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Russian cuisine has a rich history and offers a wide variety of soups, dishes made from fish, cereal based products and drinks. Vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, berries, herbs also play a major part while meat does not. Primordial Russian products such as caviar, smetana, buckwheat, rye flour, etc. have had a great influence on world cuisine.
Soups
Soups have always played a main role on a Russian table. The national repertoire of soups such as shchi, ukha, rassolnik, solyanka, botvin`, okroshka, and teur' was enlarged in the 18th to 20th centuries as European clear soups, puree soups, stews and others became popular. Soups from neighboring Slavic countries were similarly incorporated - the world-famous borsch, for example, is originally Ukrainian.
Russian soups can be divided at least into 7 large groups:
Cold soups based on kvas such as teur', Okroshka, and botvin'.
Light soups and stews based on water and vegetables.
Noodle soups with meat, mushroom and milk gamma.
Soups based on cabbage, most prominently Shchi.
Thick soups based on meat broth with a salty-sour base like rassolnik and solyanka.
Fish soups such as ukha and kal'ya.
Grain and vegetable based soups.
Cold Soups
Okroshka
Okroshka is a cold soup based on kvas, the main ingredients are vegetables which can be mixed with cold boiled meat or fish with a proportion 1:1. Depending on this okroshka is called vegetable, meat or fish.
There must be two sorts of vegetables in okroshka, the first must have a neutral taste (boiled potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, fresh cucumbers) the second must be spicy consisting of mainly green onion as well as other herbs (greens of dill, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon). Different meat and poultry can be used in the same soup. The most common ingredient is beef alone or with poultry. If it is made with fish, the best choice would be tench, perch, pike-perch, cod or other neutral tasting fish.
Kvas that is most commonly used is white okroshka kvas, which is much more sour than drinking kvas. Spices used include mustard, black pepper and cucumber pickle (the water used), solely or in combination.
And for the final touch boiled eggs and smetana are added.
Teur is very similar to okroshka; the main difference being that instead of vegetables bread is used.
Botvin`ya is one of the most typical cold Russian soups, that went almost extinct because it is very hard to make. Recipes that you can find in some modern cooking books give advices as how to prepare it "easily" by substituting some of the ingredients. But that will not give you the real taste.
A full botvin'ya consists of three parts: 1) the soup, 2) boiled red fish (salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon), that is served separately from soup, 3) crushed ice, served on a separate platter or cup.
The name of the soup comes from the Russian word botva, which means "leafy tops of root vegetables". And the ingredients keep in line with the name: leafy tops of young beet, beetroots, oxalate sorrel, green onions, dill, cucumbers, two types of kvas, then some mustard, lemon juice and horse-radish as spices.
It is eaten as first course or right after a hot soup, before the second course as an appetizer. You have to eat it with two spoons and a fork: the fork is used to take the fish, the first spoon to sip the soup and the second spoon to put ice into the soup, so it always stays cold. Botvin'ya is eaten with fresh rye bread.
Hot Soups
Shchi (cabbage soup) had been the main Russian first course over a thousand years. Although tastes changed, it steadily made its way through several epochs. And it never knew social class boundaries, it was a soup for everyone. Of course shchi was not the same for different people: the one richer in ingredients, was called accordingly "rich", on the contrary "poor" shchi was made out of cabbage and onions solely. Nevertheless all these "poor" and "rich" variations were cooked in the same tradition thus obtaining its taste and flavour. The unique taste of this cabbage soup was from the fact that after cooking it was left to draw (stew) in a Russian stove. "Spirit of scshi" was ineradicable from a Russian izba (log hut). Many Russian proverbs are connected to this soup, such as "Shchi - vsemu golova" ("Shchi is head to everything"). It can be eaten regularly at any time of the year.
The richer variant of shchi includes 6 main components: cabbage, meat (very rarely fish or mushrooms), carrots or parsley roots, spicy herbs (onions, celery, dill, garlic, pepper, boy leaf) and sour components (smetana, apples, cabbage pickle (water). The first and the last components are a must.
When this soup is served, smetana is added. It is eaten with rye bread.
Stews are first course dishes that are actually strong vegetable broths.
