Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, was very fond of national holidays. He once ordered: «Let everyone have a fun till one drops, serve tables and dance». Such was the custom. Ice slides, a troika*, khorovod**, dancing, fireworks and of course hospitable Russian table that no holiday went without. What do a vatrushka*** and the sun have in common? How did buckwheat appear in Rus'? What is a profiterole and where did vareniki**** come from to Russia? You will get to know all this watching our program as well as learn how to prepare traditional Russian holiday dishes. *Troika ("triplet" or "trio") is a traditional Russian harness driving combination, using three horses abreast. ** Khorovod is a Slavic art form, a combination of a circle dance and chorus singing. *** Vatrushka is a Eastern Europe pastry with a ring of dough and cottage cheese in the middle. ****Vareniki are a kind of stuffed dumpling associated with Ukrainian cuisine.   Recipe «Buckwheat and white mushroom dumplings in a fried salo sauce» Recipe «Profiterole with a cheese filling»   Recipe «Russian holiday sweet cheese danish»   Buckwheat and white mushroom dumplings in a fried salo sauce recipe serves 2 persons; preparation time ~ 30 minutes; cooking time ~ 15 minutes Ingredients: Ingredients for the pasta: 500 g. flour, 2 eggs. Ingredients for the filling: 200 g. buckwheat, 1 white onion, 150 g. white mushrooms, 100 g. salo, 1 tomato. Directions: Combine the eggs and flour to make the pasta and put it to the side. To make the filling, boil the buckwheat and chop and fry the onion until it’s golden brown along with the chopped white mushrooms. Mix these cooked vegetables with the buckwheat. Roll out the pasta into thin circles and put a scoop of the filling in the middle of each one. Pinch the edges of the circles together to form the dumplings. Cook them in boiling water with a pinch of salt for about 15 minutes. In order to make the sauce, but the salo into small pieces and fry it in a pan until crispy. Add in the chopped tomato and continue to cook the mixture a bit longer. Put the dumplings in a bowl with the sauce on top. Profiterole with a cheese filling recipe serves 5 persons; preparation time ~ 25 minutes; cooking time ~ 20 minutes Ingredients: 300 g. flour, 100 g. margarine, 3 eggs, 100 g. cheese, 20 g. mayonnaise, fresh green herbs. Directions: To make the profiterole pastries, boil a pot of water and add in salt and the margarine, which should be cut into pieces. Mix the water until the margarine melts and only then add in the flour. When the mixture has a uniform consistency and doesn’t stick to the bottom or the sides of the pan, crack in the eggs one by one and stir. Form the small pastries and put them on a baking sheet. Place them in the cooker to bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. In order to prevent the pastries from falling, let them sit in the closed cooker for 20 minutes after it has already been turned off. To make the filling, grate the cheese and then add in the mayonnaise and chopped fresh green herbs. Mix well. Slice the pastries (not all the way through) and put in the cheese filling. Russian holiday sweet cheese danish recipe serves 10 persons; preparation time ~ 30 minutes; cooking time ~ 35 minutes Ingredients: 1 kg. yeast dough, 300 g. cottage cheese, 100 g. raisins, 150 g. sugar, 250 g. dried apricots, 150 g. jam, 1 egg. Directions: To make the danishes, you will need the dough and 3 different fillings. To make the first filling, mix the cottage cheese, raisins and sugar together. To make the second, soak the dried apricots in warm water for 20 minutes. For the third, make a cowberry jam. Roll out the dough into a large oval. Don’t use all of it because you will need to roll out a small snake of dough by hand that you will put in the centre of the danish in the shape of a circle. Put the cottage cheese and raisin filling inside this circle. Pinch the outer edge of the circle to make a low wall that will keep the other 2 fillings inside. Put the other 2 fillings in the space between the inner circle and the outer edge of the pastry. Take any extra dough and make different shapes and designs to set on the pastry. Beat the egg and paint it over the danish, only painting the dough, not the filling. Put the pastry into the cooker to bake for 35 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius.