Kulesh is an original Slavic dish. It is something between soup and porridge, quite soft and tender, satisfying, has many variations, from which the taste changes. Kulesh was prepared by soldiers, Cossacks, and simply villagers. Various products were used, but the main ingredient is cereal.
Kulesh - general principles of preparation
Traditional kulesh is always cooked with cereals, millet was originally used, later they began to cook the dish with buckwheat, now there are recipes with rice, peas and even beans. The basis has also changed. If earlier you used mainly fat and water, now there are interesting recipes for meat, fish, chicken and even mushroom broth. This means that kulesh will never get bored; you can cook a rich soup (or liquid porridge?) At least every day.
What is put in the dish:
• potatoes;
• onions, carrots;
• pumpkin;
• fats, oils.
Enrichment of kulesh with greens, various spices, garlic and seasonal vegetables is welcome. There are several options for a tomato dish with tomatoes, bell peppers or just pasta. In the sharp version, the cache also turns out to be quite interesting. In general, the recipe does not change, you just need to add the chopped chili pod to the pan.
Partisan Kulesh: recipe with bacon and millet
It used to be a soldier’s dish. It was notable for its cheapness, simplicity of preparation; according to the recipe, kulesh is prepared with millet and ordinary pork fat. Of course, if it has a lot of meat layers, it will turn out much tastier.
Ingredients
• 100 grams of fat;
• 150 grams of millet;
• 2 potatoes;
• large onion;
• large carrot;
• dill, laurel, parsley.
Cooking method
1. Rinse millet just under the tap in cold water. Then drain this liquid, pour boiling water. Leave on for 20-30 minutes to get bitterness.
2. Cut the potatoes into large cubes, pour into a pan, pour a little more than a liter of water, about 1.2-1.3, put on the stove, boil for ten minutes.
3. Drain the water from the millet, send it to the potatoes and cook until good softness, it is allowed to overexpose.
4. Cut the fat into small cubes. Transfer to a frying pan, fry until rosy color.
5. As soon as enough fat is leaked from the fat, add chopped onions, followed by grated carrots. Fry vegetables until rosy.
6. Transfer the lard with vegetables from the pan to the pan, salt, pepper, stir. Leave to cook for another ten minutes.
7. Done! We fill the kulesh with herbs, serve immediately or let the dish brew.
Village Kulesh: the recipe for the cheapest dish
This rustic kulesh recipe uses the simplest foods. Such porridge soup was cooked in the oven. Despite the scarcity of ingredients, it turned out very tasty, rich. To prepare the broth you will need several beef or any other seeds.
Ingredients
• 4 potatoes;
• a glass of millet;
• 2 onion heads;
• 2 carrots;
• 1.5 liters of water;
• 500 grams of seeds.
Cooking method
1. Rinse the seeds, pour 1.5 liters of water, boil for a couple of hours, strain the broth.
2. Cut potatoes and other vegetables. Rinse millet.
3. Put potatoes in a pan, boil for a couple of minutes, toss onions with carrots, salt.
4. After another two minutes, add a full glass of washed millet. Stir, add salt.
5. After boiling, remove the heat, cover, cook for 30 minutes. You can put in a pot, put in the oven. The temperature in this case is 180 degrees.
Lenten Kulesh: recipe with buckwheat
The recipe for lean kulesh without millet, here it is replaced by buckwheat. Naturally, the taste, appearance and aroma of the dish will change.
Ingredients
• 4 potatoes;
• 180 grams of buckwheat;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 1300 ml of water;
• 1 onion head;
• 1 carrot;
• 30 ml of vegetable oil;
• any seasoning.
Cooking method
1. We add buckwheat groats to the cauldron, add 300 ml of water, cook ordinary porridge, add salt.
2. Boil a liter of water, add chopped potatoes, cook until soft.
3. In vegetable oil, fry the carrots with onions until rosy, transfer to potatoes.
4. Stir the vegetables, salt and pepper. We shift all this into a cauldron for buckwheat porridge.
5. Rub or just chop the garlic, add to the total mass, you can pepper.
6. Cover the cauldron, put in the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Rich kulesh: recipe with meat (pork)
In the recipe for kulesh with meat, pork is used, any piece can be used: pulp, ribs, mosol, 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, herbs.
