According to the ancient Ukrainian folk tradition, the Holy Supper on Christmas Eve gathers the whole family around the table. Probably everyone knows that 12 dishes are traditionally prepared for the Christmas table. According to Christian customs, they symbolize the 12 apostles. The first evening star announces to people about a great miracle - the birth of the Son of God! You can start the Holy Supper - light a candle, say a prayer.
On Christmas Eve, all dishes are prepared lean (according to the 40-day Christmas fast, which lasted from November 28), that is, without eggs, sour cream, milk and butter and, of course, without meat. But on Christmas Day itself (January 7), a big family dinner is already being prepared. The fast is over, so there can be a variety of meat dishes on the table: homemade sausage, roasted pig, goose or duck with apples, jellied meat, pork, as well as pancakes, fish in jelly, pies and cakes.
Although Holy Evening falls on the last day of the Christmas Lent, and all the dishes that housewives prepare for the holiday are songs, it is called a rich dinner, because the table on this evening is rich with 12 dishes.
A mandatory dish on the table is kutya - porridge made from wheat, barley or rice with honey and poppy seeds. Everything else, according to the clergy, is at the discretion of the owners.
We have prepared for you delicious recipes for dishes served on the Christmas table, which we hope will be enjoyed by the whole family.
Kutya
Ingredients: poppy seeds, walnuts, honey, raisins, water or compote.
Preparation. Boil the wheat until soft, but not mushy. Knead the poppy seeds. Meanwhile, chop the walnuts and steam the raisins. Mix everything, add a few spoons of honey and mix thoroughly. Pour the resulting kutia with a small amount of warm boiled water or uzvar.
Stewed fruit
Ingredients: dried fruit (apples, pears, plums, raisins), sugar or honey.
Preparation. Wash the dried fruits thoroughly and put them in boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. Add sugar or honey and bring to a boil. The finished brew should be infused in a cool place for several hours. You can add a little lemon juice for taste.
Vinaigrette with beans
Ingredients: beets – 1 pc., potatoes – 2-3 pcs., pickles – 2-3 pcs., beans – 150 g, onion – 1 pc.
Preparation. Cook beets and potatoes separately until cooked. Cool the cooked vegetables and cut into small cubes. Pour cold water over the beans, leave for a few hours or overnight. Boil until cooked and cool. Peel the cucumbers and cut into cubes. Finely chop the onion. Combine all the ingredients and season with vegetable oil. Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper to taste, mix well.
Lean borscht
Ingredients: potatoes – 2-3 pcs., onion – 1 pc., carrot – 1 pc., beetroot – 1 pc., white cabbage – 200 g., dried porcini mushrooms – 50 g., half a cup of beans, garlic cloves – 2 pcs., tomato paste – 2 tbsp., salt, pepper, bay leaf and other spices – to taste.
Preparation. Before cooking borscht, soak the beans in water overnight, and soak the dried mushrooms an hour before cooking. Pour water into a saucepan, add the wet beans, a pinch of salt, and a bay leaf, and bring to a boil. Cook the beans for half an hour. While the beans are cooking, prepare the vegetables: cut the onions, carrots, and beets into strips, and chop the garlic with a knife. Add the vegetables to the borscht and cook with the beans for about 15 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and diced potatoes. Bring the lean borscht to a boil and cook until the potatoes are done. Then add the tomato paste and stir. After five minutes, add the cabbage chopped into thin strips. Season with salt, pepper, and keep the borscht on the heat for another five minutes, then turn off the heat and let it steep.
Ears for borscht
Ingredients: wheat flour – 1 ½, a glass of water, salt – to taste. For the filling: dried or fresh mushrooms, onion, salt, vegetable oil.
Preparation. Knead the dough as for dumplings. For the filling, you need dried or fresh mushrooms. If the mushrooms are dried, then they need to be soaked in water and then boiled. If they are fresh, then just boil them. Lightly fry the onion. Finely chop the boiled mushrooms and add to the onion and fry a little. Roll the dough into small circles, put the mushroom filling and mold in the same way as dumplings are molded, and boil in salted water for 1 minute.
Stuffed cabbage rolls with rice and mushrooms
Ingredients: cabbage leaves – 10-15 pcs., half a cup of rice, carrot – 1 pc., onion – 1 pc., mushrooms – 300 g, salt, pepper, garlic and tomato paste - to taste.