Unlike shchi or other soups based on meat broths, stews are light soups based on vegetables and water.
One vegetable always prevails in stews hence the name: onion, potato, turnip, rutabaga, lentil, etc. Preference is given to tender vegetables with short boil times and string unique taste. Beans, sour cabbage, beetroot are never used.
Ukha is a hot watery fish dish, calling it a fish soup would be not absolutely correct. "Ukha" as a name for fish broth was established only in the late XVII - early XVIII centuries. In earlier times this name was first given to meat and later chicken thick broths. Beggining from the XV c. more and more often was fish used to prepare ukha, thus creating a dish that had a different distinguished taste amongst other soups.
A minimum of vegetables is added in preperation, some potatoes, carrots and essencialy onions. A wide variety of freshwater fish can be used. There is an opinion that you can't make a good ukha from seafish, but this is untrue. Fresh fish is best to be cooked, so if it frozen its better not to defreeze it. Preference is given to smaller, younger fish, with the tail part of bigger fish discarded.
''Kal'ya'' was a very common first served dish in the XVI-XVII c. Subsequently it was almost completely came out of russian cuisine, often it was incorrectly called as fish rassolnik. Cooking technique is mostly the same as of ukha, but to the broth were added pickled cucumbers, pickle water, lemons and lemon juice, either seperately or alltogether. Main charachteristic of kal'ya is that only fat rich fish was used, sometimes caviar was added along with fish. More spices are added, the soup turns out more piquant and thicker than ukha. Formerely kal'ya was considered a festivity dish.
Rassolnik is a hot soup on salty-sour cucumber base. This dish formed in russian cuisine quite late - only in the XIX ρ®¬ and at about this time the name rassolnik was fixed behind it. It originates from the russian word "rassol" which means pickle water. Pickle water was known to be used as base for soups from the XV c. at the latest. Its concentration and ratio with other liquids and soup components gave birth to different soups: kal'ya, solyanka, pohmelka and of course rassolnik. The latest are moderately sour-salty soups on cucumber base - vegetarian or more often with subproducts: veal or beef kidney's solely or all poultry giblets (stomach,liver, heart, neck, feet). For best taste there has to be a balance between the sour part and neutral absorbers (cereals, potatoes, root vegetables). Like most russian soups rassolnik is whitened with smetana.
Solyanka is a thick piquant soup that combines components from schi (cabbage, smetana) and rassolnik (pickle water and cucumbers), spices such as olives, capers, tomatoes, lemons, lemon juice, kvas, salted and pickled mushrooms are make up a considerably strong sour-salty-piquant base of the soup. Comparing to other soups solyanka is much more thicker, about 1/3 less liquid ratio. 3 types are distinguished: meat, fish and simple solyanka. The first two are cooked on strong meat, fish broths, the last on mushroom or vegetable broth. All the broths are mixed with cucumber pickle water.
Noodle soup was adopted by Russians from Tatar's, after some tranformation became widespread in Russia. Noodle soup comes in three variations: chicken, mushroom and milk. Cooking all the types is easy, including preparation of noodles, cooking of corresponding broth and boiling of noodles in broth. Noodles are made based on the same recipe out of wheat flour or buckweat, wheat flour mix. Mixed flour noodles go better with mushroom or milk broth.
Drinks
Almost all Russian traditional drinks are original and are not present in other national cuisines. Those are sbiten`, kvas, medok, mors, curdle with raisins, boiled cabbage juice. Many of them are no longer in use. Long since they were drank as a compliment to meat and poultry dishes, sweet porridges and desert. Standing apart from all of them is sbiten, whose place was taken by tea when it came to Russia.
Most ancient drink is medok (medi, medki), this word in russian is the diminutive form of the word "honey". It should not be mixed up with the so called "stavlenniy myod"(brewed honey): medok is made on water with small amounts of honey and hops, "stavlenniy myod" is a strong alcoholic drink, composed of berry juice, large amount of honey and vodka. Mors is made of berry juice, mixed in different proporsions with water, slightly fermented. Curdle is prepared on raisins and is slightly fermented as well. Cabbage juice (fresh, but more often sour, from fermented cabbage) is boiled with a small amount of sugar. These drinks are non-persistent, made in small amounts in household conditions.
