From time immemorial, soups were considered the main dish in Russia, not a single meal could do without them. One of these dishes can be considered the so-called Leningrad pickle. It may seem surprising to some, but it is actually so. Rassolnik is the number one dish in Russian cuisine, it is also based on pickle. In addition, it can be cooked in various variations - someone loves barley, someone loves rice, someone beef, mushrooms ... The list can be long, but one ingredient should never be removed or replaced with something. These are pickles.

Leningrad pickle preparation technology

Grocery list:

• 500 grams of beef meat on the bone;
• 2 large potatoes;
• 1 medium carrot;
• 1 onion;
• 5-6 pickled cucumbers;
• 1 glass of brine;
• 0.5 cups pearl barley;
• vegetable oil;
• salt, pepper and Bay leaf taste.

How to cook

Cook the broth. To do this, fill the meat in a saucepan with water and put it on the stove. When the broth begins to boil, a foam may appear on its surface, which will need to be removed with a spoon. But this can be avoided by pouring boiling water over the meat before cooking. We reduce the heat, cover the pan with a lid, cook until cooked for another 1-1.5 hours. Barley should be thoroughly rinsed under running water for 10 minutes. So all unnecessary will be washed out of the cereal, it will soften a little. Once the broth is cooked through, strain it through a sieve.

The meat, of course, must be removed from it before this procedure. This is done so that the broth becomes transparent, because sometimes not all the foam can be collected with a spoon during cooking. Now you can add there already prepared in advance, let it boil and cook for another 15 minutes.

Let's move on to adding vegetables. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and throw them into the broth. Chop the carrots into strips, and the onions in half rings. Fry in a pan with not large quantity vegetable oil. In the process of sautéing, you can add a spoonful of sour cream, this will make the taste more delicate. Place the fried vegetables in a saucepan.

As you know, the Leningrad pickle is not complete without cucumbers. They also need to be fried a little in a pan. To do this, cut the cucumbers into strips (you can also into cubes, it all depends on your taste) and throw them into the butter in which the carrots and onions were sautéed. Fry them until soft and add to the rest of the ingredients. Cucumber pickle is usually added 5-10 minutes before cooking. Someone can do without it, but the taste will be different. Now that the soup is almost ready, you can taste our Leningrad pickle. And if the salt from the cucumbers is not enough, then you can add it a little. Well, now you also know Leningrad.

A few tips:

1. So that the meat does not turn out too boiled, after full readiness must be removed from the pan. And 5 minutes before the pickle is ready, return it back, already cut into pieces.

2. If you prefer crispy cucumbers, then you do not need to fry them in a pan.

3. It is not difficult to prepare a dish according to a recipe, but you also need to present it correctly. Leningrad pickle is best served slightly cooled down in order to fully enjoy its unique taste. Optionally, you can add a spoonful of sour cream and herbs. Bon Appetit!

Dancing from the stove to the computer !!

Nothing new, just a classic pickle with kidneys Although how to say pickle recipes are countless !!! I offer two recipes: Rassolnik with kidneys, and Rassolnik in Leningrad style.

• "Once after dinner, Lev Stepanovich, having used quite a pickle with giblets, fatty turkey and various pastries and puff pastries and moistening it all sour cabbage soup, went into the living room to have lunch with a watermelon and drink prince's liqueur."(c) A.I. Herzen," Debt First of All "

If you hear classical music in food, then - something like the chants of Nikolai Diletsky (like a classic, but not widely known), and a pickle with kidneys (like with giblets, beloved by Herzen's hero) - are, of course, Balakirev's romances. Let's talk about these "romances", especially since now is the most suitable round.
Someone stubbornly dislikes pickles. I think about the reasons, and I see the following:
- Unbalanced amount of pearl barley. How pearl barley with cucumbers, so lonely grains in broth are annoying :)
- Not the best quality pickle. For pickle, you need to use the best pickle: strong enough and vigorous, in which you can feel the leaf (that is, a set of herbs used for pickling cucumbers), and there is not the slightest sign of turbidity.
- Neglect of spices. Rassolnik are often afraid to "spoil" with spices, but in vain.
Let's cook a pickle with kidneys.
I soak the kidneys for a whole day - this is the way that came from the Kuban ancestors. The water needs to be changed several times during this time. For the last 3 hours, the kidneys are soaked in milk.

