For kulesh, lard with layers of meat is chosen; salting can be either dry or brine. When fried, simple homogeneous lard quickly turns into crispy cracklings, and with a layer of meat, once in the frying pan, it becomes very appetizing.
Bay leaves, sweet peas and potato cubes are thrown into boiling water. When throwing in salt, the saltiness of the selected piece of lard is also taken into account. It is better to add a little more salt at the final stage than to serve over-salted kulesh. Cover the pan with a lid and boil for 5-7 minutes.
Modern cereals no longer need to be sorted; there are no unrefined grains or foreign impurities in them. The millet is washed 3-4 times in cold water, then placed in a saucepan and the lid is removed.
The recipe calls for waiting for the foam to appear, and then carefully catching and removing all the foam flakes. Next, according to the cooking recipe, kulesh is cooked at home over low heat for 15 minutes, the pan is no longer covered with a lid. During this time, you need to have time to fry all the other ingredients.
The champignons are cut into thin slices, fried in sunflower oil, and salted. Half a bright bell pepper is cut into small cubes.
Place the mushrooms and peppers into the pan and continue to cook the stew for 10 minutes. The millet is completely boiled, the soup gradually becomes thick.
The lard is cut into cubes, placed in a heated frying pan, 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil is added, and fried on all sides, preventing the fat from completely melting. The lard is placed on a plate, and finely chopped onions are fried in the hot fat remaining in the frying pan.
Lard, onion and chopped fresh dill are placed in the kulesh, the soup is boiled for another 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the soup for 5-10 minutes.
Thick kulesh is poured into plates, evenly distributing pieces of meat and lard.
Millet kulesh at home can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, reheating it each time before serving. Cold kulesh is nonsense; only hot soup reveals the real taste of the Cossack dish.
Kulesh can be served with white bread, but “authenticity” requires the presence of “palyanytsia” baked from sour rye dough. Millet kulesh is used to single-handedly “reigning” on the table. Everyone asks for more, forgetting about desserts and pickles. Using this recipe, you can prepare kulesh at home, excluding the ingredients you don’t have. For example, you can do without potatoes or mushrooms. The dish will not lose its charm.
If you are preparing kulesh from “pure” lard, in which there is not even a hint of the presence of meat layers, then you need to fry the pieces until they have a slight crunch. In this case, you should increase the amount of onion and add a little ground black pepper. The skin of the lard must be cut off, not allowing it to get into the soup.
You can deviate from the Cossack recipes for preparing kulesh, completely abandoning lard. Instead, they sometimes take smoked brisket or thin smoked hunting sausages. You will get an unusual aromatic kulesh. It must be remembered that the main feature of kulesh is the thickness of the dish, but this Cossack soup cannot be cooked for too long, turning it into some kind of shapeless puree. If kulesh is cooked over a fire, then lard and onions are first thrown into the pot. When the lard is melted and the onions are fried, pour out the millet and pour in water.
The famous Ukrainian kulesh is perhaps the most democratic dish I know. This means that the ingredients from which it is prepared can be very diverse. The recipes themselves may differ. It turns out that kulesh is, so to speak, a camp dish. It was cooked both by the Zaporozhye Cossacks during their military campaigns and by the Chumaks, whose carts loaded with salt crawled along ancient trade routes for many days. In other words, whatever provisions people managed to get, they went into the cauldron. The main task for warriors or travelers was that the resulting kulesh would be nutritious and ensure the maintenance of strength on a long journey. Fortunately, you and I have a much wider choice of products than the ancient Ukrainians, and therefore, while observing the basic traditions, we will try to make our kulesh not only satisfying and rich, but also unusually tasty. So, I’m telling you the recipe for kulesh.
Ingredients:
(4-6 servings)
- 400 g smoked bacon
- 1 tbsp. millet cereal
- 3 onions
- 1 carrot
- 4-5 potatoes
- 4 things. chicken eggs
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- celery, parsley
- 4-5 pcs. bay leaf
- ground black pepper
- 2 l. water
- vegetable oil
- Before moving directly to the description of the process of preparing kulesh, I want to say a few words about the dishes. Of course, the traditional utensils for preparing Ukrainian kulesh are a cast iron or copper cauldron or cauldron. The dish is cooked in it from start to finish, and you don’t need any other utensils. However, not everyone has just such a cauldron in their modern kitchen. That is why in my recipe I will divide the process into two parts: I will cook the frying in a frying pan, and I will carry out all further stages in an enamel pan.
- Let's start preparing the roast. To do this, cut the bacon into small cubes measuring about one and a half by one and a half centimeters. Using smoked bacon or, as it is also called in Ukraine, “loin” for kulesh, I kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, I significantly reduce the cooking time (there is no need to wait for the meat to cook). Secondly, I give the kulesh a unique aroma of smoked meats, that is, smoke from the fire.
