What to eat en Russie - Sibérie? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Despite generally harsh winters, Siberia is large enough and the climate varied enough to provide its inhabitants with a wide variety of products. Although only a small portion of the region is arable, its vastness compensates for the small number of cultivated plots. Wheat, barley, rye, potatoes and other root vegetables (carrots, turnips, beets, etc.) are produced here, especially near Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan. The Russians love salted vegetables marinated in vinegar (tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, etc.). A good method of preservation, especially in winter. Carrots, turnips, potatoes and cabbage are widely used for long simmered dishes. Markets are also full of aromatic herbs, from coriander to flat parsley and dill.

Mushrooms are also extremely popular, growing in abundance in the endless coniferous forests that cover much of Siberia. Many of the varieties picked from the wild are virtually unknown in France. Dried or preserved in brine, mushrooms can also be cooked directly: in stews, sautés, roasts or soups.

Markets sell almost all the fruit common in the rest of Europe, and in the summer, vendors offer watermelons on every street corner. Russians are also big fans of berries, often picked in the wild, and traditionally preserved for winter, especially in rural areas. Other popular red fruits include, of course, cranberries, sorbs, blueberries, strawberries including wild strawberries, blackberries, plaquebière (mорошка) resembling an orange raspberry, as well as redcurrants or gooseberries, which are very acidic and eaten mainly in jams. Not forgetting, of course, raspberries, of which Russia is the leading producer, controlling about a quarter of world production.

The word syr (сыр, cheese) is mentioned for the first time in the chronicles of Kievan Rus, but refers to the tvorog (tворог, or cottage cheese). Hard cheese only appeared in Russia after Peter the Great's journey through Europe, particularly in Holland, from where he brought back not only cheese but also master cheesemakers. Cheese production on an industrial scale in Russia, however, only began at the end of the 19th century. Specialities include kostroma (Костромской сыр) or pochekhonié (Пошехонский сыр), two cow's milk cheeses made from boiled cow's milk with 45% fat, close to Gouda. Tilsit (tильзитер) is also made from cow's milk with a fat content of between 30 and 60 %. Sovietsky (Советский) is an Altai cheese made from pasteurised cow's milk, which has been popular since the 1930s and whose name is translated as "Soviet". However, it has a protected designation of origin since 2011. Historically, Siberia is a major producer of dairy products, particularly butter, which supplied a large part of the country at the beginning of the 20th century, even if under the Soviet regime and especially after the fall of the USSR, the dairy industry gradually moved further west.

Finally, it is impossible to talk about Russian products without mentioning the most prestigious of all: caviar (Икра

Although Siberia has its own specialities influenced by both native Siberians and its Central Asian neighbours, there are still a large number of classic Russian recipes, typical of those of Western Russia. A proper meal in Russia will traditionally start with zakusky (закуски). These very varied appetizers include cold meat, cold cuts, mimosa eggs, salted or smoked fish (herring, salmon, sturgeon, etc.), fish roe (caviar or salmon roe), shellfish as well as different types of salads based on tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes or carrots. Pickled vegetables and mushrooms are very popular, such as malossol pickles (малосольные) flavoured with dill or pickled tomatoes (солёные помидоры). These are often served on canapés of sandwich bread or blinis (блины).

Among the common starters in Siberia, you can't miss the Olivier salad (салат Оливье). It was named after Lucien Olivier, the Belgian chef of the famous Moscow restaurant L'Ermitage, who in the 1860s created this salad with potatoes, carrots, gherkins and peas and mayonnaise. Attention, in Russia if you order vinegret (винегре́т), it is not a seasoning, but a salad, based on beets, potatoes and carrots. The very colourful "furry herring" (seledka pod chouboy, cельдь под шубой) is a popular starter consisting of herring covered with many layers of vegetables (potatoes, beetroot, etc.), the beetroot colouring the mayonnaise that coats this delicious dish in purple. Another fish-based recipe is the very simple herring with honey (seledka s modom, cеледка с мёдом) where the fish is marinated for a few hours with onions, salt, lemon and a hint of honey. Reserved for seasoned amateurs, the kholodets (холодец) is a preparation better known in France under the name of aspic, made from cooked meat (usually pork or poultry) frozen with small vegetables in a rather large quantity of jelly. Often, the starters are accompanied by bread. Two kinds are generally proposed: the classic white wheat bread (belyy khleb, or белый хлеб) and the black rye bread (tchiorny khleb, or чёрный хлеб) often a little sour and slightly sweet at the same time.

