Christmas menu: Russian cuisine. Nativity
If you carefully study the history of the holiday from the point of view of cooking, it turns out that the hostesses prepared two tables: lenten for Christmas Eve and plentifully fast for Christmas morning.
On Christmas night from January 6 to 7, a festive Divine Liturgy is celebrated. On the very day of the Christmas holiday, believers break their fast (they do not eat lean, but fast food). The twelve following days after Christmas are called holy days, or Christmas time. This is probably why, according to legend, there should be 12 dishes on the Christmas table. Some of them passed to the morning of January 7 from Christmas Eve - these are kutya and zvar. The rest, modest, dishes were waiting in the wings.
Christmas Eve: First Star
The holiday begins on the evening of January 6 - Christmas Eve comes. According to church rules and folk tradition, on this day they do not eat until the first star appears in the sky - in remembrance of the Bethlehem star, which showed the Magi the way to the place of the Nativity of Christ.They also say that Christmas is not celebrated alone - it is a family holiday. It was customary to gather either with parents, or with the whole large family at the eldest in the family. Before the first star, the hostess had to prepare several lenten obligatory Christmas dishes. The main items in this menu were kutya, or sochivo, and vzvar (uzvar).
Sochivo, or Kutya
An indispensable dish, without which neither Christmas nor Easter was celebrated in pre-revolutionary Russia. Christmas Eve - from Sochiva, or Kuteinik - from Kutia, as they called the day before Christmas. And all of it passed in anticipation of the miracle of birth. It was believed that the richer and tastier the sochivo, the more fruitful the next year would be.
The products from which kutya was prepared were endowed with special significance: grain was considered a symbol of resurrection to life, honey was a symbol of health and a prosperous (sweet) life, and poppy promised prosperity in the family.
Pre-revolutionary writer A.A. Korinfsky wrote: “In the evening, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Russian people who invariably adhere to the old pious customs do not break the fast: according to the Charter of the Church, only sochivo is allowed to eat at this time. Conversation - in the morning, after early mass; and until the morning, Filippovkas are still standing in Rus', going from November 15 (28) until the merry joyful Christmas time.
However, wheat was not always the basis of kutya. In the southern regions of Russia, rice was more often cooked. However, nuts, honey and dried fruits remained an unchanged part of the recipe.
Traditional Sochi Recipe
wheat grains - one glass,
poppy - 100 g,
peeled walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews - 100 g,
honey - 3 tablespoons,
dried fruits.
Grind the grains in a wooden mortar, adding a little warm water so that the wheat shell comes off. Then the kernel must be separated from the husk, sifted and washed. Boil loose lean porridge in water, adding 2-3 cups of water to the cereal.
Grind poppy seeds until poppy milk is obtained, add honey to it, mix and put in wheat porridge. At the very end, add crushed nuts and dried fruits steamed with boiling water.
Rice juice
rice - 1 cup,
raisins - 50 g,
prunes - 50 g,
dried apricots - 50 g,
almonds or walnuts - 50 g,
honey - three tablespoons
Rinse rice, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Drain in a colander and rinse again with cold water. Then pour 1.5 cups of cold water and cook until tender, without removing the lid. Steam dried fruits in hot water (15-20 minutes).
Cut prunes and dried apricots. Crush the almonds. If all the water has not boiled away, it should be drained, the rice should be cooled. Add dried fruits, honey and nuts to the rice.
blast
The second obligatory dish of the Christmas table. A broth was prepared from dried fruits, but honey was added instead of sugar. The most popular was apple broth with the addition of dried or soaked cranberries, lingonberries or raspberries.
In the south of Russia, smoked pear was always added to the drink. Mint, oregano, currant leaf, thyme and other fragrant herbs are often added. It is not necessary to boil the broth: it is enough to pour fruit with boiling water and leave to infuse. A thermos is perfect for this purpose. Often juicy is diluted with a boil and eaten in the form of liquid sweet porridge.
Lean pancakes
Christmas Eve was not complete without Lenten dishes. But if kutya and vzvar were obligatory, then pancakes, vinaigrette, cabbage rolls, fish pies, vegetable stews or porridges remained welcome guests on the last day of fasting. Among this menu, pancakes were common. They wonderfully complemented boiled fish or caviar, jam or honey. Only they were made without milk and butter. For example, on potato broth or mineral water.
The vinaigrette
Lenten vinaigrette or with herring was served very often on Christmas Eve. The recipe is simple, but the dish turns out tasty and inexpensive, which made it possible to cook it in poor families. And in the houses of the wealthy, sturgeon or white fish could be added to the Christmas vinaigrette.
Christmas goose with sauerkraut
When the night passes and after the service the family returns to the house, the long-awaited Christmas holiday comes. Lent is over, and meat dishes, milk and butter pies, oily fish and sumptuous desserts appear on the table.
It was believed that a baked goose (or other bird) and pork dishes should be an indispensable attribute of the Christmas meal. Of course, on the eve of Christmas, millions of geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens were brought to the country's bazaars.
“Christmas in Moscow felt a long time ago - a cheerful, business hustle. They just started talking in Filippovka, on November 14, for the Christmas post, and already at the freight stations, especially in Rogozhskaya, the geese cackle day and night - “goose trains”, to Germany: before it was, before the glaciers-wagons, live cargo. Believe it or not - hundreds of trains! A goose walked through Moscow - from Kozlov, Tambov, Kursk, Saratov, Samara ... I don’t remember Poltava, Poland, Lithuania, Volyn: the paths from there are different. And duck, and chicken, and turkey, and black grouse ... capercaillie and hazel grouse, bacon-brisket, and ... - what the soul only requires for Christmas, ”wrote Ivan Shmelev.
little goose,
cabbage - 800 g,
bulbs - 4 pcs.,
cumin - 0.5 tbsp.,
salt,
oil.
If the carcass is frozen, let the goose lie down in the refrigerator for a day. Then wash the goose, rub it inside and out with salt and cumin. If possible, you can boil the goose in red wine - whole, about 40 minutes. Wine will give the bird softness.
Stew sauerkraut with oil and onions in a saucepan, covered. Stuff the goose with this cabbage and fry on a baking sheet, pouring a little broth on it and pouring it over the goose. Then goose fat will be melted - you will water it.
