Ukrainian dish banosh. Corn porridge banosh

Every Hutsul housewife knows how to cook banosh: graze a cow on an ecologically clean meadow, milk it, collect the cream, sift the corn grits and put it all in a cast iron pot on the stove, or even better, on the fire. If you don’t have all of the above at hand, don’t worry, banosh in the city, it works great at home too.

5 main rules of the Hutsul banosh

Banush, banosh, tokan - it is called differently in different parts of the Carpathians, it is by no means an everyday dish, but a Sunday or holiday dish. There is a simple explanation for this: it is cooked exclusively with cream, and not with milk, and to get 1 liter of cream (for 3-4 servings) you need 10 liters of fresh milk.

No flour! Only finely ground grains, since the total cooking time is no more than 30-35 minutes, and large fractions will not have time to cook during this time, and if you increase the cooking time, the dish will turn out too greasy and tough.

Metal tools inevitably spoil the taste of the food - during cooking, stir it vigorously with a wooden spoon or spatula.

You heard right, you need to stir Hutsul-style corn porridge for the entire 30 minutes while it is cooking, and this is necessary not only so that there are no lumps. The banosh recipe does not contain ready-made butter - it is formed during the heating of the cream and does not allow the cereal to stick to the walls of the cauldron.

You can cook tokan tasty, tender and with the right taste only in a cast iron cauldron over low heat. Of course, you can try to cook the Carpathian delicacy in modern technological dishes, but in this case it is impossible to guarantee a good result. Why? Because cast iron heats up slowly, but the heat in it is distributed evenly, it lasts a long time, and in order for the food to burn, you need to try hard.

3 main features of Banosh

It is called a ceremonial version of mamalyga - an everyday very cool corn brew popular in Western Ukraine and Moldova. In Georgia it is known as gomi, in Italy - as polenta, in Serbia - kachamak, in Turkey - mukhlama. A similar dish exists in very exotic countries like Antigua and Barbuda and is called ku-ku there, but the Hutsul version cannot be confused with anything:

Tokan is eaten only hot and never served chilled, like mamaliga or kachamak;

This is still porridge, which is eaten with a spoon, and not cut into slices, like polenta;

The concept of "banosh" includes a set of several dishes - the hot cereal base itself, fresh homemade cheese and guslyanka - a fermented milk drink that in the Carpathian region is called "Hutsul beer" for its anti-hangover qualities. In some regions or houses, all this is supplemented with cracklings.

How to cook guslyanka with your own hands

In the Hutsul region, if you suddenly run out of your own guslyanka, you take the starter for it from your neighbors, although sometimes you have to walk a couple of kilometers and climb a mountain to do this, but you can do it on your own.

Ingredients:

milk – 1 l
sour cream – 1 tbsp. l.

Boil homemade fresh milk, pour into a thick ceramic pot and leave to cool to 42 degrees Celsius. Next, add a spoonful of sour cream and, without stirring, leave in a warm place. Cover the neck with a clean cloth, not a lid, and wrap the vessel in something warm. After 12 hours put in the refrigerator, after 24 hours the drink is ready.

3 secrets of delicious banush

To get a real dish, the contents of the pot must be stirred in one direction.

In the Carpathians, it is also cooked with sour cream, but the taste will be much more sour and buttery, since cream is a whole milk product with a fat content of up to 35%, and sour cream is fermented milk, but higher in fat - up to 58%.

Previously, it was believed that the most delicious banush is obtained from men and only over an open fire, and this is the only statement, the veracity of which the author did not have time to verify personally.

Preparation:

time – 30-35 minutes

servings – 2-4

Ingredients:

cream – 500 ml

very finely ground corn flour - 1 tbsp.

salt – ½ tsp.

feta cheese - 200 g

Guslyanka (kefir, yogurt, Gerolact) – 500-700 ml

Sift the corn grits through a colander; set aside the remaining grains on the mesh. Repeat the operation. Pour the cream into the cauldron and bring almost to a boil. Add some salt. Pour the cereal into the cream in a thin stream and immediately stir with a wooden spoon. You remember, you should stir in one direction and quite intensively. Watch when droplets of oil appear on the surface, and the mixture begins to lag behind the walls of the cauldron - from this moment on, stir, even grind, it must be especially carefully so as not to burn, but after 3-5-7 minutes it will be ready.

Place the finished banosh on ceramic plates (and if you warm them up a little in advance, it will only be better), serve the cheese on a separate dish or wooden board, pour guslyanka or other fermented milk drink into cups and, if you want to make the table even richer, add cracklings.

