Kulesh: how to cook kulesh outdoors and at home. Millet kulesh is an ancient dish, a recipe from my grandmother Kulish preparation

Kulesh is a dish of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. They cooked kulesh in the Zaporozhye Sich, as well as during campaigns. But in those days there were no potatoes. During World War II, my grandfather was a partisan in the Belarusian forests. The main everyday food was kulesh, often lean, but when with lard, it was a holiday. And, of course, with potatoes.

Many years have passed, but our family has preserved a tradition: on May 9, Victory Day, we cooked and cook kulesh for lunch according to my grandfather’s recipe. Sometimes with mushrooms, sometimes with fish. Today I will tell you how my grandfather cooked kulesh. The only thing I changed was adding bay leaves and allspice. It’s delicious, very tasty, I recommend making it!

To prepare partisan kulesh, prepare the ingredients according to the list.

We wash the millet in advance with water at room temperature, and then pour boiling water over it for half an hour to remove the bitterness.

Peel the potatoes, wash them and chop them coarsely. Send it to boil in cold water. Add millet to potatoes and cook together.

Cut the carrots into rings or half rings and place them in a kulesh.

We cut the parsley crosswise and send it to the kulesh.

Finely chop the onion. We send it to cook in kulesh.

Cut the pepper into rings. Finely chop the garlic or pass it through a press. Cut the lard into very small cubes.

Lard can be fresh, smoked or salted. Fry it over low heat.

Finely chop the greens.

When the food in the kulesh becomes soft, add fried lard, herbs, garlic, allspice, hot pepper, bay leaf. Salt. Let it boil, reduce the heat and simmer on the lowest heat for another 20 minutes.

Kulesh is an easy to prepare dish that consists of simple and tasty ingredients.

The Cossacks began to cook it during camping trips over a fire in a cast iron cauldron. Gradually, the dish began to be prepared in ovens at home, adding more ingredients.

The main component of kulesh is fried millet, which the Cossacks carried with them in a bag. For seasoning they used wild garlic and salt.

Today kulesh is prepared with stewed meat or fish. There is also a Lenten recipe with mushrooms.

Kulesh with lard

This is a fragrant kulesh with Cossack lard. To make the dish more satisfying and flavorful, pork lard with streaks of meat is added to it.

Cooking time: 45 minutes.

Ingredients:

fresh parsley;
lard – 150 gr;
6 potatoes;
millet - 100 gr;
onion – 2 pcs;
two liters of water;
salt.

Preparation:

Prepare the millet: sort the grain and rinse in cold water, after in the hot. Rinse until the water runs clear. Place the millet in a sieve.
When the water boils, add the cereal; when it boils again, cook for 10 minutes.
Peel the potatoes, cut into medium-sized cubes, add to the soup, and cook until tender for 15 minutes.
Finely chop the lard and onion, melt the lard lightly over low heat, add the onion, fry for 10 minutes.
Add the frying to the pan, cook the kulesh for 7 minutes, add salt and chopped fresh herbs.

Depending on the amount of water, you can get a thick stew or porridge.

Kulesh with pork stew

You can make kulesh with lard more satisfying by using stewed pork. To feel the full aroma and taste of kulesh, you can cook it over a fire. The ingredients are designed for a cauldron with a volume of 8-10 liters.

Cooking takes 1 hour.

Prepare the ingredients in advance if you are planning a hike or outdoor recreation. Take fresh lard. For a smoky flavor, extinguish a burning firebrand in the pot before removing from the fire.

Required ingredients:

4 large onions;
7 eggs;
2 carrots;
lard – 400 g;
2 stacks millet;
1200 g potatoes;
2 cans of stew;
greenery.

Preparation:

Chop the carrots and onions, chop the lard coarsely.
Wash the cereal, cut the potatoes, chop the greens.
Prepare the dressing: fry the lard over low heat.
Add the onion and carrots, cook over low heat until the vegetables are golden brown. Place the prepared dressing in a bowl and pour water into the pot.
Place millet and potatoes in boiling water and cook until tender.
Place the prepared roast into the cauldron, stir until it comes to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes.
Lay out the stew, it is better to remove the fat from above.
Mix well and leave to simmer for a couple of minutes.
Pour the beaten eggs into the pot, stirring the kulesh.
Stir until the eggs set, add the herbs. When it boils again, remove from the fire.
Leave ready dish for 10 minutes.

Kulesh over a campfire turns out delicious - this dish can be prepared on hikes or at home, or served for lunch or dinner.

Lenten kulesh with mushrooms

You can cook during the fasting period delicious dishes, one of these is kulesh with mushrooms. In the recipe, fresh champignons are added to the kulesh.

The dish takes 50 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

five potatoes;
salt pepper;
bay leaf – 2 leaves;
greenery;
200 g mushrooms;
one and a half liters of water;
2 medium onions;
carrot;
6 tbsp. spoons of millet.

