Monastic kitchen.

“If, by fasting physically, we are led to be entangled in the most destructive passions of the soul, then the exhaustion of the flesh will not bring us any benefit, when at the same time we remain defiled in the most precious part of our nature, which, in fact, becomes the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.”

Venerable Cassian the Roman

SECOND DISHES PREPARED WITHOUT OIL

Boiled potatoes with nuts

500 g potatoes, 1 onion, 150 g peeled walnuts, 1 - 2 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs of cilantro, parsley or dill, wine vinegar, red pepper, salt to taste.

Boil well-washed potatoes with skins, cool, peel and cut into cubes. Crush peeled walnuts, garlic, red pepper and cilantro with salt.

Add wine vinegar and chopped onions to taste, mix with diced boiled potatoes and sprinkle with chopped parsley or dill.

Potato meatballs

500 g potatoes, 1 onion, 0.5 tbsp. peeled walnuts, 2 - 3 tbsp. l. wine vinegar, 1 tbsp. l, water, 1 - 2 cloves of garlic, 0.5 tbsp. finely chopped green cilantro and dill, crushed saffron, capsicum, salt to taste.

Boil the potatoes as usual and mash well. Crush the peeled nuts, garlic, cilantro, capsicum, salt and squeeze out the nut oil, which is poured into a separate bowl. Dilute the crushed nut mass with water and vinegar, add very finely chopped onions, cilantro and dill, crushed saffron, mashed potatoes and knead well. From the resulting doughy mass, roll into meatballs the size of a chicken egg. Carefully place them on a plate, make a small depression in each meatball, into which pour the nut butter.

Belarusian hoof

300 g potatoes, 20 g wheat flour, 1 onion, 1 g soda, salt, mushrooms.

Grate raw potatoes, add salt, flour, soda and mix well. Roll out the resulting dough into strips, which are then cut into pieces 2-3 cm long and baked in the oven. Before serving, dip the product in mushroom broth for 10 - 15 minutes, then drain in a colander. Serve with fried onions and mushrooms.

Monastery-style boiled beans

Cauliflower beans, onions, parsley and dill, salt.

Sort out the colored beans, rinse well, scald with boiling water, add a small amount of warm water so that the beans are lightly covered with it, and cook until the grains are soft. Then add salt to taste, add finely chopped onions. Cook for about half an hour, add chopped parsley and dill. Serve the boiled beans hot or cold along with the remaining broth.

Red bean puree

200 g red beans, 40 g onions, 60 g walnut kernels, 20 g wine vinegar, 4 g garlic, pepper, dill, cilantro, parsley, salt to taste.

Add raw chopped onion and garlic to the beans, cooked until half cooked, bring to readiness and strain. Rub the beans, gradually diluting this mixture with broth. Season with crushed nuts, vinegar, chopped herbs and pepper.

Pearl barley porridge with vegetables

Pearl barley, carrots, onions, spices, salt, bay leaf.

Rinse the cereal well, add water, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for 1.5 - 2 hours. In the middle of cooking, add carrots, chopped onions, salt, bay leaves and spices to the pan.

Pilaf with dried fruits and nuts

2 tbsp. rice, a handful of dried apricots, raisins, several dates, prunes, 4 - 5 walnuts, 2 tbsp. l. honey, salt.

In lightly salted water, cook the rice until half cooked, add thoroughly washed and sorted raisins, chopped dried apricots, several dates cut into strips and pitted and chopped prunes, as well as fried (without oil) crushed nuts. Bring under the lid until cooked, add honey, stir and let it brew.

Semolina porridge with cranberry juice

From 1 tbsp. prepare cranberries 6 tbsp. fruit drink, boil, add 0.5 tbsp. semolina and 0.5 tbsp. sugar, boil, cool, serve with sugar.

Smolensk porridge with cranberry juice

From 1 tbsp. prepare cranberries 6 tbsp. fruit drink, boil, add 0.5 tbsp. rice and 0.5 tbsp. sugar, boil, cool, serve with sugar.

Rolled porridge

0.5 liters of water, about 1.5 cups of oatmeal, 1/3 cup of walnuts, salt, sugar to taste.

Pour oatmeal, sugar, salt to taste, and peeled nuts into boiling water. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring.

SECOND COURSES COOKED WITH VEGETABLE OIL

Mashed potatoes with onions

1.5 kg potatoes, 3 onions, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, salt.

Boil the potatoes, drain the water into a separate bowl. Finely chop the onion and fry until golden brown. Mash the potatoes, adding broth as needed so that the puree is not too thick. Add fried onions.

Boiled potatoes

1 kg potatoes, 3 cloves of garlic, 0.5 tsp. caraway seeds, salt, vegetable oil.

Boil the potatoes along with the halved garlic cloves and caraway seeds. Drain the broth, dry and serve, sprinkled with vegetable oil.

Bishop's style potatoes

1.5 potatoes, 5 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 2 - 2.5 tbsp. l. flour, salt.

Boil the potatoes, cool, cut into thick slices and fry in vegetable oil. At the end of frying, add flour, stir vigorously and let a crispy crust form.