Then I flush and cut out the bile ducts.

After that, the kidneys are placed in a saucepan, poured hot water and simmer for a couple of minutes.

We drain the water, rinse the kidneys, fill it with hot water again and boil the same amount. After that, finally, we rinse them thoroughly. ... It is interesting to note that this particular recipe was classic version preparation of pickle in Soviet times. Even then, it could be seen in the book "On tasty and healthy food", which was in high esteem and in short supply. And today the pickle according to this recipe remains the favorite dish of many. It should be noted that he is good on the second and third day. It even tastes better! And the preparation is quite simple.

The Russian proverb says: "Every salty land has its own brine." This is to the fact that earlier (yes, probably, and now) it was considered a great art to salt a product and get a good pickle. It is then used to make pickle - meat or fish soup, in which brine is added without fail (up to 2 glasses per 1 liter of broth). By the way, instead of meat, giblets (kidneys, liver) are used in pickle, and to give special taste and the density is added with cereals, more often pearl barley and rice. Note that Russians have long been addicted to pickles, which were not limited to cucumber. They cooked with cabbage, pear, apple, watermelon, and even cherry pickles.

Fry the onion in ghee, add the carrots chopped into strips, close the lid. When the carrots reach semi-standard, add the turnip cut into cubes, and under the lid.
About cucumbers P.P. Alexandrova-Ignatieva writes the following:
"Pickled cucumbers, peeled from the skin, need to be cut lengthwise into four parts, cut out the core from each part, leaving only the pulp, which will go for a side dish. Cut this pulp into joints and boil in salted boiling water, then pour over with cold water."
Honestly, I don’t clean or cut anything. Not because laziness. Well, I like just such, "untouched" their state in the pickle. Therefore, I just chop and send along with the chopped garlic to a pan with butter and fry a little, then pour a small amount of broth under the lid, where the roots are already tired of them.

But if you decide to follow the advice of Pelageya Pavlovna, it will, of course, be more correct.
In the meantime, there are two more things to do. First, boil the barley. Second, boil and strain one and a half cups of cucumber pickle. We add all this at the last stage to the boiling broth, along with the kidney cut into small slices (spices and frying). By the way, Alexandrova-Ignatieva calls all this side dishes.

Without sour cream, of course, pickle is not pickle. Well, what to pour into a glass is well known ...

To prand prepare Leningrad pickle, you will need:

Beef on the bone - 500-600 g, kidneys 800-900 g, pearl barley - 50 g, potatoes - 2 pcs., Tomato paste

2 tbsp, carrots - 1 pc., onion- 1 pc., Celery root - 50 g, salted cucumbers- 100 g, bay leaf - 2 pcs. , green onions - 0.25 bunch, fresh dill - 0.25 bunch, fresh parsley - 0.25 bunch, sour cream - 100 g

How to cook Leningrad pickle:

It should be noted right away that for the preparation of this dish it is best to choose beef brisket on the bone so that it has cartilages on it. So, thoroughly rinse the meat under running water and immediately put it in a saucepan (whole piece). Now we fill it with 1.5-2 liters cold water and put on fire. While the water is boiling, prepare the vegetables. We wash the celery root, peel the onions and carrots. Now we cut them into enough large pieces(it's enough just to cut in half, in any shapee). After that, add vegetables to the pan to the meat. We bring everything to a boil and be sure to remove the foam.

Then we wash it several times. pearl barley(you can even soak it in advance) and put it in a saucepan, cook under a lid over low heat for 1-1.5 hours

Once the meat will be ready, carefully remove it from the broth (along with the roots). Separate the meat from the cartilage and bones, and then cut into pieces, which are sent back to the soup. We just throw away the roots. Also at this time add boiled and sliced ​​kidneys to the pickle. Peel the potatoes, cut them into cubes and place them in a saucepan.

We are preparing a request avku.

