August is wonderfully rich in the gifts of nature and various holidays. Thus, on August 29, the last of the three important Orthodox holidays, popularly called the Saviors, is celebrated. The third Savior in the Orthodox church calendar is established in honor of the transfer of the Not-Made-by-Hands Image of the Lord from Edessa to Constantinople.
The people call this holiday the Nut, Bread or Linen Savior. The Nut Savior is preceded by the Assumption Fast, which lasts from August 14 (the First Savior or Poppy Savior) and ends on August 28 with the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is with the Assumption and the Third Savior that the end of the grain harvest is associated in the folk calendar. The Nut Savior is not marked by special festive events and bright traditions. In the morning, people visited the church, where they blessed the nuts, bread and grain of the new harvest, then went to the field and began preparing for sowing winter crops. However, in addition to this, bread was necessarily baked for the poor, pies with nuts and other gifts of summer were prepared and relatives and passers-by were treated to them.
Many folk signs and rituals are associated with the Bread Savior. For example, finding two joined nuts was considered great luck. Having found them, they were placed in a wallet with their left hand, believing that such a talisman would bring good luck and financial prosperity for the whole year.
Girls learned about their fate for the year ahead with the help of nuts. Having plucked the first nut, they tasted it and judged their fate by its taste. If the nut was tasty, ripe and slightly sweet, it promised great and strong love, while a bitter nut foreshadowed the infidelity of the beloved and a disagreement with him, an unripe nut indicated important news, and a rotten or moldy nut indicated great troubles.
It is believed that autumn begins with the arrival of the Third Savior and that signs predict what the winter will be like. For example, if August was stormy, autumn will be long and warm, and if not only swallows but also cranes fly away to the Savior, then winter this year will be early.
Folk wisdom says: "The third Savior provided bread, if the third Savior is good, there will be kvass in the winter."
As mentioned above, pies with nuts are prepared for the table on the feast of the Savior and are served to relatives, friends, and even ordinary passers-by. We suggest diversifying the festive menu with other interesting dishes with nuts, especially since the fast is already over and almost everyone can enjoy the delicacy.
Cheese and walnut cake
A delicate, airy, fragrant and incredibly delicious cake (although it would probably be more correct to call this dish a pie, but the person who shared this recipe with us claimed that it was a cake).
So, for cooking you will need the following ingredients :
for the dough : flour - 150 grams, butter - 110 grams, yolk from one egg and 60 grams of vanilla sugar;
for the filling: cheese (you can also use cream cheese) - 400 grams, chicken eggs - 4 pcs, sugar - 120 grams, vanillin or vanilla sugar - to taste, walnut kernels or peeled almonds - 50 grams.
Preparation: Finely chop the cold butter, add the flour, 1 egg yolk, sugar, vanilla and quickly knead the shortcrust pastry. It is best to put the container with the dough on ice when kneading the shortcrust pastry, so the butter will melt more slowly from the heat of your hand and as a result it will be much easier to get the right consistency.
Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it in the fridge to “rest” for a while. In the meantime, prepare the filling: for this, rub the cottage cheese through a sieve, add the yolks of 3 eggs, sugar, vanilla and chopped nuts to it (we recommend that you lightly toast the nuts before chopping them, so the taste will be richer and brighter). Mix everything well. Separately, beat the whites of 4 eggs into a strong foam. Then carefully fold the beaten whites into the cottage cheese mixture and mix everything again.
Roll out 2/3 of the dough and place in a previously greased or lined baking pan. Then spread the cheese-nut filling on the dough, and roll out the remaining dough into thin strips and form a net with them (as when making open pies).
Bake the cake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. When serving, you can sprinkle the cake with a small amount of chopped nuts.
Nut cookies
Cookies prepared according to this simple and quick recipe turn out to be amazingly tasty, fragrant and unlike any other known dessert. And children generally devour such treats with amazing speed.
