Top 42 recipies of Russian food

1. Echpochmak

Once upon a time, echpochmak was a traditional food of nomads, they put raw meat filling in it, and during stops they poured hot broth through the hole on top, so it became a full-fledged hot dish. Now echpochmak is considered a calling card of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Recipe for echpochmak from unleavened dough:

Ingredients:

– premium wheat flour (500 g);

– meat broth (1 cup);

– butter (60 g);

– sour cream (2 tbsp), fat content not less than 20%;

– kefir 3.2% (200 ml);

– baking soda (1/2 tsp);

– sugar (1 tbsp);

– lemon juice (1 tsp);

– salt (to taste);

– egg (1 pc.) and butter for greasing the dough.

Preparation:

In a saucepan (it is better to take a cast iron one with a thick bottom) melt the butter and cool slightly. Combine with sour cream and kefir.

Gradually add flour, stir well.

Mix lemon juice and baking soda in a tablespoon and add to the dough mixture. Add salt to taste.

Finish kneading the dough by hand on a floured work surface. If the consistency is too runny, stir in some flour.

Cover with a towel or cling film and leave for 25 minutes at room temperature.

Roll the dough into a sausage, divide into 75–85 g pieces and roll into flat cakes.

For the filling:

– lamb fillet (300 g), can be replaced with beef;

– onions (2 heads);

– potatoes (3 pcs.);

– bay leaf (2 pcs.);

– salt and black leaf (to taste).

Rinse the meat, remove excess fat, films and veins. Cut into small cubes. Peel and finely chop the onions and potatoes. Mix with meat. Salt and pepper, add chopped bay leaf.

Place the filling in the middle of the dough pieces. Carefully pinch the dough on three sides to form an isosceles triangle. Leave a small hole in the center so that the filling is visible.

Cover a baking sheet with baking paper and lay out the future echpochmak pieces.

Break an egg, mix with salt and melted butter. Grease the pies.

Place in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Heat the broth and add 1-2 tbsp to each pie (depending on the size of the echpochmak). Return to the oven and cook for another half hour until done.

Before serving, let the finished pies “rest” for 10–15 minutes.

2. Sbiten

Before tea appeared in Russia, sbiten was the main drink that warmed people up in the cold season. Honey is dissolved in boiling water, herbs (St. John’s wort, mint, sage) and spices (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon) are added. It is drunk with gingerbread and cookies.

Ingredients:

– honey or molasses;

– water;

– spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper, etc.).

Preparation:

Add honey to water and boil in a saucepan for 20 minutes.

Add spices to the resulting broth and boil for another 5 minutes.

Strain the drink through cheesecloth and pour into cups.

3. Chudu

In Dagestan, chudu are as popular as chebureki on the Black Sea coast. These are thin or fluffy flatbreads with meat and vegetable fillings, cooked in a dry frying pan and greased with butter.

Ingredients:

– Potatoes 2 pieces

– Hard cheese 70 grams

– Kefir 1 cup

– Butter 50 grams

– Greens 20-30 grams (dill, parsley)

– Wheat flour 2.5 cups

– Salt 0.5 teaspoon

– Ground black pepper 1-2 pinches

– Soda 0.5 teaspoon

Preparation:

For the filling, boil the potatoes in their skins, then peel and mash them. Grate the cheese, finely chop the greens. Add salt to taste and ground pepper. Mix.

Pour kefir into a bowl, add salt and soda. Mix.

Add flour. It is better to pour 2 cups of flour at once, and then add more as needed. Kefir can be thicker and thinner… and everyone’s flour is different.

And knead the dough, it should be soft, but not stick to your hands. Leave the dough for 5-10 minutes, then knead it again.

Divide the dough into small pieces. The size depends on the frying pan in which you will fry the chuda. My frying pan is 20 cm in diameter. I divide the dough into 9-10 pieces.

There are two ways to form the chuda. The first way: roll out a piece of dough into a small flat cake, put a tablespoon of filling in the center.

And gather the edges of the flat cake together, press with your palm.

And then carefully and gently roll it out into a thin circle with a rolling pin so that the filling does not come out. The diameter is the same as that of a baking pan. If the filling still comes out here and there, it’s okay.

And cover with the second half of the flatbread (like a cheburek). Then use a rolling pin to additionally “roll” the flatbread so that the air comes out and the chudus become thinner. My filling is thick, I did not pinch the edges, they stuck together perfectly when rolling.

Heat a dry (!!!) frying pan over a slightly higher than medium heat and lay out the chudus.

Fry on both sides. If they swell, you need to carefully pierce them to let the steam out.

Transfer the fried chudus to a plate and grease with butter.

4. Okroshka

Okroshka recipes have been found in cookbooks since the end of the 18th century. Classic okroshka is finely chopped vegetables, meat and greens with white kvass (not sweet). Later, alternatives to kvass appeared – it began to be replaced with mineral water, kefir, ayran and other fermented milk products.

Ingredients:

– boiled tongue — 1 pc.;

– seasonal radish;

– kvass — 1 l;

– chicken egg — 5 pcs.;

– cucumber — 100 g;

– baked potato — 100 g;

– mustard — 50 g;

– horseradish — 50 g;

– sour cream 30%;

– dill — 30 g.

Method of preparation:

Boil the tongue, check for softness, peel off the film. Cut into strips or cubes.

Cut the radish into strips. Peel the cucumbers and also cut into strips.

Boil the eggs, peel them. Take the yolks from 3 eggs and add to the kvass, then a spoonful of mustard and horseradish, salt and pepper. Leave the base to rest in the refrigerator for a couple of minutes.

Cut the remaining 2 eggs into strips.

Bake the potatoes with herbs in their skins, let cool. Peel and cut into strips.

Mix the base well and pour into a plate. Add all the ingredients.

5. Kalitki

A traditional dish of Karelian and northern Russian cuisine, it got its name from a small purse called “kalita” (in Old Russian), which it resembles in shape. The fillings for kalitki, pies made from unleavened rye dough, can be very different.

Ingredients:

– kefir – 1 cup;

– rye flour – as much as the dough will take;

– wheat flour – for kneading;

– potatoes – 500 grams;

– milk – 1 cup;

– sour cream – 2 tbsp.;

– egg – 1 piece;

– salt.

Preparation:

Pour kefir into a bowl, add a pinch of salt, gradually add rye flour, whisking the mass with a whisk (a peeled pine branch with five short knots). If there is no whisk, then knead the dough with the end of a rolling pin.

When the dough thickens, put it on the table and add wheat flour, continuing to knead. The dough should acquire the consistency of plasticine.

Then roll the dough into a 2 cm thick sausage. Use your hands to pinch off 2 cm long pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten in flour and roll into a thin flat cake the size of your palm. You get skantsy.

For the filling, boil the potatoes in their skins in salted water. Peel, mash, add boiling milk and salt, bringing the filling to the consistency of thick sour cream.

Spread the filling on the skantsy, leaving 1 cm from the edge of the dough. Pinch the edges of the kalitki into wavy folds and grease with a mixture of sour cream and egg.

Bake the kalitki at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Grease the hot kalitki with butter (preferably ghee).