- So, put the diced bacon in a frying pan and lightly fry it. To start frying, you can drop a little vegetable oil into the frying pan, and only then skim off the aromatic pork fat from the bacon.
- Add finely chopped onion to the rendered bacon and lightly fry it until the first light golden hue appears.
- Add grated carrots to the pan with the bacon and onions. Stirring, let the carrots lightly fry.
- The roast is ready. Transfer it to a saucepan.
- Pour two liters of clean drinking water into the pan. It is better to use spring or filtered water. Put the pan on the fire.
- While the contents of the pan begin to boil, we sort out the millet and, of course, rinse it. Some housewives wash millet up to seven times. Personally, I advise, instead of many water procedures in cold water, to carry out only one, but using boiling water. I assure you, the result will be no worse, and most importantly, you will save a lot of time. By the way, millet is the most common type of cereal that is used in kulesh, but, as I said at the beginning, this dish is a food for wanderers and travelers, and therefore tolerates various variations perfectly. All this means that kulesh can be prepared not only with millet, but also with buckwheat, pearl barley and other grains.
- Place the washed millet cereal into a saucepan.
- Following the cereal, add finely chopped potatoes to the boil. Of course, the ancient Ukrainians used all sorts of other edible roots to make kulesh rich, but we, modern people, probably shouldn’t experiment, especially when we have such a wonderful tuber as potatoes.
- At this stage of preparation, our kulesh needs to be salted and bay leaf and pepper added to it. We determine the amount of salt and pepper to our own taste.
- While the kulesh is cooking, prepare the filling for it. To do this, beat four eggs in a separate bowl. We beat without fanaticism, but simply to mix the yolk and white and turn them into a homogeneous mass.
- Finely chop the greens. I always use celery leaves or a mixture of celery leaves and parsley. It is celery that gives kulesh its unique fragrant aroma.
- Pour the chopped greens into a vessel with an egg wash. Add finely chopped or crushed garlic there. Mix the mixture well. That's all, the filling is ready, now you just have to wait until the potatoes and millet are cooked in the kulesh.
- After we have determined that the potatoes and millet are cooked, or better yet, slightly boiled (this will happen 20 minutes after the start of boiling), we pour our green filling into the boiling kulesh and immediately mix the entire volume very well.
- Right before your eyes, the egg will curl, and the kulesh will thicken to the state of either a very thick soup or liquid porridge. This is its correct consistency. Cover the pan with a lid and let the kulesh ripen for another 3-5 minutes. After this, the dish is completely ready.
- Remove the pan from the heat and place the hot, aromatic kulesh on deep plates, bowls or bowls. You can sprinkle the top of the dish with fresh herbs. That's all. Enjoy your meal. Enjoy Ukrainian kulesh and gain strength, vigor and health.
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, and bay leaf. Salt. Let it boil, reduce the heat and simmer on the lowest heat for another 20 minutes.
Kulesh, or in other words, millet gruel with onions and cracklings, is a hearty thick soup that was prepared by the Cossacks in the field. To properly cook real Cossack kulesh at home, you need two important components - lard and millet. For thickness, potatoes, vegetables, and mushrooms are usually added to the soup. Let's look at some recipes for making kulesh at home and please your loved ones with a delicious and satisfying lunch!
Kulesh soup - recipe
Ingredients:
- pork – 200 g;
- millet cereal – 100 g;
- potatoes – 3 pcs.;
- onion – 1 pc.;
- carrots – 1 pc.;
- salt, pepper, bay leaf - to taste;
- greens - for decoration;
- lard - for frying.
Preparation
How to cook real kulesh? Peel the potatoes, onions, and carrots and then cut them into small cubes. Place potatoes in boiling meat broth and boil for 3 minutes over low heat. Next, pour in the washed millet, cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes. During this time, fry the carrots and onions in lard, carefully transfer them to the soup, add salt and pepper to taste and cook until fully cooked. Before serving, decorate the dish with fresh herbs.
Kulesh in a slow cooker
Ingredients:
- pork – 200 g;
- potatoes – 4 pcs.;
- carrots – 2 pcs.;
- wheat cereal – 1 tbsp.;
- onions – 1 pc.;
- salt, spices, bay leaf - to taste;
- vegetable oil – 1 tbsp. spoon.
Preparation
How to cook kulesh? To begin, set the “Baking” program on the multicooker for 60 minutes. Pour oil into a bowl and heat it thoroughly. Then peel the onions, wash and chop. Transfer it to a preheated slow cooker and fry.
During this time, peel the carrots, wash them and finely grate them. Add to the onions, stir and cook for 5 minutes.
