The variability and versatility of Ukrainian cuisine can become an inexhaustible source for constant culinary experiments and tastings. Since the basis of all folk cuisine is vegetables, cereals, meat and fruits, even dishes with high nutritional value are usually simple to prepare. It is a pity that most modern housewives forget old recipes and prepare only 5–10 traditional dishes. And the constant question "what to feed the family" often confuses our housewives. So, in order to make their lives a little easier and give them the opportunity to taste interesting dishes, we offer a small selection of recipes of traditional Ukrainian cuisine.
First courses
If every housewife knows how to cook real borscht, then things are completely different with cabbage soup and yushka.
Cabbage rolls
Cabbage rolls are made from sauerkraut, potatoes, carrots, and other ingredients. Almost every region has its own version of the dish, which differs not only in the ingredients but also in the way each ingredient is prepared.
Traditional cabbage salad
Ingredients: 800 g of sauerkraut, 500 g of pork, 400 g of potatoes, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root, 1 medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 50 grams of lard, 4 tablespoons of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of flour, 10–15 grams of butter, 2–3 black peppercorns, salt to taste, parsley.
Preparation: Cook the meat in a saucepan until fully cooked. Strain the broth through several layers of cheesecloth. Squeeze the sauerkraut from the brine and simmer until half-cooked, gradually adding the meat broth. Separately, fry the carrots and parsley root, cut into thin strips, in butter and add the lightly fried flour to them. Chop 1/2 onion together with lard and parsley. Strain the broth and add the potatoes cut into slices, fried carrots and parsley root, stewed cabbage, lard grated with onion, flour. Season with salt and pepper and cook until fully cooked over low heat. When serving, put pieces of meat in each plate and season with sour cream.
Mushroom cabbage
A great first course option for those who are fasting or simply don't eat meat.
Ingredients: 800 g of sauerkraut, 400 g of potatoes, 1 carrot, onion, parsnip root and celery root each, 50–60 g of dried mushrooms (it is better to use porcini mushrooms), 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 bay leaf, 2–3 black peppercorns, 1–2 allspice peas, 1–2 tbsp. chopped fresh herbs (dill or parsley).
Preparation: Rinse dried mushrooms well, soak in warm water and boil. Chop the finished mushrooms. Strain the mushroom broth. Season the sauerkraut with sugar, add a little mushroom broth and simmer until fully cooked. Peel the potatoes, cut into small pieces and cook in the remaining mushroom broth. Separately, fry the chopped onions, carrots and parsley and parsnip roots in vegetable oil. When the potatoes are almost ready, add the stewed cabbage, fried vegetables, boiled mushrooms to the pan and continue cooking until the vegetables are fully cooked. Season the cabbage with spices after 3–5 minutes. When serving, sprinkle the mushroom cabbage with fresh herbs.
Cabbage soup with buckwheat porridge
Ingredients: 800 g of sauerkraut, 500 g of pork bones or soup stock, 1 cup of buckwheat, 1 parsley root, 1 carrot, 1/2 onion, 3.5 tablespoons of butter (1 tablespoon for making porridge and 2.5 for making cabbage rolls), 2 black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf and salt to taste.
Preparation: prepare meat broth from bones, carrots, parsley root, onion and spices, strain it. Squeeze the cabbage well from the brine, chop it a little if necessary and stew in butter, adding meat broth little by little, until the cabbage is fully cooked. Separately prepare crumbly buckwheat porridge with the addition of butter. Before serving , put the cabbage on a plate and pour it with broth, serve the porridge in a separate dish.
Pickle
Ingredients: meat, mushroom or vegetable broth, sauerkraut, cornmeal, onion, fat for frying, salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation: put cabbage in the finished and strained broth and cook until cooked. Separately, fry the onion in a frying pan. When the cabbage is ready, add the onion to the dish, season the cornmeal with spices. Keep on the fire for a couple more minutes and serve. When serving, you can season with chopped herbs.
Soups
Mushroom soup with "ears"
Ingredients: 2 liters of water, 80 g of dried mushrooms, 5 tbsp. of wheat flour, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. of oil, 1 carrot, 1 small parsley root, 1/2 of each parsnip and celery root, 2 small onions, 5 cloves, 3 black peppercorns, 2 allspice peas, 1 tbsp. of each finely chopped parsley and dill, salt to taste.
