Lean borscht with fried crucians

 

Borscht is the pride of our national cuisine. There are as many borscht recipes as there are families in Ukraine. During fasting or in times of famine, our ancestors often cooked borscht with fish without meat. Such a dish was popular in Cherkasy region - Taras Shevchenko's homeland, and the poet's friends call it one of Kobzar's favorite dishes.

Borscht with crucian carp, which Shevchenko loved, was prepared from oven-dried fish. Nowadays, it is impossible to dry fish without an oven. We offer to prepare a more modern version of lean borscht with fried crucians.

If desired, you can add more vegetables to the borscht, for example, pepper and celery. To serve, take sour cream. Beet kvass in the recipe can be replaced with several spoons of tomato paste.

Ingredients:

carp - 7 pcs.;

flour - 2 tbsp. spoons;

onion - 1 pc.;

beet - 1 pc.;

carrot - 1 pc.;

potatoes - 2 pcs.;

cabbage - 200 g;

beet kvass or brine - 300 g (or tomato paste - 2 tablespoons);

sunflower oil - 50 ml;

water - 2.5 l.

Clean and gut five carp, cut into small pieces. Roll the fish in flour and fry in a pan with a spoonful of hot oil until golden (about 15-20 minutes). Add a little salt during frying. Leave two more carp for serving.

Pour a little water into the pan and stew the carp for about 10 more minutes, until they become soft. Put the fish in a pot of water and add the halved onion. Boil fish broth for 20 minutes.

When the broth is cooked, add vegetables to it: diced potatoes, grated beets and carrots. Remove the boiled onion from the broth - you won't need it anymore. Boil vegetables in broth for 20 minutes. Then add chopped cabbage and beet kvass (or tomato paste) to the borscht.

Clean and pat dry two carp, roll in flour and fry whole in a pan until golden. This will take approximately 15 minutes. Do not forget to turn the fish in the middle of frying.

Salt and pepper the finished borscht to taste, add chopped greens and season with sour cream. Right before serving, put fried crucians on plates with borscht.

And to make the borscht even tastier, prepare Ukrainian donuts with garlic.

information taken from: https://www.unian.ua/recipes