Imagine that you are a foreigner.

- You are visiting a restaurant. You want to order “Kholodets”. Try to describe the dish to the waiter. You forgot the name of it. (A kind of meat dish with gelatine made of pork or beef or chicken).

- You want oladji, rasstegai (a pie with special fish filling), rybnik, kurnik, kulebyaka.

Hints for description:

thick pancakes, a small patty served with fish soup or broth, it is filled with meat or fish mince, fish pie, chicken pie, it’s made of yeast dough base with two or more different fillings.

5. Do you know Russian cuisine?

Match the names of the Russian dishes with their descriptions.

1. Pelmeni	a) Russian salad; it is a mixture of vegetables, boiled and chopped.
2. Vinaigrette	b) Soup with pickled cucumbers.
3. Shchi	c) Russian dumplings – cases of dough filled with meat or berries.
4. Rassolnik	d) Thin fruit jelly made from fruit or berry juice and potato flour.
5. Kasha	e) Soup with kvas, hard-boiled eggs, radishes, chopped spring onions, cucumbers and dill, boiled meat; everything is chopped. It is cold.
6. Kissel	f) Cabbage soup with fresh or sauerkraut cabbage
7. Okroshka	g) Cereal pudding. It is made of oats, rice, manna groats, buckwheat, millet
8. Blini	h) Pancakes (made of flour, water or milk, yeast and eggs).

Complete these sentences about yourself and your country.

1. In my country ... is/are more common than

2. In my country .......... is/are more expensive than ..............................

3. In my country a mixed salad usually contains ......................................

4. In my country we don't grow ........................................................

5. And we don't often eat ..................................................................

6. Personally, I prefer.......... to .............................................................

7. I love.............. but I don't really like .................................. ..........

8. My favourite meal is .............................................................................

Think about the typical cooking in your country and make a list of ten or twelve basic ingredients.

Mordovian Meals

Mordovian Cuisine is very specific and interesting. The most popular dishes are:boiled meat-pies, chopped meat, fried liver, selyanka, crucian in sour cream, a pig stuffed with buckwheat porridge, chibriki, millet blini etc.

The most popular drinksin Mordovia – braga, poza.

When the Mordovians have a special dinner (or lunch)

they prepare a lot of appetizers, a variety of mushrooms, pickled with cabbage, tangy flavour, salted cucumbers and tomatoes; sauerkraut, different kinds of pies. Pastry dishes play an important part in Mordovian cooking as well. When guests are expected, the hosts bake pies.

2. Do you know … ?

· for the Mordovianskashais a dish for special occasions, as well. There could be no feast to celebrate a wedding, or to mark a funeral without kasha. For these occasions it was usually rice kasha with honey and raisins.

· Alpachalgo –is a pancake made of millet and eggs.

· Chibriki – big doughnuts.

· Panzakay –cottage cheese and potato pies.

· Braga – an old Mordovian beverage made of water, sugar, sugar-beet, hop, yeast.

Would you like to taste Mordovian cuisine? Then you should acquaint yourself with its recipes.

Boiled meat-pies

Boil liver, heart and meat (beef). Then chop them and add some onions, salt and pepper to your taste. To make the force-meat more succulent pour a little broth into it.

For the dough you need: water, eggs, salt and flour. First pour some water into the basin, add 2 eggs, some salt and mix everything, then sift the flour and put it into the basin. Knead thick dough and divide it into 10 parts, from every part make a bun and roll it. In the middle of the scone put the force-meat and press the rims. Cook them in boiling, salted water for about 10 or 12 minutes. Just before serving, pour 2 or 3 spoonfuls of melted butter.

Ingredients

Force-meat:liver – 177 g.

heart – 200 g.

beef – 220 g.

onion – 55 g.

Dough:water –100 g.

eggs – 30 g.

salt – 5g.

flour – 250 g.

Fried meat

Cut some meat (pork, beef) in small cubes. Heat the oil or fat in a pan and add the meat into it. Finely put some chopped onion, salt. Cover and fry for further 7 minutes. This dish is served with vegetables or some kind of porridge.

Ingredients

Pork – 130 g.

Beef – 160 g.

Oil – 10 g.

Onion – 24 g.

Crucian in sour cream

Slice the fish, powder them with flour, salt them and put into the pan. Fry the fish about 7 minutes from both sides. Then pour some sour cream over the fish and return to the oven for further 15 minutes. It is served with vegetables.

Ingredients

Crucian – 198 g.

Flour – 6 g.

Oil – 10 g.

Sour cream – 100 g.