As in other Eastern European countries, soups play a very important role. Smoking in winter and refreshing in summer, they are an indispensable part of the meal and often the single dish for the majority of Russians. Rice and potato soup or simple chicken or beef broths, flavoured with vegetables and herbs, are served with pirojki. The best known of all Russian soups is probably borscht (Борщ). In the west, we mainly know red borscht (krasnyy borshch, красный борщ) made from beef broth, red cabbage and beets, all scented with a host of aromatic herbs. But there are other varieties such as green borscht (shchavel, щавель), based on sorrel, without beetroot. A spoonful of sour cream (smetana, cметана) before tasting softens the borsch and makes it more creamy. There is also a cold borscht (kholodnik, xолодник) containing pre-cooked beetroot, cucumber, dill and kefir (fermented milk). Other soups include sour shchi (Щи), based on sauerkraut, vegetables and meat, and ukha (Уха), based on fish, accompanied by potatoes and flavoured with laurel. Very close by, the solianka (Солянка) is a spicy sauerkraut soup, also containing tomato, capers and olives. In summer, try okrochka (Окрошка), a cold soup made with kefir, pre-cooked vegetables, ham or cooked meat, all generously seasoned with dill.

The most popular meats eaten in the country are pork, mutton, lamb and poultry. Beef is rarer and considered a meat of choice. Easily available during poorer times and known for its long shelf life, corned beef (tushonka, тушёнка in Russian) is very popular. On the charcuterie side, there is the unmistakable kolbasa (колбаса) - similar to sausages from Eastern Europe or Germany - with a very fine stuffing. It is widely eaten in mixed salads at breakfast and dinner. It often replaces meat in modest households. However, the term is generic and there are many variations with more or less fine, smoked or blood-filled stuffing such as our black pudding. Lard (salo or сало), which contains almost only fat in Russia, is served as a starter in very thin slices with bread and is eaten, mainly in winter, with vodka. It is sometimes fried, accompanied by potatoes or cooked to flavour a broth.

The fish are presented fresh, smoked (cold or hot) or dried. Salmon, sturgeon, pike, carp, pikeperch and tuna are the most common species. Vobla (вобла, or "Caspian roach") is a fish eaten salted and dried, usually with a beer or a glass of vodka. There are also a variety of shellfish and seafood such as crayfish that are caught throughout the summer. They are often grilled with dill and sold as is on the roadsides.

For the main course, which is not necessarily a single dish, as Russians like richly garnished tables, it often consists of roasted or grilled meat, dumplings, fish or chicken with garnish. These dishes are accompanied by rice, boiled or fried potatoes, sometimes buckwheat. To name just a few recipes, we could start with the famous Stroganov beef (бефстроганов), a beef stew with mushrooms in a sour cream, mustard and paprika sauce, honouring the prestigious Stroganov family. A Franco-Russian invention, the Orloff veal (Мясо по -французски) is a traditional roast topped with a mixture of mushrooms and onions before being topped with béchamel and baked au gratin, although modern versions also contain bacon and cheese. Very nourishing, Chicken Kiev (kotlety po kievski, Котлеты Котлеты-киевски) is a recipe for chicken breast filled with herb butter, then breaded and fried. The pirojki (Пирожки) are short pastry fritters, generally stuffed with meat. Finally the galoubtsy (Голубцы) is not without reminding the Greek dolma even if in Russia the cabbage leaves replace the traditional vine leaves, which are stuffed with a mixture of raw minced beef, onions and rice. The small packets thus obtained are steamed or cooked in a bain-marie and eaten with fresh cream.

Because of its vastness, Siberia has various influences. In the southwest, the proximity to Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan offers both Asian and Persian flavours. This region is known in particular for its Tatar culture. Tea, noodles and ravioli - such as mantis (манты) stuffed with lamb meat - of Chinese origin meet dried fruit and long grain rice in many pilaf rice recipes (plov, Плов), which is garnished here with lamb, poultry, vegetables or dried apricots and pistachios. Pork - in this predominantly Muslim region - is almost absent. It is preferred to mutton, lamb, poultry and of course the horse, which has been eaten by the nomads of the steppes for thousands of years and is used to prepare qazı (казы-карта), an assortment of boiled horse meat cuts. Despite the harsh winters, the fairly hot summers allow the cultivation of many vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, onions as well as a wide variety of fruits. There are also many flat breads or salted slippers such as chebureki (Чебурек), filled with lamb meat and then fried. Another meat dish, with a distinctly oriental influence, the chachlik (Шашлык) originated in the Caucasus and Central Asia, but has become a staple throughout Russia. These skewers, traditionally made of lamb, but also pork, beef or chicken, are delicately spiced.