6. Kalach

In the old days, kalach was a favorite Russian fast food. It was baked, as a rule, in the form of a “weight” with a handle, which was convenient to hold it by. Today, you can try signature kalachi in Kolomna, Tobolsk, Murom.

Ingredients:

• Flour 0.6 kg
• Salt 1 teaspoon
• Granulated sugar 5 tablespoons
• Dry yeast 2 teaspoons
• Eggs 1 piece
• Yolk 1 piece
• Sesame 1 tablespoon
• Milk 300 ml
• Vegetable oil 5 tablespoons

Preparation:

Pour warm milk into a bowl, add granulated sugar, and dissolve the yeast. Leave for 15 minutes until a foamy cap forms.

Add eggs, flour, salt, and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the yeast mixture.

Knead a soft and elastic dough.

Divide the resulting dough into 3 equal parts.

Separate one small piece from each part.

Roll out three large pieces into thin sausages, then braid them.

Form small pieces of dough together, then roll them into one rope. Place the braid that you braided from large pieces in a circle and wrap it with a thin rim of dough.

Grease the baking pan with the remaining vegetable oil, place the kalach on it, grease it with yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds, leave the dough for 60-90 minutes.

Bake the kalach in an oven preheated to 180 degrees until done (about 45 minutes). Eat the kalach after it cools down.

7. Peanut Shortbread Rings

In Soviet times, these shortbread cookies could be bought in every school cafeteria and any grocery store. Now they seem simple, but the simplicity of the dough is compensated by the peanuts, so the more nuts, the tastier.

Ingredients:

• Nuts 70 grams
• Flour 300 grams
• Butter 200 grams
• Egg 1 piece
• Sugar 130 grams
• Vanillin To taste
• Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

I always wanted to make shortbread rings with nuts according to GOST. So to speak, to restore the taste of childhood. We were sold such cookies at school. Today I will tell you how to make them at home. Prepare the ingredients.

Knead the classic shortcrust pastry: add baking powder, egg, sugar and flour to the softened butter. I usually knead this dough in a food processor. If you do it by hand, you can even grate the butter or mash it with a fork.

The dough should be elastic, like plasticine. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, let’s get to the nuts.

Lightly roast the peeled peanuts, then cool and chop finely. Pour them into a wide plate and set aside for now.

Roll out the dough layer, cut out our cookies with special forms (if you don’t have forms, use a regular cup with a wide diameter). Be sure to make a small indentation in the middle.

To make the nuts stick better to the blanks, grease the surface with whipped egg white. Dip each ring and place on a baking pan.

8. Fish pie

Pies with fish filling are traditionally baked open, as if “unbuttoned” at the top (hence the name). Almost any fish will do, but for special occasions they take trout or salmon.

Ingredients:

– 16 small pies;

– 1 portion of yeast dough for pies;

– 400 g fish fillet;

– 1 large onion;

– butter;

– salt;

– 1 egg yolk;

– 1 tbsp milk.

Preparation:

Make the yeast dough for the pies. Roll the dough into a tight ball, place in a bowl, cover with a towel and leave for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Check the fish fillet for bones and cut into 1–1.5 cm cubes.

Fry finely chopped onion with a pinch of salt in butter until soft and translucent, let cool, add to the fish and stir.

When the dough has risen, divide it into 16 equal parts and roll each into a ball the size of a small apricot.

Use your fingers to stretch the ball into a flat pancake, place a spoonful of filling in the center and pinch on both sides, leaving a hole in the middle. Do not stuff the rasstegais with fish too tightly – the dough will continue to rise in the oven, and the seams of the rasstegais, in which too much filling was put, may come apart. Leave the rasstegais for 15-20 minutes, then brush with an egg beaten half and half with milk.

Bake the rasstegais in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees, for 25-30 minutes, placing a tray with water under the baking sheet.

9. Gingerbread

Gingerbread resembles a large soft gingerbread with the addition of spices, honey, raisins and candied fruits. Among the foreign “relatives” of gingerbread are German Stollen and English gingerbread.

Ingredients:

– wheat flour – 155 g;

– rye flour – 155 g;

– cocoa (heaped) – 2 tbsp;

– salt – 2 pinches;

– soda – 1 tsp;

– liquid honey – 250 g;

– sugar – 150 g;

– water – 200 g;

– sunflower oil – 100 ml;

– cinnamon – 1.5 tsp;

– ginger (ground) – 1 tsp;

– walnuts – 100 g;

– dried figs – 100 g.

Preparation:

Pour sugar into a saucepan and melt over low heat until brown. Pour water (200 ml) into caramelized sugar and stir vigorously until caramel dissolves.

Put ground ginger and cinnamon into a saucepan with caramelized sugar.

Add honey, stir and bring to a boil over low heat, remove from heat and let cool.

Add soda to the honey mixture and extinguish it with honey acid.

In a separate bowl, mix 1:1 rye and wheat flour, cocoa and a couple of pinches of salt.

Pour sunflower oil into the cooled honey-caramel mixture and pour it into the dry ingredients, constantly stirring with a whisk, and then mix with a silicone spatula.

At the end, add nuts and figs, cut into medium pieces, and mix well.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper to the size of the brim and shape it, transfer the dough into the pan.

Put it in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 35 minutes.

Let the gingerbread cool and cut into pieces, store in a closed box or cover with a thick towel.

10. Perepechi

The Udmurt dish resembles a cheesecake or a small pizza. Perepechi can be filled with meat, mushrooms, or vegetables.

Ingredients:

• egg — 1 pc.;
• salt — 1 pinch;
• flour — 350 g;
• kefir — 150 ml;
• sugar — 1 tbsp.

Preparation:

Sift flour into a bowl.

Add salt and sugar. Mix.

Make a small depression in the center and beat in a chicken egg.

Pour in kefir.

Knead the dough. Leave it for 20 minutes to form gluten.

You can store the dough in the freezer or use it right away. If necessary, fill the perepechi with filling and bake them in the oven.

11. Karavai

This wedding bread is considered a symbol of happiness and abundance by the Slavs. The loaf is traditionally decorated with ears of corn molded from bread (for prosperity), bunches of viburnum (for an addition to the family), two rings or a pair of swans (a symbol of fidelity).

Ingredients:

• vegetable or melted butter – 100 g;
• flour – 7-8 cups;
• quick yeast – 20 g;
• sugar – 6-7 tbsp;
• milk – 1/2 cup;
• eggs – 10 pcs.;
• salt – 2 tsp;
• cinnamon – optional;
• raisins – optional.

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of milk with 1 tsp of sugar added to it.

In a separate bowl, grind the remaining sugar with the yolks and pour the resulting yeast mass there.

Pour a heap of flour into a large bowl where the dough will be prepared, make a depression in the center. Pour the mass obtained before into this depression, as well as butter, whipped whites, add salt. Mix everything thoroughly.

Sprinkle the table with flour, put the dough there and knead it with your hands. Add flour from time to time. Knead until the dough is smooth enough and stops sticking to your hands (20-30 minutes).

Cover the finished dough with film and put it aside for a while until it rises. The risen dough needs to be kneaded a little and left for a while.

