Russian word of the day: соль

  Some salty Russian vocabulary for you today. ;) This post also shows you how Russian words can be made by using prefixes and suffixes. So many words are made from one simple соль!

соль - salt

солонка - salt shaker

солёный - salty

несолёный - unsalted

солить - to salt

пересолить - to oversalt

пересоленный - oversalted, too salty

недосолить - to salt not enough

недосоленный - not salty enough

засолить - to marinade, to pickle

солёные огурцы (маринованные огурцы) - pickled cucumbers

рассол - brine, pickle-water (a popular post-hangover «medicine» in Russia ^^ )

рассольник - a traditional Russian soup made from pickled cucumbers and sometimes with brine too (I don't like it at all, even though I love pickles.)

A bit of Russian cuisine

 Often when we learn a language of some country we're also curious about culture of that place. And culture includes cooking traditions as well. I'll show a few video-recipes of meals quite common in Russia. Most are Russian, one comes from another Slavic nation. Prepare to salivate! All videos are in Russian so it's good practice for you.

Draniki, potato pancakes

I love draniki, they're so yummy! Though it's originally a Belarusian meal, many Russians also enjoy draniki from fresh potatoes in the summer. I love draniki with garlic, but it's optional. You can also serve them with some sour cream, if you want.

So, for this recipe you'll need 7-8 average potatoes, 1 onion, 1 table spoon of sour cream, 1 egg (optional, I always make draniki without it), flour (depends on how moist raw potato mesh will be, probably you'll need 1-2 tablespoons), salt and black pepper to taste and oil for frying. It's a very easy recipe, and if you love fried potatoes – it's a must.

Syrniki