Christmas table traditions. Video - Kutya from rice

Christmas has always been the main and bright holiday in Rus' it was always looked forward to, but celebrated widely and cheerfully. Celebrations, sleigh rides and troikas, fortune-telling are traditional Russian fun on this holiday. Of course, among all the entertainment, the people did not forget about the feast. Moreover, in Russia before Christmas there is a long and rather strict fast.

After Lent, just before Christmas, on January 6, comes Christmas Eve. It precedes the conversation. You can start breaking the fast only with the appearance of the first star. You are surprised at the knowledge, experience and their reasonable application by our ancestors. After all, on Christmas Eve it was impossible to eat a lot. Only the dishes we'll talk about below. And this is without knowing such concepts as diet, how to get out of starvation, etc. They just limited it.

And only on January 7, in the morning, the real conversation began. And the piglet and roast goose, and lamb, and hare, and a glass too, everything was on the table. Traditional Christmas dishes are meat dishes. Another obligatory dish is baking. All kinds of pies, kulebyaki, pies, pies, pancakes with different fillings, casseroles. Fruits, berries, honey, gingerbread, cookies were served from sweets.

Well, how? Have you already worked up an appetite? Let's get down to business now.

Menu for the festive table on Christmas Eve and Christmas: Russian cuisine

Since the Christmas feast begins on Christmas Eve, January 6, and continues on the 7th, I think that we should start with Christmas Eve. Let's try to make it short.

Menu:

For Christmas Eve:

At Christmas:

On Christmas Eve, as a rule, the whole family gathered, and indeed anyone who wanted to could come in, so there were a lot of people. Since ancient times, 12 dishes were placed on the table on the last evening before the birth of Christ. (as a symbol of veneration of the 12 apostles who were with the Savior). There should have been an even number of people at the table, and if there was an odd number, then an empty chair was delivered and the device was placed.

Well, oh well, now we will analyze 2-3 recipes for traditional, mandatory dishes on Christmas Eve before Christmas and the rest are optional, but preferred. You can cook something similar if you wish.

1. Kutia (sochivo) classic with Uzvar

Kutia is the "mistress" of the Christmas table. Uzvar - one more obligatory dish on the Christmas table. If kutya is considered the hostess of the holy supper, then the uzvar is her master.

Ingredients:

For kutya:

• Wheat peeled (polished) - 2 cups
• Raisins - 1 cup
• Walnuts - 1 cup
• Poppy - 1 cup
• Sugar - 3-4 tablespoons

For knot:

• Dried fruits - depending on the number of guests. Based on the calculation of 100g of dried fruits per 1 liter of water. If you want a thicker uzvar, put 120 g of dried fruits per liter of water.
• sugar - at the rate of 3 tbsp. per 1 liter of compote. Do it to your liking.

Cooking:

1. First, we wash the wheat in cold water.

2. As soon as the water becomes clear, set to boil. The ratio of water to grain is 2 to 1. Wheat will cook for approximately 40 minutes.

3. We also rinse the poppy well and pour boiling water over it.

4. Do not forget to stir the wheat periodically so that it does not burn.

5. Cleaned walnuts dry in a dry frying pan for about 5 minutes. Don't forget to shake or stir.

6. 20 minutes after the start of cooking, the wheat must be salted.

7. We wash the raisins.

8. We wash the dried fruits, then pour cold water and leave for 20 minutes.

9. Pour poppy with water, for 100 g of poppy - 70 ml. water, put on the weakest fire and simmer until the liquid is absorbed for about 30 minutes. If it turns out that the liquid was absorbed earlier, add a little more water.

10. Pour raisins with boiling water for 15 minutes.

11. We put dried fruits to boil, right in the liquid with which we poured them. As soon as it boils, add sugar and cook for 10-15 minutes.

12. Poppy is also ready, there is no liquid. Set aside and close the lid.

13, 40 minutes have passed, our wheat is ready. Rinse it with cold water.

14. We begin to collect kutia. Put the finished wheat into a deep cup.

15. Pour the nuts into a plastic bag,

wrap and roll with a rolling pin several times so that the nuts are crushed. You can cut them with a knife, grind them in a meat grinder, or grind them in any other way. But this one is the fastest.

16. Add nuts to wheat.

17. Add raisins, after draining the water.

18. Sprinkle poppy seeds with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and grind well in a mortar. Well, if there is no mortar, we grind it in a cup with a rolling pin, until it becomes semi-liquid.

19. We also add it to our kutya.

20. Now add honey. It is desirable to add it liquid. To do this, you can warm it up or dilute it with a little warm water.

We mix everything well. Our kutya is ready. Our uzvar is also ready and infused a little.

We serve kutya on the table with a knot.

Bon appetit!