Originally made by nomadic peoples, pelmeni (пельме́ни) is also one of the most popular dishes in Russia. These large, traditionally steamed ravioli are stuffed with mutton, pork, beef, mushrooms or potatoes. They are always topped with a dollop of sour cream just before serving. In the old days, people used to take advantage of the cold Siberian winter to naturally freeze pelmenis for everyone in the winter. On the borders of Mongolia and especially in the Republic of Buryatia, some specialities have more distinctly Mongolian influences, such as buuz (Бууза), a type of steamed ravioli in the shape of a purse that is stuffed with mutton, beef and onion. Other examples are the famous koumis (Кумыс), fermented mare's milk with a strong taste, or the delicate boortsog (баурсак), a very common small doughnut often served with honey or jam. Another example is çäkçäk (чак-чак), a dessert made of fried dough chips that are agglomerated with honey-flavoured caramel.

Around Lake Baikal, omul is fished, a fish that is very appreciated once salted and smoked. There are also other typical specialties often specific to native Siberian populations such as the Yakuts. Stroganina (in Russian строганина, literally "shavings") is a dish of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Arctic consisting of long, thin slices of raw fish that look like shavings. Sugudai (Сугудай) is a recipe of raw fish pieces cut into large chunks, then seasoned and garnished with onions, lemon juice, melted butter, vinegar and dill. The indigirka salad (Салат Индигирка) is quite similar, with the fish cut into small cubes and served as zakouskis. Some products from the region may seem even more unusual, but necessary to these populations of the Far North, such as bear, moose, seal or even walrus meat, which is very fatty and allows them to survive the winter. Between Vladivostok and the Kamchatka Peninsula lies the Russian Pacific coast, known for its waters full of fish. The famous king crab (камчатский краб) is fished here, which can fetch more than 200 €/kg. The Korean influence in the region is strong and Russia has no less than 150,000 citizens from the Korean peninsula, most of whom live in this part of the country. For example, the consumption of seaweed in soups or kimchi (Korean cabbage fermented with chilli pepper) is common there.

Apart from a handful of sweets from Central Asia, most desserts in Siberia tend to originate from Western Russia. A few biscuits such as prianiki(Пряники), round gingerbread rolls filled with jam and covered with a sugar topping, are often a good match. Or sushki(су́шки), simple, crunchy rings with a light taste, which are served for tea. In confectionery you can also find zefir(зефи́р), small soft red berry meringues, sometimes coated with chocolate. Otherwise the Russians love pancakes and other syrniki(сырники), small thick pancakes with cottage cheese that are often served with sour cream, jam or applesauce. Halfway between drink and dessert, kissel (кисель) is a red fruit juice slightly thickened with cornstarch that is eaten either in cold soup or as a coulis with pancakes

There are more complex cakes such as the Napoleon(Наполеон) a kind of mille-feuille or the very light ptichye moloko(птичье молоко) which could be translated as "bird's milk", which consists of a sponge cake covered with a meringue milk cream, all topped with dark chocolate. The medovik(mедовик) is a multilayered cake created for Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna in the 19th century, consisting of layers of honey biscuit and whipped cream. Finally the muraveinik(mуравейник) or "ant nest cake" is a dessert made of cookie chips agglomerated with caramel cream and moulded in the shape of a cone. A cake for the lower classes, it is now found in bakeries.

Easter is a very important period for the 60 million Russian Orthodox people. Two very popular desserts are eaten here. Paskha(пасха) is known for its shape generally resembling a truncated pyramid. It is a dessert composed mainly of farmhouse cheese(tvorog), thick cream, butter, vanilla flavoured and generously topped with candied fruit and raisins. Finally the koulitch(кули́ч) is a kind of high brioche baked in a cylindrical mould. It is flavoured with rum and saffron, before candied fruit and almonds are added. Once baked, it is crowned with a white glaze.