Preparation:

Put the water on the fire, cut the carrots into strips, finely chop the onions.
Peel the mushrooms and potatoes, cut into medium pieces.
Fry the onion in a little oil, add the carrots. Fry for a few minutes.
Add the mushrooms to the vegetables, stir and simmer until the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated and the mushrooms are fried.
When the mushrooms are ready, add the potatoes. Reduce heat to low.
Simmer, stirring, potatoes for 5 minutes. Pour boiling water over the vegetables, bring to a boil and add salt.
Add millet, cook, stirring until boiling, about 10 minutes.
Add black pepper and bay leaf, chopped herbs.
Cover the finished kulesh with a lid tightly and leave to simmer for 25 minutes.

Before serving, kulesh can be seasoned with fresh aromatic garlic.

Fish kulesh

Rich millet kulesh with crucian carp is an excellent dish for the dinner table that both children and adults will enjoy.

Cooking time – 1 hour.

Ingredients:

4 crucian carp;
4 potatoes;
bulb;
4 tbsp. spoons of millet;
carrot;
greenery.

Cooking steps:

Clean and gut the fish. Cut the peeled potatoes into cubes and cook.
Cut the onion into small cubes, cut the carrots into circles.
Fry carrots and onions in oil.
When the potatoes boil, add the washed millet and cook for 10 minutes.
Cut the fish into pieces and put it in the soup, add frying and spices. Cook for 20 minutes until the fish is done.
Chop the greens into the finished kulesh.

Kulesh is the most famous Cossack food. In field conditions there was no time for pickles, and a hearty field stew was always received with a bang. Kulesh was prepared over a fire or in a Russian oven, so it was always rich and so tasty that you could eat it endlessly. We will also learn how to cook kulesh according to the classic recipe.

Inventory: board, knife, spatula, large frying pan, pot or cauldron with a volume of at least 4-5 liters.

Ingredients

How to choose meat for stew

In field conditions, fresh meat and lard were not always available. Therefore, the classic recipe used salted lard, and the longer it was stored, the better. We can select suitable underscore from the market.

The tastiest fat will be from the side of the back. or the abdominal part of the wild boar. This is undercut or bacon. The skin there is usually thin, so you don’t even have to cut it off.

The layers of fat should be white or pale pink., thickness from 3 to 6 cm. Yellow or grey colour indicates that the lard is old and bitter. The heavy smell of old lard also indicates that it is not fresh. But the subtle smell of burnt skin is a sign of proper cutting of the carcass. The lard itself is practically odorless.

Step-by-step preparation

Video

Cooking time: 30 minutes.
Number of servings: 2-3.
Inventory: knife, board, spatula, thick-bottomed pan.

Ingredients

Step-by-step preparation

Video

Subtleties of cooking

Non-Lenten kulesh is also prepared with meat broth. Strain the broth, bring to a boil and add the washed millet to it. The proportions are the same as for water: for 1 serving of millet, 2-2.5 servings of broth.
To add satiety to the millet, you can add potatoes cut into small cubes. Additionally, peas or carrots are added to the stew.
. Cooks prefer to boil millet separately Kulesh can conditionally be called a hodgepodge oh, and prepare any additions separately: meat, vegetables, herbs. Everything is mixed together at the final stage.
Pork in the recipe is replaced with beef, smoked meat, sausages, stew, and offal.
In some regions, stew is prepared not with millet, but with corn flour. Or millet is mixed with corn flour in a 1:1 ratio and boiled until it becomes a liquid paste.
Spices in the recipe are used to a minimum. Black pepper, bay leaf and a little garlic are allowed.
At the request of the cook, the density is also adjusted. IN original recipe- This not porridge or thin soup, but a messy stew.
You can also prepare kulesh in a slow cooker.

How is this dish served?

Served kulesh is always in a deep bowl, even if it is not liquid. You can sprinkle some herbs on top and that’s enough, because this is a camp dish for men.

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One of the surprisingly tasty and quick to prepare dishes that “came” to us from Ukrainian cuisine is millet kulesh. Its recipe is so popular that perhaps only Ukrainian borscht is ahead of it in popular love.

The Cossacks were the first to start preparing kulesh on their long campaigns. Due to the monotony of the provisions, it was necessary to come up with a tasty, satisfying and nutritious dish “in a hurry.” This is how the recipe for kulesh appeared, which does not require time, culinary skills or any special conditions for preparing the dish.

Currently, kulesh is a mandatory attribute of any hike or friendly gatherings around the fire. But even in your own kitchen you can prepare a dish that will be no different from the “camping” version. Today we will look at both cooking methods: on the stove and over the fire.

The classic recipe includes only two main ingredients: millet and lard. But if you wish, you can diversify the recipe with other products: potatoes, meat, mushrooms, vegetables, fresh herbs, etc.