Deruny

10 potatoes, salt, vegetable oil, flour.

Grate the peeled potatoes on a coarse grater, add salt and add enough flour so that the dough is not too liquid. Spoon the potato mixture into a frying pan with hot vegetable oil and fry on both sides until crispy. Place on a plate in 1 layer so that the potato pancakes do not become wet, otherwise they will not be crispy.

Baked potatoes stuffed with fried onions

10 - 12 large potatoes, 1 onion, 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, salt.

Bake the potatoes, peel them, cut off the tops, make recesses of such depth that the walls can hold the minced meat.

Mash the extracted mixture, pour oil over it, mix with chopped onion fried in oil and stuff the potatoes. Sprinkle it with oil and warm it up.

You can add mushrooms to the minced meat.

Baked potatoes stuffed with buckwheat porridge and onions

10 - 12 potatoes, for minced meat: 100 g, buckwheat, 2 - 3 onions, vegetable oil, salt.

Bake the potatoes, peel them, cut off the tops, make recesses of such depth that the walls can hold the minced meat.

Cook buckwheat porridge: pour the cereal into a pan (it should take up half the volume), add oil, salt, pour boiling water (so that the cereal is covered) and put the pan in the oven in a frying pan with boiling water (it needs to be replenished as it boils).

Add chopped fried onions to the prepared porridge, stir and stuff the potatoes. Spray it generously with oil and heat it in the oven.

Potato pies with mushrooms

Potatoes, flour, vegetable oil, salt. For minced meat: mushrooms, onions.

Prepare mashed potatoes using the water in which the potatoes were boiled, add flour to form a viscous dough. For the filling: soak mushrooms in cold water for 2 - 4 hours, boil them in the same water, drain in a colander, chop, fry with chopped onions in vegetable oil. With wet hands, divide the dough into balls, form into flat cakes, put the filling on them, and pinch the edges. Fry the pies on both sides in vegetable oil. The filling can also be made from fried cabbage with garlic, or from other vegetables, or from buckwheat porridge with onions.

Fried cabbage

About half or 1 small head of cabbage, vegetable oil, salt, 3 cloves of garlic, herbs.

Finely chop the cabbage, place in a deep frying pan with hot vegetable oil, add water so that the cabbage is just covered. Add salt and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Open the lid, let the excess liquid evaporate and cook over high heat until golden brown.

Place chopped garlic into the prepared cabbage and serve, sprinkled with chopped herbs.

Cabbage rolls stuffed with vegetables

Loose head of cabbage, 2 carrots, 2/3 tbsp. rice 1 onion, 1 tbsp. l. tomato, garlic, vegetable oil, salt, herbs.

Remove the top large leaves from the head of cabbage - 10 - 12 pieces, lightly boil them until they become soft, beat off or cut off the petioles. Prepare the minced meat: cook crumbly rice, fry chopped carrots and finely chopped onions, combine with rice, add a finely chopped clove of garlic.

Fill cabbage leaves with prepared minced meat, roll into rolls and place in a deep frying pan or saucepan. Pour water, add tomato, herbs, salt and simmer until tender.

Lenten cabbage rolls

1 kg cabbage, 0.5 tbsp. ground crackers, 2 - 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 0.5 tbsp. l. salt.

Boil a whole head of cabbage in salted water until half cooked. Remove to a colander and let the water drain. Disassemble the head of cabbage into leaves and wrap each of them in an envelope, roll in breadcrumbs and fry in oil. Can also be served cooled.

Cabbage cutlets

500 g cabbage, 2 tablespoons semolina, 2 tablespoons ground crackers, salt to taste, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water.

Finely chop the cabbage, put it in a saucepan, add water, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and simmer until half cooked. Pour semolina into the boiling mass in a thin stream, cook, stirring continuously for 10-15 minutes, cool slightly, add salt, stir and cool. Form oval cutlets, bread them in breadcrumbs, and fry.

Fresh white cabbage with vegetable oil and breadcrumbs

1 head of cabbage, 1 onion, 200 g vegetable oil 3 tbsp. l. breadcrumbs, a few sprigs of parsley, salt.

Peel the head of cabbage from the top leaves, cut into 6-8 pieces, put in salted boiling water, let it boil, drain in a colander, and squeeze lightly. Place the cabbage on the bottom of the pan, add parsley and onion, cover with a lid and cook until soft, without boiling. When serving, pour the cabbage with heated vegetable oil and breadcrumbs, prepared as follows: add grated stale bread into the heated vegetable oil and brown it.

Or: peel a head of fresh cabbage from the outer leaves, cut it crosswise, but not all the way, put it in salted boiling water and cook until soft. Place the whole head of cabbage on a plate and pour over the butter and breadcrumbs.

Or: season the broth in which the cabbage was cooked with 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil and 0.6 tbsp. l. flour, boil, shaking the pan, place the cabbage on a deep dish and pour over the resulting sauce.

Stewed fresh cabbage

1 - 2 heads of fresh cabbage, 0.5 tbsp. water, 0.5 tbsp. l. flour vegetable oil, apple juice (or vinegar), sugar, salt to taste.