And now I want to show you a more common version of modern kutya:

2. Video - Christmas rice kutya

And one more, well, a completely simple recipe for kutya - for children

3. Video - Kutya from rice

4. Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• Beets - 1-2 medium
• potatoes - 3 medium
• carrots - 1 medium
• Canned green peas - 3 tbsp.
• onion - 1 medium head
• pickled or pickled cucumbers - 2 medium
• sauerkraut - 3/4 cup
• Salt, sugar, pepper
• Vegetable oil

Cooking:

1. Boil beets, potatoes, carrots, cut into cubes.
2. Peel the onion and also cut into cubes.
3. Mix all the ingredients, season with vegetable oil, which you like. I really like with unrefined sunflower oil.

Bon appetit!

5. Two recipes for dumplings with potatoes

The first recipe used sour cream as a sauce. Please use vegetable oil. The second recipe corresponds to all the canons of Christmas Eve.

A few days ago, we cooked unusual, large dumplings in a frying pan. But there are probably countless recipes for making dumplings and especially fillings for dumplings.

6. Delicious and simple colorful bean salad

Bean salad is prepared quite quickly, it is very nutritious dish which can fully replace meat. Beans contain a large number of protein, vitamins, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, as well as fiber, which has positive impact on digestion and lowers cholesterol levels.

7. Stuffed peppers with vegetables

Stuffed Peppers or Stuffed Peppers - This dish is usually prepared with rice and meat as a filling, but for a lenten Christmas table, mushrooms and millet can be wrapped in cabbage leaves. It turns out very tasty!

The rich composition of pepper makes it very useful for the heart and maintaining immunity. Beneficial features especially relevant for diabetics and people who control body weight, because Bell pepper, despite the ability to stimulate appetite, lowers blood sugar levels.

8. Fish with ginger sauce

on Christmas Eve it is allowed.

We have prepared fish many times in different types and under different sauces. Today we will cook with ginger sauce.

9. Seafood

In addition to fish, you can eat any seafood on Christmas Eve.

We have prepared two excellent seafood salads. Today you can safely use them.

10. Stuffed eggplant in the oven

Eggplant and mushrooms - another chic ingredient for your Christmas table.

Much has been written about eggplant and that it is very useful product, all sorts of usefulness in them can not be counted, and that they have very low calorie and indeed one of the most healthy vegetables at the potato level.

11. Baked apples with honey and nuts

Main winter vitamin dessert- a delicacy!

Ingredients:

• Apples - 4 pcs.
• Honey - 4 tbsp. l.
• Walnuts - 100 gr.
• Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg- taste.

Cooking:

1. Wash apples. Cut off the top with the stem. Cut out the core and some pulp. So that the apple mold remains.
2. Grind nuts into large crumbs.
3. Mix honey with nuts, add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg to taste and stuff apples.
4. Cover the apples with "hats" with stalks. Place the apples in a heatproof bowl. Add some water.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees until the apples are soft. From time to time, water the apples with the resulting syrup.

12. Spicy pumpkin

Another gift for those who are going to organize a traditional Christmas lenten dinner.

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin - 1 kg.
• Sugar - 1 tbsp
• White vinegar- 125 ml.
• Olive oil - 3 tbsp.
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Black pepper, a pinch of ground cinnamon
• A handful of fresh mint leaves

Cooking:

1. Peel the pumpkin from the peel and seeds, cut the pulp into long oblong slices 1 cm thick, cut each slice in half.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, fry the pumpkin with peeled garlic for 3 minutes. Once the garlic has darkened, remove it. Remove skillet from heat, carefully drain excess fat.
3. Sprinkle pumpkin with sugar and cinnamon, mix well, pour in vinegar, add mint greens and pepper to taste.

Cover with lid and let steep for at least 15 minutes. Can be served both cold and hot.

Bon appetit!

Well, now let's look at what you can cook on Christmas Day for breaking the fast. Of course, first of all we will consider the preparation of geese and ducks. Some different options we prepared for New Year.

13. Christmas goose and duck

Today I will try to tell and show step by step how to cook geese and ducks for the New Year and Christmas. Since their preparation for two neighboring holidays does not differ from each other. There are recipes for geese baked whole in the oven and pieces in a pan and duck in the oven. Please watch and repeat.

Another goose recipe.

14. Video - Christmas goose

15. Pork in orange marinade

Ingredients:

• Pork ham - 3 kg.
• Oranges - 4 pcs.
• Apple - 1 pc.
• Honey - 1 cup
• Muscat wine - 1 glass
• White dry wine- 1 glass
• Water - 1 glass
• Cinnamon - 2 sticks
• Onion - 3-4 pcs.
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Olive oil - 4 tbsp. l.
• Rosemary - 1 tbsp. l.
• Salt pepper

Cooking:

1. Rinse the meat, salt and pepper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the juice of 2 oranges, honey, wine, cinnamon, chopped onion, minced garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Put the pork in this marinade, cover with a film and leave for a day in the refrigerator. Turn the meat from time to time in the marinade so that it marinates evenly.
4. The next day, take the meat out of the marinade, put it in a fireproof dish, pour the marinade over it and add water. Arrange slices of 2 oranges and an apple on top.
5. Close the bowl with foil. Bake in the oven at 180 C for 3 hours. Turn meat over from time to time and baste with marinade.

