“Golden on the outside, with walking juice inside”: in the regions of Russia they shared the tricks of shish kebabs

It can be said that Muscovites are less fortunate than others – if you don’t have your own dacha, then it will take a couple of hours to drive to pleasant suburban glades where you can fry shish kebab. There is the best option – gazebos in city parks, but they have recently become so popular that a new business has appeared in the city. Places in such gazebos are offered to be staked out at dawn … for money, of course. The minimum check is 500 rubles.

As for taste preferences, the sympathies of Muscovites are diverse – everyone prepares marinade for shish kebab to their own taste. In recent years, marinades with pomegranate have gained particular popularity – either in fresh pomegranate juice or in narsharab sauce. It is suitable for both pork and chicken. Mayonnaise and onion marinades have already been abandoned in the capital – gourmets say that these products clog the taste of any meat.

Muscovites are willing to experiment – they cook not only the classic pork neck kebab, but also grilled ribs (in foil), vegetarian dishes like cabbage steak, baked eggplant and sweet peppers. Someone even dares to fry steaks on the grill.

Khabarovsk

By the end of April, the Amur is free of ice, and river navigation opens on the first May weekend. And thousands of vacationers go to their sites. This year, many decided to return to the precepts of their ancestors and again began to plant potatoes in the plots. After shock work, the turn comes to the gazebo with barbecue.

The most popular barbecue meat is pork. The second most popular is chicken. But fish is rarely put on the grill. Expensive: 1 kg of chum salmon will cost a Khabarovsk citizen an average of 1,000 rubles, and salmon or trout – 1,500–1,800. But sausages or sausages remain a popular product for a picnic. Local producers produce them specifically for grilling, the price tag is quite humane – about 400 rubles per kilo (or you can get by with ordinary dairy products half the price).

Meat “on kebabs” is secondary – the ritual is important. From lighting a fire to serving, without fail with wild garlic, feathers of a fresh, only from the garden, green onion. After that, when the adults sit down at the table, the place at the half-cooled brazier will be taken by the children, frying pieces of bread, sausages and puffed marshmallows on twigs. Now is the time to talk about another trend. But already under the sign “18+”. Increasingly, instead of traditional drinks from the store, home-made drinks are served as accompaniment to barbecue: various tinctures and liqueurs, moonshine and home-brewed beer. It is pleasant to surprise friends and relatives with the taste of homemade horseradish, lingonberry on herbs or tangerines.

Krasnodar region

In the Kuban, by the May holidays, it is already peremptorily warm, and the weather beckons to add the aroma of barbecue to the smell of flowering trees. This smell spreads literally throughout all areas of the city, where there is at least some hint of nature. Shish kebabs are drawn primarily to the shores of the Kuban. It is impossible to swim in it due to the non-compliance of water with sanitary standards, but it always becomes a pleasant background for the event.

Not only unennobled places are popular, where a traditional dish is cooked the old fashioned way – on bricks stacked on top of each other or the so-called “disposable” barbecues. Gazebos organized by enterprising businessmen are also in demand. In every suburb of Krasnodar, there are enough houses for rent with saunas, swimming pools, verandas and equipped barbecue areas. A special delicacy is a trip to the real nature: the Lago-Naki plateau, Mezmay, the Eagle regiment, the Mostovsky district, hot springs, Papai, Pshada, Vedmina meadow. Local bikers also have their own barbecue tradition, who usually ride on concrete slabs above coastal waves.

Southern features have not been canceled. So, pickles, which are presented in abundance in local markets, may appear on the tables. Strong drinks can be eaten with pickled and salted green tomatoes, cucumbers, wild garlic, eggplant. Someone was not too lazy to pickle watermelons from last summer. And this is just that part of the diet, for which it is better to go to the market, pinch off something “for testing”, and then they will add a pinch of it “for the campaign” to the package.

Those who choose beer for the festive table, be sure to buy fish for the table. And first of all, of course, a ram (and don’t you dare confuse it with a roach)! She is loved and appreciated here. They meticulously choose, feel, sniff, look for transparent backs. And fish is loved not so much dried as dried. Such that in the process of cleaning the fat flows down to the elbows, and the meat itself literally melts in the mouth.

Regional flavor is also mixed in, in which Adygea plays its role, surrounded on all sides by the Krasnodar Territory. Therefore, there are noticeably more greens on the tables than in the middle lane: dill, parsley, cilantro, basil. Some changes may affect the marinade. Matsoni can be used instead of kefir. As a seasoning – Adyghe salt with spices. And with the finished dish, you can serve red Yalta onions – the result of another successful neighborhood for gourmets.

Kaliningrad

Usually, Kaliningraders go to the sea for the May holidays. This year, the authorities of Kaliningrad have allocated only two sites in the city where you can fry shish kebabs: on Pelavskoye and on the Blue Lakes. Owners of private houses can arrange May barbecues on their site, but only if the barbecues and braziers are located at least 5 meters from the buildings. In all other places, picnics with open fire are prohibited until at least May 31 – violators face a fine.

