And remember how tasty we were friends, how we met. How they lived, made careers, fell in love, promoted their cultures through hearty, healthy food. Everything is like that of 15 heroes and authors of Rossiyskaya Gazeta. They reveal to us the nature of the unity of the party and daily life through the philosophy of food.
So let’s eat together.
pamir longing
Tajikistan. Actor of the theater “Benefit” Samad Mansurov
Damlamu and pilaf, like neighboring villages, are united by what meat and where they are cooked. In these dishes, the flavor of the place is stronger than the flavor of the meat. For me, damlama is the hostel of VGIK, where I studied. There is a saying in the East: when a man goes camping, he takes a cauldron and a knife. So he came to VGIK. And the secret of Damlama is simple: who will give what. In one room there are carrots and potatoes, in another – onions, in the third – salt, an Uzbek or an Egyptian has meat with fat. Further, like walking from one room to another, everything is laid out in layers: at the bottom of the cauldron, meat transferred by my mother from Pamirs, potatoes from a classmate from Lithuania, peppers and cabbage from Orel will also go. . Also, torture languishing damlama over low heat for an hour and a half. “Dam” from Tajik “insists” – when each product gives juice, and the person on the floor goes crazy with languor. And it’s time for rapprochement. As the damlama is prepared in layers, people are drawn to each other. Cooking is like a tribute, it is the need to share food on Muslim Good Friday. “Come in,” we called. When I saw how many neighbors came… that’s how the smell of the place is born. I went crazy from the thought: “Here it is, the need to share.”
In Tajikistan, it is a tradition to cook damlama in a giant cauldron on the street to invite everyone. Photo: RIA Novosti
Recipe. Damlama in Tajik in a cauldron. “Culinary Library of the USSR”, 1966.
We put layers on the bottom: fat tail fat (100 g), a layer of lamb on the bone (700 g), salt. Next comes the onion cut into rings (1 pc.), A layer of carrots (1 pc.), Also rings. Soaked chickpeas (200 g) are spread over carrots, garlic cloves and bell pepper squares (1 piece). This layer is also salted. Next come potatoes (5 pcs.), Zira (1 tsp). Sliced tomato is placed on top of the potatoes. Everything is covered with cabbage leaves and put on moderate heat (20 minutes). After boiling, languish for an hour. The dish is laid out in layers in reverse order.
Samad Mansurov: “In damlama and pilaf, the taste of the place is stronger than the taste of meat.” Photo: Dmitri Balta
Life hack Samad Mansurov. Instead of fat tail fat, put quince. It gives a thick taste of the Pamirs.
Fight with the taste of childhood
Belarus. The winner of the project of the program “Voice” Sergey Volchkov
For the sake of potato pancakes, I do not regret standing in a traffic jam and coming to the “Belarusian Kata”. I studied here in Moscow nearby. I am going to have dinner here with our Belarusian cuisine. Since childhood, it has been a common thing for me to plant potatoes in the spring and dig potatoes in the fall. In the field, walk along the horse’s foot and put the potatoes on the ground. And in September you dig. And it’s not a job – a ceremony; one of my friends is going to play soccer, and we are going to my grandmother’s to harvest potatoes.
And pancakes are obtained if you are not lazy and do not throw potatoes into a blender, where juices and vitamins are lost. You need to take a fight (in Russian, a grater. – “RG”), hence, by the way, the word “pancakes”, and rub them with your own hands. To be honest, it doesn’t work for me, but for my mom, you’ll be licking your fingers! There are few Belarusian restaurants in Moscow. And you don’t even need to look for Belarusian shops and products in all the CIS countries: tavern, cheeses, polendvitsa, and, where without it, potatoes, you don’t even need to look, they catch your eye. So much so that when I am asked: “What is the difference between Russia and Belarus?”, And I lived in Belarus for 19 years, in Russia – 15, and I cannot say that we Belarusians are different. Yes, our cuisine is a little different, yes, people, like everywhere, are different, but it seems to me that we are one country, one people with different colors. When I cross the border, they rarely ask me to show my passport. And not because they don’t know. They see theirs. And when I see potato pancakes, I want to sing… I’m home! Now I am waiting for my mom for the New Year. She will cook potato pancakes for our festive table. I think she will surprise everyone.
Do you remember the cartoon “The Bremen Town Musicians”? There Muslim Magomayev sang: “A golden sunbeam …” I want a golden sunbeam to always shine in your heart in our difficult time.
Sergei Volchkov: “When I see potato pancakes, I want to sing… I’m home!” Photo: Sergei Kuksin
Grandma’s recipe. Belarusian potato pancakes with roast. “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food”, 1952.
Put the peeled potatoes (2 kg) in a bowl and pour cold water for 5 minutes. Grate the tubers (large divisions). Drain excess liquid from the dough, break two eggs into a bowl and mix everything together, add salt and add flour in parts (5 tablespoons). Place two pans on the stove. Heat the first, grease with lard (up to 100 g). Form potato pancakes like pancakes with a tablespoon, fry them on both sides for 1-2 minutes. In the second pan, cut the lard with a layer of meat or meat (500 g), peeled onion (1 piece) into diced half rings. Fry the dough over high heat until golden brown. When the fried and potato pancakes are ready, put sour cream in the pan, sprinkle with salt. Fried in sour cream, you can season each potato pancake on a plate.
The advice of Sergei Volchkov. When dranik is fried to the crunch of potato “tails”, and sour cream is served separately, the taste of childhood is obtained.
Well, did it whet your appetite? Then you are welcome to continue the virtual table. His RG, together with the stars of the USSR, covers from December 24 to January 10 in a new space – on the RG website. After Sergei Volchkov and Samad Mansurov, Lithuanian Gediminas Taranda, Uzbek Farrukh Zakirov, Moldovan Nadezhda Chepraga and the first president of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akaev will visit RG. They know how to feed. And maybe, according to your recipes, on New Year and Christmas someone will make a holiday for themselves.
