Билет № 7. Belarusian Cuisine

Do you like cooking? Why (not)?

What questions will you ask a friend who has invited you to a pot-luck party?

Let’s talk about Belarusian national cuisine (food). What can you tell me about eating habits in Belarus?

Modern Belarusian cookery is based on old national traditions. Dishes from potatoes are very common in Belarusian cuisine. Potatoes are called ”the second bread” in Belarus. Potatoes are included into many salads, served together with mushrooms and meat; different pies and baked puddings are made from it. The most popular among the Belarusians are traditional draniki, thick pancakes, prepared from shredded potatoes. A lot of place in the diet of the Belarusians belongs to meat and meat products, especially to the pork and salted pork fat. The salted pork fat is used slightly smoked and seasoned with onions and garlic. Dishes prepared from meat are usually served together with potatoes or vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, black radish, peas, etc. Belarusian national cuisine also offers fresh, dried, salted and pickled mushrooms and also various berries such as bilberry, strawberries, raspberries, cranberry and some others. An integral part of any dinner is soup. It can be hot or cold. Belarusians are fond of borscht, a thick and rich beet and cabbage soup made with grains, potato and meat. The Belarusian khaladnik , a cold borscht made of beets, beet leaves and served with sour cream, hard-boiled eggs, and boiled potatoes will be pleasant on a hot summer day. Another popular Belarusian dishes are “zatsirka” and “krupnik” (soup made from cereals). Every possible salads are prepared from cabbage, carrots, beans.

Do you like cooking? Why? Why not?

A. Yes, I do. My mother is a very good cook and she taught me to cook pizza, pancakes and roast chicken.

B. In fact, I don’t like cooking. I think it’s boring. My mum does it better. I only help her in the kitchen.

C. No, to tell the truth I don’t like cooking. It takes a lot of time and frankly speaking I am not very good at cooking and my dishes are not always tasty.

What questions can you ask a friend who has invited you to a pot-luck party?

I have never been to a potluck party. It’s probably amazing. Of course I will have to find out some things beforehand:

What is the theme of your potluck party?

How many people have you invited to the party?

Are you going to make a list of dishes?

What dish shall I bring?

Where will the party take place?

Shall I bring some plates or cups?

Shall I bring some drinks?

Who else is invited to the party?

What national dishes can you recommend a tourist to taste in Belarus?

When people come from other countries they usually look for something special and traditional in this country. So I think it would be a good idea to recommend them to eat our draniki. To my mind this dish is a speciality of our country, it is delicious. You can also taste borchs and holodnik.

Can you tell me how to cook one of your favourite dishes?

Frankly speaking I am not very fond of cooking but I can tell you how to prepare draniki. First you should peel some potatoes, then you should grate them, add an egg , some flour, some salt, mix everything and make little pancakes on a frying pan. Serve your draniki hot with sour cream. Bon appetite!

Aromatic vereshchaka, roasted juicy meat, home-cooked sausages, golden draniki, cabbage, buckwheat and pumpkin pancakes, lazanka with different layers, trickled pastries, pickles, soups with white mushrooms and herbal and berry liqueurs… the Belarusian cuisine has a lot of dishes that can pleasantly surprise even gourmets.

Here you can find the recipes which will help you cook a dinner in Belarusian style and feel the taste of Belarus’ national cuisine. Cooks from Minsk restaurants share original recipes and their own cooking secrets.

Potato pyzy

This are made from raw potato, bound with cooked potato. They take slightly longer to cook than other dumplings, but have a different flavor and texture that warrants the method. This recipe uses a cooked ground meat filling - a raw meat filling may be used, but the dumplings would take even longer to cook, and there is a danger of the potato mixture disintegrating. You may use other fillings equally successfully.