When almost done, remove the foil and let the meat brown.

Bon appetit!

We haven't cooked very cold dishes. Let's take a look at the fish.

16. Fish aspic

Another absolutely New Year's dish, this is filler. From what they just don’t make it, and from various meat poultry, and from beef, especially offal, pork, rabbit meat. Our aspic is made mainly from fish.

17. Fish baked in the oven in puff pastry and fish in batter

18. Video - Beef jelly

19

19. Aspic of beef, pork and chicken meat

Ingredients:

• Pork knuckle - 1 pc.
• Chicken legs - 2 pcs.
• A little beef - 500-600 g.
• Onion, Bay leaf, pepper, salt, spices

Cooking:

1. Put all the meat in a saucepan, about 5 liters, and fill it with water. We don't cook.

2. Just leave it in water for 1.5-2 hours. After a couple of hours, the blood remaining in the meat will be released into the water. You will see the water turns red.

3. We drain this water, wash the meat and fill it again clean water. Let's cook. Add onions, carrots, bay leaf.

4. Bring to a boil and remove the foam so that the surface of the water is clean. Usually remove with a spoon with holes. Unfortunately it was not available. After the foam has been removed, close the lid and leave to cook for 3.5 - 5 hours. (As I have said more than once in my recipes, the cooking time depends on many factors: what kind of stove, what kind of meat, what kind of water, etc.) So check. The meat should separate freely from the bones.

5. After 3.5 - 5 hours, half of the water boiled away. We only added half a liter of water once.

6. We take out the meat from the broth, and add garlic to taste, salt, pepper to the broth.

7. Add chopped parsley and dill. Bring almost to a boil, but do not boil. Mix well and leave to stand on a warm stove.

8. We take up the meat. The meat is already well cooked.

9. Separate from the bones and cut into small pieces.

10. Mix all types of meat, salt, pepper, mix well.

11. In a deep cup, put a few sliced ​​\u200b\u200bround carrots

12. Add greens.

13. Put the meat on top

14. and fill with broth. We put it in the refrigerator overnight and in the morning your jelly is ready.

Meaty, tasty, fragrant.

Bon appetit!

20. Different pies for Christmas

I have already released several recipes for making pies. This is very delicious pies and not very complicated recipes. We prepared them for the New Year, but not all. We take and prepare for Christmas.

21. Video - Delicious Christmas Turkey

Read our article.

Christmas Eve or Holy Evening is a special holiday. Ancestors believed that it was at Holy Evening that the gates between our world and the other world were opened, which is why spirits walk the earth and devils roam. The whole day on January 6 until the appearance of the first star in the sky, according to the Christmas tradition, you can not eat anything. The hostesses at this time are preparing a dinner of 12 Lenten dishes, the main of which is the traditional Christmas Kutya. Mummers go from house to house and sing, children carry, and unmarried girls gather for bachelorette parties to tell fortunes about their betrothed.

If you follow traditions or fast, then you are probably wondering what twelve fasting dishes you can cook on Christmas Eve at Holy Evening. Usually ideas end after five or six dishes without meat. But we will help you not only with ideas, but also with recipes.

12 Traditional Lenten Meals for Christmas 2019

1. Kutya

   And Holy Evening. Kutya is usually prepared from wheat grains, nuts, dried fruits, poppy seeds are added, and poured with uzvar and honey.

2. cabbage rolls

   - Another traditional dish of the Christmas table. As a filling for lean cabbage rolls use millet, rice with vegetables, buckwheat with mushrooms or potatoes. for Christmas 2018, vegetable oil sauce with grated garlic or mushroom sauce is served.

3. Vareniki

   Or cabbage is prepared from dough, which is kneaded in water. In the filling of some dumplings they put various objects (coin, pepper, bay leaf) to find out their fate on next year. Or you can put a nut in one of the dumplings and announce that whoever gets the nut will be very lucky.

4. The vinaigrette

   Vegetable salad, which we associate with winter. A vinaigrette is prepared from boiled beetroot, pickles, boiled beans and potatoes. In some cases, sauerkraut is added to the housewives. But this is a matter of taste and habit.

5. pies

   Dough for lean pies knead with water, not with milk, as usual. Mushrooms are used as filling. stewed cabbage, potatoes, apples, dried fruits.

6. Pampushki with garlic

   

   Another option lean baking for the Christmas table, very relevant in winter period colds. It is much easier to cook than pies. You need to knead the dough, let it rise, and then form the balls, put on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Drizzle finished donuts with vegetable oil and grated garlic. Such donuts will great addition to lean borscht.

