YEKATERINBURG, May 6. /TASS/. When tourists ask Galina Togacheva-Grablevskaya, an expert at the Gornoknyazevsk ethnography complex, what locals on Yamal usually eat, she replies by saying - mostly what they have caught. She often welcomes guests with a treat of stroganina (sliced frozen fish).
A peak season on Yamal is on the Herder Day - it is the main holiday for the North’s indigenous peoples. Interestingly, it is only called a day, but in reality the festival travels across the Arctic region for two months: from late February to late April. TASS correspondent has tasted those days on Yamal.
Stroganina is number one
Stroganina is the icon of Yamal’s cuisine. How to cook it? Take frozen fish and slice it, Anatoly and Maria Terentyev, coming from Salekhard, told TASS.
"Make the slices very thin, so that they curl, and don’t forget the knife must be thin," they said. "Don’t cut out too hard, or the fish may break in the middle: begin cutting off the back, then move to the sides and the belly."
Serving matters. Stroganina may go with northern berries or cranberry sauce. It may be served on top a bowl of ice.
"Naturally, if you welcome guests, then put something tasty into the cups," the couple said. "Stroganina will taste great if served beautifully."
Stroganina is a regular dish for the locals, but not all guests are brave enough to taste it. However, Doctor of Medicine Andrey Lobanov assures nothing is harmful in it.
"Stroganina is primarily from the sig fish, which do not transmit parasitic diseases, even when uncooked they are digested rather well, unlike other products, and stroganina keeps you full for a long time," he told TASS. "You eat frozen fish - you are full for a long time, you are full of energy for work."
Minimum spices, maximum benefits
Traditional food helps the locals to get adjusted to the North’s complicated conditions, as both fish and venison are rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, the expert continued.
"The northern products have a unique balance of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, which, on one hand, make cells resistant to the local factors, to the extreme cold, and, on the other hand - gives energy to work well," the doctor of Medicine said. "Thus, if you do not eat those products, you cannot adjust well to the Arctic’s extreme conditions."
The food varies in seasons. The indigenous peoples usually do not make any stock. They eat what they have just caught. Nor do they use any additional ingredients, Rimma Tobolko from a nomadic family told TASS. Her family moves once or twice a year.
"We make fish soup - just take water, cut fish and add salt, nothing else," she said. "If you add more water later on, the fish will lose taste. Salt also changes its taste. Don’t boil fish for long - just 10-15 minutes, or the fish gets messy."
Cooking venison is absolutely similar. The ingredients are: water, deer meat, and salt.
Yamal-style dishes
Professional cooks at local restaurants make dishes differently. They want the traditional Yamal dishes be less surprising for guests. The Okhota (Hunting) Restaurant’s Managing Director Vasily Gundarev told TASS how it works.
"Take, for example, shurpa (soup) with deer. We cook it as a soup, which has potatoes, carrots, greens, spices, some beef, in addition to deer, while the indigenous peoples take only deer, potatoes, carrots, salt, and that’s it," he said. "Besides, they practically do not cut deer in pieces, they cook it with all the guts, and their shurpa gets a very dark color, while we cut the meat properly and boil it for about six hours."
Restaurants on Yamal trie to use products from Yamal. Thus, well-known dishes may gain a special local coloring. The Russian salad is not made here not with sausage, but with deer.
"The regular Nicoise salad is made with tuna fish, but our version is to make it with local fish - shchokur," he said.
How to cook venison
Yamal is attractive for tourists both from Russia and abroad: from Finland to Australia. In dishes, guests enjoy the serving no less than the taste.
"A very popular dish is roasted venison with cranberry sauce, which is served in a cast iron pan," the restaurant’s representative continued. "Cast iron retains heat for a long time, so when venison is decorated with freshly frozen cranberries, it begins to sizzle. Just imagine, we serve a dish with smoke and hiss at the same time."
The restaurant offers own dishes. For example, six years ago the chef began serving medium roast venison with tuna dressing.
"We don’t know whether it was the chef’s experiment, but now many other restaurants serve this dish," he said.
"We have participated in an experiment for a federal television channel - they wanted to show that deer may be used anywhere, even in sweet dishes," he said. "In fact, deer with chocolate has turned out very tasty."
Deer and fish, either raw or cooked, is what every visitor to Yamal should try. No matter where - in a tent or in a high-class restaurant. Without any doubt - nobody will remain indifferent.