Solyanka is a hearty meat, mushroom or fish soup on a rich rich broth. This dish is loved not only in our country, but also far beyond its borders, and the name does not translate into other languages. If, while away from your native home, you want to try a familiar and native food, go to a Russian restaurant and look for the name solyanka in the menu.
Anyone who knows the recipe for a delicious team of hodgepodge and knows how to cook this dish can rightly call himself a good cook. This restaurant dish can truly be the pride of any cook. Well, for those who are just beginning to comprehend the basics of mastery, our article is useful. We will look at the fascinating history of hodgepodge, analyze the process of its preparation, and also talk about when and how to serve this soup to the table.
Dish of villagers
This amazing dish has a very unusual story. The first mention of this dish dates back to the 15th century. Of course, we perfectly understand that a simple Russian peasant did not and could not have a hunting sausage, olives, or even a lemon in those days, which means that the composition of the dish was significantly different from the modern one. But meat, offal and pickles were available, so the basis of two recipes from different centuries is still the same.
Researchers of the history of cooking are inclined to think that the hodgepodge turned out quite by accident, like many other wonderful dishes (for example, pizza). Most likely, the housewives found application for the remnants of the products. Meat, bones, and offal made it possible to obtain a very satisfying rich broth, the addition of roots made the taste spicy and expressive, and pickled and pickled cucumbers gave sourness and saturated the food with vitamins and amino acids.
Such food properties made it an excellent option for strong alcohol. The hodgepodge also helped to “improve health” after the holiday gatherings. Associated with this is another common name for the dish - “hangover”.
On the one hand, this contributed to an even greater love of the dish on the part of the common people, but on the other hand, it became the reason that the nobility perceived this thick brew exclusively as the food of the poor, who are addicted to strong drinks. In decent houses, hodgepodge was not served until the XIX century.
Culinary historians know another name for the dish - "villager". There is a version that it was the original one, but many sources claim that it is secondary. Probably, it is connected with the belief that this is the food of the villagers, villagers.
Over time, the old recipe for cooking hodgepodge team was somewhat modified and supplemented. Gradually, the dish gained popularity among all segments of the population.
New ingredients - new taste
Today, many cooks prefer to add sausage to the hodgepodge. The classic recipe has undergone many changes in general, because the products available to ordinary people in the 15th century were significantly different from those that were familiar to us in the 21st century. And practice has shown that the old recipe can sparkle with new colors if supplemented with smoked meats and hunting sausages.
Adding tomato paste allows you to get a wonderful shade of food - ruddy-golden, very delicious.
The overseas delicacies - olives and olives also came in handy (today this product can be purchased at a very inexpensive price in any supermarket).
And in order to get the acidity necessary according to the old canons for hodgepodge, modern culinary specialists do not use vinegar and pickle from cucumbers, but lemon. It makes the taste quite expressive, and on the plate it looks very beautiful.
Solyanka in modern Russian cuisine
For a long time, claims that serving this dish in the house of an aristocrat have vanished into thin air. Today, the hodgepodge is deservedly considered an exquisite dish of restaurant level. It is on a par with such pearls of Russian cuisine as baked goose, stuffed pike, pancakes with caviar and a chicken pot.
This dish is considered winter. The rich broth retains heat for a long time, quickly helps to satisfy hunger, keep warm, restore strength. Well and, of course, do not forget about what pleasure this magnificent treat gives to every gourmet!
Cooking hodgepodge taken on holidays. Due to the rather high cost of everyday life, this dish can not be called. An excellent occasion for the preparation of this dish can be Christmas or Easter, a birthday or christening. And you can serve the hodgepodge to the long-awaited guests who had to overcome a difficult path. After the road, especially when the weather does not please at all, everyone will be happy with a rich aromatic soup with a lot of meat. By the way, as in the past centuries, today this dish is also often combined with high-quality strong alcohol.
So we figured out the history and role in modern cuisine, and also learned the main components of the recipe for hodgepodge. Sausage, red and white meat, offal, bacon - all this can be used for the broth. Crispy pickles, capers and olives are necessary to add spice to the dish and saturate it with vitamins. And when serving, you need a lemon. It's time to consider in detail the step-by-step recipe (with photo) of the classic hodgepodge team.
Components
Let's start with an approximate list of products that you can supplement and change as you wish, trying not to deviate too much from the recommended proportions.
On a five-liter pan you will need:
- meat and offal - 700 g;
- smoked meats - 300 g;
- sausages - 250 g;
- onions - 1 large head or 2 small;
- pickled, pickled or pickled cucumbers - 3-4 pcs.;
- potatoes and carrots (optional) - 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l .;
- olives or olives - 100 g;
- capers (optional) - 50 g;
- frying oil;
- bay leaf - 1 pc.;
- allspice (peas) - 3 pcs.;
- lemon and herbs for serving.
If everything is clear with vegetables, the first items on the list can cause a lot of questions for a novice cook who seeks to master the skill of cooking hodgepodge. What meat and offal to use? It can be pork, beef, poultry. Lean meat and fat are also suitable.
For hodgepodge, you can use pork and beef kidneys, which must first be boiled, changing the water. A heart is also suitable, including chicken and turkey, as well as bird stomachs. It is not recommended to add liver, lung, udder and brain to this dish.
