Fish

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 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.

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.

Ingredients for 6:

1 can fish in oil
3 boiled medium carrots
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 shallot onion
Mayonnaise on taste

Method:

Knead fish in a serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Grind carrots into the serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Grind egg whites into the serving dish.
Cover it with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Cut onion into small cubes; pour them evenly into the serving dish.

It is a well-known dish of Old Russian, Swedish (fore smack), German (vor schmack), and Jewish cuisines. Advantage of forschmack is that is possible to cook this appetizer in multiple variations.
Everywhere herring is caught, forschmack is cooked, and it is possible to make forscmack with other kinds of sea fish.
So,

Ingredients of a basic recipe:

1 large herring or 2 herring fillets
2 hard-boiled egg
1 sour apple
1 medium onion
2 peaces white bread, soaked in milk or water
1’4 lb butter