Rassolnik with pearl barley

Friday, May 5, 2017

It’s been a while since I’ve had the latest recipes for first courses, so I’m correcting myself: now we’re preparing pickle soup with barley and pickles. This is a very tasty, rich and fragrant soup with a pleasant sour-salty taste. I hope that you will need the step-by-step pickle recipe and you will definitely please your family with this hearty dish.

Usually, pickle soup is cooked with beef, but we prefer pork on the bone. I use homemade pickled (fermented) cucumbers (see recipe here), and always with the brine in which they are stored. Potatoes are also an integral ingredient in pickle soup in our family, although almost all cooks unfairly ignore it.

Ingredients:

Making a dish step by step:

To make a tasty and satisfying pickle, we need pork on the bone, water, pearl barley, pickles and cucumber pickle, potatoes, carrots, onions, refined vegetable oil, salt, bay leaf and aromatic pepper.

First, wash the pork (I like it quite fatty), put it in a huge saucepan (mine is 5 liters), fill it with cool water and put it on high heat. Bring to a boil, then drain the water. Fill the meat with 3 liters of clear water, add bay leaf, aromatic pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt. Place on medium heat and bring to a boil again. When the water boils, remove the foam, turn the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Cook the pork until tender at a low simmer (slightly gurgling) - I cook for about 1.5 hours. If you create a powerful fire, the broth (and later the finished pickle) will not turn out transparent.

While the meat is cooking, rinse the pearl barley in several waters until the liquid becomes clear.

Transfer the pearl barley into a suitable saucepan and add cool water so that it covers the barley by 3 fingers. This water size is not listed in the ingredients. Don't worry if you pour more - you'll pour out the excess later. Place the bowl with pearl barley on medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes until almost done. Naturally, you can soak pearl barley in advance (for example, at night (that is, in the dark) ), but I don’t see the point in this.

Next, we clean and wash the carrots and onions - 1 large piece each. Grind the carrots on a large grater, and cut the onion into small cubes. Pour a couple of tablespoons of refined vegetable oil into a frying pan (I use sunflower oil), heat it and lay out the chopped vegetables. Fry over medium heat until soft and nice golden brown. Don’t forget to stir so that the onions and carrots don’t burn.

Pickled cucumbers must be cut. I prefer cubes, but you can even dice it, or even chop it on a large grater. True, I don’t like the extreme option at all - in this form the cucumbers turn into an incomprehensible mass.

The cucumber pieces need to be softened, so put them in a saucepan, add a glass of broth (from the pan in which the meat is cooked) and simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes, possibly covered.

Just when the onions and carrots had time to fry and turn brown, turn off the heat.

The pearl barley was also boiled: it became quite soft.

Place the cereal on a sieve and rinse under running water. In this way, we will get rid of the stickiness that would make the future pickle cloudy and unappetizing.

The pickles were also stewed. They should not become very soft, but only slightly softened.

We clean, wash and cut the potatoes into fairly large slices (I have 4 large tubers).

When the pork becomes quite soft and the meat comes away from the bones, the broth for the pickle is ready. We take out the pork, filter the broth itself and return it back to the pan. We throw away the bay leaf and allspice - they have given off their own smell and are no longer needed.

We separate the meat from the bones and cut it into portions, not very large pieces, and put it back into the broth.

Next, add the potato slices and cook them at medium boil until half cooked - about 10 minutes (depending on the size of the tenderloin).

After this, it’s time to boil the pearl barley and fried vegetables - put them in the bubbling soup, stir and cook the pickle for another 5 minutes.

At the end, add the stewed pickled cucumbers along with the broth in which they were cooked. This component is added last, because the acid can make vegetables and cereals hard. In addition, for a corresponding pleasant sourness and salty taste, we add cucumber brine, in which the pickles were stored. You can safely adjust its quantity to your own taste.

Rassolnik with barley and pickles

Traditional recipe for pickle with barley and pickles. The soup is hot, warming, very tasty and rich, typical for Russian cuisine.

Rassolnik has long been a folk dish; every housewife prepares it in her own way. It contains any kind of meat or fish, various types of cereals, mushrooms, vegetables and herbs. Only pickled cucumbers remain a constant ingredient and signature attribute of rassolnik (brine from the jar in which they were fermented is often added).

Secrets of making pickle sauce

To ensure that the pickle comes out clear rather than cloudy, pearl barley should be boiled separately and then washed.
It is best to cook the soup in meat broth with bones. As a standard, take beef or pork. You can also cook it in chicken broth or using stew.
Only pickled cucumbers are used to make rassolnik. Pickled ones are not suitable.
Pickled cucumbers should be lightly stewed separately, and then added to the pan in the almost finished soup.
Do not add cucumbers if the potatoes and pearl barley have not yet been cooked, otherwise they will remain tough!
So that the taste of the pickle is harmonious, with a slight sourness, pour cucumber pickle into it at the very end of production.
For color, you can add tomato paste or tomatoes, peeled and fried until soft in a frying pan.