7. Nalistniki

   - This thin pancakes with stuffing. The dough for lean nalistniks is prepared on the water. The filling for salted ones is fried mushrooms with onions, and for sweet ones - dried fruits with honey or jam.

8. Lenten borscht

   Differs from the usual topics that prepare it for vegetable broth instead of meat. And for satiety, beans are added to borscht. Another popular option lean borscht- borscht with carp.

9. Pickles

   On the Christmas table there may be pickled mushrooms, pickled cucumber-tomatoes or.

10. Vegetable stew

    It can be any vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, eggplant, peas, mushrooms. The combination depends entirely on your preferences: potatoes with carrots and eggplant or cabbage with mushrooms. To prepare vegetable stew, everything needs to be cut into cubes, and placed in a deep frying pan or pan with thick walls, adding a little vegetable oil. Close the lid and put on a small fire. Tomim 40 minutes. Towards the end you can add tomato juice or pasta.

11. baked apples

    

    Dessert for Holy Night is quite simple. These are kutya, pies with sweet stuffing or, nuts and dried fruits.

12. Uzvar

    - a traditional drink on the Holy evening. To cook it, you just need to pour dried fruits (apples, pears, dried apricots, raisins, prunes) with boiling water. And leave the drink to infuse for several hours. For sweetness, add honey or sugar. You can also put a few lemon wedges in the decanter before serving.

So, all Christmas traditions have been observed, 12 Lenten dishes for Holy Evening (Christmas Eve) have been prepared, it remains only to wait for the first star. Merry Christmas in 2019!

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 - this family celebration. It was customary to gather either with parents or with the whole big family 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 pre-revolutionary Russia Neither Christmas nor Easter was celebrated. 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.

Crush 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. Cook crumbly lean porridge on the water, adding 2-3 cups of water to the cereal.

Grind the 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 cold water and cook until tender without removing the lid. Steam in hot water dried fruits (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. Prepared a broth from dried fruits but honey was added instead of sugar. The most popular was apple broth with the addition of dry or soaked berries cranberries, cranberries 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 kashi 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: a plentiful break

When the night passes and after the service the family returns to the house, the long-awaited Christmas holiday comes. The post is left behind, and on the table appear meat dishes, milk and butter pies, oily fish and sumptuous desserts.

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.

Christmas goose with sauerkraut

• 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.

Pig on the table

Not less than traditional product there was pork on the Christmas table. 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 suckling pig with porridge or cold with horseradish.

Cold pig with horseradish

Recipe from Ekaterina Avdeeva's book "Handbook of Russian experienced hostess"simple: boil 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 feet, 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 cabbage sour apples, oil, mix. pork belly wash, 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.,
• brine pickles- 500 ml,
• vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons,
• dill - 1 bunch,
• salt and white pepper taste.

We knead the dough, for which 1 tsp. dry yeast pour 5 tsp. warm water, let stand for swelling for 10-15 minutes. Sifting wheat and rye flour, pour in vegetable oil, milk 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 filling in cucumber pickle 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. In a baking sheet we will form a cake, spread the top 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. 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. Smooth the surface and bake for about 50-60 minutes until the surface wooden skewer, lowered into the middle of the pie, the dough will not stick. Leave the cake to cool in the mold. After the cake has cooled completely, make the frosting by mixing powdered sugar and the remaining ginger wine, and drizzle over the top of the pie. 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.

Any table for Christmas is a tribute to traditions that have developed hundreds of years ago. Not all gastronomic delights are worth serving on this day! 12 dishes that have been prepared for centuries must be present without fail. It is important that they are all lean! What are these dishes and how to cook them - we will tell you in detail!

Traditional Christmas Food: 12 Recipes

Christmas Eve is the eve of Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7th. At the Holy Supper, dishes are present on the table in abundance: twelve recipes are not so few!

1. Kutia.
A kind of symbol of Christmas, which is prepared from threshed wheat, sometimes rice. Add poppy, poppy milk, honey, nuts, raisins. Kutya version on YouTube.

2. Uzvar.
A drink traditionally served around Christmas: dried fruit compote.

3. Cabbage.
In view of fasting, it is cooked with water, not meat broth.

4. Cabbage rolls.
With millet, mushrooms or rice - there are a lot of variations in modern times.

5. Fried fish.
Of what to cook for Christmas, this item is the most familiar. It is worth taking ordinary freshwater fish, for example, carp.

6. Borsch.
Without lean version this dish is not enough festive table at Christmas, especially in our country.

7. Vareniki with cabbage or potatoes.
The dough for them should be made lean, like other dishes. On the table at Christmas, dumplings are served with onions.

8. Pancakes or donuts.
Among the options for what is served on the table at Christmas, pancakes or soft donuts with garlic are indispensable. Often they are served with borscht.

