Ukrainian national cuisine, according to many people, offers very hearty, fatty and heavy dishes that are difficult to cook and which are easily perceived only by the most indigenous people. But this is not at all true. There is a sufficient amount of tasty and appetizing-looking food, besides practical to eat. Proof of this fact are Ukrainian dumplings, the heritage of Ukrainian culture and cuisine. Today we will tell you about this dish.
Dumplings: an independent dish
Ukrainian dumplings in different countries may vary. In Belarus, for example, dumplings are made, in Ingushetia, our dish is made from corn flour. But regardless of their varieties and recipes, all the dumplings are united by one thing - before us are pieces of dough, which are boiled in water.
They are usually served as an independent meal, with butter or sour cream. But there is an option to cook
dough products in soup on meat broth. So far, no one has been able to track the history of this dish. It is only known that this Ukrainian food, beloved in many countries, was mentioned in the works of T. Shevchenko and N. Gogol, famous writers.
Monument to the Dumplings
If there is a recipe collector who wants to drive through the villages of Ukraine, then he will be a little surprised when faced with the fact that each village has its own unique and unique way of how to cook dumplings in Ukrainian. This recipe is passed down from generation to generation. But there is a place where this dish is the most praised and popular - this is the city of Poltava.
There is even a large monument - a stone bowl, of a huge size, with a spoon and twelve dumplings. This monument is the personification of generosity, wealth and prosperity, it is very revered and loved by the local population. Near him for more than ten years there have been national festivals dedicated to dumplings.
What are dumplings, products for their preparation
Outwardly, they look like Belarusian dumplings, the difference is that they are prepared from steeper and denser dough. Dumplings with cottage cheese, by the way, their distant relatives. All varieties of such dishes as Ukrainian dumplings are united by the presence in their composition of the following products: butter, eggs, milk and flour. Sometimes, for a change, a specific smell or taste, herbs, spices, and other ingredients are added to the dough. And by and large, for the preparation of dumplings use those products that are always available in the refrigerator of any housewife - milk, finely ground flour, chicken eggs and butter.
Instead of the last component, light margarine is quite suitable. You can diversify the list of products and the ways of serving dishes to the table as follows: some housewives prefer chicken stock with dumplings, others first cook them, then fry them in a skillet and serve with sour cream, and still others generally use them as a hearty side dish for meat.
How to cook dumplings in Ukrainian, a recipe from Poltava
In principle, our dish is prepared relatively quickly and easily. What should be done? Knead the dough, then roll into separate bundles and finally - cut into small squares. Many housewives do as our grandmothers acted - they pluck small pieces from the dough, form figures of different twisted shapes from them and send them to boiling water. Such pieces are cooked for about ten minutes, this will be seen by their ascent. And now we will tell you about how Ukrainian dumplings are prepared in Poltava. A recipe with a photo, so you can figure it out without problems. We will need: two glasses of flour, half a glass of water, two eggs, 100 grams of butter and salt.
Sift flour several times, beat eggs with salt. Then we knead the dough, mix it well and roll out the so-called “sausage”, which we cut into pieces, and from them we form Ukrainian dumplings. Dip them in a pan with boiled salted water and cook on low heat for about ten minutes. After surfacing, to glass all the water, we recline them in a colander. Then fry on both sides in a heated frying pan in oil. On the table we serve necessarily hot with pieces of meat, with sour cream or lard.
Dumpling Soup
Ingredients for the soup, in a two-liter pot: chicken legs - two, potatoes - five pieces, onions - one, butter - 30 grams, bay leaf - four pieces, black pepper - eight peas, salt. On dumplings: two eggs, milk - three tablespoons and flour. To start, we cook the broth from the legs. Cut the potatoes, toss into it and cook until almost ready. In a frying pan, we pass the creamy onion into butter in a frying pan and throw in a saucepan five minutes before being cooked. Now about how to cook dumplings for soup.
Knead the dough from the above ingredients. It should be soft, not cool. We pluck small pieces of arbitrary shape from it and send it to the broth. Do it after frying. We are waiting for the dumplings to pop up, and this completes the preparation of the soup. Of course, do not forget to pepper it, salt and drop the bay leaf at the right time.
Borsch with dumplings
To prepare it, you need: chicken or goose - half a carcass, one carrot, onion and beet, three pieces of potato, canned tomatoes - one can, cabbage - one third of a head, ground pepper, herbs, salt, vegetable oil. For dumplings: kefir or yogurt - 300 ml, flour, soda and salt. And we start cooking Ukrainian borsch with dumplings. Step by step recipe attached:
- Boil the broth from the meat. At the same time, we chop peeled vegetables: beets and cabbage - into straws, onions and potatoes - into cubes, carrots - on a grater.
- In a frying pan heated with butter, we cook the beets, onions and carrots, pour the tomato puree and stew.
- Pour potato cubes into the broth and cook until almost ready, then add dressing and cabbage.
- Salt and cook until cabbage is ready. Add greens, cover and remove from the stove.
- Now about how to cook dumplings. While the water is boiling, pour kefir in a bowl, pour flour, soda, salt on top, knead the dough, which is not very steep, tear pieces off, roll into balls and put a few in salted boiling water.
- Mix, boil, remove from boiling water and grease with butter. Pour borsch into plates, add sour cream to it and serve. Dumplings - in a separate dish.
Cheese Dumplings
Necessary ingredients: 100 grams of Dutch cheese, the same amount of flour and feta cheese, two salt spoons of butter, egg, semolina, nutmeg, salt. Now we’ll tell you how to make real cheese dumplings, Ukrainian. A recipe with a photo to help you. Three cheese and cheese on a fine grater, mix and add flour, egg, salt and semolina. In a water bath, melt the butter, pour into the dough and knead to a state of steep dough. We wrap it in a bag of polyethylene or food wrap and send it to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Then cut into small pieces and sculpt dumplings from them. The further cooking process depends entirely on your wishes and preferences. You can boil it in water and fry in a pan, as in the most standard recipe, or you can use it as the basis for a delicious soup in chicken broth. This dish is served on a table with butter, sour cream, or garlic sauce.
The recipe for dumplings with potatoes
There are many recipes for preparing Ukrainian national dishes. Both complex and very simple. Very often, dumplings, when served on the table, are combined with other products. Now we will tell you about one of them. Have you heard about such a dish as potatoes with dumplings? How to cook such a tasty? The main component can be made as described in the previous section in the classical way. And then we make potatoes. We clean it, wash it and put it on the cooker. In the meantime, prepare the roasting, for which we take two carrots and onions, peel them, the first three on a grater, and the second - cut into small cubes.
Heat a deep frying pan, pour the sunflower oil and put the vegetables. As soon as they are ready, add dumplings to them and mix. With potatoes, there are two options: cut and ceiling. As you like best, do it. Then we send it to the dumplings in a skillet and fry a little. Then add sour cream, two tablespoons, mix, cover and remove from heat. Serve on the table in ten minutes. Enjoy your meal!