Among the smoked meats, one can choose in favor of ribs, chicken breast or chicken legs, turkey rumps, boiled pork, loin.
When choosing sausage, give preference to high-quality ham, mahan, hunting sausages, good dried and uncooked smoked varieties. Of course, in order to reduce the cost, some recommend using budget sausages and boiled sausage, but in this case the dish will not turn out so fragrant, tasty and solemn.
Having prepared everything you need, you can get down to business.
Cooking broth
Many recipes of the hodgepodge regulate the laying of meat components in cold water, this will ensure that the broth is filled with a special expressive taste. Cut the meat into pieces until you need to.
If you use potatoes, you should send it to the broth at the same stage. It is advisable to cut the vegetable in not very large pieces (as in olivier).
Cook the broth should be on medium heat under the lid, periodically removing noise. When the meat is cooked, remove it from the broth and let cool slightly. In the meantime, add smoked meats and sausages, cut into pieces, into the pan.
When the meat has cooled slightly, remove all the bones (if any), chop the flesh and send back to the broth.
An equally important stage of our step-by-step recipe for the hodgepodge is the preparation of frying.
Vegetables and spices
Slice the onion into a small cube. Carrots are optional, but many cooks prefer to add them for a beautiful color and delicate texture. Grind it with a fine grater.
Fry the vegetables in oil until golden brown. Add the cucumbers cut into small pieces and stew a little. Put the tomato paste diluted in a small amount of broth into the fry.
In some hodgepodge recipes, sausage is also recommended to fry a little before laying in the broth. This moment is unprincipled, you can act on your own.
Final stage
When the broth boils after adding the smoked meats, add bay leaf and pepper to it, gently enter the frying. Salting food is not yet needed, because a lot depends on cucumbers. In some cases, they give a sufficient amount of salt.
While stirring, bring the soup to a boil again, reduce the heat and let it warm for another 10 minutes. Add the pitted olives, sliced in circles, and capers. If necessary, adjust the salt and season with your favorite spices. Cover the pan, remove from heat and let it brew a little.
Our recipe hodgepodge allows the use of young herbs. It can be added to the pan or served to the table so that each guest can pour into a plate at his discretion.
Multicooking
The classic hodgepodge recipe with potatoes, meat and sausage can easily be adapted for a slow cooker. Using our list of ingredients, calculate the amount of ingredients based on the volume of your bowl.
Pour a little oil into the bowl, warm in the "Fry" mode and add the chopped onion. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the cucumbers, and after 5 minutes, tomato paste and a little water. Without closing the lid, cook another 10 minutes.
Overload the fry and place the meat and chopped potatoes in the bowl. Pour in water and set the mode "Boiling" for half an hour. The lid needs to be covered, but do not forget to periodically open and remove the foam.
After half an hour, remove the meat, add smoked meats and sausages to the broth, without changing the mode. After 10 minutes, grill and load the meat into slices.
Before the end of cooking add olives, capers, spices; adjust the salt.
Mushroom hodgepodge
A lucky mushroom picker knows many recipes for preparing delicacies from forest gifts. Have you tried to master the recipe for a hodgepodge with potatoes and mushrooms? A kilogram of forest treasures is enough to prepare three liters of food.
The cooking scheme is the same, but the preparation of mushrooms must be given due attention.
Only noble boletus do not need preliminary boiling. The remaining mushrooms must be sorted by grades and sizes, thoroughly cleaned, cut into identical pieces. Next, the mushrooms should be boiled in slightly salted water for at least half an hour. In no case should you use primary mushroom broth for cooking. It needs to be drained.
Pour water into the pan, add bay leaf. When the water boils, add finely chopped potatoes (2-3 tubers) and mushrooms.
At this time, you can do the frying: chop the onion and brown, add a couple of pickled cucumbers, slightly darken and cover with tomato.
Combine the mushroom part with the vegetable part, wait for it to boil, level the salt and add olives, olives, capers, greens. Try not to use too sharp spices for this dish, otherwise they will drown out the noble taste of mushrooms.
Serving such a dish is also possible during church fasts. To taste, it is not inferior to meat variations of the recipe.
Fish option
In Russia, the recipes for the hodgepodge of fish appeared somewhat later than meat ones. Ancient cookbooks recommend using exclusively noble fish such as sterlet, sturgeon, salmon or whitefish for this dish. In modern realities, implementing an old recipe is problematic, so today fish hodgepodge is prepared in a slightly different way.
Rinse with 0.5 kg of any small fish, place in a 3 liter pot. Add a small parsley root, chopped onion in half and a small carrot; fill with cold water and set to boil.
Cook the fry (as with other recipes).
Fillet of pink salmon or salmon (0.4 kg), peel and skin, cut into pieces. Strain the broth thoroughly through a gauze walled sieve. Enter the roast and add the fish fillet. Cook over low heat until the fish is cooked. At the very end, add capers, olives and greens, and if necessary, add salt.
Serving to the table
To adequately present such a dish, it is worth choosing beautiful plates and cutlery. A classic service and dishes in the Russian style will do.
Serving is supplemented with sauceboats with sour cream and plates with lemon sliced in half rings. Take care of delicious bread, homemade cakes are great.