Mushrooms

Cooking time —
Complication —

Mushrooms play a very important role in Russian cuisine. They used to be the only source of fibres in many peasant families. Therefore, in mushroom picking season everyone woke up early, took their elder children and went to the forest. Having collected the whole baskets of "forest giants", they came back home and started processing them. These mushrooms were used to cook soups, fried with potatoes and cured for winter.
Mushrooms are a valuable food. Not only are they tasty and aromatic, but also nutritious. As is known, fibres, fats, carbohydrates, various mineral salts and vitamins are very important for a human being. Mushrooms contain all these substances. The chemical content of edible mushrooms differs from any other vegetable product. They contain no vegetative starch. From carbohydrates, there is glycogen and sugar which give them a sweetish flavour. Especially, there are a lot of sugars in pore fungi: cep mushrooms, birch mushroom, yellow boletuses and others. Stems contain more sugars than caps.

Solianka With Mushrooms
fresh mushrooms (better honey agarics or ceps) 1kg
meat with lard 500g
2 onions
cabbage and potatoes 0.5kg each
tomato paste
Fry finely chopped lard, add sliced meat, fry 15 minutes, then add mushrooms, fry again (all at low heat). Add salt, pepper, bay leaf to taste. When everything is ready, add chopped cabbage, and stew. When the cabbage is ready, add finely sliced potatoes. Add tomato paste only after the potatoes are ready. Remember to stir the solianka slowly and regularly.

Beetroot Mushroom Paste
600g boiled beet
75g dried mushrooms
4 onions
150g vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic
ground black pepper
fresh parsley and salt to taste
Cooking: Boil mushrooms 1 to 1

Bon appetite!