Belarusian cuisine

Traditional Belarusian Cuisine

In its development Belarusian cuisine has been influenced by Russian, Lithuanian as well as Jewish, Tartar and some other traditions. For these reasons, you’ll find that food in Belarus is quite similar to the cuisines of Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland. At the same time Belarusians have preserved many traditional recipes.

Belarusian dishes are typically based on local vegetables and cereals, especially: potatoes, beetroots, mushrooms, berries and barley. Potatoes deserve a special mention as it is ingredient number one in Belarusian cuisine – the king of the Belarusian table. Potatoes are often called “the second bread” in Belarus. There are some historical reasons for this fact – potatoes were brought to Belarus about 75-90 years earlier than to Russia. Besides, climate conditions in Belarus are very good for growing the types of potatoes that contain a high level of starch, no wonder, they are so tender and delicious. Dishes from potatoes are used as main dishes or side dishes.

The most well-known potato dish is draniki – pancakes from grated potatoes. What makes these pancakes different from others found in Scandinavia or Germany, for example, is their fine texture, where the potatoes are completely liquefied before cooking. Draniki come in many variants with various fillings such as mushrooms, meat, sauerkraut, fish or with various dips – creamy machanka (a traditional Belarusian sauce for draniki or blini), sour cream, cheese, etc.

Ingredient number two is pork. There are some stories why pork is so popular in Belarus: in the times of Ottoman occupation peasants knew that their Muslim conquerors–not being able to eat pork–would not confiscate their animals. Thus, historically Belarusians eat lightly salted lard served with boiled potatoes traditionally in winter. Pork is widely used in homemade sausages. Low fat pork and beef are mostly baked not fried. In traditional cuisine goose was widely used however nowadays it is mostly replaced by chicken. River fish such as trout, perch, carp is also rarely fried and mostly baked, stewed or very often dried.

Mushrooms are widely used in cooking but rarely as a separate dish and are mostly used to add taste to the main dish. Usually they are

stewed or boiled. Marinated vegetables are widely used in Belarusian cuisine: marinated tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms etc. It is still traditional for Belarusian families to make marinated mushrooms and vegetables based on home recipes.

Grated and pureed forms of products (meats, fish, potatoes, vegetables) are used in many dishes separately or in combination with each other. Forest berries, pears, apples are usually not mixed with each other: various

jellies, kvas, purees, baked puddings are made from one type of berries or fruits but not a mix.

Cooking methods characteristic of the old traditional Belarusian cuisine are stewing and boiling. In the old Belarusian cuisine ingredients were subjected to a long heat cooking in special ceramic pots and would become very soft and often shapeless. This softness can still be observed nowadays in traditional cooking.

Finally present day cooking in Belarus is characterized by great creativity of combining old traditional dishes with features of other world cuisines and mixing varieties of ingredients.

Belarusian menu

Soups (Belarusian cuisine is known for rich soups, often dressed with sour cream, as well as cold soups refreshing for the hot summer periods)

Borshch (beetroot soup) Shchy (cabbage soup)

Rassolnik (soup with meat, barley and pickled cucumbers) Zatirka (milk soup with specially prepared dough) Khaladnik (chilled soup with beetroots or sorrel)

Belarusian salads are different from salads in the west. Many unusual ingredients (meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts) get mixed together, the ingredients are cut into small squares or finely chopped or grated. The salads tend to be quite rich as the salad dressing is usually mayonnaise based, but it might also contain sour cream.

Belarusian salad (with mushrooms, liver and pickled cucumbers)

Sauerkraut with beetroots

Salad Fern flower (with boiled beef, ham, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers) Salad Nesvizhski (with salted herring and beetroots)

Cold appertizers

Pyachisto (roasted pork or beef)

Palyandvitsa (dried salty meat)

Main courses

Draniki (thick potato pancakes) Babka (baked grated potato pie)

Kolduni (minced meat in grated potato coating)

Zrazy (minced meat stuffed with mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs)

Potatoes roasted with mushrooms Potatoes stuffed with minced meat Chicken rolls stuffed with mushrooms Rissoles stuffed with cabbage

Rissoles Fern flower (minced chicken meat stuffed with butter and cheese) Kaubaski Mogilev style (minced pork and beef with garlic)

Boiled buckwheat with mushrooms

Blini (though blini is considered a Russian speciality, it is one of the favourite dishes in Belarus)

Blini stuffed with minced meat

Sauces

Verashchaka (a hot sauce with stewed meat served with blini)

Machanka ( a sauce with stewed meat served with draniki or blini) with sour cream and eggs Machanka with mushrooms

Machanka with smoked meat

Desserts Most of Belarusian traditional desserts are made from forest berries or garden fruits such as apples and plums,etc. Belarusians didn’t use yeast in traditional old Belarusian cuisine, thus they didn’t cook pirogi (pies) or blini in those times. However, nowadays when you visit Belarus you can enjoy a big variety of very creative delicious cakes, pies, cookies, pastries, puddings and other desserts.

Cottage cheese “fingers” (cottage cheese sweet pancakes) Syirniki (cottage cheese sweet pancakes)

Nalistniki (thin pancakes stuffed with cottage cheese)

Baked apples filled with honey

Beverages

Kvas (a special Slavic thirst-quencher, its basis is usually rye bread, which lends its subtle flavour to a liquid that is then sweetened slightly and fermented)

Cranberry kvas Berezavik

Kisel (a cold thick drink made from berries and potato starch)

Look for Belarusian recipes at www.belcook.com, www.travelswise.com, http://wherethefoodis.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/belarus