9. Lenten pies.
For the filling, you can use cabbage, potatoes, plums, pears, and other fruits.

10. Baked apples.
The middle of them is cut out with a knife, honey, walnuts, spices are placed inside.

11. Cabbage with mushrooms.
Served as a side dish or an independent dish.

12. Pickles.
Sauerkraut, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, mushrooms - 12 dishes for Christmas include all possible variations of pickles.

Separately, it is worth noting the serving issues. When choosing options for how to set the table, it is worth stopping at traditional colors. It's red and gold. Everything should look rich and festive. Of what should be in addition to the main dishes, it is necessary to highlight the candles. Their presence is already a kind of ritual that has developed since time immemorial.

Wondering how to decorate everything in general? Use spruce branches, holiday balls, ribbons, other symbols. Among what is served on the table, few dishes need decoration. For this purpose, you can take chopped parsley or dill. In general, what they put depends on the specific region of the country. And also, to a large extent, from the habits of the family. Some housewives include vinaigrette recipes on the menu, for example. Other recipe options are on the video from YouTube.

They are accepted for food only when all family members sit down at the table for Christmas. The meal begins "after the first star", that is, in the evening, when it gets dark.

Now you know how to properly set and prepare the table for this holiday! Share your tips with your friends on social networks. This christmas menu relevant for everyone! Also don't forget to rate your post. Write in the comments what kind of table setting is traditionally accepted in your family on this day? And be sure to find out right now!

In general, it would be more correct to call this holiday Holy Evening, since traditional dishes on the Christmas table are prepared just for the evening of January 6th. The most beautiful and mysterious traditions, rituals and omens are associated precisely with Holy Evening and Christmas Eve, that is, from January 6th to 7th.

And on the table there should be exactly 12 dishes for Christmas - according to the number of God's Apostles.

The main tradition of this evening is the expectation, like a miracle, of the first star in the night sky. Small children perceive this tradition with particular joy, every minute running in a crowd together with other children to look at the evening sky, and what a delight when the first Christmas star appears in the amazing January evening blue! As a child, she always seems so big and radiant that no matter what scientific points of view about the January stars and planets astronomers give, everyone knows for sure: it is she, the star of Christmas.

For modern adults, these Christmas traditions are also honorable, because only after the appearance of the first star does the holiday begin.

When the Christmas star appears in the sky, the whole family can sit down at the table and start celebrating.

Cover the Christmas table with a light tablecloth, and under it, according to tradition, you need to put some hay.

Placed in the center of the table a candle in a container with wheat grains, lights up, and all together thank the Lord. If you are not particularly devout and do not know how to pray, this is not a problem: tell God in your own words that you are grateful to Him for what you have, for the fact that He protects you and loves you, and ask for health, prosperity and love for yourself and your loved ones next year. Do not be embarrassed, believe me, after such a sincere, and not memorized prayer, your soul will become warm and comfortable.

And now you can proceed to Christmas dinner, which necessarily begins with lean kutya and uzvara- traditional food for Christmas.

12 DISHES FOR CHRISTMAS

As you already understood, exactly 12 dishes need to be prepared for the Christmas table. And these 12 dishes for Christmas should be lean, that is, do not contain meat and animal fats, and nothing at all from the animal world (no milk, no sour cream, no eggs, etc.). You can cook for Christmas only fish, all kinds of cereals, vegetables and fruits, Certainly. It will be possible to pamper yourself with balyki and sausages from tomorrow, and you need to cook 12 dishes for Christmas only with lean ones.

The main rule for the Christmas table is the "poverty" of dishes, that is, your menu for Christmas should include only elementary, simple lean food without any frills. Do not worry that such a "vegetarian" menu will not be tasty - the recipes for the Christmas table have been tested and perfected for centuries and generations, so you will have something to please yourself and your loved ones. Moreover, in modern world, such a menu for Christmas is more “exotic” for us than a traditional diet.

Kutya

This is one of the main dishes at Christmas - the hostess of the Christmas party. A rich evening and a Christmas feast began with kutya next day. After Holy Evening, kutya was left on the table for the night - so that the souls of the dead ancestors would also try the treat.

The basis of kutya is wheat, barley or rice. IN traditional kutya wheat contains a complex of vitamins B and protein (during fasting, the body receives less protein of animal origin, so their deficiency should be compensated with vegetable proteins). Grains are seasoned with grated poppy seeds, nuts, dried fruits, honey. These products are rich in beta-carotene, vitamins (B, C, E, K, PP and others) and trace elements (potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese).

Wheat kutya recipe
2 cups wheat
1 glass of poppy
100 g honey (or 1/2 cup sugar)
30 g shelled nuts
50 g raisins
salt - to taste

How to cook kutya from wheat:
Sort the wheat, wash it, pour it into boiling water, bring it to a boil, put it on a sieve, pour cold water over it, put it in a saucepan or clay pot, again pour water and cook until the grains are ready.
Wash a glass of poppy seeds, pour boiling water over it, and then cold water, pound in a mortar until the mass turns white, add honey, you can add a little salt. Add chopped nuts, scalded with boiling water and strained raisins.

