Russian Cuisine December, 2009 Mr. Cape Jenny JangThe origin of Russian Cuisine In Russia, large areas are covered by woods and forests, especially in the north of Russia, were abundant in berries and mushrooms and this accounted for a wealth of gifts of the forests on the Russian table. One should also not forget about the fish courses. Russian cuisine was renowned for diverse delicacies, especially refreshments, made of fish. Russian rivers, lakes and seas yielded much of this tasty and useful kind of food. 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, sour cream, buckwheat, rye flour, etc. have had a great influence on world cuisine.Russian Cuisine Russia is an Orthodox country and all the feasts were always strictly followed. Totally there are more than 200 days in a yeaof territory, influence, and interest during the 16th–18th centuries brought more refined foods and culinary techniques. It was during this period that smoked meats and fish, pastry cooking, salads and green vegetables, chocolate, ice cream, wines, and liquor were imported from abroad. At least for the urban aristocracy and provincial gentry, this opened the doors for the creative integration of these new foodstuffs with traditional Russian dishes. The result is extremely varied in technique, seasoning, and combination.Russian Cuisine Russian cuisine is one of the most popular and widely spread in the world. French cuisine is festive and elegant, Chinese cuisine is exotic, Russian cuisine is healthy and delicious. Russian dishes are easy to cook and they do not demand much skill and special ingredients, they do not need exotic equipment and tool and everybody who knows how to hold a cooking knife and how to peel potatoes can cook delicious Russian dishes.Russian Cuisine Cource Appetizeerved as the first course at dinner. In the Russian language the world soup was naturalsed quite late. Originally, Russian soups were called khlebovo or pokhlyobka - soup with cereals. The typical Russian soups are schi (soup with cabbage or sauerkraut)m borsch (beet and cabbage soup), rassolnik (soup with pickled cucumbers), okroshka (cold kvass soup), solyanka (soup with vegetables, pickled cucumbers, olives and bits of meat) and pohlyobkaSoup Cold Soup Hot Soup - Okroshka (cold kvass soup) - Tyurya - Botvinya - Shchi ( cabbage or sauerkraut) - Ukha - Rassolnik (soup with pickled cucumbers) - Kal’ya - Solyanka ( soup with vegetables, pickled cucumbers, olives and bits of meat) - Lapsha - BorschFish Vegetables Meat Pastry (Pies and Pancakes) Main DishMain Dish - Meat Russian cuisine has always been rich in meat dishes. The following recipes deal with dishes of beef, pork, mutton, poultry, game, and wild animals. As a rule, meat dishes are served with vegetables. noodles and cereal.Maies of this kind. Most often fish dished are served with potatoes and boiled buckwheat. There is one explanation why in past Russians used to cook fish dishes. It was not allowed to eat any kind of meat and any kind of milk food in duration of long fasts but fish dishes were permitted (except time of the Lent).Main Dish - Fish Baked pike-perch Fish, monastery stylensVegetables Cabbage, potatoes, and cold tolerant greens are common in Russian and other Eastern European cuisines. Pickling cabbage, cucumbers and other greens in brine is used to preserve vegetables for winter use. These are sources of vitamins during periods when fresh fruit and vegetables are traditionally not available .Pastry In Russian cooking bread and pastry have always been especially important. Guests were met with bread and salt. Of no lesser importance were pies - a symbol of wealth and well-being. Russian women were famous for their skills in making different sorts of cookies: blini (pancakes), kulebyakas , rasstt popular Honey (med) - honey from Altay region is considered to be the best Tvorog - cottage cheese (or quark), usually served with honey or berry jam Syrniki - can also be called tvorog burgers because they are made of tvorog and fried on a sauce-pan after. Usually eaten with honey, sweet dressings, or jam.Drinks Almost all Russian traditional drinks are original from Russia and are not present in other national cuisines. Those are vodka, sbiten ', kvass, medovukha and mors . Many of them are no longer in use. Long since they were drunk as a complement to meat and poultry dishes, sweet porridge, and dessert. Standing apart from all of them was sbiten , which was replaced by tea by later times in Russia.Drinks Medovukha (ancient drink) Mors Kvass, sbitenLet’s try Full Course Russian Cuisine borscht (beet soup) olivie (potato salad) pelmeni (boiled dough pockets filled with meat) beef roll (finely chopped meat and spices rolled in fine pastry) chicken kiev draniki (potato pancakes) gw}