Cold pig with horseradish
Pig on the table
No less traditional product on the Christmas table was pork. According to legend, when Jesus was born, in the manger all the animals joyfully met the divine baby - except for the pig. She grunted annoyingly and prevented the baby from sleeping. That is why, as a punishment, the pig became an indispensable dish of the Christmas table.
Even during Lent, they began to bring to the capitals, to central fairs, whole carts with pork - there were huge carcasses, and barrels of corned beef, and suckling pigs. “Bad, bad, but two or three carcasses of pigs are necessary, and black piglets, fry with porridge, three dozen, and white ones, for aspic, moloshnichki, two dozen, so that there is enough for plots,” Ivan Shmelev wrote in “The Lord’s Summer”.
Many dishes were prepared from pork, but in every wealthy house the table was decorated with a suckling pig with porridge or cold with horseradish.
The recipe from Ekaterina Avdeeva's book "The Manual Book of a Russian Experienced Housewife" is simple: cook the whole pig in salt water with fragrant herbs - thyme, dill - and onions. Then cut into pieces and pour horseradish with sour cream. Serve cold.
Pork belly stuffed with cabbage and apples
In the old days, porridge was served with pork legs, but you can make pork belly with cabbage and apples for buckwheat porridge. It will turn out very juicy.
pork belly - 800 g,
cabbage - 400 g,
apples - 5 pcs.,
butter - 1 tbsp,
bulb - 1 pc.,
salt and pepper.
Chop fresh cabbage, salt, squeeze. Add finely chopped sour apples, oil to the cabbage, mix. Wash the pork belly, chop the bones in several places, cut a large hole between the bones and meat with a knife.
Put the prepared minced meat there, sew it up, place it on a frying pan or baking sheet, sprinkle with finely chopped onions, add 3 tablespoons of water and fry in an oven heated to 200 ° C until cooked. Serve with crumbly buckwheat porridge.
Jellied pig and rooster
Rinse the knuckle and legs of the piglet well and cut into pieces. Put in a saucepan, pour cold water so that it covers the meat by a few centimeters, boil and remove the foam. After an hour, add the carcass of the rooster.
Boil aspic over very low heat for 6-8 hours, so that the water boils away to half the volume. 20 minutes before the end of cooking, add bay leaf, peppercorns and salt to taste to the broth. Remove the meat from the broth, separate from the bones and cut into pieces. Strain the broth. Pour chopped garlic on the bottom of the dish, put the meat, pour the broth, mix gently with a spoon and refrigerate until it hardens.
Rye pie with fish
For test:
rye flour - 1 cup,
wheat flour - 1 cup,
milk - 1 glass,
dry yeast - 1 tsp,
sugar - 2 tsp,
salt - 1 tsp,
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.
For filling:
pikeperch fillet - 500 g,
mussels, peeled - 200 g,
onion - 1 pc.,
carrots - 1 pc.,
pickled cucumber brine - 500 ml,
vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons,
dill - 1 bunch,
salt and white pepper to taste.
We knead the dough, for which 1 tsp. dry yeast pour 5 tsp. warm water, let stand for swelling for 10-15 minutes. Sift wheat and rye flour, pour in vegetable oil, milk at room temperature, add sugar and salt, add yeast, knead.
Let the dough rise in a warm place. The dough should rise twice and be folded twice. We divide it into 2 parts.
For the filling in cucumber brine, boil the mussels and fish, put them in a colander. Peel and finely chop the onion and carrot. In a frying pan, fry vegetables with fish and mussels. Let's salt and pepper. Turn off, add chopped dill. Form a cake in a baking sheet, brush the top with egg yolk and bake for 50 minutes at 170°C.
ginger pie
butter - 100 g + another piece for lubrication,
dark unrefined cane sugar - 100 g,
flour with baking powder - 175 g,
ground ginger - 4 tsp,
light molasses - 175 g,
ginger wine - 3 tablespoons,
eggs of any size, can be beaten - 2 pcs.,
finely grated fresh ginger the size of a hazelnut
finely chopped canned ginger - 150 g,
powdered sugar - 75 g,
ginger root for decoration - 1 pc.
Preheat oven to 160°C, grease a 23 cm baking dish. Beat butter and sugar with a pinch of salt until the mixture is fluffy. Sift flour and ground ginger together.
Pour in light molasses (for convenience, use a spoon pre-lubricated with oil and a silicone kitchen spatula), 1 tbsp. wine and mix everything together. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then gradually add the flour.
Mix everything with fresh and canned ginger. Spoon the resulting mixture into a baking dish. Level the surface and bake for about 50-60 minutes, until the dough sticks to the surface of a wooden skewer placed in the middle of the pie. Leave the cake to cool in the mold. After the cake has completely cooled, make the frosting by mixing the powdered sugar and the remaining ginger wine and drizzle over the top of the cake. Cut the ginger root into thin pieces and decorate the cake.
Russian custard soufflé
any berries - 500 g,
water - ½ cup,
sugar - 2 cups,
egg whites - 5 pcs.
Make a puree from the berries, add water and boil. Add sugar (about the same amount as the puree). Beat egg whites into stiff foam. Add to puree. Put the puree in baking dishes, put for 30 minutes in an oven heated to 170 degrees.
If you carefully study the history of the holiday from the point of view of cooking, it turns out that the hostesses prepared two tables: lenten for Christmas Eve and plentifully fast for Christmas morning.
On Christmas night from January 6 to 7, a festive Divine Liturgy is celebrated. On the very day of the Christmas holiday, believers break their fast (they do not eat lean, but fast food). The twelve following days after Christmas are called holy days, or Christmas time. This is probably why, according to legend, there should be 12 dishes on the Christmas table. Some of them passed to the morning of January 7 from Christmas Eve - these are kutya and zvar. The rest, modest, dishes were waiting in the wings.
Christmas Eve: First Star
The holiday begins on the evening of January 6 - Christmas Eve comes. According to church rules and folk tradition, on this day they do not eat until the first star appears in the sky - in remembrance of the Bethlehem star, which showed the Magi the way to the place of the Nativity of Christ.
