Barberry berries are not often used by Russian housewives in cooking. However, they can be used to prepare a wide variety of dishes: jams, jellies, fruit sauces, even as a component of meat dishes. Barberry has a rather bright taste and can diversify your usual menu.
Barberry jam
You will need:
- 250 g of barberry berries;
- 2 apples;
- 320 g of sugar;
- 1 tbsp. water.
Lemon juice can be added to the jam for an additional flavor.
Wash the barberry, put it in a saucepan, fill it with water and cook for half an hour. Then transfer the berries to a mixer and puree. Strain the puree and add sugar and peeled apples, cut into quarters, to the juice. Cook everything together for another hour. Pour the prepared mixture into sterilized jars.
Lamb meatballs with barberry
You will need:
- 400 g of lamb;
- 2 tbsp. barberry berries;
- 2 tbsp. boiled rice;
- 1 tbsp. flour;
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon;
- 1 egg;
- 100 g of natural yogurt;
- 1 lemon;
- 20 g butter;
- 1 tsp Sahara;
- 2 tbsp. olive oil;
- salt and freshly ground black pepper.
This recipe also works for mixed minced beef and pork meatballs.
Wash the barberry and soak it for half an hour in cold water, then dry the berries. Heat butter in a skillet, add barberry and sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Scroll the meat through a meat grinder. In a separate container, mix it with flour, rice, yogurt, break an egg there and add the juice of half a lemon. Stir the minced meat, salt and pepper, add cinnamon and barberry with sugar to it. Shape the minced meat into small balls. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and fry the balls in it for 5 minutes. Then add the juice of the remaining half of the lemon, 50 ml of water and cook for another 15 minutes. Serve the meatballs with the green salad and the sauce from the cooking.
Cookies with nuts and barberry
You will need:
- 2 eggs;
- 2 tbsp. water;
- 180 g butter;
- 2 tsp lemon juice;
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar;
- 180 g granulated sugar;
- 40 g brown sugar;
- 300 g flour;
- 1 tbsp. yeast;
- 120 g of chopped nuts;
- 110 dried barberries.
Combine flour, yeast, and nuts. Beat eggs with sugar, then add softened butter and lemon juice to them. Stir until smooth enough. Add flour with nuts to the mixture, and then barberry berries. Put the resulting dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours. After that, roll it out and cut a round cookie out of it. Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet, sprinkle with brown sugar, prick the dough in several places with a fork, then bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Serve ready-made biscuits with tea, coffee or hot wine.