To do this, peel the onions and cut the carrots into small strips.

Then cut the pickles into strips. Fry vegetables a little on vegetable oil, add tomato paste, then add the broth, Add, in broth and fat, vegetables with tomato.

When the potatoes are tender, add our vegetable dressing. Bring the soup to a boil, add bay leaves for the smell, and simmer the pickle over low heat for about 5-8 minutes. If there is not enough acid in the soup, then add brine to taste. It is better to salt the pickle at the very end (perhaps the salt from the cucumbers will be quite enough).
Finely chop the greens and add to the saucepan, close the lid and remove from heat. Let the pickle brew a little more.

My unlucky notes: If the pickle is not sharp enough, boiled strained cucumber pickle... Cucumbers for pickle, always first of all fry with vegetables, and then simmer in broth with fat. The pickle tastes more intense. If you put pickles, sorrel or other acidic foods in the soup first, and then potatoes, then it will be tough. Pearl barley for pickle can be pre-sautéed in oil. Sauteed pearl barley retains its natural color during the cooking of the soup, while raw cereals gives the soup a bluish tint. For browning cereals, take 5-10% fat by weight of the cereal. The groats are sorted out, washed in cold water, then in hot; they are thrown into a colander or sieve and placed in a bowl with heated fat and heated until the moisture evaporates, then boiling water or broth is poured into a bowl with cereals so that the cereal immediately boils and brought to readiness. At the same time, the taste of pickle will improve significantly.

Moscow pickle usually seasoned with a boiled mixture of yolks and milk (or cream). The dressing is prepared in the following way: the yolks are broken with a broom and, stirring continuously, hot milk is poured into them; the mixture is put on fire and stirred to prevent it from boiling or thickening; then it is filtered and added to the soup.

Pickles differ in a set of products: cabbage and carrots are additionally introduced into the home pickle; in Leningrad pickle - pearl barley, or rice, or wheat, or oatmeal and tomato puree; in a pickle in Rossosh style - tomato puree, and vegetables and tomato puree are sautéed on bacon or lard.
Rassolnik Moscow differs in a large number of white roots. It is cooked with sorrel, spinach, but without potatoes. The prepared pickle is seasoned with whipped yolks with cream and released with a piece of chicken, poultry offal or chopped kidneys.

Person! Person!!! Waiter! Kidneys once to the queen!
- Fedya, why are you huddling around the kidneys? Go here.
From the movie "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession"

In the old days, kidneys were considered exclusively a master's treat and were often served at the royal table. In "Domostroy" you can find information on how to prepare the kidneys of animals, the recommendations were as follows - "to start up the kidneys for fried". Kidneys belong to the first category. Beef, veal, pork and lamb kidneys are eaten.
The kidneys are used for the first and second courses, delicious canned food. The most valuable are beef kidneys, they contain the largest number useful minerals such as iron, calcium and phosphorus. All of these types are rich in enzymes and extractives, contain vitamins of group B, PP, pantothenic acid, calcium, a lot of protein. The kidneys are a low-calorie product. There are only 86 kcal per 100 g of beef kidneys. The kidneys are known to be shrouded in fat, but by the rules culinary processing all fat is cut and discarded.
Beef kidneys have a very special taste, which becomes more intense the older the animal is. Beef kidneys are dark red in color, weighing from 750 to 1000 g.

Pork, veal and lamb kidneys are 2-3 times smaller in size. Unlike beef, these kidneys are cooked without preliminary heat treatment, but, nevertheless, if they are immersed in boiling water for 2-3 minutes before the main cooking, the product will only benefit in taste and consistency. The kidneys of these animals are fried, stewed or baked with vegetables, various sauces, herbs, lemon.

How to choose the right kidneys?

Processed kidneys should be free of signs of spoilage, thoroughly cleaned of blood, impurities, and may contain white-yellow fat. The kidneys can be stored for a long time, up to six months in a freezer at -16`C without losing their properties. But it is better if the kidneys are acquired in fresh and immediately cooked.

