Ingredients:

1 medium chicken
3 onions, finely chopped
50 grams butter
1/2 kg. tomatoes or
1 cup tomato juice
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh summer savory, chopped
2 tablespoons basil, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
salt

Procedure:

Wash the chicken thoroughly and cut it into pieces, wash it once more and put into a pot to stew. When it simmers, pour the juice into another pot. Add butter to the chicken and fry it all over, until browned. Pour the juice back into the pot with the chicken and add finely chopped onions. When the chicken is tender, add peeled and finely chopped tomatoes or tomato juice to it. 10 minutes later add finely chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer the dish for 5 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Ingredients:

500 grams sturgeon.
3-4 yolks.
1 cup sour cream.
1 tbsp. butter.
1/2 cup dried and finely ground bread crumbs.
1 cup cheese, ground
2 tbsp. vegetable oil.
1/2 lemon.
salt, greens.

Procedure:

Boil sturgeon in the pan with carrot, parsley root, bay leaf, pepper and salt for 15 minutes. Cut sturgeon into slices, salt them and put on the fridge for 2 hours. Blend yolks of hard boiled eggs with sour cream and butter. Put fish slices in the pan, pour the liquid on them, sprinkle with dried and finely ground bread crumbs, lemon juice, vegetable oil. Cover the top with ground cheese. Put the pan in the hot oven for 20 minutes. Decorate with lemon and greens.Sturgeon is served with fried potatoes.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
225 ml. sugar
225 ml. all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (or extract)
300 grams sour cream

Cognac syrup:
115 ml. water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cognac

Filling:
300 grams butter
1 (400 grams) can sweetened condensed milk, plus
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (or use sweetened condensed chocolate milk)

Frosting:
150 grams semisweet chocolate
3 grams butter
6 tablespoons heavy cream
5 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 175°C Prepare two round 24 cm cake pans: line with parchment paper; butter and flour.

To make cake: Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Set aside. Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in dry ingredients and fold in sour cream. Turn batter into the prepared pan (and make another cake!).
6. Bake cakes in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes. Let cool completely.

To make frosting: Soften butter very well and mix with condensed milk and cocoa powder until smooth. Refrigerate.

To make cognac syrup: Stir ingredients until the sugar dissolves.

Assemble the cake: Split each cake into two layers. Place 1 layer on a plate, brush with cognac syrup, and spread filling on top. Top with a cake layer; repeat twice. Brush also the top layer with syrup.

To make frosting: heat butter and cream gently in a pan until butter melts. Add chopped chocolate and stir until chocolate melts. Gradually add powdered sugar and cocoa powder, stirring continuously. Spread over cake. Decorate to your liking. Keep refrigerated until ready to devour.

Ingredients:

300 grams chicken with bones .
2 tbsp.  dried mushrooms, washed, soaked overnight in plenty of water.
300 grams beets.
200 grams fresh cabbage, shredded.
350 grams potatoes.
100 grams carrots.
20 - 30 grams parsley roots.
100 grams onion.
50 grams tomato paste.
30 grams sunflower oil, (or Soya oil, or olive oil) v 20 g (1 oz) flour.
10 - 20 grams sugar.
20 grams, vinegar.
5 pints of water.
sour cream.
salt to taste.
chopped green celery, dill, parsley, coriander, green onions, bay leaf, pepper, garlic cloves to taste.

Procedure:

Boil meat in water until done, add mushrooms. Grate carrots, chop parsley roots and onions. Then fry onions in oil until golden, add carrots and parsley root, then add tomato paste (or fresh tomatoes and paprika) and stew for 7 - 10 minutes in the frying pan. Fry peeled and grated beets in oil until golden. Add cubed potatoes into broth, as well as shredded fresh cabbage, bring to boil. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes. Add sugar and vinegar to broth, salt to taste. ( You may also add toasted until golden brown flour). Add all fried vegetables: onions, carrots, tomatoes, beets and paprika. Cook for several minutes. Five to ten minutes before the Borscht is done, add: chopped green celery, dill, parsley, coriander, green onion, bay leaf, pepper and garlic cloves to taste. Serve with sour cream.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
garlic to taste

Procedure:

To make the dough, combine the flour, eggs, water and 1/2 tsp. salt. Knead mixture. Let rest for 30 minutes. Mix the ground beef, ground pork, onions, 1 tsp. salt, pepper and garlic together. Cut the dough into three equally sized pieces and roll each one into a cylinder the diameter of a finger. Cut each cylinder into pieces the size of a walnut, then roll each piece into a very thin flat cake with a diameter of about 2 inches. Put some of the ground meat mixture in the center of each flat cake (quite a lot, but not so much that you can’t then seal up the dough). Then fold the dough in half and join up the edges to seal them. Pinch the corners together: you should now have a ravioli-shaped “flying saucer.” Boil the pelmeni in salted water for seven minutes, or until they float to the surface. Serve them in soup plates with sour cream or in broth.

