Elite life
Belarus (Belarusian Recipes)
The Belarusian cuisine has a century - old, rich and interesting history. Zing since Belarusians maintained close economic and cultural relations with Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Letts. And it is guite predictable that the Belarusian cuisine influenced the cuisines of neighbouring people and vice versa.
Art of cookery was always closely connected with the national mode of life, culture and customs. Belarusians as well as other Slav people practiced arable farming therefore they mainly used vegetable food: wild herbs (nettle, orache, sorrel, field garlic, meadow onions), mushrooms and berries. Rye, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, peas are ancient cultures on the territory of Belarus used for cooking. The main methods of preserving food in those times were drying, making sour and a little bit later salting. Fish, mushrooms and fruits were being dried in stoves. In everyday nourishment Belarusians used grains and vegetables which they grew in the fields and kitchen-gardens. Brown rye bread took the first place in the nourishment. Belarusians brought up respect and thrift for bread from childhood. There are a lot of proverbs and sayings about bread, for example "Bread is the head of everything." The Slavs' most ancient article is a round loaf. It played an important role in ceremonies especially at weddings. A round loaf was decorated with dough figures of birds, animals and men at the top.
One of the main food products were vegetables. Our ancestors ate raw carrots, cucumbers, onions, garlic, black radish, turnips. Belarusians liked mushrooms - fresh, dried, salt, and forest berries: blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, wild strawberries, cowberries, great bilberries. Sauerkraut is a widespread dish typical of Belarus.
From the 18th century the main place in the nourishment was taken by potatoes. They became everyday food for peasants. Potatoes were boiled as a whole and cut, peeled and in jackets. It was baked and fried. They made draniki from grated potatoes (potato pancakes ), "Babka" (potato cereal with meat ), potato kliotskas (a kind of dumpling with meat ). As Belarusians ate much potatoes they were called "Bulbashi" (potato-eaters). There are more than 200 potato dishes therefore in Belarus potatoes are called "the second bread".
From dairy products milk, curds, cheese, butter sour cream, whey were and are in common usage. Meat dishes weren't used very often. Belarusians ate pork, mutton, poultry. The most famous meat dish is sausage made from raw pork.
The time of meals for peasants depended on the beginning and finishing the work. For breakfast they boiled potatoes, baked pancakes, made an omelette. Dinner was the second meal of the day. They usually had dinner at noon and ate borshch with meat and fat and mushrooms for the first course. For the second course they ate cereal, potato dishes. They finished with kvass (mildly alcoholic drink made from fermented rye bread, yeast or berries ), compote or sour milk. Going to work in the field Belarusians took with them kvass, porridge, pancakes. For supper they usually make a fresh dish: potatoes or stock. Belarusian food depended on the season. In summer they ate mainly vegetables: cucumbers, green onions, beans and kvass as well as dairy products. But when they worked hard in the fields they ate meat, fat and peasant sausage. There were quite enough bread, cereals and meat in autumn and winter. Spring was the most hungry season. Church laws set Lent in spring. It was forbidden to eat meat and milk products. People used Lenten food: plant, fish, mushrooms. "Zatirka" was a traditional flour dish.
People ate the richest food at weddings. The meal always ended with a round loaf which symbolized material welfare. There are many traditional holidays in Belarus. And there are special dishes for every holiday. For example, on Christmas Belarusians traditionally put hay on the table, then a table-cloth and only after that they put the dishes. There must be not fewer than twelve dishes on the table according to the number of apostles taking part in the Last Supper with Jesus. All the dishes must be lenten. The most widespread dishes are pearl-barley porridge with ground poppy-seeds, lenten buns, white kissel made of oats flakes and red cranberry kissel. There also must be mushroom dishes and fish dishes on the table. On Christmas Eve bread is not cut with a knife but is broken with hands. At last the table is laid. When the first star appears in the sky the eldest in the family reads the Gospels. By the way, dishes are not taken away they are left on the table for dead relatives who are believed to come at night to have a look at us, to treat themselves to dishes from a common table, to bring us luck and happiness for the coming year.
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Onion
2- 3 T Flour
Salt as you like it
Egg
Garlic
Cooking Instructions:
Rasp potatoes and onion. Add other ingredients, mix well; it should keep more or less its liquidity. Heat frying pan (possibly two). Put mixture into frying pan using a sauce-spoon and fry it. Put pancakes on dish. Could, when necessary, be reheated later. Delicious with sour cream. Variation: mix small pieces of meat through the dough (fry meat beforehand).
Ingredients:
1 kg Pumpkin
3 Eggs
1 c Flour
2 T Butter
1/3 t Household Soda
2 T Sugar
Fat
Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Peel the pumpkin, boil and drain water. Mash the pumpkin and add butter. Then combine with sugar, eggs, flour, household soda, add the salt to taste and mix. Fry as ordinary aladdzi.