Uzvar

Uzvar for Christmas was traditionally prepared for kutya. If kutya is the hostess of the Christmas party, then uzvar is the host.
Actually, uzvar (or compote) used to be one of the most common traditional drinks. But if in the summer it was prepared from fresh berries, then in autumn, winter and spring - from dried (cherries, apples, pears, apricots and others).

IN dried fruit and berries preserve vitamins, the lack of which we especially begin to feel in winter (after all, it was not for nothing that uzvar was a constant drink during the Great Orthodox Lent when vitamins are especially scarce). The drink is rich in vitamins A, B, C, it contains calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and others. useful material. In addition, uzvar regulates the functioning of the stomach and intestines, and also positively affects the functioning of blood vessels.

Uzvar recipe:
200 g dried pears, 200 g dried apples, 200 g prunes, 100 g raisins, 200 g honey, 3 liters of water.

How to cook knot:
Prepare dry fruits. To do this, wash dried fruits warm water and soak them in cold water for 10 minutes.

Pour 3 liters of water into a saucepan, put pears and apples and simmer for 15 minutes over low heat. Then add prunes and raisins to the bowl and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

At the end, add honey, let it boil and remove the bowl from the heat. Cover the bowl with a lid and leave for 2-3 hours to infuse. Strain the uzvar and serve chilled

Vareniki with potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage

Dumplings are perhaps the most delicious Lenten dish. They must be prepared for the Christmas table.
We prepare the dough for dumplings from wheat flour coarse grinding. It is rich in vitamins B and E and is better absorbed by the body than flour. premium. In addition, wholemeal flour contains pectin and fiber. Figuratively speaking, such flour is a broom for the intestines.
Filling for dumplings - potatoes boiled in uniform. It is in the unpeeled potato that the usefulness is preserved under the skin, in particular, the potassium layer, which we usually use when peeling. raw potatoes cut off. Add to potatoes fried mushrooms and bow. You can use other fillings: stewed cabbage, berries.

Dough for dumplings
For the test you will need: 0.5 kg of flour, 250 ml of water, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt to taste.

Method of preparation: sift the flour, add water, salt, vegetable oil and knead the stiff dough. Cover and leave for about an hour, during which you can prepare the filling. And then you can start cutting the dough and sculpting dumplings.

Such a dough turns out to be elastic, it can be thinly rolled out, and it does not boil in boiling water. In such dumplings there may be little dough and a lot of filling.

Vareniki with potatoes

For the filling you will need: 0.5 kg of potatoes, 1 medium carrot, 2 medium onions, vegetable oil, dill, ground black pepper, salt to taste.

Cooking method: finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, fry in vegetable oil and set aside a small part of the frying for further dressing of the finished dumplings.

Peel potatoes and boil in salted water. Make a puree by adding the roast, chopped dill, pepper and salt.

Lean dumplings with cabbage

For the filling you will need: 0.6 kg white cabbage, 1 medium carrot, 2 medium onions, vegetable oil, salt to taste, bay leaf.

Cooking method: finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, fry in vegetable oil and set aside a small part of the frying for further dressing of the finished dumplings.

Shred the cabbage. Add it to the frying pan and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. At the end put the bay leaf and salt.

Cool the filling, and you can sculpt dumplings. Cook for 5-7 minutes. IN ready dumplings add the rest of the roast.

The vinaigrette

Traditionally, vinaigrette is made from boiled (potatoes, beets, carrots, beans), raw (onions and parsley) and pickled or pickled (cucumbers) vegetables. This set has everything minerals and vitamins necessary for a person: C, B, PP, E, K, beta-carotene, potassium, iron.
We cut the vegetables for the salad into cubes, and season the vinaigrette as usual with vegetable oil. It helps to better absorb beta-carotene, which is rich in carrots and is the main source of vitamin E.

Vinaigrette recipe
potatoes - 3-4 medium or large pieces,
carrots - 1 large or 2 medium pieces,
beets - 1 pc,
sauerkraut - 100-150 g,
salted or pickled cucumbers - 1-2 large pieces,
onion - 1 medium piece,
vegetable oil,
salt, freshly ground pepper
optional: green pea, boiled beans, canned mushrooms

How to cook vinaigrette:
Wash potatoes, beets, carrots well. Put the vegetables in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to a boil and boil until tender.

Tip: Vegetables can be wrapped in foil and baked in the oven at 180°C until tender. Wrap each vegetable separately in foil. Also vegetables can be boiled in a double boiler.

Cool the beets, potatoes and carrots and peel them. Cut vegetables into small cubes.

Cucumbers cut into cubes. sauerkraut squeeze out of the brine.

Peel the onion and chop finely.

Put the beets in a bowl, add a little vegetable oil and mix - then the beets will not color the rest of the vegetables.

