EUROPEAN CUISINE

Hello ladies and gents week on European Cuisine we have a great post for you to enjoy which is from the great country of

BELARUS

Belarusian cuisine shares many similarities with cuisines of other Eastern, Central and Northeastern European countries, basing predominantly based on meat and various vegetables typical for the region.

Belarus cuisine has predominantly Slavic roots. Along with a Ruthenian influence, it is also linked with Lithuanian and Polish because of the long intermingling of these three peoples; first within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (11th-15th centuries) and later within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th-17th centuries). Though the Belarusian nobility, like the Polish elite, borrowed much from Italian, German, and French cuisines, this influence hardly made itself felt in the diet of the peasant majority.[citation needed] Still, some of the borrowed dishes spread throughout the society, such as lazanki (a mixture of flour dumplings and stewed meat, related to Italian lasagna) and, above all, various dishes made of grated potatoes, typical for German cuisine.

LAZANKI

Ingredients for lazanki:

• flour
• water
• salt and sugar to taste
• vegetable oil
• Ingredients for the filling:
• 70g smoked-cooked pork brisket
• 100g semi-smoked sausages (called "hunter’s sausages")
• 1 medium-sized onion
• vegetable oil
• 50-70g cream
• 50g grated hard cheese

Directions:

The dough for lazanki is very much the same as for pelmeni. Sift flour, make a hollow it in, add salt and sugar, and a little bit of vegetable oil for elasticity. Pour water on it slowly; knead the dough until it gets hard and flexible.

Roll out the dough; the layer should be 1-1.5mm thick, cut out rhombs. If you are not pressed for time, let it dry a bit at room temperature. If you do not want to wait, you can dry it in an oven at 100-120 ºС. Put lazanki in the salted boiled water for 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Dice the pork brisket and fry it until the fat starts melting. Add finely chopped onions and keep sautéing them until they get a golden color. Put the sausages in and fry for another 3-4 minutes.

When the filling is ready, add the boiled lazanki with a small amount of water from the bowl it was cooked in. Add the cream and cheese. Keep stirring the mix while stewing. When the cheese becomes viscous, remove it from the stove, put on a plate and decorate with herbs.

Lazanki can also be baked. For that, take a ceramic pot, put the boiled lazanki and the filling one layer after another, add the cream, cheese and put it in the oven until it gets a golden color.