Cuisines
Russian recipes
Root vegetables, soured cream and preserving.
45 recipes
Tvorog
Fresh curd cheese drained from gently warmed soured milk, the base several Russian sweet and baked dishes are built on.
Blini
Thin yeasted pancakes of buckwheat and wheat flour, cooked in a hot pan and served with soured cream, butter or salted fish.
Borodinsky Rye Bread
Dark sourdough rye scalded with red rye malt, sweetened with molasses and finished with a crust of coriander seed.
Borscht
Beetroot and cabbage soup built on beef broth, with the grated beetroot added late and with acid so it stays red.
Buckwheat Kasha with Mushrooms
Buckwheat toasted dry, then cooked pilaf-style with onion and mushrooms so the grains stay separate.
Chicken Kiev
Crumbed chicken breast sealed around garlic-and-herb butter, chilled hard so the filling stays in until cutting.
Shashlik
Cubed lamb marinated in grated onion and vinegar, then grilled on flat skewers over embers until charred at the edges.
Shchi
Cabbage soup simmered in meat broth, made sour with sauerkraut in winter and with fresh cabbage in summer.
Smetannik
Soft honey-scented sponge layers stacked with a whipped soured cream filling and left overnight to soften.
Syrniki
Fried curd-cheese fritters made from drained tvorog, crisp at the edge and soft in the middle, eaten with soured cream.
Vareniki
Larger Ukrainian dumplings filled with potato and fried onion or with sweetened curd, boiled and dressed in butter.
Vatrushka
Yeasted buns pressed into a ring around a well of sweetened curd cheese, baked until the filling sets to a soft custard.
Vinegret
Beetroot, potato, carrot and sauerkraut dressed with oil rather than mayonnaise, with the beetroot oiled first to hold the colour.
Zapekanka
Curd cheese baked with semolina, egg and raisins into a light set pudding, eaten warm with soured cream.
Zharkoye
Beef, potato and root vegetables braised slowly in one pot until the meat pulls apart under a fork.
Forshmak
Salt herring chopped fine with apple, hard-boiled egg and onion into a spread for dark rye bread.
Golubtsy
Cabbage leaves rolled around seasoned mince and rice, then braised slowly in tomato and soured cream.
Guryev Kasha
Semolina baked in layers between the skins lifted from scalded cream, with nuts, preserved fruit and caramel.
Herring Under a Fur Coat
Layers of salted herring, onion, potato, carrot and beetroot under mayonnaise, left overnight so it sets firm enough to cut.
Holodets
Pork trotters and beef simmered for hours until the broth sets to a firm savoury jelly around the shredded meat.
Kotlety
Everyday Soviet-era mince patties bound with milk-soaked bread, which keeps them tender rather than springy.
Kulich
Tall enriched Easter bread coloured with saffron and studded with raisins, finished with a white glaze that runs down the sides.
Kvass
A lightly fermented drink made from dried dark rye bread, sugar and yeast, sour and faintly sweet.
Medovik
Honey layer cake of thin baked discs, filled with soured cream and left overnight until the layers soften into cake.
Oladyi
Small thick pancakes raised with kefir and bicarbonate of soda, fried in a shallow film of oil until the edges set crisp.
Olivier Salad
Potato, egg, pea and pickle in mayonnaise, cut to an even dice and dressed only once everything is properly cold.
Paskha
Sweetened curd cheese beaten with butter, egg yolks and candied fruit, then drained overnight in a pyramid mould.
Pelmeni
Small meat dumplings in thin dough, boiled until they float and served with smetana or with butter and vinegar.
Pirozhki
Small yeasted buns filled with cabbage and egg, baked or fried, sized to be eaten out of the hand in two or three bites.
Plov
Rice steamed over lamb, carrot and cumin in a heavy pot, left unstirred so the grains stay separate.
Pozharsky Cutlets
Breaded minced-chicken cutlets enriched with butter and cream-soaked bread, fried until the crust is deep gold.
Kulebyaka
An enriched pastry loaf layered with salmon, rice, egg and dill, baked until the crust sounds hollow.
Pryaniki
Spiced honey biscuits with a soft crumb and a thin white sugar glaze that dries to a matt shell as they cool.
Ptichye Moloko
An agar-set soufflé of whipped egg white, sugar syrup and butter on thin sponge, sealed under dark chocolate.
Quick Salted Cucumbers
Small cucumbers held a day or two in a dill and garlic brine, salted right through but still raw and crunchy.
Salat Mimosa
Tinned fish, egg, cheese and onion layered with mayonnaise and topped with sieved yolk that looks like mimosa blossom.
Mushroom Julienne
Mushrooms baked in a bechamel-style sauce under grated cheese, in individual dishes, browned under the grill.
Okroshka
A cold soup of raw vegetables, ham and egg poured with sour kvass at the table, so nothing in the bowl goes soft.
Ukha
Clear freshwater fish broth, never thickened and barely seasoned, so what you taste is the fish and the water it cooked in.
Rassolnik
Barley and pickled cucumber soup, sharpened at the end with the pickle brine itself rather than with vinegar.
Semolina Kasha
Manka, a milk semolina porridge cooked by raining the grain into moving liquid so that it thickens without lumps.
Sharlotka
Apple sponge with far more fruit than batter, the eggs whisked to a foam that just holds the apples in place as it bakes.
Kissel
Fruit cooked with sugar and thickened with potato starch, served thin enough to drink or thick enough to eat with a spoon.
Beef Stroganoff
Strips of beef seared fast and finished in a soured-cream and mustard sauce that is warmed through rather than boiled.
Solyanka
A thick sour-salty soup of mixed cured meats, brined cucumbers, olives and lemon, built on their brine as much as stock.