They also say that Christmas is not celebrated alone - it is a family holiday. It was customary to gather either with parents, or with the whole large family at the eldest in the family. Before the first star, the hostess had to prepare several lenten obligatory Christmas dishes. The main items in this menu were kutya, or sochivo, and vzvar (uzvar).
Sochivo, or Kutya
An indispensable dish, without which neither Christmas nor Easter was celebrated in pre-revolutionary Russia. Christmas Eve - from Sochiva, or Kuteinik - from Kutia, as they called the day before Christmas. And all of it passed in anticipation of the miracle of birth. It was believed that the richer and tastier the sochivo, the more fruitful the next year would be.
The products from which kutya was prepared were endowed with special significance: grain was considered a symbol of resurrection to life, honey was a symbol of health and a prosperous (sweet) life, and poppy promised prosperity in the family.
Pre-revolutionary writer A.A. Korinfsky wrote: “In the evening, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Russian people who invariably adhere to the old pious customs do not break the fast: according to the Church Charter, only sochivo is allowed to eat at this time. coming from November 15 (28) until the cheerful joyful Christmas time.
However, wheat was not always the basis of kutya. In the southern regions of Russia, rice was more often cooked. However, nuts, honey and dried fruits remained an unchanged part of the recipe.
Traditional Sochi Recipe
wheat grains - one glass,
poppy - 100 g,
peeled walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews - 100 g,
honey - 3 tablespoons,
dried fruits.
Grind the grains in a wooden mortar, adding a little warm water so that the wheat shell comes off. Then the kernel must be separated from the husk, sifted and washed. Boil loose lean porridge in water, adding 2-3 cups of water to the cereal.
Grind poppy seeds until poppy milk is obtained, add honey to it, mix and put in wheat porridge. At the very end, add crushed nuts and dried fruits steamed with boiling water.
Rice juice
rice - 1 cup,
raisins - 50 g,
prunes - 50 g,
dried apricots - 50 g,
almonds or walnuts - 50 g,
honey - three tablespoons
Rinse rice, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Drain in a colander and rinse again with cold water. Then pour 1.5 cups of cold water and cook until tender, without removing the lid. Steam dried fruits in hot water (15-20 minutes).
Cut prunes and dried apricots. Crush the almonds. If all the water has not boiled away, it should be drained, the rice should be cooled. Add dried fruits, honey and nuts to the rice.
blast
The second obligatory dish of the Christmas table. A broth was prepared from dried fruits, but honey was added instead of sugar. The most popular was apple broth with the addition of dried or soaked cranberries, lingonberries or raspberries.
In the south of Russia, smoked pear was always added to the drink. Mint, oregano, currant leaf, thyme and other fragrant herbs are often added. It is not necessary to boil the broth: it is enough to pour fruit with boiling water and leave to infuse. A thermos is perfect for this purpose. Often juicy is diluted with a boil and eaten in the form of liquid sweet porridge.
Lean pancakes
Christmas Eve was not complete without Lenten dishes. But if kutya and vzvar were obligatory, then pancakes, vinaigrette, cabbage rolls, fish pies, vegetable stews or porridges remained welcome guests on the last day of fasting. Among this menu, pancakes were common. They wonderfully complemented boiled fish or caviar, jam or honey. Only they were made without milk and butter. For example, on potato broth or mineral water.
The vinaigrette
Lenten vinaigrette or with herring was served very often on Christmas Eve. The recipe is simple, but the dish turns out tasty and inexpensive, which made it possible to cook it in poor families. And in the houses of the wealthy, sturgeon or white fish could be added to the Christmas vinaigrette.
Christmas goose with sauerkraut
Christmas: a plentiful break
When the night passes and after the service the family returns to the house, the long-awaited Christmas holiday comes. Lent is over, and meat dishes, milk and butter pies, oily fish and sumptuous desserts appear on the table.
It was believed that a baked goose (or other bird) and pork dishes should be an indispensable attribute of the Christmas meal. Of course, on the eve of Christmas, millions of geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens were brought to the country's bazaars.
"Christmas in Moscow was felt for a long time - a cheerful, business hustle. They just started talking in Filippovka, on November 14, for the Christmas post, and at the freight stations, especially in Rogozhskaya, geese cackle day and night - "goose trains", to Germany: before it was, to the glaciers-wagons, a live load. Do not believe it - hundreds of trains! A goose went through Moscow - from Kozlov, Tambov, Kursk, Saratov, Samara ... I don’t remember Poltava, Poland, Lithuania, Volyn: the paths from there are different. And the duck , and a chicken, and a turkey, and a black grouse ... capercaillie and hazel grouse, bacon-brisket, and ... - what the soul only requires for Christmas, "wrote Ivan Shmelev.
little goose,
cabbage - 800 g,
bulbs - 4 pcs.,
cumin - 0.5 tbsp.,
salt,
oil.
If the carcass is frozen, let the goose lie down in the refrigerator for a day. Then wash the goose, rub it inside and out with salt and cumin. If possible, you can boil the goose in red wine - whole, about 40 minutes. Wine will give the bird softness.
Stew sauerkraut with oil and onions in a saucepan, covered. Stuff the goose with this cabbage and fry on a baking sheet, pouring a little broth on it and pouring it over the goose. Then goose fat will be melted - you will water it.
Cold pig with horseradish
Pig on the table
No less traditional product on the Christmas table was pork. According to legend, when Jesus was born, in the manger all the animals joyfully met the divine baby - except for the pig. She grunted annoyingly and prevented the baby from sleeping. That is why, as a punishment, the pig became an indispensable dish of the Christmas table.
Even during Lent, they began to bring to the capitals, to central fairs, whole carts with pork - there were huge carcasses, and barrels of corned beef, and suckling pigs. “Bad, bad, but two or three carcasses of pork are necessary, and black pigs, fry with porridge, three dozen, and white pigs, for aspic, moloshnichki, two dozen, so that there is enough for plots,” wrote Ivan Shmelev in “The Summer of the Lord”.
Many dishes were prepared from pork, but in every wealthy house the table was decorated with a suckling pig with porridge or cold with horseradish.