Cut off a 600 g piece of the finished dough and put it aside (it will be used for decoration). Form a ball from the main dough and put it on a baking sheet covered with special baking paper – this will be the base for the loaf.

Place the finished decorations (braids, lattices, leaves, flowers) on the loaf. In order for them to stick better, the ball of dough on the baking sheet needs to be carefully greased with water using a pastry brush.

Let the loaf “rise”. The loaf should increase in size by 3 times. While it is “coming”, its surface, including decorations, should be moistened with water to prevent cracks and crust from appearing.

Make a mixture of 1 tbsp. water and 1 yolk. Grease the finished loaf with this mixture before baking so that it gets a beautiful golden crust.

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place the loaf in it on the lowest level. As soon as the top of the loaf begins to brown, open the oven door slightly, cover the loaf with foil and reduce the temperature to 180°C. The loaf will bake for 1–1.5 hours.

When the loaf is ready, slightly open the oven door and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Transfer the finished loaf to a separate dish, covering it with paper napkins beforehand so that the bottom does not get wet. Grease the loaf with butter and sweetened water. Cover the top with napkins and cover with a towel – the loaf needs to rest, preferably overnight.

12. Kurnik

A traditional meat pie that was baked for weddings by Don and Kuban Cossacks, and later the recipe spread throughout Russia. Most often the filling was chicken – hence the name.

Ingredients:

• Bakers baking soda — 1 pack.
• Eggs — 1 pc.
• Kefir — 130 ml.
• Butter — 120 g.
• Flour — 400 g.
• Salt — to taste.

For the filling:

• Chicken fillet — 300 g.
• Leek — 0.5 pcs.
• Carrots — 1 pc.
• Potatoes — 2 pcs.
• Salt — to taste.
• Egg yolk — 1 pc.
• Milk — 2 tbsp.

Method of preparation:

Melt the butter in a microwave or in a water bath. Let cool slightly.

Add kefir, egg and mix the mixture thoroughly.

Pour in the dry ingredients: one pack of Dr. Bakers baking soda and salt to taste.

Add flour in parts and knead the dough for the chicken pie.

Prepare the filling. Cut the chicken fillet into small cubes and lightly fry in a frying pan, adding vegetable oil.

Grate the peeled carrots and cut the onion into half rings. Combine the chopped vegetables with the chicken and mix.

Peel the potatoes, wash them, and cut them into small cubes. Mix everything together: chicken with vegetables and potatoes.

Divide the prepared dough into two parts. Roll each into a circle. Place one part on the bottom of the pan.

Place the filling in the pan with the base.

Cover the top with the second part of the dough, previously rolled out. Carefully fix the edges of the pie, remove excess dough.

Grease the chicken pie with a mixture of milk and yolk.

Bake until golden brown in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

13. Sorrel Shchi

This green soup is cooked with a large amount of sorrel with potatoes and eggs. Chicken or beef broth is suitable for the broth. The main thing is not to forget sour cream and fresh herbs when serving.

Ingredients:

• 500 g beef (brisket);
• 3 bunches of sorrel;
• 2 onions;
• 2 potatoes;
• 1 carrot;
• 5 tbsp. melted butter;
• parsley, onion, dill, cilantro;
• salt to taste;
• boiled eggs, sour cream for dressing.

Preparation:

Cook a white broth from the meat. Cook at a slow boil and with the lid slightly open. Half an hour before readiness, add salt to taste. When the meat becomes soft, transfer to a bowl and cover with a lid.

Cut the onion into small cubes, cut the carrots into strips and lightly sauté in melted butter (or vegetable oil).

Wash the sorrel thoroughly, cut off the thick stems and chop into strips.

Peel the potatoes and also cut into strips.

Wash the greens and chop finely.

Put the eggs in cold water and after boiling, cook for another 9-10 minutes. Cool.

As soon as the broth is ready, add the potatoes, then, after 5 minutes, sauté the onions and carrots.

After cooking for 5-7 minutes, add the sorrel and bring to a boil. The main thing is not to overboil, otherwise the soup will be irreparably spoiled!

Season with greens and remove from heat.

Let the cabbage soup “rest” for 10-15 minutes and serve, seasoned with sour cream and chopped eggs.

14. Khychin

In Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, this flatbread with various fillings is a real queen of any table. Balkarian khychins are thin flatbreads, and Karachay ones are made from fluffy dough with kefir or milk. Boiled potatoes, greens or meat are used as filling.

Ingredients:

For the dough: wheat flour – 400 g, water – 200 ml, salt – ⅔ tsp.

For the filling: potatoes – 400 g, Adyghe cheese – 400 g, salt – to taste.

Additionally: butter – 100 g.

Method of preparation:

Pour water at room temperature into a deep bowl, dissolve salt in it. Then pour in flour and knead the dough. Put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Peel the potatoes, chop coarsely and boil in salted water until tender. Then rub through a sieve or mash until smooth.

Grate the Adyghe cheese on a coarse grater. Mix with potatoes, add salt and spices to taste.

Roll as many balls from the filling as you want to get flatbreads. The balls should be the size of an egg.

Divide the dough into parts and roll into balls, their size should be smaller.

Roll out the dough ball into a thin round layer. Put the filling in the center. Gather the edges of the dough on top of the potatoes and cheese. Roll out the resulting ball thinly.

Fry the prepared flatbreads in a dry frying pan until golden brown on both sides.

Stack the khychins, greasing each with butter. Cut into 4 parts. Serve with sour cream.

15. Kulich

This Easter bread is cylindrical in shape, decorated with icing or powdered sugar on top, and raisins, nuts and candied fruits are added to the dough. Traditionally, kulichs are blessed along with eggs and curd paskhas on the eve of Easter.

Ingredients:

• flour – 250 g;
• baking powder – 1 tsp;
• eggs – 3 pieces;
• sugar – 75 g;
• melted butter – 50 g;
• raisins – 100 g;
• a pinch of salt;
• zest of one lemon;
• powdered sugar for decoration (optional).

Preparation:

In a large bowl, mix flour and baking powder.

Beat eggs with sugar until fluffy.

Add melted butter and mix.

Transfer the egg-butter mixture to a bowl with flour, mix until smooth.

Add raisins, lemon zest and a pinch of salt to the dough. Mix again.

Put the dough in a pre-greased Easter cake baking pan.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool, then carefully remove it from the pan.

Decorate with powdered sugar.

16. Curd Easter

This curd dessert is usually prepared once a year for Easter. It has the shape of a truncated pyramid, which symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher. In addition to grated curd, it contains butter, sour cream, eggs and sugar. Raisins, candied fruits and lemon zest are also added to taste.

Ingredients:

• Cottage cheese — 1 kg;
• Eggs — 5 pcs.;
• Cream 30% — 2 cups;
• Powdered sugar — 250 g;
• Butter — 250 g;
• Vanillin — 1–2 pinches;
• Raisins — 1 cup.

Preparation:

Carefully rub the cottage cheese through a sieve or colander.

Separate the yolks from the whites.

Beat the yolks with a whisk.

Soften the butter naturally or in the microwave.

Heat the cream and, stirring constantly, add powdered sugar, vanillin, butter and beaten yolks.

Combine the creamy-sugar-egg mixture with the rubbed cottage cheese.