Chop the cabbage, add salt, squeeze, fry in vegetable oil, add water, add flour, salt, sugar and apple juice (or vinegar), simmer until tender.

Stewed sauerkraut

600 g sauerkraut, 3 - 6 dried mushrooms, 1 onion, 1 - 2 bay leaves, 2 - 3 black peppercorns, 0.5 tbsp. l. flour, 2 - 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, salt.

Wash the shredded cabbage, squeeze it out, put it in a saucepan, pour in pre-cooked mushroom broth, add finely chopped mushrooms, bay leaf, pepper, salt, cook until tender. Add flour fried in vegetable oil with finely chopped onion, stir, cook covered until tender.

Pasta with vegetables

500 g pasta, 2 - 3 carrots, 40 g parsley root, 3 onions, 1 tbsp. green peas, 2 tbsp. l. tomato puree, 100 g vegetable oil, dill or parsley.

Chop carrots, parsley, onion into thin strips, fry with tomato puree in vegetable oil for 10 - 12 minutes, then add heated canned peas to the vegetables and mix. Boil pasta, drain water, combine with vegetables. Serve the pasta hot, sprinkled with finely chopped dill or parsley.

Mushrooms stewed with barley or rice

400 g salted, or 60 g stewed mushrooms, 50 - 60 g vegetable oil, 1 - 2 onions, 0.5 - 0.75 tbsp. cereals, 2 - 3 tbsp. water, 1 tbsp. l. tomato puree, salt, green onions and parsley.

Fry the prepared mushrooms and onions in oil until light golden brown. Mix with washed cereals and hot water, simmer until the cereal becomes soft, then add tomato puree. Sprinkle the finished dish with herbs. Serve with pickled cucumber salad or cabbage.

Mushrooms stuffed with rice

500 g champignons, 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. boiled rice, 1 parsley root, crackers, salt.

For medium-sized mushrooms with a round cap, cut out the stem so that the cap remains intact. Finely chop the legs across the grain and simmer in vegetable oil along with grated parsley. Add cooked rice, salt.

Sprinkle a little salt on the mushroom caps, fill them with minced meat and place them in a fireproof dish or greased form. Place the remaining minced meat in a mound and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake the mushrooms until golden brown.

Fried abalone with minced mushroom and buckwheat porridge

Prepare the ears, stuff them with minced mushroom mixed with buckwheat porridge, which is fried along with the onion and mushrooms. Serve with borscht and mushroom sauce.

Prepare dough for ears as for noodles. Roll out very thin, cut into quadrangles, brush the edges with water, put 1 tsp on each piece. minced meat, mold the edges of the quadrangles, and then the ends. Fry in vegetable oil, preferably in a copper saucepan so that the oil does not burn. After frying, place the ears on paper and, when dry, dip them into borscht or soup just before eating.

Dried mushroom pilaf

10 - 12 dried porcini mushrooms, 1 tbsp. rice, 3 onions, 1 carrot, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 1.5 tbsp. broth, tomato puree, salt.

Sort the mushrooms and soak for 3 hours, then cook in the same water until tender. Remove the mushrooms from the broth, cut into large strips, and fry. Also fry finely chopped onion, sauté carrots with tomato puree. Mix with mushrooms, adding a little strained mushroom broth. Add the sorted washed rice, close the lid and simmer until done.

Mash porridge

Millet and barley, (rice and wheat, corn and barley) cereals, two types of vegetables, salt.

Take a mixture of cereals (for example: millet and barley, corn or rice and wheat, corn and barley). The main thing is that one of the cereals is whole, and the other (or others) is crushed. Grate at least two types of vegetables on a coarse grater. For a glass of cereal mixture - a glass of vegetables.

Place a third of the vegetables on the bottom of the dish, a layer of cereal on them, then another layer of vegetables and so on to make three layers (vegetables on top). Pour hot salted water over everything so that the top layer of vegetables is covered. Place in the oven for 6 – 8 minutes.

Buckwheat porridge with onions

2 tbsp. buckwheat, 2 onions, 3 tbsp. vegetable oil. salt.

Sort out the buckwheat, wash and dry in a saucepan with a thick bottom, stirring constantly, add salt and, when the grain becomes dry and crumbly, pour in 3 tbsp. boiling water Cover with a lid and cook over low heat without stirring, otherwise the porridge will not be crumbly. Fry finely chopped onion in a frying pan and add it to the prepared porridge. Let it rest well, wrapping the pan in newspaper and putting it under the pillow.

Pea porridge with barley

1 tbsp peas, 1 tbsp. barley, 1 carrot, 2 onions. vegetable oil, salt, parsley or green onions.

Soak the peas in the evening and cook them in the same water. In 20 minutes. add washed barley. Stir frequently to prevent it from burning and make sure it doesn't run away.

When the peas become soft, mash them, add chopped onions and coarsely grated carrots fried in vegetable oil, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley or green onions. Barley groats can be replaced with “Hercules”, in which case it is added at the end of cooking, for 15 – 20 minutes. to end.

Porridge with apples

Semolina (millet, oatmeal) cereal, sweet and sour apple, sugar.