Soups
Soups have always played a main role on a Russian table. The national repertoire of soups such as shchi, ukha, rassolnik, solyanka, botvin`, okroshka, and teur' was enlarged in the 18th to 20th centuries as European clear soups, puree soups, stews and others became popular. Soups from neighboring Slavic countries were similarly incorporated - the world-famous borsch, for example, is originally Ukrainian.
Russian soups can be divided at least into 7 large groups:
Cold soups based on kvas such as teur', Okroshka, and botvin'.
Light soups and stews based on water and vegetables.
Noodle soups with meat, mushroom and milk gamma.
Soups based on cabbage, most prominently Shchi.
Thick soups based on meat broth with a salty-sour base like rassolnik and solyanka.
Fish soups such as ukha and kal'ya.
Grain and vegetable based soups.
Cold Soups
Okroshka
Okroshka is a cold soup based on kvas, the main ingredients are vegetables which can be mixed with cold boiled meat or fish with a proportion 1:1. Depending on this okroshka is called vegetable, meat or fish.
There must be two sorts of vegetables in okroshka, the first must have a neutral taste (boiled potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, fresh cucumbers) the second must be spicy consisting of mainly green onion as well as other herbs (greens of dill, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon). Different meat and poultry can be used in the same soup. The most common ingredient is beef alone or with poultry. If it is made with fish, the best choice would be tench, perch, pike-perch, cod or other neutral tasting fish.
Kvas that is most commonly used is white okroshka kvas, which is much more sour than drinking kvas. Spices used include mustard, black pepper and cucumber pickle (the water used), solely or in combination.
And for the final touch boiled eggs and smetana are added.
Teur is very similar to okroshka; the main difference being that instead of vegetables bread is used.
Botvin`ya is one of the most typical cold Russian soups, that went almost extinct because it is very hard to make. Recipes that you can find in some modern cooking books give advices as how to prepare it "easily" by substituting some of the ingredients. But that will not give you the real taste.
A full botvin'ya consists of three parts: 1) the soup, 2) boiled red fish (salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon), that is served separately from soup, 3) crushed ice, served on a separate platter or cup.
The name of the soup comes from the Russian word botva, which means "leafy tops of root vegetables". And the ingredients keep in line with the name: leafy tops of young beet, beetroots, oxalate sorrel, green onions, dill, cucumbers, two types of kvas, then some mustard, lemon juice and horse-radish as spices.
It is eaten as first course or right after a hot soup, before the second course as an appetizer. You have to eat it with two spoons and a fork: the fork is used to take the fish, the first spoon to sip the soup and the second spoon to put ice into the soup, so it always stays cold. Botvin'ya is eaten with fresh rye bread.
Hot Soups
Shchi (cabbage soup) had been the main Russian first course over a thousand years. Although tastes changed, it steadily made its way through several epochs. And it never knew social class boundaries, it was a soup for everyone. Of course shchi was not the same for different people: the one richer in ingredients, was called accordingly "rich", on the contrary "poor" shchi was made out of cabbage and onions solely. Nevertheless all these "poor" and "rich" variations were cooked in the same tradition thus obtaining its taste and flavour. The unique taste of this cabbage soup was from the fact that after cooking it was left to draw (stew) in a Russian stove. "Spirit of scshi" was ineradicable from a Russian izba (log hut). Many Russian proverbs are connected to this soup, such as "Shchi - vsemu golova" ("Shchi is head to everything"). It can be eaten regularly at any time of the year.
The richer variant of shchi includes 6 main components: cabbage, meat (very rarely fish or mushrooms), carrots or parsley roots, spicy herbs (onions, celery, dill, garlic, pepper, boy leaf) and sour components (smetana, apples, cabbage pickle (water). The first and the last components are a must.
When this soup is served, smetana is added. It is eaten with rye bread.
Stews are first course dishes that are actually strong vegetable broths.
Unlike shchi or other soups based on meat broths, stews are light soups based on vegetables and water.
