Meals in Siberia?!
Meals in Siberia?
Does they differ much from the usual Russian food, or is it different because of geography, temp, etc?
Any recipes from this region would be great. Thanks!!
18 hours ago
DO they differ...duh
2 hours ago
I was asking a simple question and got a great answer. The duh was for my own grammatical error at the beginning of my question...
Answers:
The differences are due to availablity in part to temperature and location.
The particularities of nutrition of Siberian people have been formed thanks to ancient traditions and bleak climate. People preferred dairy products, vegetables, and greens in summer and meat dishes with pickles in winter. They treated food with care and solicitude. All the products were spent with a great thriftiness, especially in spring. Bread was considered a sacred object and it was sinful to throw or drop even a piece of bread or leave breadcrumbs on the table. Meat was the product for holidays; all the best food products were purchased to save some money for other expenses.
Women got up earliest with the lark and cooked the meals. There usually were three meals a day, children could eat more often – pancakes were baked especially for them and they were given milk. Breakfast was called "zautrennik", lunch –"pauzhin", supper – "vechernik". The housewife could fry potatoes in the oven, mash and dress them with sour cream and butter for the first meal. Schi were made only from meat and water and ukha was cooked without any spices. For uzhin, a hill of thin and thick pancakes, pies with viburnum (snowball berries) and, of course, kasha were served. Kasha with milk and butter was steamed out; vegetables were stewed or baked in the oven. Or it could be vice versa: dairy products were for the morning meal and potatoes with sour cream for the evening, but lunch ("obed") was traditionally with soup, kasha and kvas. Soup was a simple mixture of potatoes with meat slices and bay leaf. Main dishes, as a rule, were served with sauerkraut and pickles.
Obed was accompanied with okroshka (salad made from radish, onion, cucumbers, eggs and dressed with kvas). In winter okroshka was completed with kholodets (meat in aspic) and served with oaten beverage and kulaga. Kulaga was made from boiled rye flour, viburnum, wort and sugar, and then placed in the oven for a whole day. In autumn, from mushrooms, gruzdianka (milk mushroom stew) was cooked with potatoes, onion, dill and sometimes, groats. Pelmeni (small dumplings with meat filling) is aboriginal Siberian dish as they could be kept thanks to hard frosts for a long time.
Uzhin was diversified with pies, shangui (a kind of pirozhki) with berries, carrot, cabbage, curds and onion. Pumpkin was cooked with buckwheat or millet gruel and served with milk. As you can see, the food was very simple and can't be called delicious or fine. But its principal advantage is nourishing and filling qualities.
PELMENI: Siberian dumplings
8 ounces plain flour
salt to taste
1 large egg
12 ounces ground pork
4 ounces minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
METHOD:
To make the dough:
Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. With the motor running add the egg and as much water as necessary for a dough that is just beginning form a ball. Remove the dough and place on a floured surface. Form into a ball, then flatten, wrap in cling film and chill for about 30 minutes.
To make the filling:
Mix the other ingredients together in a bowl. When the dough is ready, roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 3 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or a lid. Put a scant teaspoon of the filling onto each 3 inch shape. Fold over and seal the edges with a fork. Wet both ends of the pelmeni and bring them round and pinch together to the shape of an Italian tortelli.
Place on a baking tray, covered with a clean tea towel.
Put in the freezer and freeze overnight (they can be kept for up to 3 months).
To cook the pelmeni, bring 3 1/2 pts of water to the boil.
Drop in the pelmeni by the dozen. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until they rise to the surface. Serve with melted butter or soured cream.