Potato sausage

Potato kishka appeared in the national cuisine in the 19th with the spread of potato (bulba), which is called "the second bread" in Belarus. The prototype of the potato kishka was even more ancient dish - sausage made from blood and buckwheat stuffed into pork intestine (kryvyanaya kishka). By the way, according to a legend, the influential noble family Kiszka got their name because the founder of the dynasty was very fond of the sausage. There are also recipes of kishka without blood, with cooked pork.

The sausage made from grated potatoes and pork (bacon and/or meat) became very popular among Belarusians as a delicious, affordable and nourishing dish.mixture disintegrating. You may use other fillings equally successfully.

Belarusian salad

This dish was introduced in the diet of Belarusians not so long ago, but it perfectly fits the traditions of the Belarusian cuisine. Salads are based on products, which have long been used in many Belarusian recipes: liver, onion, mushrooms, pickled cucumbers.

Lazanki was introduced into the Belarusian cuisine in the 16th century. The dish consists of pieces of dough made from wheat, buckwheat, or rye flour. Basically speaking, Belarusian lazanki and Italian lasagna come from one family. Belarusian cooks formed squares (triangles) from flattened tough dough, boiled them and pour fried lard with onions on top. During the lent, they put ground poppy seeds or mashed berries into the dough. Lazanki was also baked in pots together with meat or cabbage and stewed with sour cream.

Draniki is one of the most popular and famous dishes of the Belarusian cuisine.

Although there are many similar recipes for potato pancakes in various countries, Belarusian draniki is famous for its rich taste, national culinary secrets and the floury Belarusian potatoes - bulba - with their fluffy, dry texture that is perfect for making potato pancakes.

Floury Belarusian potatoes have great cooking qualities, which makes potato dishes particularly tasty.

Today Belarus is a not a world leader in potato growing, but the country is a leader in per capita production and consumption of potatoes. According to statistics, a Belarusian consumes over 180kg of potatoes per year.

Potatoes are the basis for many dishes in the Belarusian national cuisine; there are plenty of recipes. Traditional Belarusian dishes are now enhanced by new interesting products and sauces; they become healthier while remaining very tasty.

Zrazy

Zrazy - stuffed meat balls - is one of the specialties of the national cuisine. This dish traces its roots back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first written record of this dish dates back to the times of the Grand Duke and King Jagailo (15th century).

This savory dish was served to Zhigimont II who was married to Bona Sforza, a representative of the powerful Milanese House of Sforza. The Italian princess liked the Belarusian traditional dish that reminded her of Italian cotoletta alla milanese.

At first zrazy was the food of the nobility, but later it found its way to the table of every Belarusian home. The dish is called differently depending on a region; you might here the names ‘zavivantsy’ or ‘krucheniki’.

Classic zrazy are made from beef. The meet is pounded, folded and rolled with a filling inside. It can be stuffed with mushrooms, liver, vegetables, eggs and cereals.

Mazurka

Another traditional dessert of Belarusian and Polish cuisine is the mazurka. This cake with a rich taste and wonderful aroma is prepared very quickly, and it also has the property of insisting, enriched with taste over time. That is, a day or two after cooking mazurka will become even more fragrant and tastier. As a traditional stuffing for pie, poppy, raisins, nuts are used. However, often poppy is replaced with dried fruits (dried apricots, prunes) to your liking, and you can also experiment with nuts.

Topic: Traditional Dishes of Russian Cuisine

Тема: Традиционные блюда русской кухни

Russia is the world’s largest country, so if differs greatly from region to region. The same can be said about Russian national cuisine, which is rather varied and based on different cultural and historic traditions. Usually any national cuisine is formed under the influence of two main factors: religion, which prescribes eating certain kinds of food, and climate, which determines availability of various vegetables, fruit, meat and fish products. Orthodoxy, which has traditionally been an official religion in Russia, doesn’t forbid any food. But long fasts prescribing abstinence from meat and other types of animal source food, explain why Russian cuisine includes many vegetarian dishes. And long severe Russian winters help to understand why hot fatty soups and broths are so popular in this country.