The recipe from Ekaterina Avdeeva's book "The Manual Book of a Russian Experienced Housewife" is simple: boil a piglet entirely in salt water with fragrant herbs - thyme, dill - and onions. Then cut into pieces and pour horseradish with sour cream. Serve cold.
Pork belly stuffed with cabbage and apples
In the old days, porridge was served with pork legs, but you can make pork belly with cabbage and apples for buckwheat porridge. It will turn out very juicy.
Pork belly - 800 g,
cabbage - 400 g,
apples - 5 pcs.,
butter - 1 tbsp,
bulb - 1 pc.,
salt and pepper.
Chop fresh cabbage, salt, squeeze. Add finely chopped sour apples, oil to the cabbage, mix. Wash the pork belly, chop the bones in several places, cut a large hole between the bones and meat with a knife.
Put the prepared minced meat there, sew it up, place it on a frying pan or baking sheet, sprinkle with finely chopped onions, add 3 tablespoons of water and fry in an oven heated to 200 ° C until cooked. Serve with crumbly buckwheat porridge.
Jellied pig and rooster
Rinse the knuckle and legs of the piglet well and cut into pieces. Put in a saucepan, pour cold water so that it covers the meat by a few centimeters, boil and remove the foam. After an hour, add the carcass of the rooster.
Boil aspic over very low heat for 6-8 hours, so that the water boils away to half the volume. 20 minutes before the end of cooking, add bay leaf, peppercorns and salt to taste to the broth. Remove the meat from the broth, separate from the bones and cut into pieces. Strain the broth. Pour chopped garlic on the bottom of the dish, put the meat, pour the broth, mix gently with a spoon and refrigerate until it hardens.
Rye pie with fish
For test:
rye flour - 1 cup,
wheat flour - 1 cup,
milk - 1 glass,
dry yeast - 1 tsp,
sugar - 2 tsp,
salt - 1 tsp,
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.
For filling:
pikeperch fillet - 500 g,
mussels, peeled - 200 g,
onion - 1 pc.,
carrots - 1 pc.,
pickled cucumber brine - 500 ml,
vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons,
dill - 1 bunch,
salt and white pepper to taste.
We knead the dough, for which 1 tsp. dry yeast pour 5 tsp. warm water, let stand for swelling for 10-15 minutes. Sift wheat and rye flour, pour in vegetable oil, milk at room temperature, add sugar and salt, add yeast, knead.
Let the dough rise in a warm place. The dough should rise twice and be folded twice. We divide it into 2 parts.
For the filling in cucumber brine, boil the mussels and fish, put them in a colander. Peel and finely chop the onion and carrot. In a frying pan, fry vegetables with fish and mussels. Let's salt and pepper. Turn off, add chopped dill. Form a cake in a baking sheet, brush the top with egg yolk and bake for 50 minutes at 170°C.
ginger pie
butter - 100 g + another piece for lubrication,
dark unrefined cane sugar - 100 g,
flour with baking powder - 175 g,
ground ginger - 4 tsp,
light molasses - 175 g,
ginger wine - 3 tablespoons,
eggs of any size, can be beaten - 2 pcs.,
finely grated fresh ginger the size of a hazelnut
finely chopped canned ginger - 150 g,
powdered sugar - 75 g,
ginger root for decoration - 1 pc.
Preheat oven to 160°C, grease a 23 cm baking dish. Beat butter and sugar with a pinch of salt until the mixture is fluffy. Sift flour and ground ginger together.
Pour in light molasses (for convenience, use a spoon pre-lubricated with oil and a silicone kitchen spatula), 1 tbsp. wine and mix everything together. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then gradually add the flour.
Mix everything with fresh and canned ginger. Spoon the resulting mixture into a baking dish. Level the surface and bake for about 50-60 minutes, until the dough sticks to the surface of a wooden skewer placed in the middle of the pie. Leave the cake to cool in the mold. After the cake has completely cooled, make the frosting by mixing the powdered sugar and the remaining ginger wine and drizzle over the top of the cake. Cut the ginger root into thin pieces and decorate the cake.
Russian custard soufflé
any berries - 500 g,
water - ½ cup,
sugar - 2 cups,
egg whites - 5 pcs.
Make a puree from the berries, add water and boil. Add sugar (about the same amount as the puree). Beat egg whites into stiff foam. Add to puree. Put the puree in baking dishes, put for 30 minutes in an oven heated to 170 degrees.
Bon appetit!
It would seem that you can relax: they turned out the New Year guests, washed the dishes after them, slept, and the rest of the weekend can be devoted to rest. But it was not there: Christmas is already on the threshold, and it seems that it also requires proper attention from the hostesses. Not even just due - increased attention, because according to Russian tradition, there should be at least 12 dishes on the Christmas table. We tell you which ones.
Sochivo
According to an old custom, the table before Christmas was covered with hay, symbolizing the birth of Christ, and only then with a tablecloth. A dish with juicy was always placed in the center of the table. In general, it is customary to eat sochivo in imitation of the fast of Daniel and the three youths who ate seeds so as not to “be defiled by a pagan meal,” and this dish was prescribed to be cooked on Christmas days by all Christians.
Ingredients
Raisins - 0.5 cups
Wheat grains - 1 cup
Honey - 1 cup
Walnuts - 1 cup
Poppy - 3 tbsp. l.
Cooking method
We wash the wheat grains, place them in a cast iron or ceramic pot, fill with water in a ratio of 1: 2, close the lid and put in the oven, heated to 150 ° C, until the water is completely absorbed (about an hour). We warm the honey in a saucepan with a thick bottom, mixing with 3-5 tbsp. l. water (do not bring to a boil!). Pour raisins with hot water for 20-30 minutes, then dry. Pour poppy seeds with boiling water for 20 minutes, also dry. We chop the nuts. Pour the finished wheat grains with hot honey, mix with raisins, nuts and poppy seeds. The dish should turn out juicy: the honey filling will saturate it and remain at the bottom of the dish. Sochivo must be served warm.
Russian fish kulebyaka
This recipe is for those who are not afraid of difficulties. Cooking a traditional Russian kulebyaka is both difficult and not fast, but do not hesitate: you will be more than satisfied with the result.
