SC - Russian Feast + Sour Cherry Soup RCP

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

Hallo Folks! I just ran across my feast menu for the Russian feast I did a
while back. I thought you'd like to see the menu and sources. It was the
first feast kitchen staffed by the Endless Hills Cooks Guild those many
years ago.

"This feast has been culled from available Russian and Slavic books: Classic
Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovet's Gift to young Housewives (early 1800s,
trans Joyce Toome, Indiana University Press, 1992), the earliest known or
surviving Russian cookbook, and also from A La Russe: A Cookbook of Russian
Hospitality, Dara Goldstein (Random House), The Food and Cooking of Eastern
Europe (Lesley Chamberlain, Penguin Books 1989), and lastly, The Food and
Cooking of Russia (Lesley Chamberlain, Penguin Books, 1982). In addition,
the presentation and course-order information and court-type food was culled
from Bread and Salt, and The Domostroi."

Feast Menu:

1st course: Zakuski---thinly sliced bread with herbed butters and cheeses

2nd course: Prigotovlenie Pikulag--mixed pickled containing all sorts of
fruits, vegetables, herbs and seeds

3rd course: Honey Water with Orange

4th course: Pel 'Meni---Mongolian Dumplings, one dish of beef-venison and
one dish of sourcream/scallion and mushroom/dill, all in a shallow bath of
vegetarian broth with scallion slices.

5th course: Chicken with apricots

6th course: Lapsha Mindal 'Naja--almond noodles (made with almond milk--we
sprinkled browned almonds in butter and chopped parsley over them)

7th course: Salat with fresh herbs (dill and chives, incl. chive flowers)

8th course: Marinated roast Pork loin with currant sauce

9th course: Plov--fruit and rice "relish"

10th course: Assorted Russian pastries incl. Mazurkas, Jam tarts, Sajima,
Almond Wreaths, Dresden Pyramid torte." (Torte was very Russian despite the
name---was basically a stack of diminishing sized sponge pancakes, stuck
together with jam and drizzled with icing.)

The following is a recipe I did not use but would have loved to (it tasted
great, my kids asked for seconds, but it looked a lot like (I'm sorry to
offend) vomit when done. But the taste........you'll swoon!):

Cherry Soup with Buckwheat (Sup iz Vishen' so Smolenskimi Krupami)
From: Elena Molokhovet paraphrased (sorry! It's written longhand in my notes!)
Boullion from:
2 1/2 lbs beef (my addition: butter to brown)
1 carrot
1 parsley root
1/2 celery root
1/2 leek
      (my note:  Brown meat in butter---small cubes. Cover with about 3 qts
water, add vegetables, and simmer until a rich stock is achieved. Remove
vegetables and meat.)
Stone 1 pound ripe cherries (my note: I used--the only thing available at
the time--2 lots of Oregon brand canned tart cherries, drained. It was a
great choice), add cinnamon, 1 pound veal, salt, 1/2 glass of sugar, 2
cardomom pods, and 1/2 spoon butter. Cover with boullion and stew.
(Note: in Russian, Stew is a generic term for cook. I believe the meat is to
be removed, but you could also shred it and add it back, I suppose).
        Pound cherry stones, pour on a little boullion and cook. Strain into
cherries. Add 1/2 pound grated sweet-sour bread (my bread was sour dough),
cook until thickened. Just before serving, rub through a seive. Dilute with
boullion, add sugar and salt to taste, mix with buckwheat kasha.
(my note: It was way too thick. I added about 50 percent more stock than the
recipe seemed to call for to get a thick pottage that thickened even more
upon standing!)

The recipe for kasha, elsewhere in the book:

kasha:
1/2 glass kasha groats, 1 egg, 3/4 glass water, 1 spoon butter

My interpretation of the recipe, after looking at other sources:
Mix egg into groats. Dry in oven. Boil water and salt, sprinkle on the
groats. When thick, stir in butter and turn into a shallow bowl or plate.
Smooth into a thick sheet of kasha. Cool. Cut into small cubes before mixing
with sour cherry soup. 

Enjoy!

Aoife

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