Россия – самая большая страна в мире, поэтому разные ее регионы сильно отличаются друг от друга. То же самое можно сказать и о русской национальной кухне, которая очень разнообразна и основана на разных культурных и исторических традициях. Обычно любая национальная кухня формируется под влиянием двух основных факторов: религии, которая предписывает употребление определенных видов пищи и климата, который определяет доступность различных видов овощей, фруктов, мясных и рыбных продуктов. Православие, которое традиционно являлось официальной религией в России, не запрещает никакую еду. Однако долгие посты, предписывающие воздержание от мяса и других продуктов животного происхождения, объясняют, почему русская кухня включает много вегетарианских блюд. А длинные, суровые русские зимы помогают понять, почему горячие, наваристые супы и бульоны так популярны в этой стране.

The most popular Russian soups, which are well-known all over the world, are borshch, shchi, and the cold summer soup okroshka. There are a lot of regional recipes for these dishes, but traditionally, both borshch and shchi are and are served hot with sour-cream and rye bread. Sometimes, for example, during a religious fast, meat can be substituted by fish or mushrooms. Borshch is always cooked with beet-root, which gives it a saturated red colour, and shchi must be based on fresh or sour cabbage. As for okroshka, it is mainly cooked in summer. It is a cold soup, where instead of meat broth kvass is used. It contains cold meat (usually beef), boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, cucumbers and green onion. All the ingredients are chopped and mixed. Okroshka is usually served with sour-cream, mustard and horseradish.

Самые популярные русские супы, которые хорошо известны во всем мире – это борщ, щи и холодный летний суп окрошка. Существует множество региональных рецептов этих блюд, но традиционно и борщ, и щи готовятся на крепком мясном или костном бульоне и подаются горячими со сметаной и ржаным хлебом. Иногда, например, во время религиозного поста, мясо может быть заменено рыбой или грибами. Борщ всегда готовится с добавлением свеклы, которая придает ему насыщенный красный цвет, а в основе щей должна быть свежая или квашеная капуста. Что касается окрошки, то она готовится, в основном, летом. Это холодный суп, где вместо мясного бульона используется квас. Она содержит холодное мясо (обычно говядину), отварной картофель, вареные яйца, огурцы и зеленый лук. Все ингредиенты мелко нарубаются и смешиваются. Окрошка обычно подается со сметаной, горчицей и хреном.

Pelmeni is one more famous Russian dish. Small balls from minced meat are wrapped into dough made of flour and eggs and then boiled in salted water usually with bay leaves. Pelmeni can be served with sour-cream, table vinegar or horseradish. The filling can be made of any sort of meat – pork, beef, lamb or chicken. a mixed minced meat, for example, pork and beef, or pork, beef and lamb. A vegetarian analogue of pelmeni is vareniki, which is more popular in Ukraine. Fillings for vareniki can be made of cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, berries and so on.

Пельмени – еще одно известное русское блюдо. Небольшие шарики из мясного фарша заворачиваются в пресное тесто из муки и яиц, а затем варятся в подсоленной воде, обычно с добавлением лаврового листа. Пельмени могут подаваться со сметаной, столовым уксусом или хреном. Начинку можно приготовить из любого сорта мяса – свинины, говядины, баранины или курицы. Однако самые лучшие пельмени содержат смешанный фарш, например, свинину и говядину или свинину, говядину и баранину. Вегетарианский аналог пельменей – это вареники, которые более популярны в Украине. Начинка для вареников может изготавливаться из творога, картофельного пюре, грибов, ягод и так далее.

The most popular Russian national salads are vinegret, Olivier salad (abroad it is sometimes called Russian salad), and “dressed herring”. Vinegret is a purely vegetarian salad, which is cooked from chopped boiled vegetables (beetroot, potatoes, carrots), fresh or sour cabbage, pickled cucumbers and onion. Olivier and herring salads are mayonnaise-based and rather substantial. The first one is cooked from boiled vegetables, eggs and boiled meat (which nowadays is often substituted with sausages), and the second one is a layered salad made of pickle herring, boiled potatoes, carrots, beetroots and eggs. Sometimes the herring salad also contains apples.