Dough Ingredients
Flour - 4.5 cups
Fresh yeast - 2 tbsp. l. (or 3 tsp dry)
Milk - 1 glass
Butter - 8 tbsp. l.
Yolks - 3 pcs
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
1 egg for brushing
Filling Ingredients
Pike perch fillet - 600 g
Sturgeon fillet - 400 g
Salmon fillet - 200 g
Buckwheat flakes - 1 heaping glass
Egg - 1 pc.
Butter - 5-6 tbsp. l.
Bulb - 1 pc.
Dill - 1 bunch
Salt, black pepper - to taste
So let's start with the test. In warm milk (not hotter than 40 ° C), add yeast, sugar and then pour this mixture into half the flour sifted with salt. Stir, cover with a towel and leave warm for an hour. Now add softened butter, yolks, egg and remaining flour. Knead the dough thoroughly: it should not stick to your hands. Cover it with a towel and leave it again in a warm place for another hour. And while we do the stuffing.
Cut the pike-perch fillet into medium cubes, chop the dill. Peel the onion and also cut into cubes, fry in butter until golden brown. Then add pike perch fillet, dill and cook for 10 minutes, after which we remove from heat, cool and finely chop everything together into minced meat.
Grind buckwheat flakes with a beaten raw egg, pour 1.5 cups of boiling water with butter in a heat-resistant bowl, salt, stir, close and put in an oven preheated to 200 ° C for 20–30 minutes (until the liquid is absorbed). Then take it out, cool it down, mix it with prepared minced pike perch, season with pepper and salt. Cut the sturgeon and salmon fillet into very thin slices, lightly salt and pepper. The filling is ready, we return to the test, which during this time just “approached”.
So, divide the dough into two unequal parts, approximately two to three. We roll out most of it in the form of a long kulebyaki (“fish”) or a round cake (depending on what shape you plan to make the cake). Now, on the rolled out dough, we lay in layers half of the fish filling from pike perch with buckwheat, slices of sturgeon and salmon, again the pike perch filling, again slices of sturgeon and salmon. Now roll out the second half of the dough, cover the pie with it and “pinch” the edges so that the filling does not fall out. If you are confident in your abilities, you can roll out the whole dough without dividing it into parts, and lay it figuredly, as shown in the photo. In this form, the kulebyaka needs to stand for about half an hour. Now we will make a hole in the center for steam to escape, brush the surface with a beaten egg and bake in the oven until cooked for 40-50 minutes. This dish can be served both warm and cold.
Oat pancakes
Yes, Russian traditional recipes are not simple. But the more valuable your culinary skills and the wider the smiles of pleasure on the faces of the guests. Let's take a break: oatmeal pancakes are also a traditional Christmas dish, but they are much easier to prepare.
Ingredients
Egg yolk - 6 pcs
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt
Butter - 2 tbsp. l.
Egg white - 4 pcs
Milk - 2 cups
Fresh yeast - 10 g
Oat flour - 300-400 g
Cooking method
We heat the milk to 35-37 ° C, dilute the yeast in a small amount and leave it for 10 minutes. Then add the remaining milk and flour there, put in a warm place and wait until the dough rises (about 30 minutes). Add the yolks, mashed with sugar and salt, melted butter. Let's mix it up again. Now you need to beat the egg whites into a lush foam, gently and quickly mix them with the dough with a spatula. It is desirable to bake pancakes in a pancake pan, lubricating it with oil. By the way, compared to wheat pancakes, oat pancakes are more brittle, so it is better to use a wide spatula to turn them over.
christmas goose
Christmas goose is a dish without which the Christmas table can never do. In general, in Rus', it was customary to slaughter cattle for the New Year, so meat dishes on the table, as a rule, were presented in abundance. Let's try and cook a goose.
Ingredients
Potatoes - 12 pcs
Starch - 1 tbsp. l.
Black pepper - 1 tbsp. l.
Dry red wine - 300 ml
Brown sugar - 5 tbsp. l.
Carrots - 3 pcs
Mustard - 1 tbsp. l.
Onion - 6 pcs
Honey - 5 tbsp. l.
Goose - 4.5 kg
Coarse salt - 1 tbsp. l.
Garlic - 2 heads
Cooking method
Mix honey with sugar and mustard. Wash the goose, dry it, cut off as much fat as possible in the tail and neck area and make frequent punctures with a toothpick throughout the carcass. Now rub the goose with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 220 ° C, put a wire rack on a baking sheet, place a goose on it, pour a mixture of honey and mustard. Place in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 160°C. You need to bake for two hours, every 20 minutes basting the bird with fat from a baking sheet.
So that the goose does not look lonely on the Christmas table, put some vegetables on a baking sheet. To do this, peel the carrots, garlic, potatoes and onions and cut the vegetables into large pieces. We take the goose out of the oven, drain most of the fat from the baking sheet, leaving about 2-3 tablespoons, and put the vegetables there. We put the grate with the goose and vegetables in the oven for another hour. After the time has elapsed, take out the goose, wrap it in foil and leave it in a warm place until serving. But the vegetables still need to sweat. To do this, bring the oven temperature to 200 ° C and brown the vegetables for another 15 minutes.
Well, almost everything. Oh yes, because the ingredients also contain wine! It is not needed to drink the goose: we will prepare the sauce from it. Take the pan out of the oven, put it on the stove, pour in the wine and bring to a boil over medium heat, scraping off the goose juice and vegetables with a spatula. Pour the resulting sauce into a container, add 1 tbsp. l. starch, diluted in a small amount of cold water, stir. Salt to taste.
All! Now it's definitely ready. It remains only to dream up and decorate the goose for serving to the guests.
Pork head with porridge
The pig on the Christmas table was also required to be present. If there was a small pig on the farm, they cooked it, stuffing it and serving it whole to the table. If not, they prepared the pig's head of an adult piglet with porridge. We will try to make it.
Ingredients
Onion - 2 pcs
Pig head - 1 pc.