Pour boiling water over the raisins, rinse, and dry.

Add it to the curd mass, mix thoroughly.

Put the mass into a pasochnitsa covered with gauze.

Place the pasochnitsa in a plate or bowl, put a weight on top and put it in the cold for 1-2 days.

Carefully remove the finished paska from the mold, put it on a flat dish, and arrange the colored eggs around it.

17. Buckwheat porridge with cracklings

This is a version of camp porridge – a tasty and filling dish is prepared from a minimum number of ingredients. It is enough to fry meat cracklings or lard, onions and simmer it all with buckwheat and spices.

Ingredients:

– buckwheat groats — 1 cup;

– onion — 1 pc.;

– lard — 100 g;

– salt — 1 pinch.

Preparation:

Wash the groats and pour in two cups of water, put to boil, adding a little salt to the water.

Wash, peel and finely chop the onion.

Peel the lard, if necessary, and cut into small cubes.

Lightly fry the lard in a frying pan over low heat to release the fat, and add chopped onion. Fry until the onion is golden brown.

When the porridge is ready, you can put it directly in the frying pan with the cracklings and keep it on the fire for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Or serve the porridge separately, and the cracklings separately.

18. Crab Stick Salad

But the crab is not real, you will say, and you will be right. And yet this Soviet salad with rice, canned corn and crab sticks (made from minced fish and starch) always appears at the most solemn moments.

Ingredients:

• Crab sticks 250 grams
• Corn 200 grams
• Eggs 4 pieces
• Rice 100 grams
• Fresh cucumber 1 piece
• Mayonnaise 4 tbsp. spoons
• Number of servings 3

Preparation:

Prepare all the necessary ingredients. Boil the rice until tender in 200 ml of water with a little salt.

Cut the crab sticks into small cubes.

Boil the eggs hard and cut into cubes of the same size as the crab sticks.

Finely chop the cucumber. If the skin is not bitter, then you do not need to peel it.

Mix all the ingredients: crab sticks, eggs, corn, cucumber and rice.

Season with mayonnaise and mix well.

Cover a deep bowl or salad bowl with cling film, put the salad in it. Press well. Cover with a flat plate on top, onto which you then turn the salad. Remove the cling film.

Decorate the salad as you wish and serve it.

19. Shangi

They look like vatrushki, but are most often baked with a salty filling. Initially, they were prepared with pea porridge, sour cream, now more common options are with mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, buckwheat and egg. They are eaten hot with soup, tea or milk.

Ingredients for the dough:

– wheat flour — 3 tbsp. (450 g + for dusting); 2

– 1.5% kefir — 400 g; 2

– soda — 0.5 tsp; 2

– salt — 1 tsp. without a slide; 2

– butter — 30 g. 2

For the filling:

• potatoes — 600 g; 2
• salt — to taste; 2
• chicken egg — 1 pc.; 2
• butter — 30 g; 2
• sour cream — 0.5–1 tbsp. 2

For greasing:

• sour cream — 2–3 tbsp.; 2
• butter — 20 g. 2

Preparation:

Knead the dough. In a deep bowl, mix kefir (room temperature), salt and 30 g of melted butter. Mix everything with a whisk or spoon.

Pour in 1 cup of flour and 0.5 tsp of soda. Mix everything well again.

Then add the remaining flour, kneading with a spoon, and then with your hands. The dough should be soft and not clogged with flour. Leave it in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Prepare the filling. Wash, peel and boil the potatoes in boiling salted water until done – about 30 minutes. Add butter and mash into a puree.

Cool slightly and beat a whole chicken egg (from the refrigerator, so that it does not curdle) into the hot puree.

Make shangi. Divide the dough into sausages, cut each into pieces (pieces of about 55-60 g) and roll into flat cakes.

Spread the filling in the center of the flatbreads, leaving about 1 cm free from the edges.

Transfer the blanks to a baking sheet greased with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Grease the filling with sour cream on top (or you can mix the sour cream with the yolk, then the filling will brown more).

Bake the shangi in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 200 degrees. For a golden brown color, you can hold them under the grill at the end of cooking. 2

As they bake, place the finished, still hot shangi in a bowl and grease with melted butter. Cover with a slightly damp towel and leave to rest for about 10 minutes.

20. Pancake Cake

If a couple of pancakes are not enough, you can always make a pancake cake. And you don’t have to wait for Maslenitsa to do this. For one cake, it is enough to make 20 pancakes, spread them with cream based cream and leave them in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Preparation:

Preparing the pancakes:

– Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a deep bowl.

– Add eggs and beat lightly.

– Gradually pour in milk and beat thoroughly until the dough is smooth.

– Pour in vegetable oil and mix. This will help make the pancakes more tender and prevent them from sticking to the pan.

– Fry the pancakes over medium heat, using a small amount of oil for each pancake.

– Cool the finished pancakes.

Preparing the cream:

– Whip the cold cream until stiff peaks form.

– Gradually, without stopping beating, add condensed milk until smooth.

Assembling the cake:

– Place the first pancake on a serving dish.

– Grease each pancake with a thin layer of cream. If desired, you can add layers of chopped nuts, berries, or thinly sliced ​​fruit.

— Repeat until you run out of pancakes, finishing with cream.

— Cover the top and sides of the cake with cream as well.

Cake decoration:

— Decorate the cake to your taste with berries, fruits, chocolate chips or nuts.

— Let the cake soak. To do this, leave it in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours.

21. Stuffed peppers

They always look impressive, and due to heat treatment, the filling has time to soak up the taste of the peppers and the sauce, be it broth, cream, sour cream or tomato sauce. The most common filling is minced meat with or without rice, but peppers with cheese or vegetables are no less interesting.

Ingredients for 4-5 bell peppers:

• 300 g minced meat;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 onion;
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil;
• 1 tomato or 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste — optional;
• 100 g rice;
• salt — to taste;
• ground black pepper — to taste;
• 1 bunch of parsley — optional.

Preparation:

Grate the carrots on a medium or large grater and cut the onion into small cubes.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and put the onion there first, and after 2-3 minutes — the carrots. Fry, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. You can add tomato pulp or tomato paste to the vegetables.

Put the fried mixture on a plate.

Rinse the rice well and boil it in salted water until half-cooked. It should become soft at the edges, but remain firm in the middle.

Put the fried mixture and rice into the minced meat. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped herbs if desired and mix well.

Cut off the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds. Tightly stuff the vegetables with the prepared mixture.

Put the stuffed peppers in a large saucepan or cauldron with the filling facing up.

Then almost completely cover the peppers with sauce. The top of the vegetables should remain open. Therefore, adjust the amount of liquid depending on the size of the saucepan.

Fry the carrots and onions until golden brown. Add tomato pulp or tomato paste, sour cream and spices. You can pour water either into a frying pan or into a saucepan, having previously placed the fried mixture on the peppers.

Cover the container with peppers with a lid and bring the sauce to a boil. Then simmer for about 40 minutes on medium heat.

To check if the peppers are ready, just taste them. The rice, meat and vegetables should be completely cooked.

Remove the peppers from the stove and leave them covered for 10-20 minutes so that they are completely soaked in the sauce and become even tastier and more aromatic.