Самые популярные русские национальные салаты – это винегрет, оливье (за границей его часто называют «русским салатом») и «селедка под шубой». Винегрет – это чисто вегетарианский салат, который готовится из мелко порезанных вареных овощей (свекла, картофель, морковь), свежей или квашеной капусты, соленых огурцов и лука. Он заправляется растительным маслом. Оливье и «селедка» - майонезные и очень сытные салаты. Первый готовится из отварных овощей, яиц и отварного мяса (которое в наши дни часто заменяется колбасой), а второй представляет собой слоеный салат из соленой сельди, вареного картофеля, моркови, свеклы и яиц. Иногда селедочный салат также содержит яблоки.

Of course, as blini should not be left unmentioned. of cooking and filling, blini can serve as a dessert or an appetizer. Blini are made of batter, which is poured on a hot frying pan and fried. Blini can be cooked of wheat, rye, oat, or buckwheat flour. They are served with run butter, sour cream, caviar, vinegar pickled mushrooms, berries or jam. Traditionally, blini have been cooked during the Maslenitsa festival,

Modern Belarusian cookery is based on old national traditions . Dishes from potatoes are very common in Belarusian cuisine. Potatoes are called «the second bread» in Belarus. There are special potato cafes in the country where you can try various potato dishes. Potatoes are included into many salads, served together with mushrooms, meat; different pirazhki (patties) and baked puddings are made from it. The most popular among the Belarusians are traditional draniki, thick pancakes, prepared from shredded potatoes. A lot of place in the diet of the Belarusians belongs to meat and meat products, especially to the pork and salted pork fat. Belarusians eat fresh, dried, salted and pickled mushrooms, and also berries such as bilberry, wild strawberries, raspberries, cranberry and some others. Zatirka is the most popular of flour dishes. Pieces of specially prepared dough are boiled in water and then poured over with milk . An integral part of any dinner is soup. It can be hot or cold. Belarusians are fond of borscht, a thick and rich beet and cabbage soup made with grains, potato and meat. The Belarusian khaladnik , a cold borscht made of beets, beet leaves and served with sour cream, hard-boiled eggs, and boiled potatoes will be pleasant on a hot summer day. Every possible salads are prepared from cabbage, carrots, beans. Bon appetit!

Do you like cooking?

No, to tell the truth I don’t like cooking. It takes a lot of time and frankly speaking I am not very good at cooking and my dishes are not always tasty.

What questions can you ask a friend who has invited you to a pot-luck party?

What dish shall I bring?

Where will the party take place?

Shall I bring some plates or cups?

Shall I bring some drinks?

Who else is invited to the party?

What questions can you ask a waiter when you are ordering a meal in a café?

What would you recommend me to order?

Have you got any vegetarian dishes?

What is the speciality of your café?

Is this dish rich in calories?

What national dish can you recommend a tourist to taste in Belarus ?

I would recommend to sample “ draniki” To my mind this dish is a speciality of our country, it is delicious. You can also taste borchs and holodnik.

Scientists say that fast food is unhealthy but teenagers can’t stop eating it. What do you think about it?

Personally I try to avoid fast food because it is high in calories but lacking in nutrition. Fast food is high in saturated fat and this type of fat is associated with a greater risk of cancer. What is more, eating a lot of fast food leads to high levels of cholesterol in the blood, which can cause heart diseases. Moreover, if you consume a lot of fast food you are likely to gain weight. So, I think teenagers should make an effort and try to limit the amount of fast food they eat.

Do you personally follow the rules of a healthy way of life? Why(not)? Yes , I personally try to follow the rules of a healthy way of life , I try to avoid junk food ,sweets, soda, eat more vegetables and fruit, have regular meals, spend some time in the open air, and take enough exercise.

Can you tell me how to cook one of your favourite dishes?

Frankly speaking I am not very fond of cooking but I can tell you how to prepare draniki.