Ingredients: nuts, you can choose any you like – 200 grams, powdered sugar – 150 grams, chicken eggs – 2 pcs, wheat flour 50 grams.
Preparation : Grind the walnut kernels using a meat grinder. Separately, grind the egg yolks with powdered sugar until white. Mix with the nut mass. Separately, beat the egg whites into stiff foam. Carefully add the whipped whites to the mixture of nuts and yolks, mix everything well. Add the flour, mix everything again. Roll out the finished dough into a "sausage" and cut into small cakes, up to 1 cm thick. Place the formed cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and cook in a preheated oven until golden brown. When serving, you can sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Pie with plums, nuts and pastry crumbs (streisel)
Juicy, spicy, light, wonderfully aromatic and no less delicious open pie with a filling of plums and nuts will delight both adults and children. Such a pie is not just a delicious addition to tea drinking, but also an excellent dessert for a festive table.
Ingredients:
for the dough: flour – 3 cups, sugar – ¾ cup, baking powder – 2 teaspoons, chilled butter, cut into pieces – 2/3 cup, a pinch of salt, chicken egg – 2 pcs, vanilla – 1 teaspoon, milk – 3 tablespoons, lemon zest – ½ teaspoon.
for the filling : pitted and halved plums – 5 cups, sugar – 1 cup, flour – 1/4 cup, cinnamon – 1 teaspoon, nutmeg – 1/2 teaspoon.
To make streusel crumbs: flour – 1/2 cup, sugar – ¼ cup, cinnamon – ½ teaspoon, salt – ¼ teaspoon, ground nuts – 1/3 cup, lemon zest – 1 teaspoon, butter – 3 tablespoons.
Preparation: In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder, add the finely chopped butter and grind everything into crumbs. It is important to do everything as quickly as possible, placing the bowl on ice to avoid excessive melting of the butter. Add the eggs, vanilla, milk and zest to the butter crumbs. Knead the dough. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Arrange the plum halves on top of the dough. Mix the remaining ingredients for the filling (flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg) together and sprinkle over the plums.
Next, prepare the pastry crumb or, as it is also called, streusel. To do this, mix the prepared sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, zest and ground nuts. Rub this mass with cubes of cold butter until small crumbs form and sprinkle over the filling.
Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Leave the finished cake to cool slightly and serve.
Salad with apple and nuts
We suggest you treat yourself and your loved ones to a juicy, delicious and savory salad based on apples and salad greens.
Ingredients: seasonal apples – 2-3 pcs (it is better to choose varieties with sourness and dense pulp), celery stalk – 1 pc, walnut kernel – 100 grams, salad greens – 100 grams, mayonnaise – ¼ cup, lemon ¼.
Preparation: Wash and peel the apples, remove the stem and core, then cut into small cubes. Cut the celery into the same pieces. Grind the walnut kernel a little. Combine the chopped ingredients and season with mayonnaise. Separately, sort through the salad greens, wash them and dry them. Then spread the greens on a plate, sprinkle with the juice of a quarter of a lemon, and spread the dressed salad of apple, celery and nuts on top. The salad ready to serve can be decorated with chopped nuts on top.
Fish stuffed with walnut filling
An incredible dish that will surprise even the most demanding connoisseurs of gastronomic wonders with its taste. The dish, like all ingenious, is very simple to prepare and you can use any fish for it. We chose carp to prepare this delicacy.
Ingredients : fresh fish 3-4 kilograms, walnut kernels – 300 grams, onions – 5-6 pcs, salt and ground pepper to taste.
Preparation : clean the fish, gut it, rinse it and dry it with a towel. Rub the prepared fish on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper and let it marinate for 20-30 minutes. While the fish is marinating, we will prepare the filling, for this we clean the onion and cut it into 4-6 pieces, and pass it through a meat grinder together with the walnut kernels. We lightly salt our filling. If you like a sour taste or you want to add piquancy to the dish, you can add a little pomegranate juice to the onion-walnut filling. We put the finished filling in the belly of the fish.
