Fish porridge
Description
Porridge is one of the most popular dishes in Russian cuisine. It's hard to imagine our lives without porridge. In Russia, porridge has always been held in high regard, prepared both on weekdays and holidays, and even present at the tsar's table. Additionally, porridge was a ceremonial dish—used to welcome a newborn, prepared for christenings and birthdays, and the groom and bride were required to cook porridge at their wedding (the wedding feast itself was even called "kasha"). Porridge (kutya) was also used to bid farewell to the deceased. It was customary to greet guests with a unique homemade porridge, and each family had its own original recipe for this dish. Porridge even has its own holiday, celebrated on June 26. According to folk tradition, buckwheat should be sown a week before or after this day to ensure a rich harvest, and on this day itself, porridge was cooked and offered to the poor. Despite porridge's relatively low popularity today, it remains a simple-to-prepare and highly nutritious dish. Porridge can be served as a side dish with meat or poultry, or paired with fish and vegetables. In old Russia, people cooked not only grain and pea porridges, but also vegetable and fish porridges—the recipe for the latter is presented below. This dish turns out to be very nourishing. For its preparation, use pike, zander, catfish, or burbot. Preparation: Clean the fish, place it in a pot, and cover with water. Add salt and spices to taste, then boil to make a fish broth. Drain the broth and use it as a base to cook a liquid porridge. In a frying pan, sauté onions in fat until golden brown. Add the fried onions to the porridge at the end of cooking and mix well. Remove the fish from the bones and chop finely. Place fish pieces into individual pots or bowls, pour the prepared porridge over them, bring to a boil, and serve.