Month: March 2019

Russia is a multinational country where you can taste the most different, sometimes very exotic, dishes of many nationalities – from Tatar chak-chak (dough with honey dessert) to Yakut planed (freshly frozen fish or meat). The traditional cuisine is found in any Russian restaurant. Here is a list of 6 dishes that you must absolutely try in Russia.

Pelmeni (dumplings)

Pelmeni is probably the most famous Russian dish abroad. The dish first appeared in the Urals at the end of the XIV century. The name “pelmeni” comes from a similar word of the Finno-Ugric language group, which literally means “bread ear”. Classic dumplings are made of minced meat consisting of beef, lamb, pork, wrapped in an unleavened dough made from flour, eggs, and water. Ready dumplings are boiled in salted water. Served with butter, mustard, sour cream or other spices. Many generations of Russians are familiar with the tradition of molding dumplings with the whole family. The larger the family, the greater the volume of dumplings. Part of them was cooked immediately, the rest was frozen.

Blini (pancakes)

Blini are the Russian pancakes, the oldest dish of Russian cuisine, which first appeared in the IX century. The recipe for cooking one of the most famous Russian dishes is quite simple – milk, eggs, and salt; but the cooking process is akin to craftsmanship, which not every hostess can master. The liquid dough is poured onto the frying pan, the task of the cook is to bake a ruddy even pancake without lumps and prevent it from burning ahead of time. The thinner the pancakes, the higher the level of skill. In Russia, there is still a saying “First pancake is lumpy”, meaning failure at the beginning of any endeavor. Usually, pancakes are served hot with sour cream, butter, honey, or used for wrapping various fillings – meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and other toppings. Special chic are blini with caviar.

Kasha (porridge)

Kasha, like soups, is a very important part of Russian cuisine. Russians, especially in childhood, eat porridge for breakfast – kasha is healthy and nutritious. Semolina, pearl barley, oatmeal, buckwheat, and a few dozen more varieties of kasha are available. Porridge will most likely be offered for breakfast at a hotel, cafe, student cafeteria or during a visit to a Russian home. It is served hot, generously flavored with butter. As they say in Russia, you will not spoil the porridge with butter, which means that something useful will not be harmful even in large quantities.

Shchi (soup)

Shchi is a cabbage soup, which was invented back in the XI century. The list of ingredients includes meat, seasonings and sour dressing from fermented cabbage. However, the ingredients may vary depending on the kind of shchi (lean, fish, green) and the culinary skill of the chef – many Russians prepare this soup according to their own recipes. Shchi is traditionally served with rye bread, seasoned with sour cream and spices.

Pirogi (pies)

Pirogi in Russian cuisine has about the same meaning as pizza in the Italian one. Russian pies are baked mainly from savory dough with various fillings – from meat and fish to fruit and cottage cheese. Pirogki are the small one portion sized pastries with fillings. Vatrushki, kulebyaki, kulichi, kurniki is not a complete list of varieties of this dish. You can consider yourself lucky if you can try homemade pirogi. However, in many catering establishments, Russian pies are not inferior in quality to the ones cooked at home.

Beef stroganoff

It is known that beef stroganoff is included in the menu of international cuisine as a Russian national dish. Finely chopped, fried pieces of meat in a thick tomato and sour cream sauce first appeared in Odessa on the so-called “open table”, which was hosted by the governor-general of Novorossia count Alexander Grigorievich Stroganov. Of course, this dish was not invented by Stroganov himself, an exceptionally rich and famous man, the last of the kind of count and baronial branches of the Stroganovs. This original dish was invented at the end of the XIX century by one of the cooks of the count. Later, Odessa chefs introduced their favorite dish into cookbooks, giving its the name of Stroganov and all-Russian fame.