Cook thin porridge in water (semolina, millet, oatmeal). Separately, grate a peeled apple of sweet and sour varieties. Before serving, place the pureed apple directly on a plate at the rate of one medium-sized apple for two servings. Before use, stir by adding. tastes a little sugar. Along with the apple, you can also grate some carrots.

Rice cutlets with mushroom sauce

1 tbsp. rice, 4 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 0.5 tbsp. crushed white crackers, salt.

For the sauce: 3 - 4 dry mushrooms. 1 onion 1 tbsp. l. flour, 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. raisins (sultanas), 0.5 tbsp. sweet almonds, lemon juice and sugar to taste.

Boil the rice in salted water until soft, discard, let the water drain thoroughly, put in a pan, knead a little so as not to crumble, pour in 1 tbsp. l. oil and let cool. Cut cutlets from this mass, roll in breadcrumbs and quickly fry on both sides.

For the sauce: cook broth from soaked mushrooms. Fry finely chopped onion in oil, add flour and fry. Pour, gradually stirring, a glass of mushroom broth and boil. Scald the raisins and almonds with boiling water several times and let the water drain. Add lemon juice, sugar, salt to taste, raisins, chopped almonds to the sauce. Let the sauce boil and pour it over the cutlets.

Rice with prunes

0.5 tbsp. rice, 0.5 tbsp. prunes, 1.5 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 1.5 tbsp. l. sugar, 2 - 3 whispers of citric acid, 1 tbsp. water.

Wash the rice, dry it and fry it in a frying pan. Remove pits from prunes. Place prunes and fried rice in boiling water, add sugar, citric acid and cook at low boil until the rice is cooked.

When serving, pour vegetable oil over the rice.

Rolled oatmeal pancakes

Add 1 - 2 grated apples, salt and 2 tbsp to the oatmeal porridge. l. flour. To stir thoroughly. Fry pancakes in a hot frying pan in vegetable oil.

Pancakes with onions

500 g flour, 2 tbsp. water, 1 tbsp. l. sugar, 15 g yeast, onion, pinch of salt, 0.5 tbsp. vegetable mpsl.

Knead the pancake dough from flour, water, yeast, salt, sugar. Let the dough rise. Finely chop the onion, simmer in oil, add salt to taste. When the dough has risen, add stewed onions to it. Let the dough rise again for 15 minutes. Bake pancakes as usual.

Monastery style rice

2 cups rice, 4 cups water, 2 onions, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 carrots, 1 tablespoon tomato paste or tomato sauce, dried celery, dill, ground black pepper, salt.

Rinse the rice thoroughly, pour boiling water over it, cook for 10 minutes until it is grain-to-grain, and drain in a colander. In a deep frying pan, fry finely chopped onions in vegetable oil until golden brown, add boiled onions; grated carrots and tomato on a coarse grater, mix. Add rice, season to taste with herbs, pepper and salt. Serve the dish hot.

Pumpkin pancakes

1 kg of peeled pumpkin, 1 glass of wheat flour, salt, sugar to taste, vegetable oil for frying, honey.

Grate the pumpkin on a fine grater, add salt and sugar, add flour, knead into a homogeneous dough. Place with a spoon on a hot frying pan in heated vegetable oil, fry on both sides. Serve with honey.

Pea jelly

1/2 cup split peas, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 2 onions.

Dry the peas in a frying pan and grind in a coffee grinder. Pour the resulting pea flour into boiling salted water and, stirring continuously, cook for 15-20 minutes, then pour into greased plates. When the jelly thickens, cut it into portions.

When serving, sprinkle the jelly with onions fried in vegetable oil.

“It is very important to learn Christian asceticism.
Asceticism is not life in a cave and constant fasting,
asceticism is the ability to regulate, among other things, your consumption of ideas and the state of your heart.
Asceticism is a person’s victory over lust, over passions, over instinct.”
© Patriarch Kirill
From the speech of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' live on the Ukrainian TV channel “Inter”

Nowadays, the Russian holy fathers of the Russian Orthodox Church, who are in monasticism (the black clergy), are the main determining and guiding force for the modernization of the entire great democratic Russia and the pious transformation of the spirituality of the wise and heroic Russian people.

Group photo of the faithful Supreme Teachers and Russian Reformers before the banquet in the Grand Kremlin Palace:

The monastic meal is a collective ritual. The monks ate twice a day: lunch and dinner, and on some days they ate only once (although this “once” could be quite long); for various reasons, it occasionally happened that meals were excluded altogether. The main thing was not the quantity of food, but the quality of the dishes: lean or fast, the role of the dish in rituals, and the time of meals.

Cold baked lean fish garnished with lean mayonnaise and chopped vegetables.

Sturgeon baked whole without skin
(before baking, carefully remove the skin from the fish from the base of the head to the tail).

Pike perch stuffed with mushrooms, avocado, potatoes (avocado and potatoes 1:1) and herbs and baked in the oven. The monks consider pike perch to be the leanest fish, because... it contains only 1.5% fat.
Additions of fat-rich avocados, olives and nuts to the monastic diet make it possible to compensate for the lack of fat on fasting days, on which, according to the monastic charter, meals are supposed to be eaten without oil.