Ingredients:
French bread
Sardines
Rasped Cheese
Garlic
Mayonnaise
Oil
Cooking Instructions:
Mix sardines, cheese, garlic and mayonnaise. Cut French bread to slices (ca. 1.5 – 2.5 cm). Fry two sides in oil. When second side is down, add some of the mixture to the upper side. Let bread cool.
Ingredients:
400 g field mushrooms
1 onion
1-2 eggs
1 tblsp vegetable oil
0.5 tsp 2% citric acid
Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Scrub and clean the mushrooms, remove the thin film from the caps. Wash the mushrooms, add hot water to cover, add thinned citric acid and boil until done. Slice the boiled mushrooms and onions in half rings, season with vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Heap in a bowl and decorate with edges of eggs.
Ingredients:
450 pickled mushrooms
1 onion
3 tblsps vegetable oil
Greens
Pepper
Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Put the pickled mushrooms through a mincer together with fried onions, add the pepper and salt. Mix thoroughly. Heap in a salad bowl and sprinkle with minced greens.
Ingredients:
150 g chicken fillet
250 g boiled mushrooms
30 g cheese
2 eggs
1 pickled cucumber
1.6 onion
1 tblsp vegetable oil
4 tblsps mayonnaise
Greens
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Cut the boiled chicken fillet, mushrooms and pickled cucumbers into shoestrings. Mince fine the hard-boiled eggs. Shred the onion and saute in the vegetable oil. Shred the cheese with a shredder. Mix the ingredients, add the salt and a part of mayonnaise. Heap the salad in a bowl and pour over the remaining mayonnaise. Decorate the salad with the slices of chicken fillet, eggs and greens.
Ingredients:
2.5 l water
300 g ham bones
200 g beef
60 g sausages
2 beetroots
5 potatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
2 tblsps tomato paste
20 g pork fat
1 tblsp flour
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps 3% vinegar
4 tsps sour cream
1 parsley root
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Place chopped ham bones and beef in a saucepan of cold water and bring to a boil. Froth with a skimmer and allow to simmer over a slow fire. Half an hour before stock is done add the salt, drop in cleaned and washed carrot, onion, parsley root. Strain the stock. Pry the shredded carrot, parsley and onion in pork fat. Add tomato paste and keep over a slow fire for about ten minutes. To the boiling stock add cubed potatoes, boiled shredded beetroot, onion and roots browned slightly, flour blended with some stock and cook until it is done. Season the bo shch with sugar and vinegar. Cut boiled meet and sausages into chunks and add to the boshch.
Ingredients:
1 l mushroom stock
40 g dried boletuses
0.5 carrot
1 onion
1 tblsp butter
0.25 cupful wheat flour
3 tblsps millet
2 tblsps sour cream.
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare mushroom stock. Wash the boiled mushrooms and mice them. Cut the onion and carrot into small cubes, saute and mix with mushrooms. Boil the millet and drain in a colander. Brown the flour and blend it with some stock to make a smooth paste. To the strained mushroom stock add the boiled millet, sauteed vegetables, mushrooms and cook until it is done. 5 to 10 minutes before the soup is done season it with the sauteed flour, salt and pepper. Before serving season with sour cream. Separately serve the croutons. For making croutons take the rye bread, cut off the crust and slice. Shred the cheese with a shredder, mix with mayonnaise and garlic. Cover the bread slices with the mixture and bake them in oven.
Ingredients:
1.5 l water
200 g sorrel
300 g beetroots
2 fresh cucumbers
1 egg, 100 g green onion
2 cupful yoghurt
2 tblsps sour cream
1 tblsp sugar
Dill
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Boil sorted and shredded sorrel in salted water and cool. Separately boil the beet (whole) with vinegar added to the liquor. To the cooled sorrel juice add green onion minced and rubbed together with salt and egg yolks, shredded fresh cucumbers and beetroot, mix in beetroot liquor the egg white, sugar and yoghurt beaten with a whisk. Season the ready chaladnik with sour cream and sprinkle with minced dill.
Ingredients:
1 sucking pig
283 tblsps sour cream
Fat.
Cooking Instructions:
The sucking pig is roasted whole or it may be cut in half. When the sucking pig is roasted whole, cut its vertebral bone up to its fleshy part from the inside, add the salt and lay it on a baking pan with its back upwards. Slightly cover the sucking pig with the sour cream, pour it over with melted butter, pour out 0.5 cupful of water on the baking pan and place it in oven for 1 to 1.5 hour. For making a ruddy dry crust periodically pour melted fat on the sucking pig while roasting it. To protect its ears from burning cover them with some dough for 30 to 40 minutes. Then remove the dough and continue to roast. Put the peeled potatoes into the sucking pig to keep its shape. If the sucking pig is not roasted whole, cut it in half along its backbone, spread, rub the salt in, cover with sour cream and roast it periodically greasing with melted fat. Serve the roasted sucking pig cold together with horseradish. It may also be served hot as a holiday dish.