One vegetable always prevails in stews hence the name: onion, potato, turnip, rutabaga, lentil, etc. Preference is given to tender vegetables with short boil times and string unique taste. Beans, sour cabbage, beetroot are never used.
Ukha is a hot watery fish dish, calling it a fish soup would be not absolutely correct. "Ukha" as a name for fish broth was established only in the late XVII - early XVIII centuries. In earlier times this name was first given to meat and later chicken thick broths. Beggining from the XV c. more and more often was fish used to prepare ukha, thus creating a dish that had a different distinguished taste amongst other soups.
A minimum of vegetables is added in preperation, some potatoes, carrots and essencialy onions. A wide variety of freshwater fish can be used. There is an opinion that you can't make a good ukha from seafish, but this is untrue. Fresh fish is best to be cooked, so if it frozen its better not to defreeze it. Preference is given to smaller, younger fish, with the tail part of bigger fish discarded.
''Kal'ya'' was a very common first served dish in the XVI-XVII c. Subsequently it was almost completely came out of russian cuisine, often it was incorrectly called as fish rassolnik. Cooking technique is mostly the same as of ukha, but to the broth were added pickled cucumbers, pickle water, lemons and lemon juice, either seperately or alltogether. Main charachteristic of kal'ya is that only fat rich fish was used, sometimes caviar was added along with fish. More spices are added, the soup turns out more piquant and thicker than ukha. Formerely kal'ya was considered a festivity dish.
Rassolnik is a hot soup on salty-sour cucumber base. This dish formed in russian cuisine quite late - only in the XIX ρ®¬ and at about this time the name rassolnik was fixed behind it. It originates from the russian word "rassol" which means pickle water. Pickle water was known to be used as base for soups from the XV c. at the latest. Its concentration and ratio with other liquids and soup components gave birth to different soups: kal'ya, solyanka, pohmelka and of course rassolnik. The latest are moderately sour-salty soups on cucumber base - vegetarian or more often with subproducts: veal or beef kidney's solely or all poultry giblets (stomach,liver, heart, neck, feet). For best taste there has to be a balance between the sour part and neutral absorbers (cereals, potatoes, root vegetables). Like most russian soups rassolnik is whitened with smetana.
Solyanka is a thick piquant soup that combines components from schi (cabbage, smetana) and rassolnik (pickle water and cucumbers), spices such as olives, capers, tomatoes, lemons, lemon juice, kvas, salted and pickled mushrooms are make up a considerably strong sour-salty-piquant base of the soup. Comparing to other soups solyanka is much more thicker, about 1/3 less liquid ratio. 3 types are distinguished: meat, fish and simple solyanka. The first two are cooked on strong meat, fish broths, the last on mushroom or vegetable broth. All the broths are mixed with cucumber pickle water.
Noodle soup was adopted by Russians from Tatar's, after some tranformation became widespread in Russia. Noodle soup comes in three variations: chicken, mushroom and milk. Cooking all the types is easy, including preparation of noodles, cooking of corresponding broth and boiling of noodles in broth. Noodles are made based on the same recipe out of wheat flour or buckweat, wheat flour mix. Mixed flour noodles go better with mushroom or milk broth.
Drinks
Almost all Russian traditional drinks are original and are not present in other national cuisines. Those are sbiten`, kvas, medok, mors, curdle with raisins, boiled cabbage juice. Many of them are no longer in use. Long since they were drank as a compliment to meat and poultry dishes, sweet porridges and desert. Standing apart from all of them is sbiten, whose place was taken by tea when it came to Russia.
Most ancient drink is medok (medi, medki), this word in russian is the diminutive form of the word "honey". It should not be mixed up with the so called "stavlenniy myod"(brewed honey): medok is made on water with small amounts of honey and hops, "stavlenniy myod" is a strong alcoholic drink, composed of berry juice, large amount of honey and vodka. Mors is made of berry juice, mixed in different proporsions with water, slightly fermented. Curdle is prepared on raisins and is slightly fermented as well. Cabbage juice (fresh, but more often sour, from fermented cabbage) is boiled with a small amount of sugar. These drinks are non-persistent, made in small amounts in household conditions.