Русская кухня
проект по английскому языку (7 класс) на тему

School 6

«Russian cuisine»

Made by: Malygina Anna

Class:7C

Teacher: Kinyapina N.M.

Gavrilov-Yam

2017

Intention

 The topic of my issue is «Russian cuisine» This year we studied a lot about Russia and Russian food. I like cooking very much, so I decided to know more about Russian cuisine. I set up such purposes as to know:

• How many meals are there?
• What do the Russians eat for breakfast, dinner and supper?
• What are their national meals and drinks?

 I used different sources of information such as textbooks, books, encyclopedias, the Internet and a dictionary during my work. I copied pictures for my presentation from different sites. I’ve chosen the proper articles, translated a lot of texts and learnt many new words.

As a result of my issue I have found out that:

• In Russian it’s usual to have meals three times a day.
• What the Russians eat for breakfast, dinner and supper
• Russian national food and drinks are porridge, blini, olivye, okroshka, shchi, borshch and kvass.

I think my work will be useful for pupils and teachers. I’ve made the presentation, so it can be used on the lessons by teachers. I’ve told my classmates about Russian cuisine and showed them my presentation.

Russian cuisine

Every country has its own culture, traditions, holidays and, of course, cuisine. That makes each nation unique and authentic. Learning about Russian cuisine can help to understand better the nature of the country. Being the largest country by its area, Russia has a diverse cuisine. From ancient times local people cultivated the land, fished, baked bread, gathered herbs, smoked meat, preserved fruit and vegetables, made wine and kept bee-hives. These traditions are being successfully passed from generation to generation. The best recipes have been recorded in special cook books. Russian food is considered to be diverse, tasteful and healthy. 

In Russian it’s usual to have meals three times a day. There is breakfast, dinner and supper.

Neither breakfast nor its preperation usually takes much time. In Russia it’s not common to eat much for breakfast. A usual breakfast could include an omelette, sandwiches, corn flakes or something like that. But of course there are some traditional Russian dishes. For example sirniki. Sirniki is made from dough containing lots of cottage cheese and fried on a pan. They are usually served with sour cream and sugar. Blini and blinchiki are other common morning meals. Blini are practically the same as English pancakes. In Russia they are served with butter and sugar. Blinchiki are very thin blini. Of course they are made from other dough. The thinner the blinchiki are, the tastier they are. Besides there are blinchiki with stuffing. There is a plenty of different stuffing. For example blinchiki with cottage cheese, meat, jam. If you are in Russia on Maslenica (Shrovetide, Shrove Tuesday) you can try different kinds of blinchiki because on that holiday blinchiki are considered to be the main and necessary dish. Try blinchiki with caviar - the posh variant of the course. Russians really love caviar and serve it on many holidays.

But let’s go back to breakfast. Kasha (porridge) is another traditional dish for breakfast in Russia. You will find it on the table more often than sirniki or blinchiki because it’s much simpler to prepare. Not only porridge is popular but also cereal made from other different grains. Usually breakfast is accompanied with a cup of tea.

Dinner consists of several courses. From the times of Soviet cafeterias it’s common to call them first course, second course and third course. First course is a soup. Second course includes meat and garnish. A drink in Russia is called third course. It’s usually tea, coffee, juice or compote. Sometimes third course includes a dessert. The official time for dinner at work is usually from noon till 1 o’clock PM. At home, for example on the weekend, dinner is usually later – at three or four o’clock PM.

All family gathers together for supper and this is probably the longest and the nicest meal of the day. Supper usually starts near seven o’clock PM and can last for some hours. They discuss the latest events at the table and members of family share their emotions with each other. Guests are usually invited for supper. At supper you have a wonderful opportunity to discover Russian cuisine.

So what do Russians eat? At first shchi of course. Shi is a soup made from meat, cabbage, carrot, potatoes, tomatoes and onion. Add some sour-cream to it and you’ll get a delicious taste. That’s something that helps Russians to warm during the cold winter. Maybe many people haven’t heard about shchi before, but everybody knows borshch. In fact borshch is shchi with beet. That’s the main difference between these soups. Borshch is more often related to courses of the Ukrainian cuisine.

There are a lot of regional recipes for these dishes, but traditionally, both borshch and shchi are cooked from hard meat or bone broth and are served hot with sour-cream and rye bread. Sometimes, for example, during a religious fast, meat can be substituted by fish or mushrooms. Borshch is always cooked with beet-root, which gives it a saturated red colour, and shchi must be based on fresh or sour cabbage.

