Unknown culinary masterpieces of the Urals

More than 120 nationalities live in the Urals, and each has brought a special invaluable contribution to culinary culture.

The location of the Urals on the border of Europe and Asia and the interweaving of culinary traditions of Tatarstan, Kazakhstan, Bashkortostan, Russia made the Ural cuisine special and unique.

Despite many dishes and traditions, for many decades the existence of Ural cuisine as such has been the subject of controversy among culinary experts.

When we dine in a restaurant, we know what cuisine we are going to try: Chinese or Italian, or maybe French. But when we go to Grandma’s for lunch and eat dumplings and shangi, we do not think at all where these dishes came from. But this is the real Ural cuisine, just no one knows about it.

The Urals is considered a peculiar area, which harmoniously combines the gastronomic traditions of different peoples inhabiting our region, and the local cuisine is distinguished by a bright individuality and has its own characteristics, understandable not to everyone, especially residents of other regions.

All over the world, Ural cuisine has become famous for a dish that is fervently loved throughout Russia.

And as you have already guessed - this dumplings, a native Ural dish, invented by ancient cooks of the Komi-Permyak tribes. They got their name because of their shape, on the Komi-Permyak dish called pell-nanny. The pel is the ear, the nanny is the bread, hence the dumplings are the bread ears. Ural dumplings from dumplings in other regions are distinguished by a gentle dough and size - our dumplings are small and neat.

But this is not the only famous dish of Ural cuisine, this region is in principle famous for dishes from dough.

Another type of dumplings are dumplings, which also came from the Urals. A variety of fillings made them no less popular: with mushrooms, radish, sauerkraut, sweet with cottage cheese and cherries.

Sittings are small juicy cakes with meat that are served with gravy (broth with vinegar or just broth). From ordinary cakes are practically no different, except that in the Urals there was some inexplicable love for everything small (dumplings, posikunnyki).

Many have tried this dish and know about it, only hardly thought that such cakes are cooked only here.

Shanggi is a cake type, it is not filled with filling, but smeared with it on top. Most often, shangi are with mashed potatoes, cottage cheese or millet porridge.

One version of the appearance of this dish is quite simple and logical. At one time in the Urals there was a very noticeable lack of flour, and resourceful housewives figured out how to save dough: just leave the filling without a covering layer, and, oddly enough, this idea became not only a forced measure, but a favorite performance of baking for many people. So open shangi and posikuniki is a purely Ural invention.

Dumbies are pancakes. The main difference from others - they are mixed only on flour, yeast and milk - simple and tasty. No more ingredients like the other pancakes.

Another natively Ural dish is pies filled with cherry and pies prepared with cherry flour. The ground black berry seeds give a very peculiar taste, but it is this that many locals remember from childhood. Although other Russians have never heard or tried anything like this.

Ural cuisine is more than diverse and interesting. In this case, recipes and dishes for the most part are not difficult to prepare, and the components are inexpensive and affordable.

But, unfortunately, nowadays there are almost no establishments that can please visitors with real cuisine of the Urals. They have not gained enough popularity, as Urals have a greater interest in overseas cuisine.

But dishes such as dumplings and dumplings can be tried in almost every institution. And delicious cherry pies and shangi are sold in every second bakery of Yekaterinburg.

Text: Alesya Kurzaeva
Photo: pinterest