Christmas Eve is the long-awaited end of the Christmas fast. On January 6, it is customary not to eat anything until the very evening - until the appearance of the first star in the evening sky, which marks the birth of Jesus. There are many traditions associated with this day, which are certainly not limited to culinary ones.
Thus, the festive dinner began with a ritual act: a sheaf of ears of corn, called "didukh", was brought into the house. It consisted of wheat or rye and occupied a place of honor in the corner - in the corner with the icons.
The table was covered with hay and grain, and a kutya was placed in the center. Before the meal, a prayer was read and only then did they start eating. On Christmas Eve, 12 dishes were traditionally prepared, according to the number of apostles. We will share their recipes with you.
Kutya
Christmas kutia is made from a variety of cereals. The most popular are wheat, rice and millet. Although some housewives choose pearl barley, barley, oats and even peas. Some prepare a fresh, dense porridge with sugar, others - a liquid dish, generously seasoned with honey and dried fruits. There are a lot of recipes for kutia. In this regard, it is probably second only to bread and borscht. We tried to describe the most "traditional", in our opinion, recipe for this festive Christmas delicacy.
Ingredients
500 g of wheat groats, 300 g of poppy seeds, 400 g of nuts (any type or a mixture - walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, etc.), 300 g of dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, you can also use figs and dates), 150 g of honey, salt to taste.
Preparation
Rinse the groats thoroughly and soak in cold water for a couple of hours or overnight. After that, drain the water and rinse the wheat again, pour cold water and cook under the lid for two hours after boiling. If the water boils away, you can add boiling water during the cooking process. At the end of the process, the groats should be slightly salted. Already cooked wheat should be rinsed again.
Poppy seeds should be steamed with boiling water for 30 minutes and ground to a smooth paste. This can be done both in a traditional makitra using a makogon and in a modern blender. Some housewives grind the still dry poppy seeds in a coffee grinder and pour boiling water over the already ground mass. For fans of traditions, of course, the very first method is suitable, because, as experienced cooks claim, poppy seeds from a makitra are much tastier and more fragrant.
Dried fruits also need to be steamed in boiling water for 30 minutes and chopped. It is best to dry the nuts a little in a pan or in the oven beforehand to make them easier to peel and more aromatic, but this is not necessary. Whatever nuts you choose and how you prepare them, they should be chopped before adding to the kutia.
Mix all the ingredients, add a little salt, add honey to taste and mix. If you like a less thick dish, then pour a little uzvar or plain water into the kutia.
Stewed fruit
If kutya is considered the hostess of the Christmas feast, then uzvar is undoubtedly the host.
This drink was traditionally prepared in Ukraine for kuty. Uzvar is a compote made from dried fruits and berries in winter.
Dried pears, apples, plums, sometimes dried apricots, rose hips and hawthorn are present in the drink recipe for a reason. After all, these fruits are very rich in all kinds of vitamins and trace elements, which the body needs so much in winter, especially after observing the Christmas Orthodox fast. The listed fruits contain vitamins A, B, C, calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus and other useful substances.
When preparing uzvar, you can use two technologies. In the first, all the fruits are soaked in water for 4-8 hours, in which they are boiled. The second method is the usual one: all the ingredients are placed in water immediately before boiling. Regardless of which method you choose, the finished drink should be left to "rest" for infusing and cooling.
Ingredients
5 liters of water, 100 g of dried apples, 100 g of dried pears, 100 g of prunes, honey or sugar to taste. Additional, but not mandatory, ingredients are raisins, dried apricots, dried or frozen cherries, hawthorn, cranberries and rose hips.
Preparation
Dried fruit compote, which is cooked on Christmas Eve or for Orthodox holidays, is often called uzvar. The difference between these drinks does not seem so significant, but it is important to remember: when cooking compote, dried fruits are sorted by type and put into the oven for different times, depending on the cooking time, pears are added first, then apples after a while, then raisins, etc. Uzvar is cooked differently: dried fruits (of any type) are poured with water, allowed to swell well, and then boiled for 5-10 minutes all together, since dried fruits are thoroughly saturated with water, they cook quickly, as if ordinary compote from fresh fruits were being cooked. Both uzvar and compote should rest after being removed from the stove to become even more aromatic. Honey can be added instead of sugar.
Fish dumplings
Despite the fact that when talking about dumplings, most of us imagine a meat dish, they can also be made from fish.