This is how the favorite dish of the Hutsuls is prepared in Verkhovyna, the highest mountainous region of the Ukrainian Carpathians on the border with Romania. Enjoy your meal!

Banosh in Transcarpathian style is a dish of the peoples of Eastern Europe, which has been very popular for many years. Tasty, rich and nutritious food is perfect for the cold season, especially in our harsh climate. In this article we will tell you how to cook banosh with sour cream and reveal the intricacies of this wonderful dish, which has its roots deep in history.

Nutritious banosh: recipe with photo

Ingredients

Milk 400 milliliters Milk 100 grams Corn grits 200 grams Sour cream 500 milliliters Salt 1 pinch

• Number of servings: 4
• Cooking time: 20 minutes

Banosh in Transcarpathian style: ingredients

It has long been believed that only men should cook banosh. And the taste of this dish is truly masculine - juicy, rich! But times have changed, women can cook it too, and the resulting banosh is no less tasty. A little secret that will really change the taste of the finished dish is the use of exclusively homemade products.

Can you find homemade sour cream and milk or replace them with store-bought ones, but here’s what you need to make banosh, the recipe for which you will now learn with a photo:

Milk - 400 ml (choose the highest fat content).

Sour cream - 500 ml.

Very finely ground corn grits - 200 g.

Cheese cheese - 100 g.

Salt to taste.

Stock up on the necessary products and read about how to prepare banosh at home so that it turns out no less tasty than that of the indigenous inhabitants of Eastern Europe.

It is best to cook banosh over a fire, but if you are limited by your kitchen, then prepare a cauldron - it will give you the opportunity to change the taste of the finished dish.

How to cook banosh in Transcarpathian style?

So, let's start cooking, we guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised at how simply and quickly this culinary masterpiece is prepared:

Heat 50–80 ml of water in a cauldron and let it boil. Add sour cream and milk, mix thoroughly, but do not bring to a boil. It is enough to heat the mixture to 80 degrees.

Pour the cereal into the cauldron and add salt. Don't forget to stir the mixture constantly. The cauldron should be on medium heat.

When you see that the cereal is moving away from the walls, it means your banosh is ready! Pour the cereal onto a plate and place chopped cheese on top!

Banosh goes very well with cracklings, salted or soaked mushrooms, and herbs. If you want to simplify the cooking process, you can find a recipe for banosh in a slow cooker. It's not very different from the original, but it will save you time. However, we recommend that you cook the banosh over a fire; this is the only way you can experience the deep taste of this delicacy.

Do you know how to cook banosh in Transcarpathian style - corn porridge with sour cream? It's not that difficult, and the ingredients you need are simple and accessible, and you will need a little time... But what a great dish you will get in the end! Firstly, banosh is very beautiful and appetizing, even if you don’t want to eat, it will be quite difficult to resist trying the bright, sunny yellow banosh porridge.

Secondly, as I already said, banosh is prepared with sour cream, and therefore it turns out incredibly satisfying and nutritious. For a hearty breakfast - exactly what you need. And thirdly, corn porridge is very healthy, it contains a lot of vitamins and nutrients, it is even recommended for baby food because it does not cause allergies.

So, as you can see, the recipe for banosh with sour cream has a lot of advantages, so not trying it is simply a crime. Well, after trying banosh once, you will surely fall in love with it, like I did. So, how to prepare banosh at home - a step-by-step master class especially for you!

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 100 g fine corn grits;
• 200 g homemade sour cream;
• 150 ml water;
• 100 g feta cheese;
• 20 g butter;
• salt to taste.

How to cook Transcarpathian-style banosh at home:

To prepare banosh in Zakarpattia style, you need fine corn flour, the size of semolina. Larger grains will take much longer to cook, a completely different amount of water will be required to prepare them, and the resulting banosh will have a completely different taste and not such a bright color.

Pour water at room temperature into a thick-bottomed saucepan and add the cereal. Mix and put on fire.

Over medium heat, bring the contents to a boil, then reduce the heat to minimum (it’s good if you have a divider) and cook, stirring, for 10 - 12 minutes, until almost done. Since there is not enough water for such a quantity of cereal, be sure to stir all the time so that the porridge does not burn. By the end of cooking, the porridge will become too thick, but do not add water.

Add sour cream to the porridge and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste.

Place the pan with the porridge on the lowest heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring, until fully cooked. Droplets of fat appear on the finished porridge; it easily moves away from the walls of the pan. Place butter in the jar and mix. Leave in the pan, covered with a lid, for 10 minutes to allow the banosh to brew.