Ingredients:
600 g pork
1 egg
1 tblsp flour
3 tblsps bread crumbs
Salt. Stuffing:
100 g boiled chicken fillet
30 g boiled (15 g dried) mushrooms
1 onion
5 prunes
20 g cheese
Pepper
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Cut the pork (bricket) into small pieces. Prepare the stuffing as follows: saute the minced onions, cut the boiled mushrooms, prunes and chicken fillet into shoestring, add the salt and pepper, mix thoroughly, shape into sausages and roll in the shredded cheese. Lay the stuffing on the meat and roll up. Dredge with flour, dip in the whipped egg and dredge with bread crumbs. Brown the sausages and then roast in oven until done.
Ingredients:
500 g pork (bricket)
2 eggs
3 tblsps bread crumbs
3 tblsps melted butter
Salt.
Stuffing:
60 g smoked ham
1 tblsp flour
80 g green peas
0. 5 onion
1 tblsp meat stock
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Cut the pork (bricket) into pieces each containing a bit of bone. Then pound the meat and scrub clean the end of bone. Place some stuffing on each of the pounded pieces of pork. Prepare the stuffing as follows: cut the ham into cubes, saute, add flour browned together with onion and salt, green peas, mix, fry, add stock and stir together into a moderately heavy mixture. Mould the pieces of pork into sausage shape, dip in egg, dredge in bread crumbs, then roll in egg and crumbs again. Deep fry the cutlets, place in oven and braise until done.
Ingredients:
600 g fish (pike, pike-perch, cod)
2 g fresh field mushrooms or other mushrooms
3 tblsps tomato paste
3 tblsps white dry wine or 3 % vinegar
1 tsp flour
2 tblsps butter
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare fish fillet, clean, wash and mince fresh mushrooms. Lay the fish and mushrooms in a saucepan with thick bottom. Dash tomato paste with water (1 cupful), add dry wine and mix, close with a lid and boil for 15 to 20 minutes; When the fish is done, pour out the stock into another saucepan and make sauce on its base. Serve the fish with boiled potatoes and slightly salted cucumbers.
Ingredients:
500 g fish
200 g cucumbers
80 g capers
1 onion
2 potatoes
4 tblsps butter
1 tblsps bread crumbs
Salt.
For stewed cabbage:
800 g cabbage
2 onions
2 tblsps tomato paste
1 tblsp 3 % vinegar
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp flour
2 tblsps butter
Bay leaves
Pepper
Salt.
Cooking Instructions:
Dress the cod-fish, perch or zander, cut the fillet into small pieces and boil in a little water. Put shredded pickled cucumbers into shallow saucepan, add browned onion, fish stock and boil covered with a lid for 10 to 15 minutes over a slow heat. Shred cleaned fresh cabbage, put it in separate saucepan, add butter and water, cover with a lid and stew for about 40 minutes. Then add browned onion, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, salt, bay leaves, pepper and stew until done. When the cabbage is ready, add flour browned with butter, mix and saute. Put a layer of sauerkraut in a deep pan, over it place the bits of boiled fish, then a layer of cucumbers and capers and a second layer of stewed cabbage. On top put boiled potatoes cut into rings, dust with bread crumbs and brush with butter. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Before serving garnish the salanka with parsley greens and lemon.
Ingredients:
10 potatoes
4 tblsps millet
2 eggs
1 tblsp sour cream
1 tblsp butter
1-2 onions
Fat
Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Boil the potatoes and prepare a sticky millet porridge. Mash the potatoes, add the millet porridge, butter, eggs, salt, browned onions and mix thoroughly. Put the mixture in a hot skillet greased with fat, smooth, brush the top with sour cream and bake.
Ingredients:
8 eggs
0.5 cupful milk
Fat
0.5 kg boiled mushrooms
1 onion
2 tblsps sour cream
2 tblsps melted butter
Salt
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare the omelette mixture as described above. Cut the boiled mushrooms into shoestrings, fry and combine with browned onions, then pour over with sour cream. Pour the mixture into a skillet greased with fat arid fry. When the mixture thickens slightly, put in the middle the prepared mushrooms and bake in oven.
Ingredients:
For 1 kg of the pie:
3 cupful flour
2 tblsps sugar
2 tblsps butter or margarine
2 eggs
15 g yeast
0.75 cupful milk or water
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare the leavened dough. Divide it into two pieces and roll each of them into a layer 3-4 cm thick. Put one of the layers on a griddle greased with butter, place the stuffing in the centre, and cover with another layer and pinch the edges. The pie may be decorated with dough figures of any kind. To do that, roll the remaining part of the dough out thinly and cut it into small stars, diamonds, leaves, etc, then place these on top of the pie. Set aside the pie to rise and before baking brush with beaten egging, prick with a fork in several places and put in oven at 220 °C to 230 °C for 25-30 minutes.