V Soviet times In almost any canteen, they prepared Leningradsky rassolnik. The dish was distinguished by its special composition and cooking technology. Most often, the composition included beef kidney, pickled cucumbers, pickle. Soup was cooked in meat broth with the addition of sautéed vegetables and tomato paste. Cucumbers were necessarily peeled, and not only from the peel, but also from large seeds. The pearl barley was cooked separately and put into the ready-made soup - it was easier to calculate its amount. Meat or kidneys were cut into pieces, which were placed on a plate just before serving the dish to the table or at serving. Classic recipe has undergone many changes, it has various variations. Rassolnik "Leningradskiy" is made from various cereals and types of meat, including chicken and chicken offal... Only the characteristic sour taste of the thick and aromatic soup remains unchanged.

Cooking features

Under the name "Rassolnik Leningradskiy", recipes for soup with meat broth with the addition of pickled cucumbers and brine, which are considered classic, are combined. For the first dish to be worthy of this name, you need to cook it, adhering to some rules.

• The main ingredients for pickle, such as broth, pearl barley, sauteed vegetables, stewed pickles, are prepared separately from each other, then mixed and brought to readiness. At the same time, it is important to follow the sequence of the ingredients, indicated in the recipe.
• You should not give up the use of meat offal due to the fact that they need a long preliminary preparation: they give the pickle unique taste while making the dish cheaper.
• If you are using beef kidneys to make pickle, soak them in cold water to get rid of the unpleasant odor. The soaking time is at least 3 hours. The water must be changed 3-4 times. After that, the kidneys are poured with clean water, brought to a boil, boiled for 5 minutes and the water is changed again. Pour again with clean water and cook until cooked, it takes an hour.
• Chicken ventricles, if they are involved in cooking, must be thoroughly washed, removing yellow films, otherwise they will turn out to be bitter and spoil the taste of the finished dish.
• Pearl barley should be boiled separately. Pre-soaking cereals in cool water will speed up the process. Thanks to this trick, the broth will remain transparent. Otherwise, the soup will turn out to be cloudy due to the high gluten content in the pearl barley.
• Pickled cucumbers differ from salted cucumbers in taste, it is undesirable to use them for making pickle, as the soup will lose its characteristic taste because of this. Replacing cucumber pickle with marinade is also unacceptable.
• The pickle should be salted shortly before it is ready. If you do this before adding brine and pickles, there is a risk of oversalting the dish.
• If tomato paste is added to the soup, it must be fried.
• When cooking pickle in Soviet canteens, margarine was most often used to prepare vegetable frying. It can be replaced with vegetable or butter, or a mixture of both. Butter allows you to add delicate creamy notes to the soup, soften spicy taste pickles.

Rassolnik "Leningradsky" is usually served with sour cream. If you sprinkle the soup with fresh herbs, the taste and aroma will only benefit from this.

Pickle "Leningradsky" with kidneys

• beef kidneys - 0.65 kg;
• potatoes - 0.65 kg;
• beef on the bone - 0.4 kg;
• onions - 0.2 kg;
• carrots - 100 g;
• pearl barley - 40 g;
• pickles - 0.3 kg;
• cucumber pickle - 125 ml;
• tomato paste - 60 ml;
• margarine - 45 g;
• water - 2.5 l;
• bay leaf, salt, pepper, fresh herbs- taste;
• sour cream (optional) - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Rinse the pearl barley, pour in a little water, boil until tender.
• Boil the pre-soaked kidneys, cool, cut into portions.
• Cover the beef with water, add bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots and one small onion. Salt lightly. Simmer for an hour. Remember to skim off the foam when boiling.
• Remove the meat from the broth. For soup, it is no longer needed; it can be used to prepare other dishes, such as salads.
• Strain the broth, discarding the vegetables.
• Peel the cucumbers, cut out the areas with seeds. Cut the cucumber pulp into thin strips.
• Clean up and small cubes chop the onion.
• Melt the margarine in a skillet, using about half, add the onions. When it acquires a golden hue, add the tomato paste, sauté it for 3-4 minutes.
• In a separate frying pan in the remaining margarine, lightly fry the cucumbers, add brine to them and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Peel the potatoes. Cut it into one and a half centimeter cubes.
• Boil the broth. Place potato cubes and pearl barley in it. Cook for 15 minutes.
• Add vegetable stir-fry and cucumbers and cook for 5 minutes.
• Season the soup with salt and season to taste. Add chopped greens. Boil the soup for 2-3 minutes, turn off the stove.
• Insist the pickle under the lid for 15-20 minutes.