Finding a place is not as difficult as choosing a menu and the necessary inventory. With the beginning of spring, residents of the Kaliningrad region began to complain about a sharp rise in the price of some products that are traditionally taken for May picnics. Thus, the cost of tomatoes in one of the chain supermarkets reaches 500 rubles/kg, cucumbers – up to 200 rubles/kg. Retail representatives promise that this is a regular seasonal surge and it will end in a couple of weeks, but Kaliningraders will have to fork out for the holidays.

The main dish on barbecue is meat. In Kaliningrad, not only traditional kebabs are popular, but also German sausages, especially blood sausages. As for barbecue, lovers of original dishes may like mint marinade. Although this plant is not in season for flowering, it is already possible to cook barbecue with it – a bunch in the store costs only 119 rubles. You will also need pork, olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic and dry white wine. By mixing chopped herbs, salt, white pepper, garlic and oil, you get a marinade. Then add the diced meat there and add some wine. After that, the mixture should be infused overnight in the refrigerator.

Vacationers who do not want to bother with cooking themselves can buy a ready-made dish: kefir pork skewers will cost 369 rubles/kg, cranberry and lingonberry – 449 rubles/kg, and chicken breast – 349 rubles/kg.

Ivanovo

There are no mass gatherings in parks and squares of the city. Ivanovtsy are mostly individualists and generalists: they have time to dig up a garden and celebrate. Many plan to leave in advance. The necessary products – barbecue, coals, ignition fluid – are bought in advance, usually in hypermarkets at a discount. Many people prefer to marinate meat on their own. It turns out longer, about 30 percent or even 50 percent more expensive, but, as people are sure, it is tastier and safer due to the lack of a large amount of vinegar.

“It is important that the meat does not turn into a sole! And even a budget chicken needs to be “packed” so that the pieces are golden and crispy on the outside, but with walking juice inside, says Alexander, a shish kebab lover, from Ivanovo. We don’t make kebabs from lamb. In our region, this is generally unpopular meat, primarily because of its high cost. Compared to pork, the price tag is twice as high. And not everyone likes it.”

Ivanovets cooks shish kebab from pork neck, chicken fillet and deliciously “packs” chicken wings. He says that the sweetish taste is achieved by adding balsamic vinegar to the marinade. Fried meat must be covered with pita bread to keep juiciness.

Another local craftsman adds sparkling water, black pepper, salt, and green onions to the marinade. He does not like “porridge” from mayonnaise. “Otherwise, you won’t feel the taste of meat roasted at the stake,” the man explains. He puts ketchup on the table separately, along with fresh vegetables.

His friend lives in a private house. He often makes shish kebabs, mainly from pork neck. Moreover, each piece first beats well and fries them on a grill on a high leg, and only on very hot birch firewood. But his family loves fish. Therefore, the man bought a smokehouse, where he hangs the sea fish bought in the store upside down and after 40 minutes brings the finished dish to the table.

By the May holidays, the demand for ready-made kebabs is growing at times. Frequent buyers are young people. So, a 400-gram serving of pork or chicken kebab with 20 grams of onion and pita bread costs 400 rubles. Pork ribs – 530 rubles. Many use promotional positions: 1000 rubles for 800 grams of pork kebab, 400 grams of pork and beef kebab, baked potatoes and barbecue sauce.

Barnaul

The barbecue season begins in Barnaul with the snow melting and warm weather setting in. Peak reaches in May holidays. The most popular meat is pork. Next in descending order: chicken, beef, lamb. There is no lamb in the networks, only in the markets. Chain grocery stores lose in quality and popularity to specialized ones. If you take barbecue by weight in supermarkets, then it is better in the largest “hypers”, where there is a lot of traffic and goods are not stale. Some take it in the markets, some only from their specific sellers, and marinate at home.

Kebabs are fried in dachas, and sometimes in yards. Some new buildings have a barbecue area, but this is more of a recent trend. The common brazier works in the “fried and gone to your apartment” format, although some perceive it as a gazebo. They sit there for several hours, drinking, making noise, littering.

Another recent trend is dozens of “hostels” located near the local forest. The average check is 2000 rubles per hour. There are more budget options in the city – summer gazebos that cost 700 rubles per hour.

Kazan

This year, barbecue lovers were not lucky: a special fire safety regime operates on the territory of Tatarstan from April 17 to May 10. It was forbidden not only to kindle fires, burn grass and garbage, but also to use open fire for cooking, including barbecue on the grill. It’s a shame – because in general they like barbecue here. Even in the city center there are special barbecue areas where you can come with your products and cook barbecue by renting a barbecue, tables, benches and buying coal there.

Grilled meat is not a characteristic dish for Tatar cuisine. “Tatar shish kebab”, the recipes of which can be found on the Internet, has nothing to do with the Volga Tatars, this is a dish of the Crimean Tatar cuisine. Nevertheless, Tatarstan has its own barbecue chip. Often, when preparing meat for barbecue, a sour-milk drink – katyk is used as the basis for the marinade. By the way, it is quite possible to replace it with ryazhenka. This marinade is best for lamb, beef or pork. For a bird, it is better to use something else. The marinade recipe is simple: meat – 2 kg, katyk – 500 ml, spices to taste, 2 large onions. Marinate the meat for several hours.