Another dish of Russian cuisine containing a lot of ingredients, which at first sight don’t seem to suit each other, is okroshka. The word “okroshka” comes from the verb “kroshit” that in English means “to crumble”, “to cut”. So the name of the course speaks for itself because during its preparing many kinds of products are crumbled & cut. It is mainly cooked in summer. It is a cold soup, where instead of meat broth kvass is used. It contains cold meat (usually beef), boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, cucumbers and green onion. All the ingredients are chopped and mixed. Okroshka is usually served with sour-cream, mustard and horseradish.

There is also traditional salad in Russia. Ask any Russian what salad it is and he or she will answer you in a moment. This is olivye! Russians prepare it on every holiday. It has become a great tradition here. This salad is sometimes called Russian salad abroad. And the name “olivye” has a French origin. It’s strange but in Russia this salad is considered to be a course brought to Russia by a French man Olivye. Of course it’s hard to say if it’s true or not. Besides olivye doesn’t have any relation to the French cuisine. It is prepared from boiled chicken, potato, carrot, conserved peas, pickled cucumbers, onion and mayonnaise. It's a little strange mixture of ingredients but try it anyway, and you’ll understand that it’s really very tasty. The most popular Russian national salads are vinegret  and “dressed herring” too. Vinegret is a purely vegetarian salad, which is cooked from chopped boiled vegetables (beetroot, potatoes, carrots), fresh or sour cabbage, pickled cucumbers and onion. It is seasoned with vegetable oil.  Herring salad is mayonnaise-based and rather substantial. It is a layered salad made of pickle herring, boiled potatoes, carrots, beetroots and eggs. Sometimes the herring salad also contains apples.

Kvass is a traditional drink in Russia itself. Depending on what part of the country you visit you have an opportunity to try either dark or light kvass. And the fact that you like dark kvass still doesn’t mean that you’ll like the light one, because it tastes much different. Traditionally it used to be made of malt, rye bread and fresh water. Nowadays, in order to simplify the process of fermentation, they often add yeast into it. Traditional Russian kvass is a soft cooling beverage. It has a sour taste, and it can be used as a base for cold soups.

Beside soups, Russians have some other tasty things. Golubci are among them. They are popular in many countries abroad but you should try them in Russia because here they are the best.

Pelmeni is one more famous Russian dish. Small balls from minced meat are wrapped into dough made of flour and eggs and then boiled in salted water usually with bay leaves. Pelmeni can be served with sour-cream, table vinegar or horseradish. The filling can be made of any sort of meat – pork, beef, lamb or chicken. But the best pelmeni contain a mixed minced meat, for example, pork and beef, or pork, beef and lamb. A vegetarian analogue of pelmeni is vareniki, which is more popular in Ukraine. Fillings for vareniki can be made of cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, berries and so on.

Bread plays a very important role in the meal. Russians eat bread with practically all dishes. In Russia they cook light and dark bread. The colour of bread depends on the kind of flour is used for its preperation. In the past bread was baked in special ovens in the country. That bread has a wonderful taste and of course it can’t be compared with that bread which shops supply. Unfortunately this tradition is disappearing nowadays, although some elderly people continue baking bread and don’t buy it in the shops.

Among drinks Russians often like tea and vodka. Perhaps Russian climate which is famous by its cold weather influenced this choice of drinks. But when it’s warm Russians drink kvass and compote with pleasure.

What? Already hungry? So come to Russia as soon as you can! Yes, and don’t forget to say “Pryatnogo appetita!” at the table. It’s considered to be polite here to wish everyone 'good appetite'.

Sources of information

1. http://todiscoverrussia.com/traditional-russian-food/ 

2. http://www.russianlessons.net/articles/russianfood.php

3.  http://fb.ru/article/192883/russkie-narodnyie-blyuda-nazvaniya-istoriya-foto

4. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Русская_кухня

5. https://www.syl.ru/article/209798/new_traditsionnyie-russkie-blyuda-spisok-iskonno-russkie-blyuda-nazvaniya-retseptyi

6.https://yandex.ru/images/search?text=картинки%20о%20русской%20национальной%20кухне&redircnt=1428267117.2

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10. Сомов И. Н. «Русская домашняя кулинария», М.: Вече, 2003.
11. Фельдман И.А.«Кулинарная мудрость» (Кухня народов мира),
Киев: Издательство «Реклама», 1972