Soups

Russian cuisine has long been famous for a rich variety of soup types. Shchi takes first place by right – it has been the main soup on the Russian table for more than a millennium

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Russian cuisine has long been famous for a rich variety of soup types. Shchi takes first place by right – it has been the main soup on the Russian table for more than a millennium. Shchi is cooked of fresh cabbage, sauerkraut, sorrel and spinach. Shchi can be more nourishing ("rich") and empty, only with cabbage and onions. Rich shchi consists of five basic components – cabbage (sorrel, spinach), meat (can be replaced by fish or mushrooms), roots (carrots, parsley root), spicy dressing (onions, garlic, dill, bay leaf, pepper, celery) and sour dressing (cabbage brine, sour cream). The first and the last components are necessary to make shchi.
Borscht was borrowed from the Ukrainian cuisine in ancient times. A necessary ingredient of borscht is beet. Rassolnik and solianka – dense soups on meat, fish, chicken or mushroom broth and sour-salty cucumber basis are very popular. Solianka unites ingredients of shchi (cabbage, sour cream) and rassolnik (pickled gherkins, brine), and differ from rassolnik with a spicier taste.
Ukha – a hot fish soup enjoys great popularity. Ukha is usually cooked from more than one sort of fish – two, three, or four. Ukha is the tastiest when prepared from small fish – ruff, gudgeon, crucian, perch. Classic ukha should be dense and clear, the fish should not be boiled soft.
In summer various okroshka, botvinia, and kholodnik are served. Okroshka is cooked of crushed vegetables with kvass, sometimes with boiled meat, fish, and mushrooms.
True okroshka has vegetables of two sorts – insipid (boiled potatoes, turnip, carrots and fresh cucumbers) and hot and spicy (spring onion, parsley, dill, celery).
An ancient Russian dish - botvinia is cooked from young beet leaves, boiled fish, kvass and various vegetables.

Mushroom Noodles

5-6 dried cep mushrooms
1 onion
30g butter
300g home noodles
1 chicken
2 carrots
1 parsley root
2L water
bay leaf
1 bunch dill or parsley
pepper (corns)
salt to taste
For noodles:
200g flour
1/2 cup water
3-4 eggs
salt to taste

Rinse dried mushrooms, put them in a saucepan, add water and boil. When the mushrooms get soft, take them out with a skimmer, chill down, chop finely and put back into the filtered broth. Chop carrots and onions and fry in butter, put in the saucepan with boiling mushroom broth together with noodles and cook until ready.

Shchi Balaam

1kg cabbage
2 onions
1 bay leaf
3-4 stalks parsley
8-10 black peppercorns
500g mushrooms
1 tbsp flour
fresh herbs
2 tbsp sour cream

Stew cabbage, sliced onions, bay leaf, parsley, peppercorns with water. Separately cook finely chopped fresh mushrooms. Take the mushrooms out of the broth, and fry them slightly. When the cabbage becomes soft, add fried flour. Add all ingredients, fresh herbs and sour cream to the mushroom broth. Heat shchi long and slowly, at low heat, without boiling to let them get enriched with mushroom and cabbage flavour.

Garden Soup

300g white cabbage
4 fresh cucumbers
1/2L kefir
1L water
1 carrot
1 onion
1/2 cup sour cream
1 bunch dill
salt
pepper to taste

Slice cabbage, carrots and onions into julienne, put them in a saucepan, add 2 cups of water, put them to low heat and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Pour the remaining water into the saucepan, bring to boil, boil thoroughly 5 min, take off the heat, add salt to taste and chill. When the soup chills down, add kefir.
Peel and slice cucumbers finely, and lay into plates. Pour the soup, dress with sour cream and chopped fresh dill, pepper.

Peter Shchi

parsley root
onion
125g sauerkraut
20g carrots
20g turnip
20g onions
60g fat beef
150g beef bones
50g smoked bacon
50g chicken
50g ham
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Cut out bones from the smoked brisket, finely chop them with beef bones, put in a saucepan. Add 1.5L of cold water. Cover the saucepan, bring to boil, then reduce heat to minimum and cook 2.5 hrs, skimming. One hour before the end of cooking, add salt, parsley root and a whole onion. Filter the prepared broth. Pour 1 cup of broth into a small saucepan and boil finely sliced beef, brisket and chicken in it. When the meat is ready, add ham. Put aside. Chop cabbage, put in a saucepan, add 1 tbsp of oil and stew 1 hour at low heat. Chop carrots, turnip and onions finely, fry 4 minutes in the remaining vegetable oil, stirring continuously and slowly, mix with cabbage, stew 30 minutes. Add broth, add meat, bring to boil, cook 5 minutes. Add seasonings at the end of cooking. Serve with fresh herbs and sour cream.