Ingredients

beef or pork – 500 g
pearl barley – 50 g
bay leaf – 1 pc.
dark peppercorns – 4 pcs.
aromatic peppercorns – 1 pc.
celery root – 3-4 cm
large onion – 1 pc.
large carrots – 1 pc.
potatoes – 1-2 pcs.
pickled cucumbers – 2 pcs. (150-200 g)
brine – 100 ml or to taste
salt - to taste
water – approximately 1.8 l

Manufacturing

I sorted out the pearl barley, carefully washed it and soaked it in cool water for 2 hours (the grains will swell, soften and cook faster). I boiled the barley until almost done - about 30 minutes. I threw the cereal onto a sieve and washed it under running water so that it came out crumbly and was not sticky.

I washed the meat (I used beef on the bone), placed it in a 2-liter saucepan, added a bay leaf, dark and aromatic pepper, and a piece of celery root. Filled it with cool water and set it to cook. When the water boiled, skimmed off the foam and cooked until fully cooked, about 1.5 hours. At the end of cooking, I added salt to taste - you need to salt it carefully, because we will also add pickles and brine to the soup.

When cooking meat, the heat should be as low as possible, then the broth (and therefore our pickle) will turn out transparent. The broth is ready when the meat just separates from the bone. I strained it, removed the meat from the bone, cut it into small portions and returned it back to the pan. I threw out the bay leaf, pepper and celery; they have already given off their own smell and are no longer needed.

Next I peeled the onions and carrots. I cut the onion into small cubes and chopped the carrots on a large grater. Fry the vegetables (immediately) in a heated frying pan with vegetable oil until soft and lightly browned. But do not overcook, the onion should not turn black, otherwise it will give bitterness to the soup.

Seasoned the soup with the resulting roasted vegetables. Next I put the potatoes, peeled and cut into slices, into the pan.

And immediately added boiled pearl barley. Continued to cook everything together for about 10 minutes. During this period of time, the potatoes should become softer, reach half-cookedness, but not completely boil over. The exact time will depend on the tenderloin; the larger it is, the longer the potato slices will cook.

At the same time, while the potatoes were boiling, I cut the cucumbers into strips (you can cube them or grate them as you like). I put it in a ladle, added a glass of broth in which the meat was cooked, and simmered over medium heat for 7-8 minutes. The cucumbers should not become very soft, but only slightly softened.

I added the boiled cucumbers to the soup along with the broth in which they were boiled. I poured in the cucumber brine - use the amount to taste (the more brine, the more sour the soup will be in the end). Covered the pan with a lid and cooked until the potatoes were fully cooked for another 5 minutes. In the process, adjusted the amount of salt to taste. Please note that cucumbers must be added last, since acid can harden both pearl barley and vegetables.

The pickle with pearl barley and pickles should sit under the lid for half an hour, after which you can pour the fragrant soup into plates. Serve hot, with chopped fresh herbs (dill-parsley). You can flavor it with a spoonful of sour cream and add garlic croutons from rye bread.

Rassolnik with tomato, barley and pickles

Ingredients

Beef – 350 g

Onions – 1 pc.

Vegetable oil – 3 tbsp.

Potatoes – 2 pcs.

Tomato paste – 1 tbsp.

Pearl barley – 5 tbsp.

Spices - to taste

Pickled cucumbers – 2 pcs.

Bay leaf – 2 pcs.

Roots - optional

3 l saucepan

61 kcal
1 hour 30 minutes
30 min.
2 hours

Photo of the finished dish

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Step-by-step recipe with photos

I always liked sour soups, which contain tomato paste - solyanka, rassolniki, borscht and everything like that.

Rassolnik with tomato, barley and pickles can be prepared in both lean and meat versions. This flavorful soup will warm and satisfy you on cold days.

Ingredients for our meat pickle.

To ensure that the pearl barley cooks quickly and the broth does not look too cloudy, you need to prepare the cereal. It’s quite good to wash it a couple of times and fill it with clean water. Leave to swell for 30 minutes.

Rassolnik can be cooked with or without any meat. In this case, wash the beef with hot water, pour in unstained water and set to cook. After boiling, be sure to remove the foam. Cook the meat until soft. Cooking time depends on the type and quality of meat.

For the Lenten option, skip this step.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan or saucepan and fry the onions and carrots.

Add finely chopped or grated pickles. Stirring, fry everything together over low heat for 5 minutes.

Then add tomato paste, sugar and spices. Pour in half a glass of water and simmer everything together under the lid until the water boils.

When the meat becomes soft, add finely chopped potatoes. Long cooking will not harm the potatoes, because later, in an acidic environment, they will glass. I prefer to boil it well.

Immediately add pearl barley. Cook until both are soft.

Remove the meat from the broth and cut into small pieces.

When the potatoes and pearl barley are cooked, add the prepared roast and bay leaf to the pan. Return the meat to the pan. Keep on fire for another 5-7 minutes. Bring to taste, adding whatever is missing. Rassolnik with tomato, barley and pickles is ready.