And to taste all these desserts, there is a hot drink that Russians have a real cult for. Tea (Чай) has a major place in Russian society and the country is one of the biggest consumers in the world. As early as 1567, Cossack dignitaries sent by Russia were the first to taste tea during their mission to China. In the 17th century, Mongolian rulers sent the czar tea in large quantities as a diplomatic gift, introducing the famous hot drink to the court, which then became a precious commodity, transported from China on camelback through Siberia and Central Asia. The railway in the 19th century reduced the journey time from almost a year to a few weeks, making tea more accessible.

In Siberia and more generally in Russia, tea is traditionally prepared in a samovar, a sort of double kettle where the tea is brewed for a long time in a teapot placed above a heated vat where the water always remains at the right temperature. As the tea is very strong, the cup is filled sparingly and then hot water is added. The central element of a Russian home, the samovar can be very simple, but some are true masterpieces of craftsmanship, decorated with precious metals, porcelain, mother-of-pearl or even crystal. Black tea is commonly consumed in the country, but beware of the term "Russian tea" as it has a double meaning. In France it refers to a black tea flavoured with bergamot, but the appellation also has a geographical reality. Indeed, as early as the 19th century, Russian botanists tried to cultivate tea plants in the Russian Empire and particularly on the Black Sea coast where the mild and humid climate is well suited to the plant. Although black tea from India or Sri Lanka accounts for the majority of tea consumed in Russia, in some parts of Siberia, particularly in regions close to Mongolia, süütei tsai (cутэй цай), a green tea that is flavoured with mare's, yak's or camel's milk, butter and a little salt, is consumed. A rich and consistent drink for icy winters.

If there's one alcohol that everyone associates with Russia in the blink of an eye, it's vodka(Водка). Russians use and abuse it, to the point that one of Gorbachev's first political acts in 1985 to put the country back to work was to enact laws restricting the sale of vodka and other alcoholic beverages. But this was unpopular and it soon became clear that prohibition and Russia do not mix, although alcohol consumption has declined among the younger generations. Vodka, made from wheat or potatoes, is traditionally an inexpensive alcohol. The more reasonable ones are satisfied with one or two glasses per meal (small doses of about 5 cl), but when the party is in full swing, toasts and tastings are no longer counted. It is not a digestive or an aperitif, but is usually drunk throughout the meal. Vodka is also one of the Russians' favourite cocktails: it is used to macerate fruit (blackcurrant, lemon, etc.) which gives the drink a fragrant taste. Vladimir's vodka, made under the brand name Silver Prince, is delicately scented and very pleasant. Stolitchnaya and Moskovskaya are in principle the purest, although it is necessary to be sure of their origin. The must remains Beluga, produced in the town of Mariinsk, in the heart of Siberia.

Beer(Пиво), if it does not dethrone vodka, especially at the table, is widespread and Russia is the fourth largest beer consumer in the world. The country's biggest breweries are Tinkoff and Baltika, and Russians often prefer lagers, although there are some good quality brown and white beers. While it is obvious that wine-growing is impossible in almost all of Siberia, wine(Вино) is increasingly being consumed in Russia. These are imported vintages from the Black Sea regions. Thus, wines from Georgia(Khvanchkara, хваншкара and Kinzmaraouli, кинзмараули - Joseph Stalin's favourites) are the most popular. All things considered, wine is still quite expensive in Russia and wines that are too cheap may leave you with bad memories when you wake up. Although during the Soviet era there were many poor quality wines supplied directly to cooperatives by tanker trucks, there have been some significant improvements since then. Finally, for special occasions, Russia has its "Soviet" champagne(Sovetskoye champanskoye, Советское Шампанское), a kind of sparkling wine whose low price partly explains its popularity. Served for special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, parties, etc.) it is quite acceptable and its sweet version goes very well with pastries.

Among the low or non-alcoholic drinks, we can mention the kvas(квас) made from the fermentation of rye bread, giving a very light fresh drink with less than 2% alcohol that is often flavoured with fruit and mint in summer. The bit(морс) is a preparation based on cranberry juice with lemon juice. Despite its name, kompot(компот) is the name given to the water used to cook fruit (apple, strawberries, peaches, etc.) that is served well chilled, although it also refers to cooked fruit. Medovukha(медовуха) is made by fermenting honey. Although it is usually about 5%, it can be as high as 15%.