Kulesh is a native Slavic dish. It is something average between soup and porridge, rather soft and gentle, nourishing, has many variations, which change the taste. Kulesh was prepared by soldiers, Cossacks, and simply villagers. Various products were used, but the main ingredient is croup.
Kulesh - General Cooking Principles
Traditional kulesh is always cooked with cereals, millet was originally used, and later they began to cook the dish with buckwheat, now there are recipes with rice, peas and even beans. The base has also changed. If you used mostly lard and water, now there are interesting recipes for meat, fish, chicken and even mushroom broth. This means that kulesh never get tired, rich soup (or liquid porridge?) You can cook at least every day.
What is put into the dish:
• potatoes;
• onions, carrots;
• pumpkin;
• fats, oils.
Kulish enrichment with greens, various spices, garlic and seasonal vegetables is welcomed. There are several options for a tomato dish with tomatoes, bell peppers or just pasta. In the sharp version of kulesh also turns out quite interesting. In general, the recipe does not change, you just need to add chopped chilli pod to the pan.
Guerrilla kulesh: recipe with bacon and millet
Once it was a soldier's dish. It was distinguished by its cheapness, ease of preparation, and the recipe for kulesh was prepared with millet and ordinary pork lard. Of course, if there is a lot of meat layers in it, then it will be much more tasty.
Ingredients
• 100 grams of fat;
• 150 grams of millet;
• 2 potatoes;
• large onion;
• large carrot;
• dill, laurel, parsley.
Method of preparation
1. Wash the millet just under the tap in cold water. Then drain this liquid, pour boiling water. Leave on for 20-30 minutes to let the bitterness out.
2. We cut the potatoes into large cubes, put them in a saucepan, pour a little more than a liter of water, about 1.2-1.3, put them on the stove, boil for ten minutes. 3. Drain the water from the wheat, send it to the potatoes and cook until soft, it is allowed to overdo it.
4. Cut the fat into small cubes. Transfer to the pan, fry until rosy color.
5. As soon as enough fat is melted from the fat, add chopped onion, followed by grated carrot. Fry the vegetables until rosy color.
6. We shift the fat with vegetables from the griddle to the pan, salt, pepper, stir. Leave to boil for another ten minutes.
7. Done! We fill the kulesh with greens, serve immediately or give the dish to infuse.
Village Kulesh: the recipe for the cheapest dish
This rustic recipe for kulesha uses the simplest products. Such porridge soup was cooked in the oven. Despite the scarcity of ingredients, it turned out very tasty, rich. To prepare the broth will need a few beef or any other bones.
Ingredients
• 4 potatoes;
• a glass of millet;
• 2 onions;
• 2 carrots;
• 1.5 liters of water;
• 500 grams of seed.
Method of preparation
1. Rinse the bones, pour 1.5 liters of water, boil for a couple of hours, strain the broth.
2. Chop the potatoes and other vegetables. Wash millet.
3. Put the potatoes in the pot, boil for a couple of minutes, throw the onions and carrots, salt.
4. After another two minutes add a full glass of washed millet. Stir, salt.
5. After boiling remove the fire, cover, cook for 30 minutes. You can put it in the pot, put it in the oven. The temperature in this case is 180 degrees.
Lenten kulesh: a recipe with buckwheat
The recipe is fast klesh without millet, here it is replaced by buckwheat. Naturally, the taste, appearance and flavor of the dish will change.
Ingredients
• 4 potatoes;
• 180 grams of buckwheat;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 1300 ml of water;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 30 ml of vegetable oil;
• any seasoning.
Method of preparation
1. We fill buckwheat groats in the cauldron, add 300 ml of water, boil ordinary porridge, salt it.
2. Boil a liter of water, add chopped potatoes, cook until soft. 3. In vegetable oil, fry carrots with onions until rosy color, shift to the potatoes.
4. Stir vegetables, salt and pepper. We shift all this to the cauldron to buckwheat porridge.
5. Rub or simply chop the garlic, add to the total mass, you can pepper.
6. We cover the cauldron, put in an oven heated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Fatty Kulesh: recipe with meat (pork)
In the recipe for meat klesh pork is used, you can use any piece: pulp, ribs, mosul, but in the latter case, the broth will be prepared for a very long time. Instead of millet rice is used. You can even take a chop.
Ingredients
• 500 grams of pork;
• 50 grams of fat;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 sweet pepper;
• 200 grams of rice;
• 1 hot pepper;
• 2 potatoes;
• onion head;
• spices, greens.