An idea of a monastic ceremonial dinner in the mid-19th century. allows us to compile a list of dishes that were served on November 27, 1850, the day of celebration of the memory of the founder of the monastery.

“The register of food on the holiday is holy. Jacob 1850 November 27th day
For a snack at the top
1. 3 kulebyaki with minced meat
2. 2 steamed pikes on two dishes
3. Jellied perch with minced meat on two dishes
4. Boiled crucian carp on two dishes
5. Fried bream on two dishes
In the brother's meal for lunch
1. Kulebyaka with porridge
2. Pressed caviar
3. Lightly salted beluga
4. Botvinya with salted fish
5. Cabbage soup with fried fish
6. Fish soup made from crucian carp and burbot
7. Pea sauce with fried fish
8. Fried cabbage
9. Dry bread with jam
10. Canpot made from apples
Snack for the white clergy
1. Caviar and white bread on 17 dishes
2. Cold golovizka with horseradish and cucumbers on 17 dishes"

Serving examples:

Setting the Lenten monastic table for dinner.
Slices of tomato with lean soy cheese, slices of lean fish sausage, fish and vegetable snacks, hot lean portioned dishes, various monastery drinks (kvass, fruit drink, freshly squeezed juices, mineral water), fruit plate, savory and sweet monastery pastries.

Monastic culinary recipes
St. Daniel's stauropegic monastery
How do lay people fundamentally differ from monks in nutrition - the former simply love to eat deliciously, the latter do the same, but with a deep, godly meaning and with lofty spiritual intentions. Of course, this great spiritual wisdom is little accessible to the understanding of ordinary lay people.

Accusing the atheistic Russian intelligentsia of his time, priest. Pavel Florensky said this about her attitude to food:
“The intellectual doesn’t know how to eat, much less taste, he doesn’t even know what it means to “eat”, what sacred food means: they don’t “eat” the gift of God, they don’t even eat food, but they “gobble up” chemical substances.”

Many people probably do not clearly understand the importance of food in the life of a Christian.

Modest monastic lunch:

Cold snacks:
- curly vegetable slices,
- painted stuffed pike perch
- tender salmon of our own special salting
Hot appetizer:
- julienne of fresh forest mushrooms baked with béchamel sauce
Salad:
- vegetable with shrimp “Sea Freshness”
First course:
- fish solyanka “monastic style”
Second course:
- salmon steak with tartar sauce
Dessert:
- ice cream with fruit.
Beverages:
- signature monastery fruit drink
- kvass
And, of course, for lunch they serve:
- freshly baked bread, honey cakes, various savory and sweet pastries to choose from.

Serving examples:

Monastic Lenten snacks for the common monastic table.

Salmon from the monastery's own special salting.
For squeezing lemon juice, monastery chefs recommend wrapping it in gauze to prevent lemon seeds from getting in.

Lenten fish solyanka with salmon.

Lenten fish solyanka made from sturgeon with rasstegaychik stuffed with burbot liver.

Steamed salmon with lean mayonnaise, tinted with saffron.

Lenten pilaf of rice, tinted with saffron, with slices of fish and various seafood, which God sent the monastic brethren for lunch today.

Fruit bouquet for the common monastic table.

Monastic Lenten chocolate-nut log.
Chocolate-nut masses of three colors (from dark chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate) are prepared as indicated in the previous recipe “Monastery Lenten truffle sweets”. Then they are poured layer by layer into a mold, previously carefully covered with plastic film.
The widespread use of various nuts and chocolate in monastic food makes it possible to make monastic food tasty and quite complete.

Monastic Lenten truffle sweets.
Ingredients: 100 g dark dark chocolate, 1 teaspoon olive oil (on days when oil is prohibited, do not add olive oil, but the candies will be slightly harder), 100 g peeled nuts, 1 teaspoon good cognac or rum, a little grated nutmeg.
Crush the nuts in a mortar, heat the chocolate with the addition of olive oil, stirring, in a water bath to 40 degrees. C, add crushed nuts, grated nutmeg and cognac, stir; Take the warm mass with a teaspoon and place it in a plate with cocoa powder (to taste, you can add powdered sugar to the cocoa powder) and, rolling in the cocoa powder, form balls the size of a walnut.

Let us remember that in monasteries meat is not consumed very often, in some it is not consumed at all. Therefore, the “spell” “Crucian crucian carp, crucian carp, turn into a piglet” does not work.

On great and patronal holidays, the brothers are blessed with “consolation” - a glass of red wine - French or, at worst, Chilean. And, of course, dishes are being prepared for a special holiday menu.

The breakfast menu of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' on one of the days in April 2011.
Patriarchal food menus are carefully developed and balanced by nutritionists to maintain in the patriarch the proper energy necessary for the tireless conduct of his enormous spiritual, organizational and representative work.
In the patriarchal menus, all raw materials and finished dishes undergo the same testing as in the Kremlin kitchen. All the dishes on the patriarchal table are the fruit of long analysis, discussions and endless tastings of the highest class culinary specialists, health doctors and nutritionists.
For Patriarch Kirill’s indispensable faith in God’s mercy and protection is a high spiritual matter, and the work of the patriarchal guard from the FSO and the corresponding doctors and laboratories is an everyday earthly matter.