We process the meat and cut it into small pieces. Add to the frying, close the multicooker with a lid. 
and leave to cook everything together until the end of the “Baking” program, stirring occasionally.
Peel the potatoes and cut into strips. We wash the millet several times under cold water and sort through it. After finishing “Baking”, set the “Stewing” mode. Place millet, chopped potatoes in a bowl, salt to taste, add bay leaf and spices. Pour hot boiled water over everything, cover with a lid and cook kulesh soup in a slow cooker for about 1 hour. Pour the finished dish into plates and serve!
If you prefer regular soups, then we offer you also.
The history of Russia is the history of wars. Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin wrote: “Soloviev counts from 1240 to 1462 (over 222 years) 200 wars and invasions. From the 14th century to the 20th century (over 525 years), Sukhotin counts 329 years of war. Russia has been at war for two-thirds of its life.” With so many wars, Russia very rarely lost. And if it did lose, it always took revenge later, even after a hundred years.
A hungry belly, as we know, is deaf to learning, but it is even worse to fight on an empty stomach. Good nutrition for warriors is in many ways the key to victory in battle!
What did the warriors of ancient Rus' and the Russian Empire eat during rapid marches, pursuit of the enemy, or during retreat, when they had to dine almost on the move?
KULESH
Kulesh is the simplest food after turi and murtsovka.
Kulesh as a dish was a mush, and porridges and mush as simple, primitive and quick-cooking dishes have always and in all countries constituted the main diet of armies. After all, they could be cooked in cauldrons, on fires, in the field.
All camp meals are created on the principle of feeding as many fighters as possible with at least long-lasting, energy-intensive foods, preferably quickly and without any “first, second, third.” Salted lard, onions and cheap millet from the sorghum genus (broom) cope with this task perfectly. A supply of such products, placed on one Chumatsky cart, can feed an entire chicken for three weeks. The simplest technology doomed kulesh to become a traditional army, soldier, cheap food - a dish of war and mass popular movements.
A mandatory attribute is lard and millet. This is a very thick soup - almost porridge. In general, this is a hot stew of whatever you need, but in broth (lard, corned beef, smoked meat, dried meat, dried fish - which can be stored for a long time without cold or active spoilage). The saying “If you don’t want kulesh, don’t eat anything” still survives!
The word “kulesh” itself is of Hungarian origin. Köles (Koeles) in Hungarian - millet, millet. This word was first recorded in the Russian language (and everyday life) in 1629, which convincingly suggests that it was brought to Russia either by Polish invaders of the Time of Troubles, or by Little Russian peasants who came from Ukraine and Southern Russia with the rebel troops of Ivan Bolotnikov .
But only the word was brought in from outside; the recipe for porridge with lard itself has been known in Rus' since ancient times and had many names, the most famous being “salnik”.
Porridges were made from buckwheat, wheat, millet, oats and many other grains.
Kulesh as a dish was a mush, and porridges and mush as simple, primitive and quick-cooking dishes have always and in all countries constituted the main diet of armies. After all, they could be cooked in cauldrons, on fires, in field conditions - and it was this technology that doomed kulesh to the fact that it became a traditional army, soldier, unpresentable and cheap dish, or in other words - a dish of war and mass popular movements.
A mandatory attribute is lard (if available) and millet. This is a very thick soup - almost porridge. In general, this is a hot stew of whatever you need, but in broth (lard, corned beef, smoked meat, dried meat, dried fish - which can be stored for a long time without cold or active spoilage). The saying “If you don’t want kulesh, don’t eat anything” still survives!
To cook real kulesh, you need two main components - millet and lard for frying. In addition to kulesh, there are kuleshiki. Beans, peas, cereals, such as pearl barley, rice or buckwheat, as well as vegetables are suitable for their preparation. The main difference between kuleshiki and kuleshki is that the main product included in the kuleshiki is necessarily pureed and the soup becomes thicker.
Millet – 200g, bacon or lard – 200g, onions – 1-2 pcs. salt,
To prepare a simple millet kulesh, you need: Fry lard and onions in a cauldron, ideally if you add chopped smoked sausage. Rinse the millet in the river under running water, add it to the cauldron and lightly fry. Pour in water and cook until it thickens to a viscosity (as in the photo). At the very end, add dried or fresh herbs. Add salt to taste.
Many kulesh recipes contain potatoes - this is a mistake. As you know, potatoes appeared in Rus' later than 1766. But if you wish, Kulesh can be prepared with potatoes, replacing a third of the millet with 400 g of potatoes.
In general, there are a great many recipes for kulesh. There are known cases when the Cossacks in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, having persecuted the Turks to exhaustion, prepared kulesh from the underwater root parts of aquatic plants, such as cattail, etc. They are juicy, soft, with a high content of starches, sugars, and glycosides.