22. Cake “Moscow”

It appeared only in 2015 and has practically become a gastronomic symbol of the Russian capital. It contains meringue, hazelnuts and boiled condensed milk. The cake is covered with red icing and the inscription “Moscow” made of white chocolate.

To make the Moscow cake at home, you will need:

For the cake layers:

• egg whites – 150 g;
• sugar – 225 g;
• hazelnuts – 250 g.

For the cream:

• room temperature butter – 200 g;
• boiled condensed milk – 400 g;
• 20% fat sour cream – 100 g;
• hazelnuts – 70 g.

Preparation:

Prepare the ingredients for making the cake layers. Dry 320 grams of hazelnuts in the oven in advance, cool completely. Separate the whites from the yolks (the yolks are not needed in this recipe). Weigh the whites, we need 150 grams of whites, cool them very well in the refrigerator. Place 320 grams of hazelnuts in a chopper and grind into crumbs. Pour the well-chilled egg whites into a mixer bowl, beat until fluffy, and then, continuing to beat, pour in the sugar. Beat the egg whites for about 10 minutes (until stiff peaks form). Add 250 grams of nut crumbs to the beaten egg whites and stir with a spatula. The nut-egg mass will be thick and viscous.

Draw circles with a diameter of 18 centimeters on parchment. Place the nut-egg mass inside the drawn circles, forming thin, round cakes. Dry the cakes in a preheated oven for 1 hour at 150 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 110 degrees and dry for another 1 hour. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool completely.

To prepare the cream, take the butter out of the refrigerator in advance so that it has time to warm up to room temperature. In a bowl convenient for whipping, combine butter at room temperature and boiled condensed milk. Beat the butter and condensed milk with a mixer until smooth, add sour cream and beat the cream again. Then add 70 grams of chopped hazelnuts to the cream, mix with a spatula.

To make all the cakes the same and even, cut them along the edge of the plate.

Assemble the cake, greasing the cakes with cream and laying them on top of each other. Also coat the top and sides of the cake with cream.

23. Lazy vareniki

A folk dish for the laziest: just roll out a sausage from cottage cheese dough, cut into pieces and boil in boiling water. No molding, but the result is fantastic!

Ingredients for 4 servings:

– cottage cheese of any fat content — 400 g;

– wheat flour — 100 g;

– eggs — 2 pcs.;

– sugar — 1 tbsp.;

– salt — 1 pinch.

Preparation:

Put the cottage cheese and eggs in a large bowl, add salt and sugar. If you want sweeter dumplings, you can add 2–3 tablespoons of sugar. Stir.

Add flour to the resulting mass little by little — one tablespoon at a time. Stir the mass thoroughly each time. The result should be a fairly dense, sticky dough that holds its shape well.

Sprinkle the work surface with flour, tear off a piece of the dough and roll it into a sausage with a diameter of 2–3 cm. Cut it into pieces about 1–1.5 cm thick. Do the same with the entire dough.

Boil water, adding a little salt. Throw the pieces of dough into the boiling water – all together, if the pan is large, or in portions.

Boil the pieces of dough for 1-2 minutes after boiling. Stir carefully so that the dumplings do not stick to the bottom.

Remove the lazy dumplings with a slotted spoon and immediately put them on a plate.

Serve the lazy dumplings with sour cream and fresh berries. Condensed milk or jam will also work.

24. Tsvetaevsky Pie

This apple pie was often baked in the family of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva. Its specialty is the delicate sour cream dough. Tart, autumn apples are best. Every year on the poetess’s birthday (October 8), admirers still bake it.

Ingredients for 8 servings:

– sweet and sour apples — 4–5 pcs.;

– 20% sour cream — 1 can (350 g);

– butter — 150 g;

– chicken egg — 1 pc.;

– sugar — 200 g;

– flour — 250 g + 2 tbsp.;

– ground cinnamon — 1 tsp.;

– lemon juice — 1 tbsp.;

– baking powder — 1 tsp.;

– salt — a pinch.

Preparation:

Take the butter out of the refrigerator in advance so that it softens. Mix the butter, 100 g sour cream, 250 g flour and baking powder and knead the dough.

Wrap in cling film or a bag and put in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Cut the apples into slices, removing the core.

Place the apples in a bowl with water and lemon juice to prevent them from browning.

Grease the baking pan with butter and sprinkle with flour. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Roll out the chilled dough between two sheets of parchment paper into a layer, transfer it to the pan and spread it out.

Make holes in the bottom with a fork.

Place the pan with the dough in a hot oven for about 10 minutes so that the dough sets slightly and does not get soaked under the liquid filling.

For the filling, mix the egg, the remaining sour cream, sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour and cinnamon.

Place the apples on the crust, pour the sour cream filling over them and return the pie to the oven.

Bake at 180 °C for 30-35 minutes.

25. Ukha

In the 11th-12th centuries, ukha was the name for almost any soup (mushroom, chicken, etc.), implying a broth. Ukha finally became a fish dish at the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th centuries. Modern ukha is a soup with a clear broth of one or several types of fish with onions, potatoes, carrots and spices. Fisherman’s ukha is cooked over a fire and vodka is added at the end.

Ingredients:

– 350 grams of fish (you can use heads, bones, tails or small fish);

– 380–400 grams of large fish, cut into small pieces (silver carp and pike perch are excellent);

– large onion;

– parsley greens and root;

– 5 medium potatoes;

– medium carrots;

– spices (bay leaf, black pepper);

– salt.

Preparation:

Clean small fish from scales, take out gills and entrails. Then rinse well under running water.

Large fish must be gutted, cutting off fins, head and tail. Cut the carcass into small pieces. After this, you need to thoroughly rinse the fish from mucus and blood.

Peel, wash and cut the potatoes into cubes.

Peel the onion and parsley root, chop into small pieces. Parsley branches should be washed well and finely chopped.

Peel the carrots and cut into 2-4 pieces. After preparing the broth, you will need to remove them.

Put the small fish together with the head, fins and tail in gauze. Tie a knot and put it in the water like this. This is necessary to prevent bones from getting into the broth.

Put the knot with the fish in a small saucepan and pour 2.5 liters of water into it. Bring to a boil, remove the foam that appears.

Add the onion, parsley root, pepper and bay leaf. Cover with a lid, placing the dish on low heat. Cooking time is about half an hour.

Remove the gauze knot from the pan. Add the potatoes. After 10 minutes, add the pike perch carcasses and cook for another 15 minutes. A couple of minutes before the fish soup is ready, add salt.

26. Salad “Mimosa”

One look of this salad takes you to the New Year holidays! Several layers of canned fish (usually pink salmon), grated egg whites and yolks, boiled carrots, cheese and greens – and your “Mimosa” is ready.

Ingredients (for a 15×24 cm pan):

• potatoes — 350 g;
• carrots — 250 g;
• eggs — 5 pcs.;
• onions — 150 g;
• canned fish — 250 g;
• mayonnaise — 150 g.

Preparation:

Peel the potatoes and carrots and boil them in salted water. Potatoes boil faster, so take them out first.

Boil the eggs hard.

Peel and finely chop the onion. To remove the bitterness, pour boiling water over it for a few seconds, then drain the water, rinse the onion with cold water and put it on a plate.

