Mushroom and Cabbage Solyanka Baked under Cheese
“Solyanka” covers two different dishes in home cooking, and this is the one that isn’t a soup: cabbage braised down with mushrooms and baked under a crust of cheese and breadcrumbs. Its salty-sour signature comes from three things pulling together — a splash of vinegar, a chopped brined cucumber (a Polish- or Russian-style sour dill pickle, not a sweet gherkin), and tomato paste. The two teaspoons of sugar don’t sweeten it; they take the edge off.
Order of operations
The cabbage goes in first with butter and a little water, and the pickle and tomato paste only join it a quarter of an hour before the end. Acid slows down the softening of cabbage, so adding everything at once leaves you with firm shreds even after an hour. The mushrooms get 10-15 minutes in boiling water before frying, which draws out water and the bitterness that wild varieties in particular can carry.
That top layer is the real point. Mixing the grated cheese with breadcrumbs before scattering it lets the crumbs soak up the melting fat, so you get a sandy golden crust instead of a rubbery sheet of cheese. Dot it with butter, bake, and bring it to the table in the dish. Recipe from S. R. Tsarkova of Tambov.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 447 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Shred the cabbage, put it in a pot, add butter, a little water and vinegar, and stew until done.
Cut the pickled cucumber into strips and add it to the cabbage along with the tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper 15 minutes before the cabbage is done.
Rinse the mushrooms and put them into boiling water for 10–15 minutes.
Cut the mushrooms into strips and fry them together with the onion sliced into half-rings.
In a baking dish, spread half the stewed cabbage in an even layer, the mushrooms with onion on top, then another layer of cabbage.
Mix the grated cheese with the breadcrumbs, cover the top with this mixture, and sprinkle with butter.
Bake in the oven.
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