Required Ingredients

100 g millet.
A couple of small onions.
200 g salted lard.
5 potatoes.
Carrots – 1 pc.
Spices.
Fresh greens.
You also need water - 2 liters.

How to cook

Place a saucepan with two liters of water over high heat and wait for the liquid to boil. At this time, it is necessary to rinse the cereal. Pour the millet into a deep plate and place it under the tap. Pour in half the volume of water and begin to drain it little by little from one edge so that the millet does not float away along with the water. Pour water again, rinsing the millet. In two or three washes, the cereal is completely rid of excess and unnecessary impurities and dust.
It is important to remember that any recipe for making kulesh requires adding cereal only to boiling water. At the same time as the cereal, add a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. The cooking time for the cereal is about 20 minutes.
Before the end of the cooking time, add potato cubes to the pan. Now you can reduce the heat and simmer the dish until done.
While the potatoes are simmering, you can start preparing the frying. For the kulesh recipe you will need one onion and one small carrot. Vegetables are cut into small cubes. Place pork lard, cut into long pieces, into a frying pan. Fry it until a crispy dark brown crust appears. Now you can add vegetables to the lard. As soon as they turn golden, transfer the contents of the frying pan into a pan with millet and potatoes.
A couple more minutes and the fire can be turned off. When serving the dish, you can add one spoon of sour cream and fresh herbs.

Kulesh with mushrooms and meat

Of course, the real thing is considered to be kulesh, consisting of a handful of millet, roots and spring water. However, modern chefs have learned to intelligently add other ingredients to this dish that do not spoil it, but only make it more satisfying and tastier.

We offer a second recipe for kulesh. Even a novice housewife can prepare it at home. Classic recipe complemented with aromatic wild mushrooms and hearty pork. And herbs and spices can be added at your discretion and desire.

Ingredients for the dish

Three large potatoes.
240 g mushrooms.
150 g millet.
Pork – 250 g.
One onion.
A handful of fresh chopped parsley.
Two liters of water.
Salt.
Spices for meat.
A pinch of ground black pepper.
And also bay leaf.

Cooking method

The ancient recipe for kulesh required that cereals and roots be boiled in different containers. Today you can not adapt to traditions and significantly save time on cooking by boiling cereals and potatoes together.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. We wash the millet several times in a plate filled with running water. Send the cereal and vegetables to cook over high heat for ten minutes. Don't forget to throw a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns and a pinch of salt into the pan. Then turn down the heat on the stove and simmer the kulesh for another fifteen minutes.
While the potatoes and millet are cooking on one burner, put a frying pan on another and fry the onions, meat and mushrooms on it. If store-bought frozen or fresh champignons were used for the dish, then no cooking is required. If you bought or picked aromatic wild mushrooms for cooking, then it is recommended to boil them for 40-60 minutes before frying.
Place the fried meat, onions and mushrooms in a pan where the millet has already been cooked and the potatoes have become soft and crumbly. All that remains is to turn off the heat, cover the container with a lid and let the dish brew for a while. The last stage is submission. Place thick kulesh into portioned plates, flavoring it with a couple of sprigs of fresh parsley and a spoonful of thick homemade sour cream.

Kulesh on the fire

A separate theme is a real camp kulesh cooked in a pot over a fire. A recipe with a photo will help novice housewives prepare the dish correctly. It should be noted that the preparation process will be slightly different from the home version. Since there is no way to place several containers of brew on the fire at once, you have to adapt to the situation.

Required Products

220 g millet.
2 pcs. Luke.
1 PC. - carrot.
4 things. - potato.
Pork lard – 200 g.
Green onions with feathers, parsley, dill - any greens that are on hand.
Salt.
Spices.
You will also need a bay leaf.

Description of the cooking process

Perhaps you shouldn’t focus on the process of collecting firewood, laying out a fire pit, starting a fire and forming an impromptu stove. Let's just say that the heat under the pot should be quite strong in the first stages of cooking.
So, since we do not have several burners on hand on which we could simultaneously cook and fry food, we slightly change the recipe for kulesh. We begin the cooking process not by cooking the cereal, but by frying the lard. Cut the lard into small cubes and place them on the bottom of the pot.
As soon as the lard gives fat, add finely chopped onion and carrots. At this moment, do not move far from the fire, as the strong, almost uncontrollable fire under the pot fryes everything very quickly. Stir the cracklings and vegetables constantly.
As soon as the frying is ready, pour water into the pot and pour in the millet. Mix thoroughly and cover with a lid. Cook the cereal for about fifteen minutes. During this time, you can peel and cut the potatoes into cubes.
Make the fire under the pot a little smaller (by removing or simply pushing some of the burning coals to the side) and put the potatoes in the bowl. Simmer the dish over low heat for about 10-15 minutes, remove the pot from the fire, pour it into a container a large number of fresh herbs and, closing the lid again, let it rest a little and brew.