Put the canned fish on a plate and mash with a fork until smooth. The liquid from the can is not used, but if the mashed fish turned out dry, you can add a little of the fish’s “own juice” from the can and mix.

Separate the boiled eggs into yolks and whites and grate them separately on a coarse grater. Put the grated white on one plate and the grated yolk on another.

Grate the cooled boiled potatoes and carrots on a coarse grater and put them on different plates.

Assemble the salad in a glass form measuring 15×24 cm. For this, you will need a fork (to smooth the layer) and a spoon or silicone spatula (to evenly distribute the mayonnaise over the layer).

Put half the volume of grated boiled potatoes as the first layer (do not press it down). Grease or make a net of high-quality, fatty mayonnaise.

On each subsequent layer, except the top one, also make a grid or grease with mayonnaise.

The second layer is pre-mashed fish.

Then finely chopped marinated onion.

The remaining half of the grated potato.

Then grated carrots.

A layer of grated cheese.

A layer of egg white.

Finally, cover with yolk grated directly onto the dish.

Cover the form with cling film and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

27. Paste

An old Russian delicacy known since the 14th century. Its birthplace is most often considered to be the city of Kolomna near Moscow. Pastila is made from apples, adding honey and sometimes egg white to lighten it.

Ingredients:

• Apples – 800 g;
• Sugar – 170 g;
• Egg whites – 1 pc.;
• Icing sugar – 50 g.

Preparation:

Wash the apples and bake in the oven at 180 degrees on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. They should be completely baked.

Cool the apples and separate the pulp from the peel and seeds.

Punch the puree with a blender until it turns into a homogeneous mass.

Weigh the finished puree and take 170 grams of sugar for every 500 grams.

Whip the puree with a mixer, gradually adding the protein and sugar. The result should be a fluffy white mass.

Set aside about 4 tablespoons and put in the refrigerator, this will be used to glue the layers of pastila later.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the whipped puree in an even layer about 1.5 cm thick. Smooth it out with a spatula.

Dry the pastila in the oven at 70–80 degrees with the door slightly open. Dry for 4–6 hours, depending on the oven and the volume of the pastila. It should become cream-colored and stop sticking.

Cool the dried pastila and leave for 12 hours.

Remove the paper.

Form the pastila: cut the layer into the required number of parts, grease one part with a thin layer of the set aside puree and put one on top of the other. Cut the resulting blank in half again, grease one part, put one on top of the other.

Dry the pastila again in the oven for 1.5–2 hours at 70–90 degrees, with the door slightly open.

After the time is up, leave the pastila to cool and rest for 12 hours.

Cut the pastila. To make the knife cut easily and not crush the layers, I recommend moistening it with cold water.

Rub powdered sugar into all surfaces of the pastila.

The pastila is ready, you can eat it right away or, wrap it in parchment, put it in a cool place for storage.

28. Zephyr

A light dessert made from fruit puree, named after the ancient Greek god of wind. Zephyr is the younger brother of pastila, which differs not only in shape, but also in the presence of sugar in the composition instead of traditional honey.

Ingredients:

– 35 g protein;

– 35 g sugar;

– a pinch of citric acid.

For the syrup:

– 40 g water;

– 4–5 g agar-agar;

– 100 g strawberry puree;

– 150 g sugar.

Preparation:

Pour water into the puree, add agar-agar and sugar. Mix well and bring the syrup to a boil. Leave to cook until 105 °C or 5 minutes over medium heat.

At this time, pour the protein into a clean and dry bowl, add citric acid and beat until foamy.

Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Return to the syrup and cook until done, or until the desired temperature, for another 5 minutes from the moment of boiling. Mix the syrup well.

At medium speed, mix the hot syrup into the whipped egg whites, pouring in a thin stream.

When all the syrup has been added, turn on the mixer at maximum speed and beat for 3 minutes. The marshmallow mass will be fluffy and dense.

Transfer the finished marshmallow mass into a bag and place on parchment. Leave at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours, depending on the humidity in the room.

When the marshmallow stabilizes, sprinkle it with powdered sugar (you can use powder + corn starch 50/50 to reduce the sweetness) and connect the halves. In this form, the marshmallow can be stored in a closed container, at room temperature for up to 5 days.

29. Baranki

A flour baked product in the shape of a circle or oval with a diameter of 7-10 cm. They are distinguished by a glossy surface, which is obtained due to the fact that they are scalded before baking. Baranki symbolize the sun, which is why the Slavs so willingly decorated their homes with garlands of baranki or hung them on a samovar.

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour 460 grams;
• Salt 5 grams;
• Sugar 45 grams;
• sunflower oil 120 ml;
• Fresh yeast 25 grams;
• Sesame 2 tbsp. spoons;
• Water 250 ml.

Prepare the ingredients.

Dissolve sugar and salt in warm water (38-40 degrees), add fresh yeast, leave for 5-7 minutes.

Pour in flour, start kneading the dough.

When the dough forms a lump, let it sit for 10 minutes, then pour in vegetable oil.

Knead the oil into the dough. Cover with a napkin and put in a warm place for one hour.

After an hour, the dough will have increased in size by 2-3 times. Press it down with your hands. Turn the oven to 200 degrees.

Divide the dough into 12 parts. Form a bun from each part of the dough.

Boil 1 liter of water in a saucepan. Dip each bun in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Sprinkle the baking sheets with flour or use silicone mats for baking. Place the buns at a distance from each other. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, cool on a rack, and enjoy!

30. Bagels

A bagel is similar to a bun, but larger, with a diameter of 8 to 20 cm. The dough inside is softer and looser, so bagels cannot be stored for months like buns.

Ingredients for the dough:

– water – 100 ml;

– milk – 100 ml;

– sugar – 4 tbsp;

– vanillin – 0.5 tsp;

– salt – 0.5 tsp;

– dry yeast – 1 tbsp;

– egg white – 1 pc.;

– vegetable oil – 3 tbsp;

– baking powder – 1 tsp;

– flour – 400 g.

For the interlayer: butter – 30 g.

For coating: yolk – 1 pc., milk – 1 tbsp.

For sprinkling: sesame or poppy seeds – 2 tbsp. l..

Preparation:

Pour warm water and warm milk into a bowl, add vanilla, sugar, salt, dry yeast, egg white and vegetable oil.

Stir until smooth and add sifted flour and baking powder. Knead the dough, cover with a thin towel or cling film and leave for 1 hour in a warm place without drafts.

Lightly knead the dough when it has risen and divide it into 9 equal-sized parts.

Form the bagels: roll the dough ball into a small circle, grease with soft butter, roll into a “sausage” and twist into a roll.

Pinch the edges and connect the two edges of the “sausage” together, giving it the shape of a bagel.

Place the blanks on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Leave to rise for 15-20 minutes, covered with a bag.