Preparation: Rinse the mushrooms well under running water and cook in 2 liters of water for about 1.5 hours. Separately, fry 1 tbsp. of flour in butter. Add chopped carrots, parsley root, cloves to the fried flour and cook until the mushrooms are cooked. Remove the finished mushrooms and finely chop, season with fried onions, season with pepper, salt and parsley. Separately, beat 1/2 egg into the sifted flour and knead the dough. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into squares, put the prepared mushroom minced meat on them and form "ears". They are cooked separately in salted water until fully cooked and removed. Before serving, strain the finished mushroom broth, season with fried onions, fresh herbs and add mushroom ears.
Pea soup with smoked meats
Ingredients: meat broth, 150 g smoked brisket, 1 cup peas, 50 g potatoes, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root, 1 onion, 1 carrot and parsley root each, 1 onion, 1 tbsp. oil, 2 peas of allspice, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley, salt to taste.
Preparation: In the prepared meat broth, add the smoked brisket, chopped into large cubes, and the sorted and thoroughly washed peas (so that the peas cook faster, we recommend soaking them in water for at least a couple of hours, or even better overnight) and cook until half-cooked. Then add the diced potatoes and lightly fried carrots, parsley, onion, bay leaf, allspice, salt and continue cooking until cooked. When serving, season each portion with fresh herbs.
Fish soup
Ingredients: 1 kg of fish (500 g of pike perch and small river fish), 500 g of potatoes, 1 onion, 1 bay leaf, 2 peppercorns, salt.
Preparation: clean the fish, rinse and cut the meat from the bones. Pour 2 liters of cold water over the fish bones and cook for 1 hour over low heat. Then add onion, salt, spices to the fish broth and continue cooking for another 25–30 minutes. Strain the finished fish broth, add peeled and chopped potatoes to it, bring to a boil, put the fillet, which we separated from the bones, and continue cooking until cooked. Serve sprinkled with parsley.
Main dishes
Kulish with lard
Ingredients: 2 liters of water, 800 g of potatoes, 120 g of millet, 2 onions, salt to taste, parsley.
Preparation: sort the groats, rinse and pour boiling water over them, pour into salted boiling water and cook until cooked. Then add the potatoes cut into small cubes and cook for about 30 more minutes. Separately, fry the finely chopped lard with onions. Add the lard and onions to the kulish and cook for another 5 minutes. When serving, sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Potato pancake with mushrooms
Ingredients: for the dough: 1 kg of peeled potatoes, 400 g of fresh mushrooms or you can replace them with 100 g of dried ones, 200 g of stale wheat bread, 3 onions, 3.5 tablespoons of butter, lard or vegetable oil, 2 eggs, salt, pepper to taste, fresh herbs;
for making gravy: 1.5 cups of mushroom broth, 1/2 cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste or puree, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of wheat flour, 0.5 onion, 1.5 cups of mushroom broth.
Preparation : Boil the potatoes in slightly salted water until tender and rub through a sieve, season with egg and add a little salt. Fry the onion separately, add finely chopped mushrooms to it (if using dried mushrooms, they must be boiled beforehand) and cook everything together for another 10–12 minutes. Crush the breadcrumbs to the state of breadcrumbs and also add to the mushrooms, mix everything, season with salt, herbs and ground pepper. Grease a heat-resistant form with lard or any other fat and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Then lay the potatoes and mushrooms in layers in the form, so that the last layer is made of potatoes. Sprinkle the dough with breadcrumbs, pour melted lard or butter and bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes. While the plantain is baking, prepare the gravy. To do this, chop the onion and fry it in lard, add separately toasted flour, tomato puree, mushroom broth, sour cream, salt, and cook for 10 minutes. When serving, pour the finished plantain over the gravy and sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Mushroom cutlets
Ingredients: 250 g of dried forest mushrooms, 250 g of stale wheat bread, 4 eggs, 3 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. flour, salt, black pepper and herbs to taste; for the gravy sauce: 2 cups of tomato, 1 cup of broth, 1/2 tbsp. flour, 1/2 tbsp. margarine, 1/2 onion, 1/5 carrot, 1/5 parsley root, 3 tbsp. butter, 1/2 tbsp. sugar.
Preparation: Rinse the mushrooms well and boil until tender. Fry the onion separately. Drain the cooked mushrooms from the broth, chop them and add crushed stale bread, fried onions, eggs, chopped herbs, season everything with salt and pepper. Mix everything well and form small cutlets from the resulting minced meat. Bread the cutlets in flour and fry in a well-heated frying pan with oil until golden brown. Prepare the gravy sauce separately: chop and fry the onion, carrot and parsley root, then add the tomato and continue cooking for another 12–15 minutes. Finally, add the fried flour and mushroom broth to the sauce, stir everything well until smooth and cook for another 50–60 minutes. Then strain the sauce through a sieve, bring to a boil again, add butter, and remove from heat. When cool, place on a plate, and serve the sauce in a separate bowl.