Method of preparation
1. Cut the pork into slices, pour 1.8 liters of water to the meat, make ordinary broth. If you use a piece with a bone, then after cooking, cut off, return the meat to the pan.
2. Cut the potatoes into large chunks, send them to Kulesh, lightly salt them, boil for ten minutes.
3. Cut the lard finely, fry in a skillet until rosy cracklings. We shift them to the bowl. Put sliced onions in fat, fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the grated carrot to the onion, and after a couple of minutes, chopped sweet pepper. We continue to cook vegetables together.
5. As soon as the potatoes are cooked for ten minutes, add the washed rice to it. Cook until done.
6. We shift the vegetables of their pan, add a whole sharp pepper pod to the kulesh, making several punctures in it. Salt additionally, if desired, add roasted cracklings.
7. Cover the pot, set the minimum heat and simmer for 15 minutes. At the end you can throw greens, season the dish with laurel.
Fish kulesh: a recipe with millet and crucian
For such kulesh it is best to use river fish, for example, crucian carp, carp, perch. With sea fish is not so tasty.
Ingredients
• 4 medium sized crucians;
• 4 tbsp. l millet; • 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 20 ml of oil;
• greens, salt;
• 4 potatoes.
Method of preparation
1. Clean, gut carp, cut each in half.
2. Cut the peeled potatoes into large chunks, you can make quarters, put them in a saucepan with water, boil for 10 minutes.
3. Throw the next to the potato millet, boil for another five minutes.
4. While this is all done, chop the onions and carrots and fry in a small amount of vegetable oil. But you can take any fat.
5. Put the crucian carp in the pan, bring to a boil, add salt to the soup and after a couple of minutes, put the vegetables out of the pan.
6. Cover, boil all together for a quarter of an hour. For fish this time is enough.
7. Add the prepared dish with herbs, laurel, you can pour ground black pepper.
Aromatic Kulesh: a recipe with millet and dried mushrooms
This dish can be cooked in water, as indicated in the recipe, or in chicken or meat broth. Mushrooms are used dried, as they give an unmatched flavor.
Ingredients
• a glass of millet;
• 300 grams of potatoes;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 onions;
• 150 grams of fat;
• 50 grams of mushrooms;
• basil, pepper, spices.
Method of preparation
1. Soak the mushrooms 2-3 hours in cold water. After a good swelling boil for 15 minutes.
2. Wash the millet, add to the pot with the soup. Boil it for at least 20 minutes. Millet should be completely boiled soft, become soft flakes.
3. While kulesh is preparing, do gas station. Cut lard cubes, fry. Greaves remove.
4. Cut the onions with carrots, cook in melted fat to a ruddy color. At the end we return to the vegetables, bacon.
5. We shift vegetables into kulesh, salt, boil for five minutes.
6. Add chopped garlic, pepper, be sure to put a little fresh or dry basil, you can add other herbs. Quickly bring to a boil, cover and turn off immediately, so as not to lose the flavor. Let stand kulesh 10 minutes.
Kulesh: recipe with barley and meat stew
It turns out that barley and stew can be cooked not only porridge. Kulesh with this recipe with them turns out just wonderful. We wash the pearl barley, soak it the day before so that it will cook quickly. Ingredients
• glass of barley;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 can of stew;
• 1-2 onions;
• spices;
• greens to taste.
Method of preparation
1. Soak the pearl barley, rinse, fill with fresh water (not less than a liter), boil until soft. Optionally, you can add one potato cut into small cubes.
2. Open the jar with stew, remove the layer of fat in the pan. If suddenly it is not enough, but this happens extremely rarely, then add a little oil or fat, heat it up.
3. Add chopped onion and grated carrot, fry vegetables.
4. Three minutes later, in the pan lay out the stew, warming up all together.
5. We shift the meat with vegetables from the pan to the pan to the pearl barley, stir, salt and pepper.
6. Boil Kulesh another 20 minutes, throw greens, turn off.
Kulesh - useful tips and tricks
• Kulesh turned out to be watery? Nothing wrong! The dish will stand a little, the cereal will swell and limp, the broth will be less. If there is no time for this, then you can carefully collect the excess broth from a ladle on top.
• Do not be afraid to add all sorts of spices. Slavic Kulesh is perfectly combined not only with black pepper, but also with eastern, Caucasian spices, Italian herbs, fragrant roots.
• If you need to cook a low-calorie version of kulesha, the easiest way is to replace the fat with olive oil, reducing the amount. Potatoes and cereals in boiled form with broth will have a small energy value.
