Given the climatic characteristics of countries, in the kitchens of many peoples you can find cold soups. The Spaniards have gazpacho (ice soup from vegetables and bread crumbs), Azerbaijanis have an ovduh (sour-milk soup with greens and meat), Bulgarians have a tarator (sour cream soup made of cucumbers and greens).
In the Russian cuisine, for understandable reasons, hot soups predominate, but there are also some cold ones. Unlike the forgotten tyuri and botvinya, okroshka does not lose its relevance, and home cooks continue to experiment with this favorite, cool dish.
To prepare a real okroshka, you need to forget your mother’s recipes
The basis of all cold soups in Russian cuisine is kvass. But in the Türks there is no meat at all (it is replaced by bread), which made it a glory of a cheap dish for the poor, and botting, on the contrary, includes expensive fish (such as sturgeon and salmon), which also did not contribute to its wide distribution. But okroshka, thanks to the presence of meat – the dish is rich, and thanks to affordable, traditional vegetables – quite affordable.
By the way, okroshka can be not only meat, but also vegetable and even fish. And the set of components is not accidental – in traditional okroshka all products are combined according to their taste qualities. The classic of the culinary genre, William Pokhlebkin, warns that all constituents of okroshki must be fresh and of high quality, “however, he complains, these conditions are often not met:
“As a result, in the home and public catering, random, non-typical and coarsening vegetables such as radish, as well as bad parts of meat or even sausage, which are alien to okroshka, go into okroshka. ”
Vegetables
In the classical okroshka, not all that is found on the bed is thrown off. All vegetables-participants of cold soup are divided into two categories: neutral (fresh to taste) and spicy (sharp to taste). The fresh ones include potatoes, carrots, turnip and rutabaga, which must be cooked, and cucumbers, which are used fresh. Fresh vegetables are cut into cubes – this mixture should be half the base in a vegetarian okroshke and one third in a meat or fish dish. The spicy part consists of well-known dill, parsley, celery and a lot of green onions, as well as infrequent green guests – tarragon and chervil. Kervel in the people is often called a kupyr. Outwardly, it is a bit like parsley, but its greens are juicier, with a delicate aroma of anise. The same spicy aroma has tarragon, it is also used for the preparation of the famous “Tarhun” drink.
Meat
Traditionally for okroshki did not cook special meat – it was leftovers from other meat dishes. Therefore, meat of different varieties of animals and birds was used – most often in the ancient okroshka used a combination of pork, poultry and wild birds. But later the game went, and the pork was replaced by beef. Boiled meat should be as much as the vegetable mass.
A fish
Expensive red fish in okroshk to anything – from the river fish sucker and tench (with tender meat and a minimum number of bones), from the sea is preferable low-fat cod. In general, fish okroshka to taste inferior to vegetable and meat. But if you still want to try it, you’ll have to try. Peel the fish from the fins and scales, cut the finished fillets into small cubes, then add the beaten egg and 1 tablespoon. flour. The resulting mass mix, roll in flour, wrap in a gauze napkin and tie with a thick thread. Dip the resulting fish “sausage” in salted boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes. After this, cool the fish and mix with the vegetables.
Kvass
Foreigners consider kvass a traditional Russian drink and call it “kvass”. However, Herodotus mentioned an invigorating and useful drink, distributed in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians soaked baked bread, thanks to the heat, he wandered, and as a result, a drink called zyphos was obtained. Drink, very similar to kvass, and prepared by the ancient Greeks – apparently, they borrowed the recipe residents of Russia.
Written mention of kvass in Russia refers to 989 – when Prince Vladimir on the occasion of baptism ordered “to distribute food, honey and kvass to the people. ” The technology of making kvass has undergone changes – grain was taken instead of bread, it was soaked, sprouted, dried and made a lot of operations, as a result of which kvass was ready only in two months. For a larger flavor, cranberries, blueberries and strawberries were added to the kvass.
For okroshki best suited white okroshechny kvass – it is more acidic than drinking. And if in vegetable okroshke white kvass can be mixed with drinking in a ratio of 1: 2, in meat – 1: 1, then in fish okroshka it is necessary to sour, so white kvass is needed. Additionally, the fish okroshka can be acidified with lemon juice or citric acid.
Refueling
As a dressing, you can use mustard and black ground pepper, diluted in kvass, or cucumber brine. For 1 liter of total liquid okroshki dressing is 0. 5 – 1 cup. In vegetable okroshka instead of mustard you can put a teaspoon of grated horseradish and a large amount of spicy greens. The dressing should be mixed with fresh vegetables, onion and meat, mixed and kneaded, and then leave to stand for 30 minutes so that the dressing is absorbed into the meat.
Special taste is given to vegetable and meat okroshke salted mushrooms and soaked apples. And at the very least, eggs and sour cream are cooked into the okroshka.
For vegetable okroshki you will need:
1 l of kvass
0,5 glass of cucumber brine
1 cup of diced cooked potatoes
2 turnips
1 glass of green onion
2 fresh cucumbers
0. 5 tbsp. parsley
2 tbsp. l. dill
0. 5 tsp. black ground pepper
3 steep eggs
For meat okroshki you will need:
1. 25 l kvass
0, 75 cup cucumber brine
1 cup chopped meat
0. 75 cup chopped boiled potatoes
1 onion
1 rutva
0. 75 cup green onion
1. 5 fresh cucumber
1 pickled cucumber
2 steep eggs
1 tbsp. l. mustard,
0. 5 tbsp. estragon
1 tbsp. parsley
1 tbsp. dill
0. 5 tsp. black pepper
For fish okroshki you will need:
1. 25 l of kvass
1 glass of cucumber brine
1 cup of chopped fish
2 chopped boiled carrots.
0. 75 cups of chopped boiled potatoes
1 onion
1 glass of green onion
2 fresh cucumbers
2 tbsp. tarragon
2 tablespoonsdill
1 tbsp. parsley
3 steep eggs
0. 5 lemon
0. 5 tspblack pepper
If after reading the article you want to try okroshki, you can not run out of saliva, and go to one of the institutions in Novosibirsk. Serve okroshku in many cafes and restaurants. For example, in the cafe “Entrance №5” you can try the okroshka with the language for 80 rubles. The restaurant “Aladdin” serves okroshka with tongue and doctor’s sausage, it costs 100 rubles. Two kinds of okroshki (vegetable and meat) are offered in the Shamrock restaurant. In the meat there add, as expected, several types of meat – chicken, beef, a little pork and ham. True, and it will cost 109 rubles – for vegetable and 169 – for meat.
Bon Appetit!