When serving, you need to put a piece of kidney in each plate, pour over the soup, add a spoonful of sour cream. Soup prepared according to the given recipe was often served in Soviet canteens; it was listed on the menu as "Leningrad Rassolnik".

Rassolnik "Leningradsky" with chicken ventricles

• chicken ventricles - 0.3 kg;
• chicken or meat broth- 1.5 l;
• pickles - 0.2 kg;
• cucumber pickle - 60 ml;
• pearl barley - 40 g;
• potatoes - 0.3 kg;
• margarine - 40 g;
• onions - 100 g;
• carrots - 100 g;
• tomato paste - 40 ml;
• salt, pepper, sour cream, herbs - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Cook the broth. You can even make it from cubes.
• Rinse well chicken stomachs, put in a saucepan, cover with water and cook for an hour. Remove, cool, cut into strips.
• Rinse the barley and cook until tender in a separate saucepan.
• Peel the potatoes, cut into small pieces.
• Peel the cucumbers, cut into thin strips.
• Peel the carrots and onions. Cut the onion into thin half rings, chop the carrots on a coarse grater.
• Melt margarine in a frying pan, put carrots and onions in it, fry until soft.
• Add cucumbers, fry for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add tomato paste and fry for 5 minutes with vegetables.
• Add brine, simmer vegetables in it for 2-3 minutes.
• Boil the broth, put potatoes and barley in it, cook for 15 minutes.
• Add chicken gizzards and grilled vegetables. Continue cooking for 5 minutes.
• Leave the cooked soup covered for 10-15 minutes.

When serving the pickle to the table, sprinkle it with chopped herbs, season with sour cream.

Rassolnik "Leningradsky" with meat

• beef on the bone - 0.7 kg;
• water - 2.5 l;
• pearl barley - 60 g;
• carrots - 100 g;
• onions - 100 g;
• cooking oil - 40 g;
• pickles - 0.25 kg;
• tomato paste - 40 ml;
• potatoes - 0.4 kg;
• brine - 125 ml;
• salt, pepper, bay leaf - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Wash the meat, cover with water, bring to a boil. Remove foam, reduce heat. Cook for an hour and a half. Add pepper and bay leaves half an hour before cooking.
• Remove the meat from the broth, cool, cut into small pieces and return to the saucepan.
• Remove the husk from the onion. Cut the vegetable into small cubes.
• Grind the peeled cucumbers on a coarse grater.
• Peel the carrots, grate coarsely.
• Melt the fat in a skillet. It can be replaced with vegetable oil or butter.
• Fry the onions with carrots, add the tomato paste, fry it with vegetables for a few minutes.
• Pour in the cucumber pickle with chopped cucumbers, simmer the vegetables for 5 minutes.
• Peel, cut the potatoes into small cubes.
• Boil pearl barley until tender.
• Put potatoes and pearl barley in boiling broth, cook for 15 minutes.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and cook the pickle for another 10 minutes.

A recipe for pickle with meat, similar to the above, can be found in cookbooks, in which it is called "Leningradsky". Compared to a similar soup that contains kidneys, it takes less time and effort to prepare.

Rassolnik "Leningradsky" is a culinary classic of the Soviet period. Its recipes are based on traditional ones, known from ancient times, but the cooking technology has been improved, as a result of which famous dish Russian cuisine has become even tastier and more appetizing.

To make the pearl barley cook faster, it is advisable to pre-soak it for 3-4 hours, then drain the water and rinse.

Pour the required amount of cold water into a saucepan, dip the washed or pre-soaked chicken meat into it. It is necessary to follow the cooking - remove the resulting foam and prevent boiling, otherwise the broth will turn out to be opaque, and the pickle is not beautiful in appearance. Chicken can be immediately dipped in boiling water, reduce heat and simmer with a slight boil. With this method of cooking, the meat will turn out fragrant.