Salt
Buckwheat - 2 cups
Black pepper
Cooking method
We clean the head, rinse it thoroughly, rub it with salt on all sides. Put on a baking sheet, wrapping the tips of the ears and the snout with foil. Put in the oven preheated to 180°C. From time to time you need to collect the melted fat and water the head from above. Pour buckwheat groats with boiling water in a ratio of 1: 2, add salt and cook crumbly porridge. Finely chop the onion. On a part of the fat melted from the head in a pan, fry it until golden brown for 10 minutes, add porridge and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. When the head is completely ready, serve it on a large warmed dish on porridge, sprinkled with the remnants of fat.
Mushroom soup with pearl barley
What about soup, you ask? Of course, traditional cabbage soup was also present on the Russian table for Christmas - with mushrooms and barley.
Ingredients
Celery (root) - 1/4 small root
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp.
Pearl barley - 2 tbsp.
Sauerkraut - 150 g
Dried white mushrooms - 30 g
Fresh parsley - small bunch
Cooking method
Rinse dried mushrooms, pour a glass of cold water and leave for half an hour. Then we strain the mushroom infusion through gauze and save it, rinse the mushrooms again under running water. We also wash pearl barley. Now put barley and mushrooms in a saucepan, pour mushroom infusion and a liter of water. Bring to a boil, add salt and cook for another 40 minutes. In the meantime, heat a deep frying pan, add vegetable oil, put chopped celery and sauerkraut. We will simmer over low heat under the lid until soft for 10 minutes. Transfer the stewed cabbage to a saucepan with mushrooms and barley, cook for 10 minutes, seasoning if necessary. Before serving, add chopped parsley.
Jelly
The next dish will require no less time, skill and patience than a kulebyaka or a Christmas goose, so you can start preparing jelly for Christmas right now.
Ingredients
Pork (with bones and cartilage) - 1 kg
Beef (with bones and cartilage) - 700 g
Chicken (with bones and cartilage) - 700 g
Carrot - 2 pcs
Parsley root (or celery) - 1 pc.
Bulb - 1 pc.
Bay leaf - 4-5 pieces
Garlic - 2 cloves
Salt, ground black pepper - to taste
Black peppercorns - to taste
Cooking method
We carefully scrape and rinse the fetlocks (shanks), put in a large saucepan, pour 5 liters of cold water, bring to a boil over low heat. Then we reduce the fire to a minimum and cook at a very quiet boil for 3–4 hours. During the entire cooking time, foam and fat must be carefully removed from the broth. If the broth boils violently during cooking, the jelly will turn out cloudy and ugly. If you see that the broth, despite the minimum fire, is going to boil, pour in some ice water.
Now put the remaining meat, carrots, onions and parsley root into the broth. Cook, without letting the broth boil, for another 3-4 hours. During cooking, the water should evaporate by about half. Half an hour before readiness, salt the broth and put the bay leaf and peppercorns. We strain the finished broth, and remove the meat from the bones, chop it and put it in a deep dish or other dish in which the jelly will solidify. Now add chopped garlic and pour everything with broth. The jelly should harden in a cold place for 3-4 hours. Serve it with horseradish or mustard.
Rye flour carols with bacon and potatoes
As you know, in Rus' it was customary to carol on the eve of Christmas. Guys and girls performed "benevolent" sentences and songs addressed to the owners of the house, for which they received refreshments. One of the varieties of such treats was carols, which we will also try to serve on the Christmas table.
Filling Ingredients
Bacon - 100 g
Potato - 300 g
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp.
Onion - 1 bulb
Salt
Dough Ingredients
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rye flour - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Salt
Cooking method
First, prepare the filling: finely chop the bacon, peel the potatoes and cut into thin slices, peel and chop the onion. In a frying pan, heat 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, fry the onion and bacon over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 6 minutes.
In another pan, heat the remaining oil, put the potatoes and fry them for 15 minutes. Combine potatoes with bacon, salt, pepper, mix. Now let's take a test. To prepare it, mix rye and wheat flour, add curdled milk and salt, knead the dough, cover with foil and leave in a warm place for half an hour. We form a tourniquet from the dough and cut it into equal pieces, after which we roll each into a thin round cake. Preheat the oven to 180°C and cover the baking sheet with parchment paper. Put on cakes 1 tbsp. l. fillings. In order for the carols to bake in the form of beautiful baskets, you need to lift the edges, leaving the middle open. Now grease the pies with melted butter, put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Kutya
Christmas kutya is a porridge made from wheat, rice, barley or other cereals. Honey, sugar, raisins, poppy seeds, nuts or jam are added to it - the choice is very wide. We will try to cook kutya with honey and raisins, but if you wish, you can replace these with any other components from the list.
Ingredients
Rice - 250 g
Raisins - 100 g
Honey - 100 g
Cooking method
Rice needs to be sorted and washed, pour 1.5 cups of boiling water and cook in a saucepan with a tightly closed lid for 3 minutes on high heat, then 6 minutes on medium and again 3 minutes on low. After that, do not open the lid for another 15 minutes - the rice should boil. Add honey and raisins to the finished porridge.
jellied fish
It turns out that jellied fish was invented long before the release of the immortal New Year's film, which describes the experience of its unsuccessful preparation.
Ingredients
Fish (perch, carp or pike) - 1 kg
Water - 1 l
Onion - 1 pc.
Parsley root - 1 pc.
Celery root - 1 pc.
Carrot - 1 pc.
Parsley greens - 10 g
Salt - 0.5-1 tbsp. l.
Black peppercorns - 10 pcs.
Bay leaf - 1-2 pcs.
Gelatin - 40-50 g
Cooking method
We clean fresh fish, remove the insides, wash, separate the heads and tails (do not throw away yet!), Cut into pieces and try not to leave even small bones in the meat. Wash carrots and onions and peel. Dip the heads and tails stored at the previous stage in cold water, put on fire, bring to a boil, remove the foam, add onions, carrots, roots, salt, pepper, bay leaf and cook for 15-20 minutes, periodically removing the foam. Then we take out the heads and tails from the broth (they are no longer needed), put the pieces of peeled fish into it and cook until tender over low heat. Carefully remove the pieces of fish from the broth with a slotted spoon, put them on a dish or in molds. You can decorate pieces of fish with boiled carrots, chopped stars, green peas or parsley.
