Mushroom Soup

“Forest meat” is not a bad name for mushrooms, in fact it's very common in Russia. Judge for yourself ‐ mushrooms contain twice as much protein per pound as meat, and three times as much as fish. You can dry them, salt them. pickle them, fry them, and of course, boil them.

In Russia, mushrooms have always been revered. Along with furs and red caviar, they have made up a substantial share of national exports since the fifteenth century.

And what would peasants do without them? Russia’s nutritional system was created under the powerful influence of religion. About 200 days a year were fast days, when people were not allowed to not eat certain foods, including meat. And though the rich could afford to vary their meals and buy fish and imported fruit, peasants would go to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.

Incidentally, under serfdom, some taxes lo the landowner could be paid with these products. This practice. oddly enough, has made a reappearance of a kind today. In one Karelian village, a representative of an investment fund started offering shares in his company in exchange for crates of while mushrooms. Considering the poor reputation of investment funds in Russia, the deal was quite profitable for this businessman – wild forest mushrooms are very expensive nowadays.

No flashy restaurant in Moscow can fail to include mushrooms among its most exquisite dishes. However, today's fungal delights have still to reach the heights of the old tsarist delicacies. There was a time when Catherine the Great's chefs cooked mushroom “rabbit,” “pheasant,” and “sturgeon” that, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, tasted just like the real thing. Ivan the Terrible's demands were more modest – he preferred pickled mushrooms, for which he had about 40 different recipes.

The secrets of royal cuisine were always closely guarded. Ivan the Terrible banished a housekeeper who sold half a basket of pickled ryzhiky (saffron milk caps) from the royal vaults to a rich merchant. A few centuries later, Stalin exiled one oi his chefs to the White Sea Canal construction site for daring to mention the recipe for lisichku (chanterelle) soup that Uncle Joe liked so much to a foreign colleague. Because of such secrecy, this recipe never reached us. However, it’s probably not much different from good old Russian mushroom soup.

Mushroom Soup

100 grams fresh mushrooms
2-3 potatoes
half an onion
2 tsp. lard
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 bay leaf
1 small carrot
celery roots
fresh dill
fresh parsley
1 Tbsp. sour cream

Slice the celery roots, and fry them in fat. Chop the onion and carrot finely and fry lightly in vegetable oil. Put the mushrooms in boiling water, then cut the potatoes into slices or cubes and add to the broth. After 15-20 minutes add the fried fried vegetables. When the soup is ready (in another 20 minutes), or shortly before serving, add the chopped herbs, celery, and sour cream if required.