Then brush with a mixture of yolk and milk and sprinkle with fried sesame or poppy seeds. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

31. Solyanka

This soup has an unusual sour-salty taste – it’s all about the pickles, olives, lemon, and sometimes kvass that are added to it. Solyankas can be meat, fish, or mushroom. In Soviet times, solyanka was sold as instant soup in cans.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

– broth – 2 l;

– sausages – 4 pcs.;

– cooked sausage – 200 g;

– ham – 200 g;

– pickles – 4 pcs.;

– onions – 1 pc.;

– olives – 1 can;

– parsley – 1 bunch;

– tomato paste – 2 tbsp.;

– lemon – 1 pc.;

– sour cream – 1 pack.

Preparation:

Boil the meat broth or use ready-made. When the broth boils, remove it from the heat. If you boiled the broth yourself, take the meat out and chop finely. Also chop the sausages, sausage and ham. Finely chop the greens and pickles.

Finely chop the onion and simmer with tomato paste, cucumbers, sausage, ham and hot dogs for 10-15 minutes.

Return the broth to the heat and add the stewed mixture with tomato paste. Add the meat from the broth (if you made the broth yourself). Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Add olives to the solyanka and bring to a boil. Then remove from heat.

Serve with lemon and sour cream.

32. Leningrad cake

It is based on shortbread layers soaked in butter cream and decorated with chocolate glaze. But the most delicious thing is the nut crumbs on the sides. The cake was created in the famous Leningrad cafe “Sever”, which still exists today.

For shortbread layers:

Combine 1 egg, 125 g fine sugar and 185 g high-fat butter, softened to room temperature, in a bowl. Beat everything at medium speed with a mixer until smooth and homogeneous.

Add 1 tsp baking powder and 330 g pre-sifted flour (all at once). Quickly knead the dough – collect the crumbs with your hands and form a bun.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts, roll each into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

When the dough has stood, roll out each part on parchment. Send the blanks back to the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Bake the layers for 10-12 minutes – the oven should be preheated to 180 degrees. Cool without removing from the parchment.

For the glaze:

Melt about 200 g of sugar fondant in a water bath, add a little water to make the glaze runny, stir in 1 tbsp of cocoa.

Quickly, while the glaze is warm, cover one of the cakes. It hardens instantly, literally in 7-10 seconds, so you need to smooth it out very quickly before it sets. Leave the cake covered with chocolate fondant on the work surface until it hardens completely.

For the Charlotte cream:

Put 1 egg yolk in a saucepan, pour in 75 ml of cold milk, add 115 g of sugar and 1 tbsp of vanilla sugar, stir vigorously with a whisk until a light foam appears, so that the yolk is completely dissolved.

Next, take 125 g of soft butter, melted at room temperature, and beat with a mixer for several minutes until white and fluffy. Then add the cooled syrup in portions, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, without stopping the mixer. At the end, pour in 1 tbsp. cocoa powder, beat again. Put about 3-4 tbsp. chocolate cream in a sleeve with a nozzle – it will go for decoration. Pour a spoonful of cognac into the remaining cream, beat a little more until smooth.

To assemble the cake:

Grease 3 cakes with cream, placing them on top of each other. There will be little cream, so carefully spread it in an even layer – about 2 tbsp.

Grease the sides of the cake with cream, sprinkle with biscuit crumbs (for this, grate the biscuit scraps that are left over from any cake, grind them on a grater or in a blender, pour them onto a baking sheet and brown in the oven).

Decorate the top of the cake with roasted peanuts and sprinkle the sides with toasted biscuit crumbs.

33. Kissel

In Rus’, kissel was a separate dish and was fermented oatmeal with water – that is, something like a pudding. Modern kissel is a thick fruit and berry drink with starch. In stores, it is sold in the form of briquettes that need to be dissolved in water, but children really like to gnaw on them just like that.

Ingredients:

• frozen or fresh berries — 200–250 g;
• water — 1.5 l;
• granulated sugar — 200–250 g;
• potato starch — 3 tbsp;
• 1/3 tsp citric acid or lemon juice.

Preparation:

Sort and wash the fresh berries. Do not defrost the frozen ones.

Pour water into a saucepan, put it on the stove and bring to a boil.

Pour citric acid into the container or add juice and granulated sugar.

Pour in the berries, bring to a boil and cook for 5–7 minutes.

Strain and put the broth back on the stove.

Pour starch into a cup and add 100 g of cold water.

Stir the starch vigorously in the water and pour it into the pan in a thin stream.

Bring to a boil and turn off the burner.

34. Belyashi

This dish of Tatar and Bashkir cuisine was a popular street food in Soviet times. Open pies with minced meat, fried in oil, were sold in railway station shops and delicatessens.

Ingredients:

– flour — 3–3.5 cups;

– egg — 1 piece;

– sugar — 1 tablespoon;

– vegetable oil — 3 tablespoons;

– dry yeast — 1 tablespoon;

– milk — 1 cup;

– minced pork — 400 g;

– onions — 2 pieces;

– salt, pepper — to taste.

Preparation:

Make the dough: in a bowl, mix the egg, sugar, salt, pour in warm milk and diluted yeast, vegetable oil. Pour in the flour and knead. Let the dough rise in a dark place.

Pass the meat through a meat grinder. Add salt, pepper and chopped onion to the minced meat.

Knead the dough, sprinkle with flour and knead. The dough should not stick to your hands.

Divide the dough into parts, roll out circles.

Place the minced meat in the middle and form a belyash, leaving a hole on top.

Pour oil into a deep frying pan and fry the belyashes with the holes facing down first.

Turn over and fry for another 5–7 minutes, turning constantly.

Let the finished belyashes cool before serving.

35. Jam

In Russia, jam is made from almost everything – berries, fruits, and even cedar cones. In the Astrakhan region, watermelons are also used – this jam is called “nardek”, or “watermelon honey”.

Ingredients:

• cherries — 1.3 kg;
• sugar — 1 kg;
• star anise — 2 stars.

Preparation:

Wash the berries, dry them, remove the pits.

Put the berries in a wide saucepan or bowl, cover with half the sugar, cover with gauze or paper and leave for 3 hours so that the cherries give juice.

Drain the released juice, add the remaining sugar and bring to a boil. Put the berries in a saucepan, bring to a boil again and, removing the foam, cook for another 10 minutes.

Cool the jam, then put it on the fire and cook after boiling for another 10 minutes. Cool completely.

After 24 hours, put the jam on the fire again, add the star anise, cook after boiling for 10 minutes, let cool completely.

Place the finished jam into sterilized jars and close with boiled lids (you don’t have to roll them up).

36. Lightly salted cucumbers

Crispy cucumbers, salted with garlic and dill, are a traditional Russian snack for vodka, and cucumber brine is a hangover cure. In addition, cucumbers are a good snack for potatoes, used in salads (vinaigrette) and soups (rassolnik).

Ingredients:

– Cucumbers 1 kg;

– Garlic 4-5 cloves;

– Dill 1/2 bunch;

– Water 1 liter;

– Salt 2 tbsp. spoons;

– Bay leaf 2 pieces;

– Black peppercorns 5-6 pieces.

Prepare all ingredients. For 1 kilogram of lightly salted cucumbers you need 2 tablespoons of salt.

For the brine, boil water with salt and bay leaf. Boil for a couple of minutes and remove from the stove. Leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, wash and dry the cucumbers. Cut off the ends.

Peel the garlic cloves and cut into slices. Coarsely chop the dill together with the stems.