Since you want to cook something festive and unusual for Christmas Eve, we recommend choosing red fish – salmon, pink salmon or trout. Although, you can cook dumplings with pike perch, pike, or catfish. Red fish is also an ideal option because it does not have small bones.
Ingredients for the dough
3 tbsp. flour, 1 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, 1 tsp. salt.
Ingredients for the filling
1 kg of fish, 2-3 onions, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, salt, spices, garlic – optional.
Preparation
Pour water into the prepared container, add salt, vegetable oil, and gradually add flour. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, then leave it for half an hour to "rest."
During this time, you can prepare the filling. For it, you will need minced fish. It can be made in a meat grinder, or you can simply chop it with a knife. The first option is better suited for bony fish, and the fish will have to be passed through a fine nozzle twice. But the second method is good for red fish.
When the preparatory processes are complete, proceed directly to the formation of dumplings. The dough should be rolled out very thinly and cut into small circles with a mold or glass. Spread the filling with a teaspoon and mold the dumplings. By the way, in addition to the usual and familiar shape, dumplings can be made in the form of fish. But, of course, then you will have to tinker.
If you used a whole fish, then from the spine, fins and head you can boil the broth, in which the dumplings will be cooked. If you used fillets, then you can boil the dumplings in plain salted water. 3-5 minutes after boiling and your dumplings will be ready. Before serving, you can sprinkle with chopped dill.
Vinaigrette with mushrooms
We suggest diversifying the familiar boiled vegetable salad with mushrooms.
By the way, there is one secret when preparing vinaigrette: to prevent the beets from "leaking" onto the other ingredients, you should chop them first and pour oil over them.
Ingredients
2 potatoes, 1 beetroot, 1 carrot, 200 g pickled mushrooms, 1 pickled cucumber, 1 onion, sunflower oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice to taste.
Preparation
Boil potatoes, carrots and beets in their skins, cool and peel. Cut into cubes of the same size. Also chop the pickled mushrooms, pickled cucumber and onion. Mix all the ingredients and season the salad with a dressing of vegetable oil with lemon juice. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste. By the way, vinaigrette is exactly the salad in which unrefined sunflower oil will look especially good - yellow and fragrant.
Vegetable rolls in pita bread
Dishes wrapped in pita bread have long been a favorite of our housewives. But, as a rule, these are cold snacks. Today we propose to make a slightly more complicated dish – a hot vegetable snack from the oven.
Ingredients
2 thin sheets of pita bread, 150 g of tomato paste, 300 g of fresh or frozen mushrooms, 1 zucchini, 2 tomatoes, 2 bell peppers, 300 g of green beans, 1 onion, 1 carrot, garlic to taste, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, spices, herbs, sugar, vinegar.
Preparation
Finely chop all the vegetables and sauté in vegetable oil. At the end of cooking, add salt, pepper, seasonings, herbs and chopped garlic. Cool the mixture, divide into two parts. Spread in an even layer on a sheet of pita bread, roll them up and cut into small pieces (approximately three centimeters each). Place vertically in a deep baking dish greased with oil. Prepare the sauce-filling in advance. To do this, dilute the tomato paste in 2.5 cups of water. Heat, add a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of 9% vinegar. Pour the laid out rolls with the sauce and place in an oven preheated to 180-200°C. There should be a lot of sauce, the pita bread absorbs the liquid well during cooking. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes.
Beetroot salad with prunes
This root vegetable has long been loved by housewives around the world. And while in the West it is customary to combine beets with cream cheese, cutting them into slices and cubes, in our country it is considered traditional to combine grated beets with nuts and prunes.
Ingredients
3 medium-sized beets, 100 g walnuts, 100-200 g pitted prunes, garlic, lemon juice, sunflower oil, salt, herbs (parsley).
Preparation
Most housewives boil beets for such salads. We suggest baking them in the oven or, as a last resort, in the microwave. This way, they retain their flavor and color and don't become watery.
The finished beets must be cooled and grated on a large or medium grater, as you like. It is better to lightly fry the chopped nuts a little so that the skin of the kernels is guaranteed not to be bitter. In addition, this way the walnuts will become fragrant. The prunes must be washed and steamed in boiling water for a few minutes. Then chop, add the garlic passed through a garlic press, and mix all the ingredients. If desired, you can add cinnamon, nutmeg and a little ground cloves to the salad. After lightly sprinkling the salad with lemon juice, season it with vegetable oil and garnish with chopped parsley.