Bosartma is a traditional Azerbaijan dish, translated as stewed lamb. Lamb is stewed with vegetables and cherry plums. Bosartma is served with lemon slices and cucumbers.

Ingredients:

1 kg. lamb.
100 grams melted butter.
150 grams onion.
300 grams tomatoes
50 grams tomato-paste
50 grams cherry plums
greens (cilantro, dill, mint)
1/2 lemon
ground pepper
200 grams cucumbers
salt

Procedure:

Slice lamb on pieces 50 grams each, fry in butter until light brown on high heat. Add chopped onion, sliced tomatoes, tomato paste, cherry plums, greens and season, pour over a little of broth and stew until soft.

Ingredients:

1 kg. pork
bread kvas or kefir
salt
pepper

For the dough:
200 grams butter
200 grams sour cream
400 grams flour
salt
1 egg to brush

Procedure:

Soak pork ham in bread kvas and leave in a cold place for a night. Take out meat and dry with a paper napkin, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mash butter, add sour cream and stir carefully, salt to taste. Stir in flour. Knead the dough and leave under the towel to “rest”. The dough must be plastic and pliable. Roll out the dough in a square 0,7 cm thick to put the pork on. Put the pork in the center and pinch the opposite edges. Put the ham on a wetted baking sheet the seam down. Pierce all the surface with a fork. Brush up with egg. Decorate with different leaves and flowers made from the rest of dough and then brush with egg again. Bake in the oven 200 deg. C for 1,5-2 hours. After 30 minutes the dough is golden, but the meat is not ready yet, so cover the surface of the dough with a wetted sheet of kraft paper. Wet the paper regularly. After 1,5 hour of baking pierce the meat with fork, if the juice is clear, the ham can be served.

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon
unsalted butter
6-8 mushrooms, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thinly
1 (12 ounce) sirloin steaks, cut into strips
flour (for dredging)
2 tablespoons beef bouillon
3/4 cup white wine (Dimetri, Red will make your sauce pinkish, so use white)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
salt
freshly ground black pepper
cooked egg noodles
parsley

Procedure:

In a cast iron or heavy skillet, cook bacon. Drain on paper toweling. Dredged in flour and brown sirloin in bacon drippings, set aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon drippings. Add 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. Sauté onions and mushrooms until softened, deglazing pan with white wine; return sirloin to skillet. Add 2 tablespoons beef bouillon, salt and pepper, Worcestershire, and remaining white wine. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Just before serving, add sour cream and crumbled bacon; stir to combine. During cooking,sour cream will separate and some of the butterfat will become visible;this is normal; just stir. Serve over noodles; garnish with parsley.

Ingredients:

250 grams butter
200 grams powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
100 grams melted chocolate
250 grams fruit jelly
500 grams shortbread
50 grams cognac
3 egg whites

Procedure:

Ground butter with sugar, add yolks, one at a time and melted chocolate. Chop fruit jelly finely, crumble shortbread and sprinkle with cognac and stir thoroughly. 15 minutes later, put the dough on a dish and shape a cake. Leave the cake in a cold place for a night. In the morning on 31 of December cover the cake with whipped whites with sugar and draw a clock with hands.

Baked Stuffed Piglet is considered a real dainty of Christmas table.

Ingredients:

1 small piglet drawn.
1 kg. buckwheat kasha crumbly cooked.
300 grams field mushrooms
200 grams onion.
100 grams oil
salt to taste.

Procedure:

Wash mushrooms, chop finely and fry in oil. Fry finely chopped onion in oil separately. Stir mushrooms and onion into buckwheat kasha, salt to taste. Wash piglet very carefully, rub inside with salt. Fill in with the filling through the stomach cut, but not very tight. Sew up the cut. Brush the piglet with oil and place on the baking sheet back up, legs bent under. Cover pig’s snout and ears with a piece of dough or foil. Put in a heated oven 190-200 C. Bake until light brown. Pour meat juice over the piglet regularly. Serve the piglet, decorated with greens, on a large dish with pickled vegetables and fruits.