Cold dishes:
Sturgeon caviar with buckwheat pancakes.
Caspian sturgeon, smoked, with galantine from grapes and sweet pepper.
Salmon stroganina with parmesan cheese and avocado mousse.

Snacks:
Pheasant roll.
Calf jelly.
Hare pate.
Blue Crab Pancake Cake.

Hot appetizers:
Fried hazel grouse.
Duck liver in rhubarb sauce with fresh berries.

Hot fish dishes:
Rainbow trout poached in champagne.

Hot meat dishes:
Smoked duck strudel.
Roe deer back with lingonberry galantine.
Venison grilled on the grill.

Sweet foods:
White chocolate cake.
Fresh fruit with strawberry galantine.
Baskets with fresh berries in champagne jelly.

The monastic chef is happy to share his recipes for vegetable salad with shrimp and fish solyanka.

First of all, in order for everything to turn out tasty and pleasing to God, you need to start cooking by reading a prayer. Have you read it? Now let's get to work!

Serving examples:

Layered Lenten salad according to the monastery recipe.
Lay the salad in layers, each layer under lean mayonnaise, salt to taste.
1st layer - canned crab meat, finely chopped (or crab sticks),
2nd layer - boiled rice,
3rd layer - boiled or canned squid, finely chopped,
4th layer - finely chopped Chinese cabbage,
5th layer - steamed stellate sturgeon, finely chopped,
B-th layer - boiled rice.
Garnish with lean mayonnaise, caviar, a leaf of greenery and serve to the monastic table.

Vinaigrette according to the monastery recipe.
The vinaigrette includes: baked whole in the oven, peeled and cut into cubes: potatoes, carrots, beets; canned green peas, onions, pickles, olive oil.
Sometimes monastery cooks prepare a vinaigrette with the addition of boiled beans and mushrooms (boiled or salted or pickled).
To taste, you can add finely chopped salted herring to the vinaigrette.

Lenten portioned dish of lobster boiled in vegetable kurt broth (dip a live lobster upside down into a boiling kurt broth of carrots, onions, herbs, salt and seasonings, boil the lobster for 40 minutes, then let it brew for 10 minutes under the lid) with a side dish of boiled rice, tinted with saffron, and vegetables with a lean flour sauce made from sturgeon broth, served separately in a cup, with the addition of onion, pureed through a sieve, poached until translucent (do not allow browning) and spices; garnish with a slice of lemon.

There is still a lot of interesting information about products, dishes and those who eat these dishes.

Everyone who, while living in a monastery, visited the monastery refectory, is surprised at how delicious the food is there, although the products are the simplest. To the question, what is the secret?

Firstly, you cannot eat your fill; food should not burden your stomach. You should leave the meal with a slight feeling of hunger, which, by the way, is absolutely correct, since according to all the laws of our nature, satiety occurs half an hour after eating.

Secondly, whenever possible, food should be plant-based and devoid of any spices. As they explained to us at the Solovetsky Monastery, “there is a fine line between satisfying the feeling of hunger and pleasing the whims of the flesh. A monk needs to learn to distinguish between it well. It is no coincidence that gluttony or guttural rage is the first tool of the devil with which he approaches the heart of a monk, suggesting that this is the only joy left to him from the world."

To avoid such temptations, monks adhere to simple rules: food should be simple, nutritious, healthy and contain essential vitamins. Food serves to satiate and maintain strength, nothing more.

Brest Nativity of the Virgin Monastery

Lenten brine cookies

1 glass of brine (preferably from canned tomatoes), 1 tsp. soda, three-quarters of a glass of vegetable oil, three-quarters of a glass of sugar, 1 packet (11 g) of vanilla sugar, flour.

Mix brine, vegetable oil and sugar, add vanilla sugar and flour. The dough should be dense enough so that it can be rolled out into a layer 1 cm thick. Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter and bake in a well-heated oven until golden brown.

Oatmeal jelly (lenten jellied meat)

500 g oatmeal, 3 crusts of rye (yeast) bread, salt, sugar - to taste.

Pour warm water over oatmeal until completely covered. Place the bread crusts in the pan and place in a warm place for a day, stirring occasionally. Strain through cheesecloth, add 0.5 liters of water, salt, sugar. Place over low heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil, leave for 5 minutes after boiling. Remove from heat, pour into bowls, and let harden.

Lenten gingerbread

4 cups flour, 2 cups sugar. One glass of raisins, finely chopped walnuts, vegetable oil and a decoction of dried fruits, 25 g of ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 teaspoons of soda, salt to taste.

Grind sugar, salt and cinnamon thoroughly with vegetable oil. Add raisins minced through a meat grinder and chopped walnuts. Dilute with a decoction of dried fruits and add soda. Then gradually add flour, add vinegar and stir. Pour the dough into a greased and floured pan and place in the oven. Bake at 170ºC for 50-60 minutes.