Preparation. Boil the rice until half cooked and set aside. Rinse the cabbage leaves under cold water and dry with a clean towel. Lower the leaves into boiling water and boil for one minute. When removing the cabbage from the boiling water, immediately immerse the leaves in cold water. Add grated carrots and finely chopped mushrooms to the half-cooked rice. Then put the filling in the center of each cabbage leaf and wrap in envelopes. Put the cabbage rolls in a thick-walled saucepan, pour a glass of water, tomato paste, add chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Simmer the cabbage rolls until fully cooked, until the water boils away and the sauce thickens.
Baked salmon
Ingredients: salmon steaks, soy sauce, lemon juice, fish seasoning, fresh herbs.
Preparation. Brush the salmon steaks with soy sauce and sprinkle with fish seasoning. Place the fish in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and bake for half an hour. Sprinkle the finished salmon with lemon juice and garnish with fresh herbs. When the fish has cooled slightly, for a beautiful serving, you can transfer it to lettuce leaves.
Mushroom casserole
Ingredients: 10 champignons, 4 onions, half a cup of oil, 1 cup of breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation. Boil the mushrooms until tender and finely chop. Fry the onion in vegetable oil. Mix with breadcrumbs and add to the mushrooms. Level the mass, sprinkle with spices and add a couple of spoons of mushroom broth. Mix everything thoroughly. Sprinkle the baking dish with breadcrumbs, put the prepared mushrooms on them. Cover with foil and bake in the oven until cooked at 180 degrees.
Red cabbage salad
Ingredients: red cabbage - 200 g, small apple - 1 pc., walnuts or pine nuts - a handful, lemon juice - 1/2 pc., olive oil - 2 tbsp. l., salt, spices - to taste.
Preparation. Finely chop the red cabbage. Salt, sprinkle with lemon juice. Crush with your hands and leave for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the apple into thin strips or grate on a coarse grater. Sprinkle with lemon juice so that the apple does not darken. Chop the walnuts with a knife. Mix the cabbage, apple and nuts in a bowl. Dress the salad with olive oil.
Dumplings
Ingredients: flour, water.
Preparation. Pour the flour onto the countertop in a hill, make a depression inside and pour water in. Knead the dough first with a knife, and then with your hands so that it is elastic and soft, and does not stick to your hands or the countertop. One of the secrets that Ukrainian housewives used was that they kneaded the dough in potato broth (the water in which they boiled potatoes). The filling for Christmas dumplings can be anything: poppy seeds, potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, dried or fresh fruits, berries, beans, cereals, cottage cheese... as they say, turn on your imagination ;)
Pea pancakes
Ingredients: peas – 2 tbsp., semolina – 4 tbsp., oil – 2.5 tbsp., breadcrumbs – 3 tbsp., onion – 1 pc.
Preparation. Soak the peas overnight, boil and rub through a sieve. Mix with thick semolina porridge. Add the fried onion, pass through a meat grinder. Season with salt and pepper. Make cutlets, roll them in breadcrumbs and fry until golden brown. Before serving, pour warm oil over them.
Apples baked with honey and nuts
Ingredients: apple – 7 pcs., raisins – 190 g, honey – 7 tsp., nuts – 14 pcs., cinnamon with sugar – 7 tsp.
Preparation. Prick the apples with a fork all over. Rinse the raisins and leave for 30 minutes. Remove the core and some of the apple pulp, do this carefully so as not to pierce the apple all the way through. Put 1 teaspoon of honey, raisins and coarsely chopped nuts inside each apple - 2 nuts in each apple. Sprinkle with sugar mixed with cinnamon on top. Pour water into the form (approximately 1 cm) at the bottom, put the apples and put in the oven. Bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 30 minutes (depending on the variety of apples) and your taste.
When setting the table for Holy Evening, after sunset, they cover it with fresh hay or straw. A little grain is poured on top of the hay and the table is covered with a tablecloth, under which a clove of garlic is placed in each corner. It protects against evil forces and diseases. It is worth taking care that a "didukh" - a festive sheaf of wheat, rye or oats - stands in a place of honor in the house. "Didukh" from pre-Christian times symbolizes the spirits of ancestors. Therefore, after Holy Evening, kutya and some other dishes were not removed from the table, but left for the spirits of deceased ancestors, who, according to Ukrainian beliefs, also came to the Christmas kutya.
Enjoy your meal and happy holidays!
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