How to cook fish soup:
1.) Take 600 grammes of perch, ruff or other small freshwater fish, clean it, but don't remove the scales, and wash it. Put it in a pot with cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Skim off the froth, add 20 grammes of parsley roots, 40 grammes of onion and 20 grammes of celery, and simmer for 40-50 minutes. Strain the slock.
2.)Add 8 peeled medium-sized potatoes, 2-3 onions and 4 pieces of a large fish, such as burbot, pike perch or sterlet, and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, skimming off the froth as it forms, but leaving the tiny globules of fat. Ten to fifteen minutes before the soup is cooked season with whole peppercorns and bay leaves.
3.)Before serving, put a piece of cooked fish and finely chopped parsley and dill in each plate.
Fish soup is traditionally served with rasstegai. These are little open pies with a filling; their name comes from the Russian word rasstyognuty meaning 'unfastened*. The filling can be made either from fish and rice, minced meat and eggs, or from mushrooms.
How to cook Rasstegai:
1.)First of all you need a yeast dough. When it is ready, divide il into small portions. Roll out these small balls of dough and place a spoonful of the stuffing in the centre. If you are using a fish stuffing, you may put small pieces of salmon or other cooked fish on the top.
2.)Pinch up the edges of the dough around the filling to make round or oval pies, leaving the centre uncovered.
3.) Put the rasstegai on a baking tray greased with butter and leave in a warm place for the dough to rise. As soon as they are ready, brush with egg yolk and bake in the oven.
For a fish stuffing, take 250 grammes of fresh-water fish fillets and bake in the oven or steam for 15-20 minutes. Chop the fish not too finely. Heat some flour with melted butter, and add the juice from the cooked fish and 100 grammes of finely chopped onion, and cook slowly for 10-15 minutes, until you have a sauce the consistency of thick sour cream. Mix the fish, cooked rice to taste, finely chopped parsley and dill, and pepper and salt with the sauce, and stuffing is ready.