No holiday table is complete without snacks. It is customary to serve them before serving the main courses in order to work up an even better appetite. There are many types of snack sandwiches that we prepare often. Canapés with sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, fish, cheese and other ingredients are best suited for appetizers. Sandwiches are a simple, but at the same time very satisfying dish.  Today we will talk to you about sandwiches with curd mass, with sprats and lemon, as well as with herring and pickled cucumbers - these are some of the most common snacks.And so, we will start with a version of hearty cheese sandwiches. A white sliced ​​loaf is best suited for this. Now take homemade cottage cheese and grind it well until smooth and then add softened butter, a few cloves of garlic, salt and pepper to taste. You can also add red sweet paprika for color. Grind everything together thoroughly again. Spread the finished cheese mixture onto slices of white loaf. The mass is very light and you can spread it on bread in a thick layer. Place chopped smoked sausage, a tomato slice, cucumber on top and sprinkle with finely chopped green onions on top.The second, but no less tasty recipe is sandwiches with sprats. This is a very simple snack, but everyone loves it. Such sandwiches on a baguette or loaf look very original. Take the baguette and cut it into oblique and not very thin slices. In a bowl, grind the softened butter with the addition of salt, ground black pepper and sprat oil. Mix everything thoroughly so that there are no lumps and spread on a baguette. We put fish and a slice of lemon on top, it will emphasize this amazing taste of sprats. Decorate the finished sandwich with a sprig of parsley.Canapés with herring and pickled cucumber are no less popular; this sandwich is very popular in Amsterdam. This simple sandwich is as good as other snacks and tastes fresh and full of flavor.  Pickled cucumber goes well and brings out the spicy taste of the fish. We make these canapés on Borodino bread or black baguette. Cut the bread into thin slices, grease with mayonnaise, lay out the herring fillet and a piece of pickled cucumber. Decorate the finished appetizer with finely chopped green onions....

We all love cutlets and cook them quite often, as they go great with any side dishes. They can be prepared with different types of meat and they still turn out very tasty. But today we will talk about fish cutlets, which are no less popular than meat cutlets, and are in no way inferior in taste to meat cutlets. Fish cutlets are also a dietary food, because fish does not contain as much fat as, for example, pork. Plus, fish is absorbed by the body much easier. To prepare the cutlets, we need boneless fish, that is, fillet. To improve the taste, we will choose two types of fish. One is lean, and the other is high in fat. From lean fish we will take the back of hake, and from fattier fish we will take perch fillet. For fish cutlets, we also need white bread soaked in milk, onions, chicken eggs, a little semolina, salt and pepper.First, we wash the fish and give it time for excess moisture to come out, remove the skin and cut into pieces. Grind fish, onions and squeezed bread in a meat grinder. Mix the minced meat, adding raw eggs, semolina, salt and ground black pepper. After mixing everything well, leave it aside for a few minutes so that the minced meat sticks together better.In the meantime, we are preparing a vegetable mixture with which we will transfer the cutlets. For this we need a lot of onions and carrots. We cut the onion into small cubes and grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Fry in vegetable oil until a light carrot mush forms. We will also need hot water, we will prepare it in advance by boiling about 300 ml of water. Now let's start forming the cutlets. They can be quite different shapes, this will not affect the taste. We make small balls from the minced meat and roll them in flour so that the cutlets keep their shape and do not fall apart when frying. Place the cutlets tightly in a heated frying pan with vegetable oil. Fry them for a very short time, 5-7 minutes on each side.This was the first step of preparing the cutlets, now the second. We will cook them in a cast iron pot because it is very well suited for this process. We put a pot on the stove and add a little butter, put a vegetable bed on it, and place the cutlets on it. Top each layer with stewed vegetables. Pour hot water with fish seasoning on top, add bay leaf and cover with a lid. Simmer the fish cutlets for a few more minutes over low heat, after which the cutlets will become very juicy....