Add chopped potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, onions to the beets, salt, pepper, season with oil and mix.

Tip: You can add green peas to the vinaigrette, boiled beans, canned mushrooms.

Chill the vinaigrette in the refrigerator before serving.

cabbage rolls

The traditional recipe for cabbage rolls contains meat. But in the post, the filling can be replaced with stewed mushrooms, carrots and onions. Then cook as usual.

Recipe for homemade cabbage rolls
White cabbage 500 gr.
stewed mushrooms
Rice 1/3 st.
Salt
Sugar
Ground black pepper
Tomato paste 3 tbsp or tomatoes 5-6 pcs.
Carrot 1 pc.
Onion 2 pcs.
Peppercorns 5-7 pcs.
Bay leaf 2 pcs.

How to cook cabbage rolls:
Wash the cabbage, remove the stalk from it and put it in a saucepan with boiling water.

Boil the cabbage until the top leaves separate well (about 10 minutes). Remove the separated leaves from boiling water. If you are making cabbage rolls from young cabbage, then you need to cook it for no more than 2-3 minutes.

Boil rice until tender.

Skip the stewed mushrooms, onions through a meat grinder. Add salt, pepper, rice to the minced meat. Mix everything thoroughly. Add 3 tablespoons of water to the minced meat.

Cut a thick vein from the cabbage leaf (from the stalk), put a little minced meat, wrap cabbage leaf envelope.

Put the resulting cabbage rolls into a saucepan.

Prepare the sauce: fry finely chopped onion in vegetable oil and grated on coarse grater carrots, add tomato paste, salt, a little sugar, peppercorns, bay leaf, water. Bring the sauce to a boil.

Pour the cabbage rolls on top with the resulting sauce, cover the pan with a lid and simmer over low heat for about 40-50 minutes, depending on the size of the cabbage rolls and the quality of the cabbage

Jellied fish

beautiful holiday dish, which can be submitted to the post.

Ingredients:
pike perch weighing 1 kg,
1 onion
1 carrot
1 white root (parsley, parsnip or celery)
1 bunch of greens
lemon to taste
2 bay leaves,
5 black peppercorns,
2 peas allspice,
30 g gelatin,
salt to taste
1.5 liters of water.

Jellied fish - cooking:
Clean the fish, gut it, remove the gills and rinse well.

Separate the head, tail, fins, bones, skin from the fish, put them in a pan along with vegetables and spices.

Fill with cold water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, carefully removing the resulting foam.

Boil the broth for 1.5 hours on very low heat so that the liquid only "moves" a little, and does not boil.

Cut the fish fillet into portions.

Put the fillet in the broth, salt and cook over low heat until cooked through for 30 minutes.

Then very carefully remove the pieces from the broth with a slotted spoon. fish fillet so that they do not break, and arrange in portioned dishes.

Strain the broth through several layers of cheesecloth.

The viscosity of the broth, and hence the solidification of the future aspic of the fish, can be checked by holding a drop of liquid in your fingers - if the fingers stick together well, then the aspic of the fish will freeze. If stickiness is not felt, gelatin can be used.

To do this, dilute a bag of gelatin in warm broth until completely dissolved and pour gelatin mass into the broth.

Fill the fish with broth, decorate with figures of boiled carrots and herbs. It is better to decorate fish aspic with lemon slices after solidification so that the dish does not taste bitter.

Put the aspic of the fish in a cold place to cool completely, and then in the refrigerator.

Aspic fish will be ready in 4-5 hours.

Serve aspic fish with horseradish.

Lenten borscht

Red borscht was traditionally brewed for Christmas.

How to cook lean borscht:

Cut red beets (1 kg) into circles, soak for two days in cold water with a crust of black bread. Soak overnight dried mushrooms, boil. Boil the beets, cut. Chop fresh carrots and parsley. Boiled beets, carrots, mushrooms, parsley, pour beetroot brine and cook until tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fried carp

Fish is especially useful because it contains a lot of phosphorus, which is actively involved in metabolism.

How to cook:
We take a purely Slavic fish - carp. We clean from scales and entrails. big fish cut into pieces. Sprinkle with salt and black ground pepper taste.

We fry on sunflower oil, without flour and without batter, on both sides over medium heat (you can first cover with a lid so that the fish is fried inside).

Sauerkraut

Another traditional Slavic dish. Cabbage is mixed with frozen cranberries. Cranberries and cabbage complement each other - in combination it turns out good set vitamins and microelements (vitamin C, iron, calcium, protein and other useful substances). Sauerkraut for the Christmas table must be prepared in advance, three days in advance.

Compound:
White cabbage ( late varieties) - 5 kg (net weight of cabbage),
carrots (large) - 4 pcs (1 kg),
salt - 100 g (*do not use iodized salt)

Cooking:

Wash the cabbage, dry it and cut the head of cabbage into 4 parts - you get 4 large cabbage slices. Cut the stalk and finely chop the cabbage (you can use a special grater).

