Ukrainian cuisine 2

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Well known were meals with unleavened dough, cooked in boiling water. For example Halushky (in modern times Poltava halushky are very popular among tourists).

 

Halushky with fried onion

Well known, popular, and, maybe, one of my favorite Ukrainian dishes are Varenyky. There are some songs about them! In Western Ukraine Varenyky also called pyrohy. Varenyky are – the flan thin flour dough in the shape of circles in which put the stuffing. And all this was wrapped and cooked. I’ll put here some delicious pictures. To everyone who wanted varenyky). The filling was different: cheese, boiled potatoes, fried cabbage, buckwheat, cherries or other fruits. Varenyky were eaten with sour cream, oil or fried salo and onions. And now we eat varenyky in this way. Many restaurants and hotels offer visitors to try varenyky.

 

Varenyky with sour-cream

Here is one of Ukrainian songs "Varenychky moi" ("My varenychky"). Varenychky - small varenyky 

One of the favorite dishes was and is Porridge. Porridge was prepared from buckwheat, barley, millet or corn. Now there are different kinds of cereal, but our ancestors had just following. But I’m writing about ethnic Ukrainian cuisine, as it is almost unchanged survived to these days, and is a part of Ukrainian mentality. Porridges were liquid or dense. We ate them with milk, salo, oil or honey (I like buckwheat porridge with milk. Will be in Ukraine - try. It’s very tasty).

 

Buckwheat porridge

Cereals were a part of different dishes: Kulish (millet porridge with salo, fish or meat), jelly or Kysil (sourdough with roasted oat grains and bread), Solomaha (cooked in water buckwheat flour with oil or Smalets - melted pork fat). With the proliferation of corn, the 19th century, people began to boil Mamalyga (thick corn porridge. It is very tasty with sugar or jam), and in some regions Lemishka (such as thick porridge made of buckwheat flour). Ukrainians added cheese, milk or salo.

 

Mamalyga with fried salo pieces

In Ukrainian lands also were important vegetable dishes. The most popular was Borshch, which was prepared in three forms: Beet (red), green and cold.
The main components of red (and I call it so) were red beets and cabbage. Other ingredients are garlic and beans. The basis for borsch was beet Kvas.

Today, except of using crushed beet kvass, Ukrainians have another way of preparing Borshch. It consists of chopped beets, chopped boiled potatoes, carrots, cabbage or meat cooked in boiling water or hot meat ear simultaneously. It’s important to add to the soup fried chopped onions, salo or garlic. Borshch served to the table hot. Also you can add red pepper or sour cream. Red soup with salo and bread – is one of the dishes that you necessarily need to try to Ukraine.

 

Red borshch with sour-cream and some parsley

The ingredients of green borscht were: sorrel, potatoes and finely chopped boiled egg. Sometimes our ancestors, instead of sorrel, used nettles or sorrel quinoa. Green borshch served hot, with adding a sour cream. And now serves too ;).

Summer eating cold soup contains of mixed chopped onion, chopped cooked beets, chopped boiled egg, parsley and poured cold water. Better to add salt and sour cream. Unlike previous borshch, in which vegetables are cooked together, in the cold they cooked separately and submitted to the table cold. I did not eat. That’s why, I can’t say, if it’s taste. Rare varieties of dishes were Yushky and soups.

With sauerkraut, potatoes and cabbage was cooked Kapusnjak - a type of liquid food. In other words, it was soup, only with a lot of cabbage.

Cabbage was used in any form, and it boiled leaves used for cooking Holubci. Holubci were filling with porridge. In some regions, instead of cabbage leaves, were used grape leaves. A lot of cafes and restaurants offer holubci. Better to eat holubci warm or hot, with adding a sour cream. You can also add mayonnaise or ketchup. But it’s can be not so delicious like with a sour-cream.

In the 18th century were spread potatoes.

 

Holubci

Our ancestors ate potatoes in any form with oil and salo (do not try to eat the row potato!). In the Carpathian region potatoes were eaten with Brynza - cheese from sheep’s milk.

Ancestors fried Oladky – one of potato dishes. They were filling with mushrooms, cabbage or beans. Also popular dish was Deruny - grated potatoes, which was fried with some egg. Egg helped grated potato to divide on small deruny.

Ukrainians added and add sour-cream or gravy with mushrooms to them. Oladky often called the Kartoplyanyky (from Ukrainian word Kartoplya - Potato). They are good to eat with garlic and milk. Deruny, Deruny...it is very, very, very tasty food!!! Better to add to them sour cream and milk.

 Deruny with sour-cream

One of common dishes were beans (legume, haricot, peas). Ukrainians ate them boiled or roasted. They added salo, oil or garlic. The dishes from beans are not only delicious, but also useful.

Our ancestors also liked pumpkins. Ukrainians eat pumpkin porridge. They also made pumpkin filling for pies.

People from forest and mountain areas used mushrooms. They ate mushrooms boiled, fried and stewed.

Our land is also known as a land of gardening, so our ancestors ate lots of fruits and berries. The most common were apples, pears, plums, cherries, cranberry and raspberry. Our people ate them fresh and like to make fruits dry. 

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