Pea soup is one of the most satisfying first courses, because the main ingredient is peas, which contain a large amount of protein and vitamins. There are many options for preparing pea soup, but today we will tell you how to prepare this soup quickly and easily, all you need to do is follow our tips. The most delicious pea soup is made when it is cooked with meat broth. To prepare the broth, you can use any meat or smoked meat, but today we will prepare our soup using broth from pork ribs. Equally important in preparing soup is the correct selection of peas. We always use dried split peas. After pre-soaking it in cold water for 2-3 hours, or even overnight, the peas will cook very quickly. Now we start cooking the broth. To do this, we take good meat ribs, cut them into portions, remove excess fat from them and put them in a saucepan, fill them with cold water and put them on medium heat to cook.When the broth begins to boil, foam appears on it, we remove it all the time so that the broth is not cloudy, reduce the heat and add the soaked peas and cook for an hour and a half, stirring from time to time so that the peas do not stick to the bottom. We try, when the peas are almost soft, we add diced potatoes and cut the carrots into cubes, and we add a lot of them to this soup, since carrots emphasize the taste of peas. After 15-20 minutes, salt the soup to taste, add bay leaf and ground black pepper and cook for another 5-7 minutes. . And now the last step. Add a little vegetable oil to a heated frying pan and fry the onion in it. We give a lot of onion and fry it until golden brown, later we grate the carrots on a coarse grater and simmer everything together for 10-15 minutes. Now we combine everything together and cook for a few more minutes, add chopped herbs, cover with a lid and turn off the heat. Let the soup sit for about half an hour. During that time, it becomes even more rich and delicious. Place a rib and finely chopped greens on each plate. Croutons made from black bread go very well with this soup. They are prepared very simply, fry slices of black bread in a hot frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil, adding spices to them. You can use any spices: curry, suneli hops, paprika, dried garlic.     ...

It's no secret that dinner should be light. This rule should be remembered especially by those who watch their figure and their health. For dinner, it is best to eat lean poultry, fish, cottage cheese - foods that contain a large amount of protein. In order for this food to be better processed and absorbed by the body, it can be combined with light salads. In this article we will share with you two options for vitamin and healthy salads.The first salad that is perfect for both meat and fish is cabbage with tomatoes and mustard dressing. To prepare this simple salad we will need: Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, corn, onions, herbs: dill and parsley. First, let's prepare the cabbage for our salad. We very carefully wash the cabbage leaves and cut it into thin strips, the longer the more interesting the salad will look. We recommend marinating onions to make them softer. Salt and pepper the onion cut into half rings, add a pinch of sugar, vegetable oil and vinegar. We marinate the onions for about half an hour, this time will be enough for the onions to marinate and release their juice. Cut the tomatoes as you like, maybe into slices, maybe into squares.Parsley can be chopped coarsely, so the salad will look more original. When all the products are prepared, we begin to make the dressing. It is the dressing that gives the salad that interesting and refined taste. We make the dressing like this: mix mustard beans, vegetable oil, vinegar and a little lemon juice, soy sauce, a little salt and sugar, ground black pepper. Mix the dressing very thoroughly to obtain a jelly-like consistency. And the last step: mix all the previously prepared ingredients, add canned corn and dressing..The second salad is also very easy to prepare and no less healthy than the first. Our salad contains the following ingredients: lettuce, boiled chicken, cherry tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese. To prepare this salad, any lettuce leaves are suitable. It is very important to rinse the leaves well and place them on a paper towel to dry. Rinse the chicken meat and boil in salted water adding allspice and black pepper, bay leaf and curry seasoning. Boil the fillet for about 30 minutes so that it is juicy. Now you can start assembling the salad. Lettuce leaves can be cut into fairly large pieces. In a deep bowl, mix lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes and diced chicken.To make the salad aromatic, add a couple of basil leaves. Mix all ingredients, add salt and pepper, and pour olive oil. To add sourness to the salad, sprinkle it with lemon juice. Before serving, sprinkle the salad with grated cheese; hard mozzarella or parmesan are best here.....