Grate the cheese on a medium grater. Serve the banosh hot, sprinkled with grated cheese.

With the indicated proportions of ingredients, the banosh turns out to be quite thick. If you want a thinner consistency, increase the amount of water to 175 ml.

Hutsul traditions attract ordinary people with their mysteries and secrets. One has only to remember the famous film by Sergei Parajanov “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, as images of the mountain Carpathians, clear springs, birch trembita and forest makos that hide among the trees and lure random travelers into their arms appear in our imagination. It is among this pristine beauty that people live who wear embroidered clothes, raise sheep and, of course, cook in a cauldron the traditional dish for this region - banosh. The smell of a fire certainly gives it a special charm. But if you prepare this dish at home, it will be no less tasty.

Secrets of Banosh

There is nothing complicated in preparing the dish. Banosh, the recipe for which was invented by the Hutsuls, is the soul of their cuisine. This peculiar porridge is cooked in milk, cream or sour cream. For Western Ukraine and nearby regions of Romania, the dish is everyday; it often appears on the tables of local residents. If you visit the Transcarpathian region, the historical homeland of banosh, you will be able to taste porridge not only in any restaurant, but also when visiting locals. The residents here are very welcoming and always welcome visiting tourists.

The dish is especially popular in the Rakhiv region. Every year a festival dedicated to banosh is held here, where you can try different variations of porridge. It used to be considered a poor man's dish. Almost all the locals raised sheep. And banosh was prepared when there was nothing edible left in the house except a handful of cereals and a couple of spoons of sour cream. Today, not a single chic feast or wedding in the Hutsul style is complete without this delicacy.

Subtleties of cooking

If you come to the Carpathians, you will find only men preparing this dish. “Porridge does not tolerate women’s hands,” the Hutsuls joke, mysteriously conjuring over a huge pot with a bubbling delicacy. The thing is that sheep farming is the traditional work of the stronger sex, therefore dishes associated with it automatically become the prerogative of the heads of families.

Banosh porridge, the recipe for which is sacredly kept in any Hutsul family, is imbued not only with smoke from the fire, but also with various legends. They say that they named it after the local Hutsul. A long time ago, Gazda Banosh lived in these places, known throughout the area for his love of work. After a hard day of work spent in the field, he came home, where his wife brought him a nutritious meal to restore strength and energy - corn porridge, seasoned with aromatic pieces of lard sizzling after the fire. At the same time she kept saying: “Eat, Banosh, eat.” This is where the name of the delicacy came from: it was immediately picked up by the locals and, spread throughout the area, it quickly took root in every Transcarpathian house.

Main Ingredients

If you want to pamper your household with a traditional Hutsul dish, then prepare banosh with milk. The recipe includes the following main components: 400 grams 100 gr. sheep cheese - feta cheese, 50 gr. smoked lard. The basis is usually sour cream and milk - 250 ml each, but instead of the latter you can safely use cream. The main thing is that they are not store-bought, but completely homemade, natural.

Corn flour must be sifted through a sieve. It is ideal if it is finely ground, in which case the porridge will turn out more homogeneous and tender. It is advisable to use not fresh sour cream: it is better if it sits in the refrigerator for two or three days beforehand. The Hutsuls kept it in a barn so that it would not go sour. We don’t have such a room, so in a pinch, a balcony will do, unless, of course, it’s +30ºС outside. By the way, banosh is seasoned with lard cracklings, but as a seasoning you can also use dill or paprika to taste.

Classic banosh

This dish includes all of the above ingredients, the proportions of which are designed for two people. A classic recipe is provided for cooking in cauldrons. According to it, Hutsul banosh is prepared with sour cream from sheep's milk. You can replace this component with cream: it will not spoil the taste, but, on the contrary, will add some zest to the dish.

Let's start with something simple. We dilute the sour cream with a small amount of water or vegetable broth, pour it into a cauldron and bring to a boil. Next, take corn flour: pour it into the cauldron in a small stream, constantly stirring the liquid so that it does not burn. Add salt and pepper to taste. The porridge is considered ready when it has reached a thick consistency and looks like semolina. After this, use a wooden spoon or ladle to place it in deep plates, sprinkle on top with feta cheese, previously finely crumbled, as well as cracklings - small pieces of lard, fried in a frying pan until crusty. You cannot mix the ingredients. The dish should be served hot.