Peasant-style roast
Ingredients: 1.300 kg of potatoes, 1/5 kg of boneless meat, 350 ml of meat broth, 1–2 onions, 1 carrot, 50 ml of tomato puree or paste, 50 grams of fat (lard or vegetable oil), 2 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, spices and fresh herbs to taste.
Preparation: clean the meat, cut into portions, salt, fry lightly. Add tomato and broth to the fried meat and simmer until half-cooked. Separately, lightly fry the peeled and chopped potatoes in a frying pan. Mix the potatoes with grated carrots and sautéed onions, season with pepper. Put a layer of potatoes in a clay or cast-iron pot, then a layer of meat on top, then another layer of potatoes and so on until the ingredients run out, the last layer should be a layer of potatoes. Pour in the broth in which the meat was stewed, and put in the oven to cook for 1.5 hours. Before serving, sprinkle the roast with fresh herbs and chopped garlic.
Desserts
Nutty groundhog
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar, 10 eggs, 25 g stale bread, 100 g walnut kernels, 1.5 teaspoons butter, breadcrumbs; for the sauce: 2 cups cream, 3 eggs, 2 tbsp. sugar, 5 g vanilla sugar.
Preparation: Dry the nuts and chop them finely. Grind the egg yolks with sugar into a loose mass and gradually add the chopped nuts to it. Separately, beat the egg whites into a stable foam. Using careful movements (from the bottom up, as when preparing a sponge cake), combine the whipped whites and the yolk-nut mass, add the grated stale bread, mix everything carefully again. Grease the baking dish with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Place the egg-nut dough in the dish and bake in a well-heated oven. While the babka is cooking, prepare the cream sauce: to do this, grind the eggs with sugar, pour a thin stream, stirring constantly, into the warm cream and heat the sauce to 85 degrees, stirring constantly. Cut the finished babka into portioned pieces and pour over the cream sauce.
Berry jelly
Ingredients: 1 cup of berry juice (raspberry, strawberry, currant, cherry, etc.), 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of white wine, juice of 1 lemon and 15 g of gelatin (it is more convenient to use quick-dissolving).
Preparation: Add sugar and part of the wine to the juice of berries and lemon and simmer for a while. Separately, dissolve the gelatin in the warm wine. Add the gelatin to the juice, mix everything and pour into molds. Leave in a cold place until completely solidified.
Apple spinners
Ingredients: 800 g apples, 3 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon butter, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, a pinch of salt.
Preparation: Sift the flour, add butter, eggs, salt, a little water and knead a not very stiff dough. Then it must be “knocked” against a board or work surface until air bubbles appear in it. Wrap the prepared dough in a damp cloth and leave it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. In the meantime, wash, peel and finely chop the apples. Take out the dough and roll it out very thinly, 3–5 millimeters thick. Cut circles from the rolled out dough, place chopped apples in the middle, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and roll into a tube. Place the formed verts on a well-greased baking sheet and bake in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees. During baking, periodically pour fat over the verts. Serve the finished verts cold and, if desired, seasoned with powdered sugar.
Puffins
Ingredients: 1.5 cups of water, 1.5 cups of wheat flour, 6 eggs, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 g of vanillin, 1/2 cup of sugar, 100 g of fat, 100 g of fruit jam or preserves, breadcrumbs.
Preparation: boil water, add butter and flour, stir continuously, continue to cook over low heat until the mass leaves the sides and bottom of the pan. Remove the dough from the heat and let it cool slightly (to approximately 60–70 degrees). Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites with sugar until stiff. Add the yolks one at a time to the dough, stirring thoroughly. Then carefully add the beaten whites, mix everything well. The dough should be smooth. Use a spoon to form small balls and place them in boiling fat. Fry the puff pastry over low heat until golden brown. Place the finished puff pastry on a plate lined with paper napkins or towels to remove excess fat, and roll in breadcrumbs mixed with vanilla. Serve the puff pastries hot, with fruit jam.
We hope that our selection will appeal to your family and will encourage you to enjoy Ukrainian dishes more often instead of all sorts of sushi, pizzas, pastas, etc.
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