As the most “jellied” in Rus', they used the broth in which fish was boiled. But today, technology has stepped forward, and you can simplify your life using gelatin. Soak it in warm water (40 g of gelatin needs 150-200 ml of water), and for now strain the broth in which the fish was cooked through 2-3 layers of gauze. Add the swollen gelatin to the strained broth, bring to a boil, but we will not boil! Just heat enough to dissolve the gelatin. Now fill the fish with broth and put in a cold place. Horseradish can be served with jellied fish.
Dry fruit decoction
What do you drink at Christmas? In addition to alcoholic drinks, there were, of course, non-alcoholic ones. The simplest of them - broth - is similar in composition to compote, with the only difference being that its consistency should be slightly thicker.
Ingredients
Dry fruits and berries - 100 g pears, 100 g apples, 100 g cherries, 100 g plums, 50 g raisins (if there are none, you can take any others);
Sugar or honey - 2/3 cup;
Water - 1 l
Cooking method
Dry fruits need to be sorted out, washed well, poured with water and boiled, taking into account the cooking time for each fruit: first, boil dry pears and apples, then plums, cherries, raisins. Bring everything to a boil, drain the broth, filter, dissolve honey or sugar in it. Pour the boiled fruits with the resulting mixture again and put the broth in a cold place. Now he needs to brew for 5-6 hours.
Sbiten
We will not prepare strong alcoholic drinks, but we will try light ones. Sbiten was a popular drink in Rus'.
Ingredients
Water - 3 liters
Honey - 1 kg
Hops - 40 gr
Spices (cardamom, cinnamon, mint, nutmeg) - to taste
Yeast - 0.5 cups
Cooking method
Boil water, dissolve honey in boiling water and leave the drink in this form for a day. Then boil it over low heat for two hours, stirring constantly and removing the foam. 15 minutes before the end of the boil, add hops and spices. Now pour the mixture into the barrel about ¾ capacity, add half a glass of diluted yeast, close the barrel and leave it in a cold place. Unfortunately, it will be possible to try the drink only after 2 weeks, after you strain it. Store it in bottles in a cool place.
As you know, there is Catholic Christmas and Orthodox Christmas, and at the same time it is difficult to find even two Catholic or Orthodox countries that would have absolutely identical Christmas dishes and Christmas menus. The Christmas table should not only satisfy the family, but also symbolize abundance, the beginning of a new life. Traditional Christmas dishes in different countries are very diverse, in connection with the end of the fast, a variety of products are allowed. For example, from the end of November until January 7, the Orthodox Christmas fast lasts, the Christmas fast menu is a great way not only to cleanse yourself spiritually, but also bodily. Eating at Christmas excludes fatty animal food, fish can be eaten several times a week. But after Lent, the recipes for Christmas dishes are more diverse, there are meat, fish, and dairy products.
For the countries of Western Europe, from sweet dishes, Christmas baking recipes are especially characteristic. At this time, houses and bazaars are really flooded with Christmas pastries. The Christmas Bake Recipe is Christmas cookies and Christmas gingerbread. Christmas cupcake and Christmas candy recipes are also very popular. England even has a special English Christmas cake. The recipe for Christmas cookies is simple, the main thing is a beautiful design. To please loved ones and especially children, we offer you a recipe for Christmas gingerbread. You will need flour, sugar, soda, eggs, butter, cocoa, honey, spices. After mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough, it should be put in the refrigerator overnight so that it is infused and saturated with spices, in this case you will get especially fragrant Christmas gingerbread. The recipe for Christmas gingerbread will also require a certain artistic taste from you, because you will need to fashion figures of a person, animals, or some kind of geometric ones from the dough. After that, the cookies are baked in the oven and decorated with icing. The same is true for Christmas cookies. The Christmas cake recipe is very popular in England. It is cooked with dried fruits and nuts, soaked in some kind of alcohol. For the Orthodox, Christmas sweets are primarily Christmas kutia and Christmas pastries, such as Christmas cake. The recipe that creates a holiday for children is lollipops in the form of cockerels. An ideal option for Christmas baking would be Christmas tea. It is made from black tea, ginger, cinnamon and orange peel.
Also in many European countries, a mandatory Christmas dish is a Christmas goose, a Christmas duck or a Christmas turkey. The Christmas goose is prepared in Germany, Denmark, Greece, Russia. You will definitely not regret if a Christmas goose appears on your table. The Christmas goose recipe usually uses apples and prunes. Christmas turkey is a recipe that is typical for England and the USA. Meat dishes are often served with Christmas salad, the recipe of which may differ in different countries.
Christmas is the most beautiful, mysterious and magical holiday of the year. There are many traditions and signs associated with this holiday. Christmas Eve is called Holy Evening. Each hostess tries to set the table with as many treats as possible.
Traditionally, all dishes for Christmas must be prepared before the evening of January 6th. After the appearance of the first star in the sky, the holiday begins. According to Orthodoxy, it is necessary that there are 12 dishes on the table. All meals must be lean. Each housewife decides what dishes to cook for Christmas, but the main and obligatory dish of this holiday is kutya. There is also a recommended list of delicious dishes that will delight any household or guest at home, and there can be a lot of guests on Holy Evening.
In the evening, according to tradition, it is necessary to have dinner with lenten dishes, and the Christmas meal may include meat dishes, but, like the evening meal, it must necessarily begin with kutya.
What's cooking on January 6
On the table, as is already known, there should be 12 dishes, according to the number of apostles. The table is usually covered with a white tablecloth. Place hay under the tablecloth. In the center, stir the Christmas juice, into which you need to stick a lit candle. Dinner began after the appearance of the first star in the sky. This moment, very fond of the children, they like to wait for the appearance of a miracle in the sky. The most important dish is kutya. Kutia is a boiled porridge made from whole grains of wheat. The finished porridge is poured with honey water or sugar syrup and nuts, poppy seeds, dried fruits, jams, jams are added to it. Millet can be replaced with rice. This food is traditional, no Christmas Eve should be without it.
There are many recipes for this ritual dish. Experienced housewives have their own family recipes for making this porridge, passed down from generation to generation. Young housewives can try new recipes, which are now, thanks to the vastness of the Internet, a great many.