Wash the carrots, peel, wash again and grate on a coarse grater.

Measure the salt and pour it into a small container (bowl or saucer).

Place 3-4 large handfuls of cabbage in a saucepan (or a large plastic bowl), sprinkle with some of the salt, mix well and grind the cabbage with salt until the juice appears.

Add some carrots to the cabbage, mix.

Then tamp the cabbage with a wooden pusher or rolling pin.

* You can add flavoring seasonings to cabbage: cumin, dill seeds.

Thus, in small portions, adding cabbage, carrots and salt, tamp all the cabbage with a wooden rolling pin so that a large amount of juice appears in the recess from the rolling pin.

Then, with clean hands (you can use your fists), press the cabbage in a saucepan so that all the cabbage is covered with cabbage juice, put a plate and press down with oppression (you can use a 3-liter jar filled with water as oppression).

Stick a wooden rolling pin on the side (to release gases).

Cabbage ferments for about three days (at room temperature).

Several times a day, it needs to be pierced with a rolling pin (a clean knitting needle or a long knife), reaching to the bottom of the pan, while you can see how a large number of bubbles - gases are released (if this is not done, the cabbage will turn out bitter).

On the third day (the timing of cabbage fermentation may differ slightly), the brine brightens and subsides, and the foam also leaves.

Also, the readiness of cabbage can be determined by taste.

Transfer cooked cabbage to clean jar(do not tamp strongly), pour in brine, close with a plastic lid and store in the refrigerator.

Stuffed peppers without meat

Great lean recipe At Christmas. If your family does not fast, peppers can be stuffed minced meat with rice

What you need:
6 sweet peppers
2-3 carrots
2-3 bulbs
2 tomatoes
1 eggplant - to taste
4 garlic cloves
1 st. rice
500 ml vegetable or chicken broth
vegetable oil
tomato paste - to taste
salt, spices - to taste

How to cook:
Wash the pepper, remove the stem and remove the seeds. Finely chop the vegetables and stew in hot vegetable oil until tender, adding salt and spices to taste.

Boil the rice until half cooked and mix with minced vegetable- the filling is ready. Stuff the peppers, then put them in a saucepan, add vegetable oil to the bottom, and pour the broth on top.

Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes, then add finely chopped fresh herbs, tomato paste, spices and finely chopped garlic. Lower the heat and simmer for another 25-30 minutes.

Stuffed peppers are ready. Serve with fresh herbs, sour cream and garlic.

Pie with mushrooms

For test:
1.5 cups flour, 100 g margarine, 4 g dry yeast, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 0.5 cup liquid (water), 2 teaspoons sugar.

For filling:
1-2 large onions, 500-700g fresh champignons, 1/2 teaspoon salt

How to cook a pie:
Cook lean yeast dough. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1.5 hours.
Finely chop the onion.

Pour vegetable oil into a deep frying pan and heat over high heat.

Add the onion and sauté with constant stirring until lightly translucent.

Reduce fire to min. Saute the onion, stirring occasionally, while the mushrooms are cut.

Sort the mushrooms, wash if necessary. Cut into thin slices.

Pour the mushrooms into the skillet with the onions.

Stir so that the onion rises from the bottom up. Salt.

Add heat to and fry with constant stirring until the desired degree of fried mushrooms (4-7 minutes).

Divide the dough into two unequal parts.

Roll out most of it into a circle with a diameter of 28-30cm (on a form 24-26cm + 4cm on the sides), put on a greased baking sheet.

Put the filling in the middle of the circle, smooth it out.

Roll out the second half of the dough into a circle with a diameter of 22-24cm.

Cover the filling with a small circle and, lifting the edges of the bottom circle, pinch.

Lubricate the top of the pie with an egg, loosened with 2 ~ 3 tablespoons of water (it is better to use not a whole egg, but only the yolk).

Preheat the oven to t=200°C and bake the cake until browned (approximately 30 minutes).

If the cake starts to brown too quickly, cover the top with a piece of foil.

Remove the finished pie from the oven and transfer to a plate.

Apples baked with honey and nuts

Baked apples with nuts and honey - not only lean and healthy dish but also very tasty. IN baked apples contains a lot of pectins - substances that absorb cholesterol and thereby reduce the risk of atherosclerosis.

What do you need:
walnuts peeled - 100 g
large apples - 4 pcs.
honey - 4 tbsp. l.

What to do:
Wash apples, dry. From each apple, cut off the top with the stalk, then carefully cut out the core.
Chop the nuts with a knife into large crumbs, mix with honey. Pour the mixture into the prepared apples. Put them in the form microwave oven, pour 4 tbsp. l. water, cover. Cook 2-3 min. at 100% power.

And, most importantly, treat the Christmas tradition with respect and sincerity, and your good thoughts will return to you with multiplied goodness! Happy Holidays, Holy Evening, Merry Christmas!