Next, we spread the fish on foil, previously greased with butter, and wrap the fish completely. This manipulation will help to cook the fish juicy and preserve all the aromas. We cook the fish in the oven at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for 50-60 minutes. After this time, we uncover the fish and send it to the oven for another 10 minutes to form an appetizing crust. You can also sprinkle the fish with grated hard cheese, then the taste of the dish will get light creamy notes.
Walnut kozinaki
We suggest you please your loved ones with another delicious dessert, familiar from childhood – nut kozinaki. This dish is prepared quickly, tastes incredible and, importantly, is absolutely safe (unless, of course, you are allergic to honey or nuts).
Ingredients: flower honey – 500 grams, sugar – 100 grams, peeled walnut kernels – 500 grams.
Preparation: chop the nuts with a knife, bring the honey and sugar to a boil and add the chopped nuts. Cook everything together over low heat for 15 minutes. Place the hot kozynak either on plates dipped in cold water or on a silicone baking mat, smooth it out and leave it to cool completely. Then carefully remove it from the mat or plate (it is better to warm the bottom of the plate, so the kozynak will be removed easier and faster) and cut it into small tiles.
Satsivi nut sauce
Everyone has heard about the delicious dishes of Georgian cuisine, nuts are often used in the preparation of these dishes. So on the occasion of the holiday, we suggest preparing the legendary satsivi sauce, which incredibly emphasizes the taste and tenderness of chicken or turkey. Having tried it once, you will not be able to forget it and this dish will definitely become a frequent guest on the table.
Ingredients: chicken broth – ½ liter, broth fat or butter – 100 grams, onion – 300 grams, walnut kernel – 200 grams, flour – 1 tablespoon, 6% wine vinegar – 100 grams, yolks from 5 eggs, garlic – 1 clove, salt, cinnamon, ground red pepper, cloves, nutmeg to taste.
Preparation: sauté the peeled and finely chopped onion in the fat left over from cooking the broth. Add the flour to the onion, stirring constantly, then add the hot chicken broth in a thin stream. Mix everything until smooth and cook for 10-15 minutes.
While the onion is stewing in the broth, grind the nuts with a clove of garlic. Season the nut paste with spices, add the egg yolks and wine vinegar. Mix everything well. Put the nut mass on a slow fire and begin to heat, gradually introducing the onion-flour mixture. Stirring constantly, boil the sauce for several minutes without bringing it to a boil. Remove from heat and let it infuse for a little. The finished sauce can be served with meat or as a separate appetizer.
Nutty pesto sauce with basil
Pesto sauce, which is based on lots of juicy greens, nuts, olive oil and hard cheese, comes from Italy, where it is used in the preparation of soups, pasta or lasagna. Pesto is also often used as an appetizer, it is spread on bruschetta or dipped in chips. Try this wonderful sauce.
For preparation, you will need the following ingredients : basil - 2 bunches, walnut kernels - 1.5 cups, hard Parmesan cheese (you can use any other similar cheese, such as "Dzhugas" or "Grana Podano"), garlic - 5 cloves, olive oil (if desired, you can also use odorless sunflower oil) - 4 tablespoons, lemon juice - 1 teaspoon, salt to taste.
Preparation: Roast the walnut kernels, cool and peel them. Then grind the nuts a little in a blender so that they do not turn into a paste. Separately, wash and dry the basil on a towel. Tear off the leaves from the basil (we will only use the leaves when cooking) and chop it with a knife, transfer it to a container, a saucepan or a deep bowl will do. Add grated cheese, chopped garlic and nuts to the chopped basil. Mix everything well, season with salt, lemon juice and olive oil. Transfer everything to a blender and grind to a smooth consistency. Place the finished sauce in jars and store in the refrigerator.
We would like to note that when preparing this sauce, it is better to use two types of basil: green and purple, so the taste will be richer and deeper. You can also add other aromatic herbs when preparing it: mint, cilantro, parsley.
Bon appetit!
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