Russian "gastronimic pairs". My TOP-3.

What comes to your mind when someone says, for example, oysters? Let me guess – champagne or white wine? And when someone says “fish” one can continue – “chips”. Coffee and a cigarette , strawberry and cream.

In Russia we have such pairs but nobody usually thinks seriously about them. But  ask anyone in the street or wake someone up in the middle of the night, and  you will get the same answer from thousands of Russian people. All the dishes in my text  belong to so-called “house kitchen”, but as a rule you can discover them even in expensive and fashionable restaurants. They are Russian “everything”!

I think the most popular “pair” is a “cutlet and pure”( kotleta s pure). “Cutlet” in Russia means  minced meat ( usually pork and beef 50/50) mixed with white bread, chopped onion and an egg. We fry them in the frying-pan.  “Pure” are boiled potatoes mixed with milk and then squashed into a “porridge-like” mass. We have eaten this since our childhood.  At home, in the kindergarten, at school and in the workplace canteen.

home-made

from a restaurant

The second best friends ever are “herring and potatoes” (seliodka s kartoshkoi). Usually whole boiled young potatoes and small pieces of salty fish  we pour with “fragrant south sunflower oil ‘ and add fresh onion rings. The real art is to go to the market, choose “the right” whole herring and  gut (carve it tender) it at home yourself.

Our next star are “meat dumplings with sour cream” (pelmeni so smetanoi). These are small round ,  boiled pies, a little bit like Italian ravioli, with minced meat inside. We put a huge table spoon of sour cream on top. We buy frozen “pelmeni” in supermarkets, and find some restaurants who sell them uncooked as “ takeaway”, but the best recommendation is to say that one made them at home.  It takes so much time and efforts, but at least you see that it was worth it when you hear silence during dinner. No one talks  - everybody is eating.

Other no less popular pairs are: pancakes with red caviar, fried eggs with tomatoes, paprika (big sweet pepper, we called it in Russia  without any sense   - “Bulgarian pepper”) stuffed with minced meat,  tea with lemon, vodka with pickles (very salty homemade cucumber ) and many others.

pencakes with red caviar

southern fryed eggs with tomatoes

vodka and salty( without vinegar) cucumber

we do not drink tea with milk, we add a piece of lemon

In the end I want to tell you about one of the most strange SOUTH “gastronomic pair” even for me – “watermelon with bread”. Some people eat it with white, others with black “Borodinskyi” bread. My grandmother did this, my mother does, and the apogee was when my great-grandmother put salt on top of it.

Bon Appetit!