Cooking method
1. Cut the pork into pieces, pour 1.8 liters of water into the meat, cook the usual broth. If a piece with bone is used, then after cooking, cut it off, return the meat to the pan.
2. Cut the potatoes into large pieces, send them to the kulesh, add them slightly, boil for ten minutes.
3. We cut the fat finely, fry it in a frying pan to the rosy greaves. We shift them into a bowl. Put chopped onion 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. Once the potatoes are boiled for ten minutes, add washed rice to it. Cook until tender.
6. We shift the vegetables to their frying pans, add a whole sharp pod of pepper to the kulesh, making a few punctures in it. Additionally, add salt, optionally add fried greaves.
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: recipe with millet and crucian carp
For such a kulesh, it is best to use river fish, for example, crucian carp, common carp, perch. With sea fish it turns out not so tasty.
Ingredients
• 4 medium-sized crucian carp;
• 4 tbsp. l millet;
• 1 onion head;
• 1 carrot;
• 20 ml of oil;
• greens, salt;
• 4 potatoes.
Cooking method
1. Clean, gut the crucian carp, cut each in half.
2. Cut peeled potatoes into large pieces, you can make quarters, throw in a pot of water, boil for 10 minutes.
3. Throw millet next to the potatoes, boil for another five minutes.
4. While this is all being prepared, chop the onions and carrots, fry in a small amount of vegetable oil. But you can take any fat.
5. Put crucians in a pan, bring to a boil, add salt to the kulesh and put vegetables out of the pan in a couple of minutes.
6. Cover, cook all together for a quarter of an hour. For fish this time is enough.
7. The prepared dish is supplemented with herbs, laurel, you can pour ground black pepper.
Fragrant kulesh: recipe with millet and dried mushrooms
This dish can be prepared on water, as indicated in the recipe, or on chicken or meat broth. Dried mushrooms are used, as they give an incomparable aroma.
Ingredients
• a glass of millet;
• 300 grams of potatoes;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 onion heads;
• 150 grams of fat;
• 50 grams of mushrooms;
• basil, pepper, spices.
Cooking method
1. Soak the mushrooms for 2-3 hours, in cold water. After a good swelling, boil for 15 minutes.
2. Rinse millet, add to pot with chowder. Boil it for at least 20 minutes. Millet should be completely boiled, become soft flakes.
3. While the kulesh is preparing, we are refueling. We cut fat into cubes, fry. We remove the greaves.
4. Cut the onions with carrots, cook in melted fat until golden brown. At the end, we return to the greaves.
5. We shift vegetables into a 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. We quickly bring to a boil, cover and immediately turn off so as not to lose the aroma. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Kulesh: recipe with pearl barley and stew
It turns out that barley and stews can be cooked not only porridge. Kulesh on this recipe with them is just wonderful. We wash the barley, soak it the day before, so that it boils quickly.
Ingredients
• a glass of barley;
• 1 carrot;
• 1 can of stew;
• 1-2 onion heads;
• spices;
• greens to taste.
Cooking method
1. Soak barley, rinse, fill with fresh water (not less than a liter), boil until soft. Optionally, add one potato cut into small cubes.
2. Open the jar with the stew, remove the layer of fat in the pan. If suddenly it is not enough, but this is extremely rare, then add a little oil or fat, warm up.
3. Add chopped onions and grated carrots, fry vegetables.
4. After three minutes, put the stew in a frying pan, warm it all together.
5. Transfer the meat and vegetables from the pan to the pan to the pearl barley, stir, salt, pepper.
6. Boil the kulesh for another 20 minutes, throw the greens, turn it off.
Kulesh - useful tips and tricks
• Kulesh turned out to be liquid? Nothing wrong! The dish will stand for a bit, the cereal will swell and become sour, the broth will become smaller. If there is no time for this, then you can carefully collect the excess broth from the top with a ladle.
• No need to be afraid to add all kinds of spices. Slavic kulesh goes well not only with black pepper, but also with oriental, Caucasian spices, Italian herbs, fragrant roots.
• If you need to cook a low-calorie version of kulesh, it is easiest to replace the lard with olive oil, reducing the amount. Boiled potatoes and cereals with broth will have little energy value.
