroom caviar”, or “vegetable caviar”. These tasty and cheap appetizers are very popular in Russia in the modern times.

Mushroom “caviar”

Ingredients for 4:

1 lb salted mushrooms
1 large shallot onion
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Crushed black pepper, salt, dill and other greens on taste

Method:

Astrakhan is an ancient city of about 2 million people in the delta of the greatest Russian river, Volga, and it is on the shores of the Caspian Sea and also riverside.
Astrakhan is a famous center of catching and cultivation of the sturgeons, and a center of the productions of black caviar.
In the “good old times” there were plenty of sturgeons in the Volga delta. Now, there are much fewer of them, but sturgeons are still common food for Astrakhan’s region’s inhabitants.
This is one of the authentic recipes of how they make fish soup – “uha” in Russian.

This recipe with fish liver is very old. Before 1917, it contained fresh, boiled with greens and salt fish liver. Later, this was one of the most popular Soviet salads (the main problem was to get a can of “Cod liver in oil”). The recipe is one of the simplest, and very tasty. A person who lives in USA can get such cans in any European/Russian deli shops.
This recipe, like many Russian ones, allows variations in ratios of ingredients, and allows adding other ingredients.

Do you like beets? No? Well, the secret is how to cook them!
Try this simple and tasty appetizer, and don’t tell me you don’t like this.
Play with exact ratios of the ingredients in this appetizer, which the Russians call “Beets, cheese, nuts & cucumbers,” and get your own unique recipe.

Ingredients:

Boiled beets (from can, possible)
Shredded cheese
Crushed nuts
Marinated or salted cucumbers (not sweet!)
Garlic (crushed)
Mayonnaise (on taste)

Method:

This is simple and tasty appetizer,or salad – it’s hard to differ.

Ingredients:

Carrots (peeled and shredded thinly)
Shredded cheese
Crushed walnuts
Crushed garlic
Mayonnaise on taste

Method:

Mix shredded carrots and cheese in a dish, and then add crushed walnuts, crushed garlic, and mayonnaise.
Mix very well.
Serve immediately.

Ingredients for 6:

1 can fish in oil
3 boiled medium carrots
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 shallot onion
Mayonnaise on taste

Method:

Knead fish in a serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Grind carrots into the serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Grind egg whites into the serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Cut onion into small cubes; pour them evenly into the serving dish.

Ingredients:

½ lb potato
½ lb carrot
½ lb cabbage
1 cup hot milk
3 tbsp butter or margarine (optional)
Salt on taste

Method:

Wash and peel vegetables.
Boil cabbage, carrots, and potato in different pans with a little water, until they are ready (or in a microwave for about 15 minutes.)

Blend the vegetables with hot milk, butter, and salt.
Serve hot as a garnish.

Note:

It is a well-known dish of Old Russian, Swedish (fore smack), German (vor schmack), and Jewish cuisines. Advantage of forschmack is that is possible to cook this appetizer in multiple variations.
Everywhere herring is caught, forschmack is cooked, and it is possible to make forscmack with other kinds of sea fish.
So,

Ingredients of a basic recipe:

1 large herring or 2 herring fillets
2 hard-boiled egg
1 sour apple
1 medium onion
2 peaces white bread, soaked in milk or water
1’4 lb butter

Ingredients for 8:

1 large green cabbage (Savoy or another cabbage is very good too)
1 lb meat
½ lb rice
2 onions
2 medium carrots (optional)
1 cup broth
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp any vegetable oil
5 tbsp tomato sauce (optional)
Greens, salt, and spices on taste

Method:
Grind the meat. Boil the rice until ready.

Ingredients:

1 lb chanterelles
1 shallot onion (medium)
2 tbsp olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour (optional)
Salt, sour cream on taste

Method:

Wash and clean chanterelles, or defrost, if you have frozen chanterelles.
Cut onion thinly and cook in a skillet with heated oil until the onion is transparent (or lightly golden.)
Pour the flour in the skillet, and mix well with onions.