First you should peel some potatoes, then you should grate them, add an egg , some flour, some salt, mix everything and make little pancakes on a frying pan . Serve your draniki hot with sour cream or butter. Bon appetite!

5.Most of the families want to have a big kitchen in the flat at the same time they have a meal together less and less often. What do you think about it?

To my mind it, is a pity if a family don’t have time to have a meal together because it could be a very nice tradition when people can become closer, share their experiences, learn more about each other’s lives and enjoy a delicious home-made meal. It also unites a family when the members of the family cook, lay the table, and wash up together. It is a pity in my family we seldom have meals together, we get together on some special occasions such as birthdays, holidays and I wish we could have more meals together.

What cafes would you recommend to visit in your place?

I would recommend you to visit sportcafe Pautina because the food is delicious there, you can eat sushi there, the food is not expensive, and the interior is modern and beautiful.

Do you know many recipes?

To tell the truth I am not fond of cooking , it takes a lot of time, and I am not good at it. So I cannot say that I know a lot of recipes but I think that if I need some recipe I will be able to find it on the Internet.

Draniki is one of the most popular dishes in Ukraine. Love them and constantly cooking many Housewives.

Pancakes with cabbage in Ukrainian

One of the favorite national dishes of Ukrainian potato pancakes. This dish is served to the festive table and the usual family dinner. Cooking potato pancakes - a simple process that does not take much time.

Ingredients:

• potatoes - 1 kg;
• sauerkraut - 300 g;
• eggs - 2 pieces;
• onions - 1 head;
• wheat flour - 100 grams;
• milk - 200 grams;
• greens;
• salt;
• vegetable oil for frying.

Method of preparation

Potatoes wash, peel and grate on a coarse grater into a separate bowl. Gently squeeze to remove excess juice.
Sauerkraut to press down with hands that are softer. Add to the potatoes. There may be hammered in chicken eggs.
Onion finely chop, to attach to other components. Pour the prepared milk, add the flour. Salt.
The mixture should be not too runny, but not thick. To bring it to the desired consistency, gradually adding milk or flour.
In a pan heat the vegetable oil. You may want to add a little fat or butter.
Potatoes to score a tablespoon and place on a pan. Each dranik be pressed to become flat. Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side, the tracking, so it wouldn"t burn.
Served pancakes with greens and sour cream.
Bon appetit!

Перевод

Драники - одно из самых распространенных блюд на Украине. Их любят и постоянно готовят многие хозяйки.

Драники с капустой по-украински

Одно из любимейших национальных блюд украинцев - драники. Это блюдо подается и к праздничному столу, и на обычный семейный ужин. Приготовление драников - несложный процесс, который не займет много времени.

Ингредиенты:

• картофель - 1 килограмм;
• капуста квашеная - 300 грамм;
• яйцо куриное - 2 штуки;
• лук - 1 головка;
• пшеничная мука - 100 грамм;
• молоко - 200 грамм;
• зелень;
• соль;
• растительное масло для жарки.

Способ приготовления

Картофель вымыть, очистить и натереть на крупной терке в отдельную посуду. Слегка отжать, чтобы удалить лишний сок.
Квашеную капусту обмять руками, чтобы на стала мягче. Добавить к картофелю. Туда же вбить куриные яйца.
Луковицу мелко нашинковать, присоединить к остальным компонентам. Влить подготовленное молоко, всыпать муку. Посолить.
Масса должна получиться не слишком жидкая, но и не густая. Довести ее до нужной консистенции можно постепенно добавляя молоко или муку.
В сковороде раскалить растительное масло. К нему можно добавить немного жира или сливочного масла.
Картофель набирать столовой ложкой и выкладывать на сковороду. Каждый драник прижать, чтобы он стал плоским. Обжаривать по 3-4 минуты с каждой стороны, отслеживая, чтобы ничего не пригорало.
Подаются драники с зеленью и сметаной.
Приятного аппетита!