Cooking chicken meat should be about an hour if you have a store chicken. I have a homemade one and I increased the cooking time to 1 hour 30 minutes.

After 60-80 minutes, put the pearl barley into the finished broth.

Cut the potatoes into medium cubes and send them to the pan after the cereals. Salt in moderation, since you must take into account the fact that the cucumbers will be salty. It is better to add salt at the end. Boil potatoes and cereals for 25 minutes.

Fry the finely chopped onion just a little in vegetable oil.

Divide the carrots into three parts. Cut one into cubes, grate the second with a coarse grate, the second on the finest grater. Add to the onion and simmer until soft, if necessary, add a little oil so that the vegetables are not dry.

Cut the pickled cucumbers into cubes and heat a little together with the ready-made frying (5 minutes will be enough).

Pour the contents of the pan into a saucepan, put the bay leaf, pour in the cucumber pickle and bring everything together to a boil. Try for salt and acid. If it turns out to be salty, you can add a little hot boiled water.

Step 1: cook the beef broth and barley.

One of the important components of the pickle is, of course, a properly cooked broth. To do this, we need to thoroughly rinse the bones or brisket, put it in a 2.5 liter saucepan and fill it with water, leaving about 5-7 centimeters to the edge. And we put it on fire. The broth should ideally be cooked for at least one and a half hours, the longer the better. When it boils, you will need to turn down the heat. After a few minutes, scale (foam) will collect on the surface: remove it with a slotted spoon. If necessary, you will need to once again run a slotted spoon over the broth. Then salt and pepper beef broth and throw in the washed laurel leaves. Cover loosely with a lid, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for another hour and a half.
Barley also needs to be given a lot of time. Before you put the cereal to boil, you need to rinse it. three to four times... Then transfer to a saucepan of 1.5 liters and cover with boiled, cold water. We put on fire and, after the water has boiled, we detect 20 minutes and reduce the fire. After the time has elapsed, without draining the water, leave the barley on the stove in a saucepan. Turn off the fire. Now the pearl barley should swell, that is, absorb water. The barley mass will double at the end.

Step 2: prepare the vegetables.

The preparation of the Leningrad-style pickle can be cut in half by preparing the "filling" of the pickle in the two hours that the broth is being cooked. Therefore, now we are peeling all vegetables that need to be peeled, namely potatoes, carrots, onions.
Cut the potatoes into 2x2 centimeters cubes and immerse them in a bowl in water so as not to turn black. At the same time, the excess starch will be washed out.
Cut onions and leeks into thin rings, carrots into strips.
In a frying pan, now fry the carrots and onions until golden brown, then add the leeks and tomato paste. Turn off after 5-7 minutes. Cut the cucumbers into strips. most of the work is done.

Step 3: prepare the Leningrad-style pickle directly.

Checking the barley. During the time that we were preparing vegetables, it should have swelled up. If this happens, put the barley in a colander, shake off the remaining water and return it to the pan. When ready, the broth will also need to be filtered through a colander into a bowl (or a clean saucepan). You don't need to take out the meat, it will still end up in a colander. Pour the broth back into the pot and put on fire. Cut the meat into pieces. Pour the potatoes into the boiling broth and cook for 10 minutes. Then stir in the cucumbers and pickle. Add vegetable frying and cook further. We taste the broth. If necessary, add salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of dry herbs. In the freed frying pan, fry the meat until light crust. Add the meat to the pickle last, when the potatoes have already been boiled. Then we turn off the heat and leave the Leningrad-style pickle on the stove to "reach" for 15 minutes.

Step 4: serve the Leningrad-style pickle.

A little bit left! Rinse fresh herbs and chop. Serve the pickle, add a spoonful of sour cream and sprinkle with herbs. Bon Appetit!

If someone does not like barley, you can use buckwheat or millet groats;

In cooking, it is better to use home-pickled cucumbers;

If the pickle from the cucumbers is too sour, it can be “steamed” separately in a pan, the vinegar can be evaporated and then added to the broth.