Traditional Christmas juicy
1 cup whole wheat
3 glasses of water
80 grams of honey
50 grams of raisins,
100 grams of poppy.
Wheat, before cooking, must be washed, sorted and poured with boiling water. Drain the water, send the wheat to the pan in which kutya will be cooked. Cook until cooked until the water has evaporated. Kutia is boiled like porridge.
Poppy needs to be steamed, pouring boiling water. If desired, it can be crushed in a mortar. You can also pass the poppy seeds through a meat grinder.
In addition to raisins, various candied fruits, nuts, pieces of chocolate, halva can be added to kutya. It is allowed to season kutya with a tablespoon of rum. Improvise. Choose the ingredients according to your taste, desire and availability.
Uzvar
Traditionally, the uzvar is considered the owner of the Christmas table. It is always cooked in tandem with kutya. Uzvar is an ancient drink that can give strength, energy, saturate the body with vitamins and microelements. Uzvar improves the functioning of the heart, gastrointestinal tract and has a positive effect on the nervous system.
Cooking:
It is necessary to take 200 grams of drying. It can be apples, apricots, pears, prunes, raisins. The washed drying is poured with three liters of water and brought to a boil. It is necessary to cook the uzvar over low heat for about 15 minutes. Then, if desired, you can add prunes, cherries, raisins and boil for another 15 minutes. After that, honey is added to the uzvar, covered with a lid and left to infuse for 2-3 hours. Uzvar is served chilled.
Lenten borscht with beans
Borscht is a favorite dish in Russia. Traditionally, borsch is a daily dish, but it's hard to imagine Christmas Eve without it. Since it is difficult to cook 12 dishes at once, borscht can be prepared in advance, this will only make its taste richer and brighter.
Borsch can be cooked with beans, sprats, beetroot, mushrooms. It all depends on the preferences of the family and the availability of food from the hostess.
Cooking:
Boil a glass of beans until tender. Or take ready-made canned beans.
Put 3.5 liters of water on the fire (you can take the water in which the beans were cooked). After boiling, add diced potatoes (4-5 tubers) to the water.
Meanwhile, prepare the roast. Grate 1 large carrot, dice one onion and sauté it in a pan until golden brown. Oil for frying must be used sunflower.
Take 2 medium, in size, beetroot. Beetroot must be grated. Fry one beetroot together with onions and carrots, throw the second to boil in a pan with potatoes and beans. At the end of frying, add half a liter of tomato juice, or 100 grams of tomato paste.
At the end of cooking vegetables, add half a head of chopped white cabbage to the pan. The cabbage should boil. Cook for 5 more minutes. Add spices and salt to the borscht to taste. Citric acid or vinegar as needed.
donuts
Pampushki or bread, a necessary addition to borscht. Pampushka is a muffin of round shape and small size. Pampushkas are made from yeast dough. If there is no time to bake them, you can get by with bread or buy ready-made donuts in the store
Onion or garlic sauce for donuts
It is customary to pour donuts with a special sauce that makes them tastier.
Preparing garlic sauce:
5 cloves of garlic;
3 art. l boiled water;
2 tbsp. l. oils.
Garlic is passed through a press, mixed with water, oil. If desired, you can add dill or parsley, as well as spices.
Preparing the onion sauce:
2 onions are fried in a pan until cooked, 1 tbsp is added to the onion. l. flour. Onions with flour are fried for about a minute. Then add 2 tbsp. l. sour cream, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, salt, spices. All this is fried for a couple more minutes. After that, water is poured in and the onion sauce is stewed for 5 minutes.
Cabbage rolls with millet and mushrooms
We are all used to cabbage rolls with rice and minced meat. But cabbage rolls with millet and mushrooms are no less tasty dish. Stuffed cabbage must be prepared in the traditional way, only rice and minced meat are replaced with boiled millet and fried mushrooms.
Fried fish
Fish is not only healthy, but also tasty, and since Holy Evening must be celebrated without meat dishes, fish is perfect. It is necessary to fry the fish in flour, since the egg is not allowed on January 6th.
Bread
Regardless of whether there are donuts on the table, bread must also be on the table. Bread can be served white, black, with the addition of spices, bran.
Christmas Olivier
Russian cuisine is hardly represented without Olivier. On Holy Evening it is necessary to cook it without sausage. This will not make it taste worse. But on Christmas day itself, Olivier can be served on the table with sausage, boiled meat or chicken breast.
The vinaigrette
This vitamin salad brings many benefits to the body. All products in its composition can heal the body, strengthen it and fill it with energy. Vinaigrette will require boiled potatoes, beets, beans, carrots. Fresh onion, sauerkraut, vegetable oil. You can replace beans with green peas. The salad will also need to be salted and peppered.
Fruits
For dessert, you can serve various fresh fruits: apples, pears, grapes, tangerines, oranges.
Christmas dishes
On January 7, it is allowed to serve meat on the table, so on this day you can suppress chicken, duck, pork, various meat salads.
Duck with apples
Traditionally, you can bake duck with apples in the oven. For this gutted duck rubbed with a mixture of herbs, pepper, garlic and oil. Leave the duck to marinate for a couple of hours.
Mix apples, plums, quince, prunes, season with wine and stuff.
The duck must be baked for approximately 3-3.5 hours, pouring over the resulting fat.
Dessert
Christmas cake is considered a traditional pastry. The cake can be prepared 1-2 months before Christmas and left to ripen, or you can make a quick cake with tangerines
Recipe:
200 grams of flour;
4 eggs;
200 grams of sugar;
1 tsp baking powder;
125 grams of butter;
150 grams of dried fruits;
2 tangerines;
vanilla.
Cooking:
Margarine at room temperature is whipped with sugar with a mixer. After that, eggs, sifted flour, vanilla, baking powder and dried fruits are gradually introduced into the resulting mass. Tangerines settle down in butter for 2 minutes and are added to the dough. The cake is baked for 1 hour in an oven heated to 180 degrees.
The finished cake is sprinkled with powdered sugar and decorated with tangerines.
Bon appetit to all and a wonderful Christmas!
Read more about cooking rice kutya for Christmas in this.
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