Beans in tomato
A hearty and simple dish can diversify the Christmas table, and spicy tomato sauce can enhance the taste of stewed beans.
Ingredients
1 tbsp. beans, 1-2 carrots, tomato sauce, salt, sugar, spices, oil.
Preparation
It is best to soak the beans overnight the day before. In the morning, rinse them and boil them until tender (about 1 hour). Add salt 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking. Drain in a colander to drain all the liquid.
While the beans are cooking, you need to make the sauce. This recipe cooks very quickly. You will need tomato paste, water, salt, sugar and spices. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil, add the carrots and simmer for a few minutes until the carrots are soft. Then add the beans and sauce. Simmer everything together for a few more minutes.
Celery salad
Spicy celery is deservedly considered a real treasure trove of vitamins, which we need so much, especially in winter. Such a salad with apples and carrots will be a great addition to a hearty winter holiday menu.
Ingredients
1 celery root, 1 carrot, 1 apple, lemon juice, green onion, parsley, salt, sugar, vegetable oil.
Preparation
Peel and grate the celery root on a coarse grater, grate the carrots and apple in the same way. Sprinkle the salad with lemon juice to prevent it from darkening. Finely chop the onion and parsley, salt, add a pinch of sugar and season with oil. Incredibly simple, fast, tasty and healthy.
Assorted pickles
Many homes have vitamin jars of preserves stocked up for the winter. Ukrainian housewives like to salt and pickle various vegetables on their own, in this case a ready-made assortment, for example, of cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini, is suitable. You can also serve individual vegetables, adding, for example, peppers, sauerkraut and eggplants. If you don’t have anything like that in your house, today pickles can easily be found at any market or supermarket.
The song of the ravens
The appetizing golden dish that everyone knows can be completely lean. To do this, it is enough not to add eggs to the potato mass. And sour cream, which some housewives use to prevent the potatoes from darkening, can be replaced by sprinkling the mass with lemon juice.
Ingredients
8 potatoes, 1-2 tbsp flour, lemon juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg.
Preparation
Grate the potatoes on a fine grater. Or chop them in another way that is familiar to you – in a vegetable cutter, blender, etc. Add flour, salt, pepper, spices to the chopped potatoes and mix the mixture well.
Spread the mixture on a frying pan preheated with vegetable oil with a spoon and fry the dumplings on both sides until cooked.
Stewed cabbage
An everyday and familiar dish can decorate your table. You just need to use a little imagination and a secret ingredient in the form of caraway. This combination is traditional for Czech and Bavarian cuisines, but it is also quite suitable for the Ukrainian table on Christmas Eve.
Ingredients
1 head of cabbage, 2-3 large onions, cumin, oil for frying, paprika, 100-150 ml of water or vegetable broth, pepper and salt.
Preparation
Finely chop the cabbage into strips. Then finely dice the onion and sauté it. Add the cabbage and fry over high heat until slightly golden, sprinkle with a little paprika and simmer over low heat under the lid. Add 100-150 ml of water or vegetable broth, salt, add cumin, cover. At the end of stewing, mix everything well and lightly fry over high heat.
Cabbage rolls
The name of these buns is a bit misleading. After all, most of us have already seen the familiar pies with cabbage filling. These buns are special in that cabbage is added to the dough, and not as a filling.
In fact, these buns are just called cabbage buns, and you can make them with cabbage, pumpkin, carrots, raisins, dried apricots, and anything else you want. Today we're focusing on the cabbage version, which is a great addition to your Christmas Eve meal.
Ingredients
3 tbsp. flour, 1 tbsp. water, 30 g of fresh yeast (or the corresponding amount of dry yeast – 5-7 g), 0.5 tsp. salt, 1 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. raw shredded cabbage, 3-4 tbsp. vegetable oil.
Preparation
Using all the ingredients except the oil and cabbage, knead the dough. When it starts to "puff" under your hands, add half of the vegetable oil and the cabbage. Knead and set aside to rise for 1.5-2 hours.
Divide the finished dough into 20 parts, form small round buns, put them on a greased baking sheet to rise for 25 minutes. Grease the risen buns on the baking sheet with the second half of the sunflower oil. This will give the surface a little shine, because we do not use eggs in lean dishes. Bake the buns in the oven at a temperature of 200 C for 20-25 minutes.
If you don't like any of these dishes, you can replace it with a fruit plate, which will become the 12th dish of your festive table on Christmas Eve.
Happy Holidays to you and enjoy!
Christ is born!
Let us praise him!
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