The most popular kind of fish soup in Russia is called “Uha”, and there are a large number of uha recipes; it depends on what the region is, which types of fish are in the rivers and lakes, which greens are traditional for the place, and many small cooking details. Other kinds of fish soups are: “kalia”, “rassolnik”, “fish solanka”, “borzch with fish”, and “schi with fish”.
Before 18th century, people called “uha” many soups with grains, vegetables, noodles, and fish.
Ingredients:
1/10 lb dried porcini
1/2 lb beef liver
2 salt cucumbers
3 shallot onions
2 eggs
3/4 cup mayonnaise (or mix mayonnaise and sour cream)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Pepper, greens, salt on taste.
Method:
Wash dried porcini 3 times. Then put them in a pan and soak it in cold water for 2 hours. Then boil them in the same water for 1-1.5 hours. Cool and slice.
Boil beef liver in another pan for 40 minutes. Cool and cut into small cubes.
Don’s Salad
This recipe is named not in a human’s, but in the great river’s name. For some hundred years, starting in the 13th century, the area around Don was a place where free people lived, who did not pay any taxes, and did not have any state duties except to defend Russia from attacks by people from the south.
Fish caviar was very popular in old Russia. This is why people began calling appetizers from minced salted mushrooms, vegetables, and etc. as “caviar”, for example, “mushroom caviar”, or “vegetable caviar”. These tasty and cheap appetizers are very popular in Russia in the modern times.
Mushroom “caviar”
Ingredients for 4:
1 lb salted mushrooms
1 large shallot onion
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Crushed black pepper, salt, dill and other greens on taste
Method:
Ingredients:
1 pack (1 lb) ground chicken
1 lb prepared rice (white, brown, any other one)
1 medium shallot
2 cans chicken broth (optional)
2 eggs (optional)
Salt on taste
Ground black pepper (optional)
Method:
Set large pan with water (2 cups) or chicken broth to heat.
Peel onion and cut it into small cubes.
In a large dish, mix ground meat, rice, onions, salt, and (optionally) eggs.
Knead until even consistency (3-5 minutes).
Ingredients for 4:
1 lb fish fillet with skin
3 pieces wheat bread without crust
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 egg
Greens, salt and black ground pepper on taste
1/2 lemon
Method:
Peel off fish skin, cut and grind fish fillet.
Soak the bread in milk, and grind together bread and fish.
Melt margarine or butter.
Whip egg.
Mix together ground meat and bread, melted margarine, whipped egg, salt end pepper.
This is a basic recipe.
Ingredients for 4:
1 ¼ fish fillets without bones and skin (preferable, non-fat fish like cod or hake)
2-3 slices of white bread
½ cup milk
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp thinly cut green onions (optional)
Salt, pepper on taste
Method:
Soak bread in milk and knead.
Grind fish fillets, or cut them into small cubes.
Mix soaked bread, ground fish, egg, salt, pepper, and (optionally) green onions.
There are many legends about this recipe, but we consider the following one the most believable.
A tavern, which belonged to the Pozharsky family, was in the small town Torzhok, which is on the Moscow-St.Petersburg road.
Emperor Alexander the First had to stop because his coach‘s wheel was broken, and his servant ordered a breakfast for the Emperor and his court. The Pozharsky tavern was the most respectable around, so they got this order.
But, there was a problem with the veal cutlets in this order.
Astrakhan is an ancient city of about 2 million people in the delta of the greatest Russian river, Volga, and it is on the shores of the Caspian Sea and also riverside.
Astrakhan is a famous center of catching and cultivation of the sturgeons, and a center of the productions of black caviar.
In the “good old times” there were plenty of sturgeons in the Volga delta. Now, there are much fewer of them, but sturgeons are still common food for Astrakhan’s region’s inhabitants.
This is one of the authentic recipes of how they make fish soup – “uha” in Russian.
This recipe with fish liver is very old. Before 1917, it contained fresh, boiled with greens and salt fish liver. Later, this was one of the most popular Soviet salads (the main problem was to get a can of “Cod liver in oil”). The recipe is one of the simplest, and very tasty. A person who lives in USA can get such cans in any European/Russian deli shops.
This recipe, like many Russian ones, allows variations in ratios of ingredients, and allows adding other ingredients.
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