Sauerkraut and Meat Soup

The Russians have a soup meal at least once a day. Shchi, borsch, rassolnik, botvinia, ukha, okroshka, solianka and many others has been a peculiarity of Russia since ancient times. Soups can be made on meat, fish, mushroom, vegetables or milk stocks.

How about a plate of Russian shchi? Nothing can warm your heart and stomach better than this traditional soup meal. Ask Anastasia Web Maria to make it for you!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb breast beef
1/2 lb breast pork
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups sauerkraut
1/2 cup sour cream
1 carrot
1 parsley
2 onions
2 potatoes
3 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dill
8 black pepper corns

Pour the beef and ham with boiling water, add an onion, potatoes and a part of roots (whole), boil for 1.5 hours until the meat is half-ready. Then add the sauerkraut and chopped onion, the rest of the roots cut in strips and continue to boil for 1 hour.

Preserving vegetables and fruits is an ancient Russian tradition and is still very popular. Nothing can compare with home-made pickled mushrooms and cucumbers. And who never tried grandmother's gooseberry preserve has lost a truly delicious joy of life!
You can ask your Anastasia Web Maria from Ekaterinburg to make salted mushrooms for you! We are sure she has stored up some old grandmother's recipes.

Ingredients:
11 1/4 lb edible lamellar mushrooms
1 cup salt
spices and condiments:
leaf of black currant, leaf of horse-radish, garlic, pepper, dill, sweet pepper, cloves
(do not add spices when salting saffron milk-caps)

Sort out the mushrooms, wash thoroughly, soak for 2 to 3 days in cold water changing it many times and keeping the mushrooms in a cold room. Place the soaked mushrooms into a prepared wooden or glass vessel in rows, with their stems up, interspersing them with condiments, spices and salt in the proportion of 4% to the mass of the mushrooms. Put a round wooden cover and load over them. Milk agarics and coral milky caps can be salted together interspersing them with salt and chopped white onions.

Traditional Russian beverages are kvas, sbiten, med, mors, voditsa and many others.
In the good old times when Soviet people had no idea about Coca-cola, they drank refreshing and delicious home-made kvas.
Anastasia Web Maria from Ekaterinburg can give you the picture of what it tasted like.

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
1 cup rye flour
1 ts sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 pkg dry granular yeast (7g)
4 quarts boiled water, cooled to lukewarm

Pour boiling water over the flour and stir briskly until smooth. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water, sprinkle the yeast over it, and let stand for 10 minutes. Combine the cooled batter, cover and let it rise until light and double in bulk. Stir in 4 quarts of boiled water, cooled to lukewarm. Cover and let it stand in a warm place for 3-4 days. When liquid is clear and tastes mildly sour, pour it off carefully with disturbing the sediment. Cover and keep in the refrigerator.