***

Recipes for Lenten dishes:

Lenten recipes- Orthodox fasts and holidays
Life without oil (Lent recipes)- Victoria Sverdlova
Lenten recipes: breakfasts
Lenten recipes: salads and snacks- Boring Garden
Recipes for Lenten dishes: Lenten soups
Recipes for Lenten dishes: main courses- Nina Borisova, Maxim Syrnikov
Lenten recipes: baked goods and desserts- Nina Borisova
Lenten recipes: drinks during fasting- Maxim Syrnikov, Nina Borisova
- Alexey Reutovsky
The history of Russian cuisine: in Russia we are doomed to eat porridge- Maxim Syrnikov
Special dishes of Lent: crosses, larks, ladders, grouse- Maxim Syrnikov
Kolivo: Athonite recipe- Boring Garden
Fruit table- Pravoslavie.Ru
Recipes for the Nativity Fast: lentil soup, bread salad, green soup, squid stew, eggplant, avocado appetizer, solyanka with squid and cuba, couscous, kozinaki, toast with apples, etc. - Ekaterina Savostyanova
Recipes for the New Year- Ekaterina Savostyanova
Maslenitsa: 10 best recipes- Orthodoxy and peace
How I made the ancient Roman sauce garum(with photographs and comments) - culinary reconstruction - Maxim Stepanenko

***

Trinity-Sergius Lavra

Millet porridge with pumpkin

1 liter of water, 100 grams of pumpkin, a glass of millet.

Sort the millet and rinse. Grate the pumpkin, add water and cook for half an hour. After this, add millet, salt, sugar and cook until tender.

Celery salad

600 g celery root, 200 g each carrot and apple, 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Grate the root, add grated carrots, apple, sprinkle with lemon juice - so that the apple does not darken. Season with vegetable oil.

Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Convent

Bishop's cutlets

Half a loaf of white bread, 3-4 onions, a glass of peeled walnuts (they replace meat and fish), two potatoes, a clove of garlic.

Pass all other ingredients through a meat grinder. Add garlic, salt, ground pepper.

There is no need to add oil to the minced meat, because... When frying, colettes absorb oil very well.

Do not skimp on breadcrumbs; they form a crust during frying, which prevents the cutlets from falling apart. Make the colettes small and thick so that you can turn them over later.

I think you can experiment: add a can of canned beans or mushrooms to the minced meat, or double the proportion of potatoes.

Pyukhtitsky Assumption Convent

Pea porridge

500 g peas, 2 - 4 onions, vegetable oil, salt to taste.

Place the peas in a large saucepan, wash thoroughly in cold water and add 1.5 liters of water. Leave for 1 hour, then put on high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, carefully skim off foam and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Cooking time depends on the variety and quality of peas and can range from 45 minutes to 2-3 hours. The peas should boil down: turn into a homogeneous mass, like puree. Add salt to taste, add finely chopped onion fried in vegetable oil and arrange on plates, sprinkling fried onion rings on top. Pea porridge can be cooled in the form, then cut into pieces and served as a cold appetizer.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky stauropegial monastery

Lentils with beets

500 g green lentils, 1 large beetroot, vegetable oil, salt and spices to taste.

Wash the lentils, add cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off the foam, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 40 minutes, adding salt. Peel the raw beets and grate them on a coarse grater. Place the beets in the pan with the lentils and cook for 5 minutes. Add chopped garlic and spices - ground black pepper, turmeric, garam masala. Remove from heat and leave for 30-60 minutes. You can add vegetable oil. It turns out to be a very tasty dish with a borscht flavor.

Tea in Solovetsky style

Mix three types of tea in equal proportions - black, green and red (hibiscus). Take a herbal mixture - mint, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, cloudberry, a little chamomile and mix in equal quantities. The herbal collection can amount to one-quarter to one-tenth of the tea.

It is better to first put the herbs in boiling water, wait 5 minutes, and then add the tea mixture. Wait 5 minutes again and strain through a colander. This tea can be stored and heated.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery

Valaam cabbage soup (with mushrooms)

A handful of dried mushrooms, 4 potatoes, 250-300 g of white cabbage, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste.

Soak dried mushrooms in cool water in the evening. In the morning, strain the water through a fine sieve or cheesecloth into a separate container (do not pour it out, we will need it later). Wash the mushrooms, cut into slices and place in boiling salted water. Cook for 1 hour until done. Chop the onion into small cubes, cut the carrots into thin strips and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Add diced potatoes and thinly shredded cabbage to the pan. After 10 minutes, add the prepared carrots and onions and cook for another 15 minutes. The cabbage should not be overcooked, but remain slightly crispy. Shortly before it is ready, add a bay leaf to the soup and pour in the reserved mushroom infusion. Pour into bowls and season with black pepper to taste.

Potato salad

3-4 potatoes, 1 carrot, 200 g frozen green beans, 100 g frozen green peas, 10 olives, 1 onion, several sprigs of dill and parsley, salt to taste, unrefined sunflower oil.