Place the dill, garlic and peppercorns on the bottom of a food container. You can also use a sterilized jar or saucepan instead of a container.

Place cucumbers on top. Pour brine over. Leave to cool completely. Then put in the refrigerator for 1 day.

37. Wafer rolls

This dessert is associated with childhood for many. Moreover, getting wafer rolls with boiled condensed milk in Soviet times was a real stroke of luck! They did not appear on sale very often, and a personal wafer iron was a luxury.

Ingredients:

– flour — 200 g;

– butter — 100 g;

– milk — 100 ml;

– eggs — 3 pcs.;

– sugar — 150 g;

– vanillin or vanilla sugar — optional;

– salt — a small pinch.

Preparation:

Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl.

Mix everything with a mixer until the sugar dissolves.

Melt the butter until liquid. Pour milk and melted (but not too hot) butter into the egg mixture.

Add a small pinch of salt and vanillin and mix everything.

Add flour and mix the dough until smooth. The dough should not be too liquid.

Pour about 2 tablespoons of dough into a preheated frying pan and spread it evenly over the surface in the thinnest possible layer.

After 2-3 minutes, when one side of the waffles is browned, turn them over and fry them for about a minute on the other side (also until golden brown). Waffles should be fried (dried) on low heat, since at high heat they can turn into pancakes.

After removing the hot waffle from the frying pan, immediately roll it into a tube, since the cooled product becomes quite fragile.

Ready waffles can be filled with a filling, for example, cream or boiled condensed milk.

38. Sauerkraut

Cabbage with carrots and sour cranberries after a few days of fermentation in a salt solution turns into an excellent snack for any occasion. Sometimes apple, beetroot or capsicum are added to the cabbage.

Ingredients:

– cabbage — 3 kilograms;

– carrots — 700 grams;

– salt — 75 grams.

Method of preparation:

Chop the cabbage into thin strips and place in a large bowl.

Add grated carrots to it.

Mix the contents of the bowl with salt.

Mix the mass until juice appears.

Treat the dishes with boiling water, then begin to tightly place the cabbage in it. Use a wooden masher for tamping.

Cover the jar with a lid with holes or gauze. It cannot be closed tightly, since the gas will have nowhere to escape.

Place the jar in a deep plate, into which excess liquid will flow.

Ferment at room temperature in a dry, dark place. Pierce the leaves daily with a dry wooden stick that reaches the very bottom.

In about a week, the white foam will disappear, the gas will stop being produced, and the leaves will acquire a sour-salty taste.

39. Sugar “tongues”

One of the most popular Soviet (and modern) desserts – sugar “tongues”. Puff pastry cakes sprinkled with sugar. Everything ingenious is simple!

Ingredients:

• puff pastry — 500 g;
• sugar — 2 tbsp;
• chicken egg — 1 pc.;
• flour — 15 g.

Preparation:

Defrost the puff pastry at room temperature in advance, but not completely.

Sprinkle the table with flour, lay out one rectangle of puff pastry on it and cut into rectangles.

Place the dough blanks on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Leave a little space between the rectangles so that they do not stick to each other during baking.

Beat the egg and brush each rectangle of dough with the beaten egg using a silicone brush.

Sprinkle each rectangle evenly with sugar.

Put the baking sheet with future tongues in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

After the refrigerator, immediately place the baking sheet with the blanks in a hot oven. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 °C.

Remove the puff pastry from the oven and place on a plate. You can serve the tongues either warm or cold.

40. Ossetian Pie

This is probably one of the most popular regional dishes that can be found in any corner of Russia. Ossetian pies have many varieties, including fydjyn with meat and broth, ualibakh with cheese and bean kadurjin.

Dough:

– 500 g wheat flour;

– 400 ml milk;

– 50 g butter;

– 10 g sugar (1.5 tsp);

– 7 g salt (1 tsp);

– 5 g dry yeast (or 15 g fresh).

Filling:

– 200 g boiled hot potatoes;

– 300 g cheese (Ossetian, suluguni, Adyghe or mozzarella);

– 10 g butter;

– salt, pepper to taste (if necessary).

You will also need butter for greasing the finished pies (20–30 g).

Preparation:

In a deep bowl, combine rice flour, baking powder and salt. Add kefir to the dry ingredients. Mix the mixture thoroughly until smooth. Leave the bowl with the contents at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Wash the greens thoroughly, dry with a paper towel and chop into small crumbs. Add one chicken egg to the mixture. Mix well.

Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Form a round layer from each. Place the cheese and greens mixture in the center of each product. Fold the edges of the dough to the middle, covering the filling. Pinch. Press down with your hand on top and shape into a circle.

Bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

41. Rum Baba

A alcoholic cake? If only a little. Rum baba is a rich pastry soaked in syrup with a little cognac or rum and covered with sugar fondant.

Ingredients for the dough:

– 250 g flour;

– 100 ml warm milk;

– 100 g butter;

– 2 eggs;

– 17 g fresh yeast;

– 40 g sugar;

– 1 tsp salt;

– 50 g raisins;

– 100 ml rum.

Preparation:

Pour rum over the raisins and let them swell.

Dissolve 1 tsp sugar and yeast in milk (36–38 °C), place in a warm place for 10 minutes.

In a mixer bowl, mix the yeast, eggs, salt and sifted flour. Knead the dough with a dough hook for about 15 minutes.

Add melted butter and knead for about 15 minutes until the dough becomes elastic, shiny and easily detaches from surfaces. Finally, add raisins and mix well.

Cover the dough with cling film or a towel and leave it in a warm place to rise for about 30–40 minutes, it should double in size.

Grease the molds with butter and fill them 2/3 full with dough. Cover the filled molds with a towel and leave them to rise for about 20 minutes.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 °C for about 20–25 minutes, focusing on the tops — they should be golden brown.

Take the buns out of the molds and place them upside down on a wire rack, let them cool.

42. Vinaigrette

The word that in France is used to describe a sauce has become the name of a full-fledged salad in Russia. Vinaigrette probably came to Russian cuisine from Europe. The classic Russian recipe consists of finely chopped boiled beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, peas and salted or pickled cucumbers with a dressing of oil and vinegar. There are many versions of vinaigrette – with sauerkraut, with beans, with mushrooms, with meat, with chopped egg and herring.

Ingredients:

– 2 large beets or 3 medium ones;

– 1 large carrot;

– 3 medium potatoes (you need a variety that doesn’t boil over. Most often, these are varieties with red or pink skin);

– 5-6 pickled or salted cucumbers;

– 1 can of canned peas;

– high-quality vegetable oil;

– salt.

Preparation:

Wash the beets, potatoes and carrots very well, scrub them with a brush under running water so that there is no soil left on them. Boil water in two saucepans. Put the potatoes in one, the carrots and beets in the other and boil until done. The beets and carrots will cook for about an hour, and the potatoes – for 20-30 minutes, depending on the variety. Salt the vegetables 10 minutes before they are done.

Let the cooked vegetables cool down, peel them. Cut into equal-sized cubes. Not too large, but not too small, so as not to get mush.

Chop the cucumbers and mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Salt if necessary and season with vegetable oil. If you want more sourness, you can add a little lemon juice, but not vinegar.