Ingredients for banosh in a slow cooker

Unfortunately, we don't live in the mountains. For an ordinary city person, fires and kettles are available only in rare cases: during a hike or while relaxing in the village. Therefore, in order to prepare a tasty dish, modern people have to make some adjustments to the classic recipe. Banosh with feta cheese is delicious and, of course, very healthy. But it is not always possible to find it in city supermarkets and markets, so it can be replaced with the usual one: hard Russian or Dutch, as well as melted.

Based on this, we will need the following components:

• 600 gr. milk.
• 450 gr. homemade or purchased sour cream (20% fat).
• 450 gr. corn grits (about 3 multi-cups).
• 200-300 gr. feta cheese or other cheese.
• 100 gr. lard
• Butter and vegetable oil.
• Salt and pepper.

If for some reason you do not eat lard, you can replace it with mushrooms. They go perfectly with cheese and corn porridge. Using regular champignons, you can cook mushroom banosh. The recipe for cooking in a slow cooker will be slightly different from the classic version.

Basic recipe

Turn on the multicooker, setting it to the “Frying” mode. Pour a little vegetable oil (40-50 g) into the bowl. While it is heating up, finely chop the onion. It is not necessary to use it, but since we do not have a cauldron that gives the dish a specific taste, we try to add zest in another way. And the bow is perfect for this purpose.

Grate the cheese. We cut the champignons into slices. First add the onion to the boiling oil. After it acquires a golden hue, add mushrooms to it and saute them together. When the ingredients release their juice, transfer them to a separate bowl. Wash the multicooker bowl thoroughly and pour the cereal into it. Add milk, sour cream and spices. Select the “Buckwheat” mode and cook the porridge for 35 minutes. When the time is up, using the “Heating” function, simmer our banosh for 30-40 minutes. The recipe in a slow cooker is designed so that the porridge will end up crumbly and sufficiently boiled. Place it, hot and freshly prepared, on plates, grease with butter, sprinkle with cheese and place mushrooms and onions on top.

Other types of banosh in a slow cooker

Our imagination is the source of new variations of the dish. Don't be afraid to experiment to make banosh to your liking and in your own personal interpretation.

To prepare porridge, first you need to rinse it thoroughly under running water and pour it into a slow cooker. Pour a mixture of milk and sour cream on top of the cereal, adding sugar and salt to taste. By the way, if the device does not have the “Buckwheat” function, then you can cook porridge using other modes: “Milk porridge” or “Stewing”.

While the porridge cooks in a slow cooker for half an hour, fry onions and carrots in a frying pan, as well as diced brisket or minced meat. Place the meat filling on top of the porridge. By the way, women also often use cottage cheese. The product has those qualities that make banosh cooked in a slow cooker as healthy and nutritious as possible. The recipe with mushrooms and feta cheese makes it possible to prepare an amazingly tasty dish. But with cottage cheese, the porridge turns out no less appetizing.

Meet Banosh's "brother" - Tokan

Very often these two dishes are confused or considered that there is no difference between them. But this is a grave mistake. Banosh and Tokan are indeed very similar, but fundamental differences between them still exist. Firstly, tokan is cooked in water. A layer of porridge placed in a multicooker bowl is filled with water or light and cooked for 30-40 minutes. Due to the absence of a sour cream base, such a dish is lighter and less caloric.

Secondly, the filling in the tokan is not laid out on top, but between the layers of porridge. That is, part of the finished cereal is transferred to a dish, sprinkled with feta cheese, grated cheese or cottage cheese. Next comes another layer of porridge. Pour the remaining filling and some cracklings fried in a frying pan on top. There can be as many layers of tokan as you like, and the more there are, the tastier the dish turns out. Thirdly, the Banosh is a native of the Rakhiv region of Transcarpathia. The tokan recipe is more used by residents of the neighboring Tyachiv region of the same Ukrainian region.

Benefits of banosh

The main component of the dish is corn grits, which are rich in fiber. It perfectly cleanses the intestines, while preventing the development of putrefactive processes in the body. The selenium it contains protects against stress and slows down aging. Porridge is recommended for children and elderly people, as it contains a large amount of carotene and strengthens the immune system. It also does not cause allergies.

Banosh, the recipe for which is described above, is useful for people suffering from anemia. It contains vitamins E and B12. Pregnant women, who often suffer from a lack of folic acid, simply cannot do without porridge on the menu. It should be the basis of their diet. Banosh also contains magnesium, potassium and phosphorus - microelements that contribute to the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system.

But it is worth noting that with all the advantages of the dish, it also has a number of contraindications. Thus, banosh is very high in calories, so it is not recommended for people prone to obesity and those with high blood cholesterol levels. It is also prohibited for patients with problems with the gastrointestinal tract.