Boil carrots and potatoes in their skins, cool, peel and cut into cubes. Steam the green beans and green peas. Combine potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, sliced pitted olives and diced onion in a large bowl. Sprinkle with finely chopped herbs - parsley and (or) dill and pour over sunflower oil. Add salt to taste and mix gently.

500 g buckwheat, 1 large carrot, 1 onion, 300 g frozen green beans, 2 tbsp. l. tomato puree (you can use crushed tomatoes in their own juice), 1 tbsp. l. flour, vegetable oil, chopped herbs, salt to taste.

Cook crumbly buckwheat porridge. While the porridge is cooking, prepare the vegetable part of the dish. To do this, finely chop the carrots, cut the onions into small cubes and fry in a deep frying pan in sunflower oil until golden brown. Boil green beans in a small amount of salted water for 5 minutes from the moment of boiling, drain the broth and transfer the beans to the frying pan with the rest of the vegetables. Pour flour into a small dry frying pan and lightly fry. Add vegetable oil, tomato puree and mix, not allowing lumps to form. Dilute with hot water until sour cream thickens, heat to a boil and pour into a frying pan with vegetables. Cook for a few minutes, add salt if necessary. Place buckwheat porridge and vegetables into plates, sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve immediately.

Alexey Reutovsky

Everyone who, while living in a monastery, visited the monastery refectory, is surprised at how delicious the food is there, although the products are very simple. To the question, what is the secret?

The monks themselves unanimously answer: “There are no secrets here, it’s just that when you cook and when you eat, you need to pray.” But still there are some general principles that are observed in most monasteries, following the instructions of the holy fathers.
Firstly, you cannot eat your fill; food should not burden your stomach. You should leave the meal with a slight feeling of hunger, which, by the way, is absolutely correct, since according to all the laws of our nature, satiety occurs half an hour after eating.

Secondly, whenever possible, food should be plant-based and devoid of any spices. As they explained to us at the Solovetsky Monastery, “there is a fine line between satisfying the feeling of hunger and pleasing the whims of the flesh. A monastic needs to learn to distinguish it well. It is no coincidence that gluttony or guttural rage is the first tool of the devil with which he approaches the heart of a monk, instilling in him that this is the only joy left to him from the world.”

To avoid such temptations, monks adhere to simple rules: food should be simple, nutritious, healthy and contain essential vitamins. Food serves to satiate and maintain strength, nothing more.

Brest Nativity of the Virgin Monastery

LENTEN BRINE COOKIES
1 glass of brine (preferably from canned tomatoes), 1 tsp. soda, three-quarters of a glass of vegetable oil, three-quarters of a glass of sugar, 1 sachet (11 g) vanilla sugar, flour

OATMEAL KISSEL (LEAN JELLY)
500 g oatmeal, 3 crusts of rye (yeast) bread, salt, sugar- taste.

Lenten mat
4 cups flour, 2 cups sugar. One glass of raisins, finely chopped walnuts, vegetable oil and dried fruit decoction, 25 g of ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 teaspoons of soda, salt to taste.

Trinity-Sergius Lavra

MILLET PORridge WITH PUMPKIN
1 liter of water, 100 grams of pumpkin, a glass of millet.

Sort the millet and rinse. Grate the pumpkin, add water and cook for half an hour. After this, add millet, salt, sugar and cook until tender.

CELERY SALAD
600 g celery root, 200 g each carrot and apple, 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Grate the root, add grated carrots, apple, sprinkle with lemon juice - so that the apple does not darken. Season with vegetable oil.

Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Convent

BISHOP'S CUTLETS
Half a loaf of white bread, 3-4 onions, a glass of peeled walnuts (they replace meat and fish), two potatoes, a clove of garlic.

Lightly soak the bread in water, pass all other ingredients through a meat grinder. Add garlic, salt, ground pepper and a little vegetable oil. If the minced meat is liquid, add breadcrumbs, roll in breadcrumbs and fry like regular cutlets.

Pyukhtitsky Assumption Convent

PEA PORRIDGE
500 g peas, 2-4 onions, vegetable oil, salt to taste.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky stauropegial monastery

LENTIL WITH BEET
500 g green lentils, 1 large beetroot, vegetable oil, salt and spices to taste.

TEA IN SOLOVETSKY
Mix three types of tea in equal proportions - black, green and red (hibiscus). Take a herbal mixture - mint, lemon balm, oregano, thyme, cloudberry, a little chamomile and mix in equal quantities. The herbal collection can amount to one-quarter to one-tenth of the tea.
It is better to first put the herbs in boiling water, wait 5 minutes, and then add the tea mixture. Wait 5 minutes again and strain through a colander. This tea can be stored and heated.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery

VALAAM cabbage soup (with mushrooms)
A handful of dried mushrooms, 4 potatoes, 250-300 g of white cabbage, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste.

BUCKWHEAT PORRIDGE WITH VEGETABLES
500 g buckwheat, 1 large carrot, 1 onion, 300 g frozen green beans, 2 tbsp. l. tomato puree (you can use crushed tomatoes in their own juice), 1 tbsp. l. flour, vegetable oil, chopped herbs, salt to taste.