Goose Giblets Soup

800g veal
400g beef
300g goose giblets
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 onion
1 parsley root

Scald goose giblets, legs and head. Rinse kidneys, liver and neck. Put the meat in a saucepan and heat. Skim while cooking. Filter the broth and leave to rest. Prepare giblets, put oil with flour in a saucepan and brown it. Dissolve with broth, add chopped parsley root, a half chopped onion and giblets. Skim while cooking. At serving add 2 spoons of lemon juice, sprinkle with parsley.

The Don Solianka

250-300g sturgeon
300-350g jowl
1 carrot
1 parsley root
1 onion
2 pickled cucumbers
1 tbsp capers
10-12 black olives
2-3 fresh tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp butter
1.5 -2L fish broth
salt
pepper to taste
1/2 lemon

Cook jowl to make concentrated fish broth and filter it. Slice carrots into circles, and onions into rings and fry in butter adding tomato paste in the end. Put the prepared vegetables, scalded portion pieces of sturgeon, simmered pickled gherkins and capers in the boiling broth, and cook until the fish is ready. 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking add fresh tomatoes sliced in rings, salt and pepper. Put pieces of sturgeon, sliced jowl, black olives, a ring of lemon and finely chopped fresh parsley or dill in the plate before pouring solianka.

Duck Soup With Turnip

1 duck
2 medium-sized turnips
1 tbsp flour
2L water
50g butter
1 glass table wine
salt
spices to taste
1 bunch dill

Cut the duck into portion pieces and fry in butter in a saucepan so that the pieces get brown. Dissolve flour in warm water, pour it in the saucepan with duck, also add peeled turnip, cover with water and cook under lid at low heat until the duck is ready. When the turnip is cooked, take it out, press through a sieve, dissolve with broth and pour back into the soup. Add a glass of table wine, salt, spices, bring to boil and take off the heat. Put chopped fresh herbs in the plate with soup.

Petersburg Rassolnik

5-6 medium-sized potatoes
1 cup cereal (wheat, pearl-barley, oat)
1 medium-sized carrot
1 parsley root
1onion
2 tbsp butter
2 medium-sized pickled cucumbers
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup cucumber brine
salt, pepper
bay leaf to taste
2L broth or water

Rassolnik is made on meat broth with various meat products (500-600g); it can also be vegetarian or with fresh or dried mushrooms (5-6). Rinse selected cereal thoroughly, add three cups of boiled water, put on low heat and steam until soft. Drain the broth, and rinse the cereal. Slice potatoes, carrots, parsley, onions. Fry roots and onions in oil with tomato paste. Slice cucumbers as for home rassolnik. Put the cereal into the boiling broth and cook until ready. 15-20 min before the end, add potatoes, browned roots, cucumbers. At the end of cooking, dress rassolnik with cucumber brine, salt to taste.

City Kholodnik

1L milk
L water
5 carrots
200g cottage cheese
2 tbsp raisins
1/2 cup sour cream
salt to taste

Grate carrots coarsely, put in a saucepan, add a cup of milk and simmer until soft, take off the heat and chill down. Add grated pasteurized cottage cheese, sour cream, raisins. Combine the remaining milk with water, bring to boil, salt and chill. Pour the mix in the saucepan with garnish and stir well. The soup is ready.

Ancient Borscht

1 beet
1 small cabbage
2 carrots
1 onion
2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp 3% vinegars
parsley or celery root
spices to taste

Peel and slice the beet, sprinkle with vinegar, add oil and heat. After that add broth (if the borscht is cooked with meat) or water and stew until the beet is soft. Slice onions, fry in oil a little, add julienned carrots, and brown all together. Put chopped cabbage in the boiling broth or water, cook 10-15 minutes, add stewed beet, spices, browned roots and onions, dissolved flour pan-frying, cook until ready. At the end of cooking, add beet "infusion" and garlic.

Bon appetite!