Siberians are people known for their wit and practicality. They also prefer dishes contributing to frost resistance, endurance, and good health, but they also do not deprive you of the pleasure of a variety of flavors. Siberian cuisine has many dishes made from fish, local plants, pine nuts, and tea made from healthy herbs.
As for Buryat cuisine, most men will enjoy Buryat food. The slender figured ladies will consider it harmful to their wasp waist.However, there are also local recipes for the food-conscious visitors.
Before the arrival of the first Russian settlers, milk and meat were the main food. Today, the cuisine is more diverse, but the two-ingredient base remains the same.
This is fresh fish dish (except omul, Siberians like whitefish, grayling and other inhabitants of northern rivers), cut into pieces, with spices and vegetable oil. Local fishermen loved this dish for its easy cooking method.
Today, once on the menu of restaurants, it has acquired many different variations. Now every restaurant is trying to stand out from others with a variety of additional ingredients in the form of lemon juice, pepper, garlic, bay leaf and even pickled apples. The serving is also different: both on a platter and in the form of bruschetta.
The recipes of fern dishes appeared in our region due to the proximity to Asian countries. In Japan, China and Korea, dishes from this mysterious and ancient plant have been cooked for many hundreds of years. It is important that for the preparation of salads, peanuts are most often used - young shoots of ferns.
The harvest season is quite short - 2 weeks in late May and early June. They try to prepare it for future use and salt it for long-term storage.It is fried fresh, then the fern tastes like mushrooms.
Today, in restaurants, you can try many recipes borrowed most often from Korean cuisine: meat cooked with fern, meat salads mixed with salted shoots and with the addition of other vegetables, such as radishes, lettuce leaves.
Today, they can be tasted in the form of jam or candied fruits, which are brewed from young pine cones. This way the longer storage was provided.Previously, Pomors used to make jam to saturate themselves with vitamins during long hikes. After all, the fruits of coniferous trees have healing substances. Many Siberian healers used cones to treat various diseases, ranging from colds to nerves deseases.
Today, guests of Lake Baikal have the opportunity to take them as souvenirs: the markets are full of various products - "kebabs" made from candied cones in gift packaging, in bags, jam. You can buy honey with cones and nuts.
Delicious deep-water Baikal fish
This is a unique fish that boasts many records. Its name comes from the dialectal word "golumen", which means "an open expanse of water far from the shore."
Golomyanka's records include the following:
Today, smoked golomyanka can be tasted in many local markets, and many people like it for its unusual taste.
This dish is made from ingredients that can easily be found at any local market. Every autumn, we have an active harvesting season for taiga resources - berry and cedar fishing. In the old days, for the rural population, a trip for cedar cones or berries was a whole holiday of relaxation from the household routine and an excuse to breathe the fresh Baikal air.
Today, there are much fewer villages, but there are still real professionals in their field. They use mallets - wooden hammers to knock down cones, collect them in bags and bring supplies for the winter. And berries are harvested in whole jars in the taiga.
And there is nothing more pleasant in winter than to take cranberries out of the freezer, mix them with nuts and honey and bite this delicacy with thyme tea.
The dish is minced meat in a dough in the form of a yurt (an ancient Buryat eight-walled dwelling) and is steamed. For many tourists, "buuzas" are associated with mantas, as the cooking method is very similar. In Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, you can already find fried buuzas, buuza made of black dough, and even buuza with an omul— a fish endemic at Lake Baikal.
In no case it is recommended to eat Buuzes with forks - only with your hands. This is how you can fully enjoy the juicy broth, the most delicious part of this dish, without losing the precious elixir on the way to your mouth.
Since the Buryats have always lived in a rather cold climate, the fatter the food, the more valuable and better it was for the nomadic people. The simplicity of cooking and the minimal set of products made this soup an indispensable attribute of Buryat cuisine and it does not leave its leading position in the menu of restaurants and cafes to this day.
The basis of this dish is meat, most often mutton. For extra flavor, add onion, bay leaf, black pepper and salt. In Mongolian culture, the word "bukhlyor" means "entirely cooked", which means a method of cooking meat.This is a filling and healthy dish that the locals prepare to recuperate. It is also appreciated for the opportunity to cook it both at home and on a picnic
From a ritual dish to treat the spirit of fire, this dish migrated to the table of every inhabitant of the Buryat village.
Salamat, along with milk vodka (tarasun), is an indispensable attribute in various rituals associated with appeasing spirits. This dish was traditionally fed to fire, the most revered spirit among shamanists. The salamat was also passed around in a clockwise circle so that each seated guest could taste, be filled with it and with the blessing of the spirits.
Usually the dish is prepared with homemade fatty sour cream, and this explains its rich taste and high calorie content at the same time. According to Buryat beliefs, the fatter the product, the more favourably it will be accepted by fire.Anything that supports fire is good, anything that can extinguish it, such as water, is strictly forbidden to be used in rituals to appease fire.
Today, salamat is cooked for rituals, holidays, and as a daily dish.
It is cooked on the basis of sour milk, in several stages, one of which is boiling and running steam through a special tube, as a result of which an initially weak alcoholic drink is obtained. But the more times it runs through the tube, the stronger the drink becomes. The average strength of tarasun is 9-12 degrees. It is necessary to immediately warn that tarasun has a very specific smell of sour milk, so that the desire of tourists to try it often subsides at the stage of pouring the drink into mugs. However, to observe all local rituals, for example, to "burkhanit" (share drink with spirits) on Lake Baikal it is the most suitable alcoholic drink.
The dish is made from cottage cheese, bird cherry flour, and milk. Its name comes from the Buryat word "kholitso," meaning "mixture." In ancient times, the roots of the sarana flower were added to the dish for sweetness, and it was often stored frozen in dried intestines. Originally, the national dish was white, resulting in frozen milk foam (urme). Today, there are many variations, and fortunately, the recipe is simple, and even a child can make it. Some, in addition to the traditional ingredients, include apples, cookies, fruit, berries, and honey, and serve it in bowls. This results in a delicious and healthy recipe that doesn't add any harmful amounts.