What to cook for Holy evening on January 6? TOP 6 recipes with photos for Christmas 2020. Christmas menu of traditional dishes, hot and cold appetizers, desserts. Video recipes.
Following the New Year comes the brightest religious holiday - the Nativity of Christ. It was installed in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. At midnight, on the night of January 6-7, a solemn service is held in Orthodox churches. It is customary to congratulate friends and family with Merry Christmas throughout the day on January 7th. On January 6, the 40-day Christmas fast ends on Holy Eve. At this time, in the evening after the appearance of the first star, which marks the birth of God's son, the whole family gathers for a festive dinner. If you want to diversify the festive table with new recipes, this article offers original recipes for the Christmas menu.
Christmas menu
The meal on January 6 usually takes place without alcohol, and on January 7, the Christmas festivities continue, but with some changes: meat treats are added to lean dishes, and red wine is allowed.
12 Lenten dishes are traditionally prepared on the table on Holy Evening, which correspond to the number of the apostles. The main dish of the Holy Evening is kutia, which contains ingredients with symbolic meaning: grain is a symbol of resurrected life, honey is health and a sweet life, and poppy is wealth in the family. The list of the other 11 dishes necessarily includes uzvar. Fish and mushroom dishes, lean borscht and cabbage soup, lean pancakes and dumplings, pies and honey gingerbread, aspic and jelly, buckwheat and pea porridge, cabbage rolls, bread with poppy seeds and honey, homemade sausage, pork head with horseradish, roast … on the list of dishes, there will be practically no problems with their preparation.
Also, in all European countries there is a rule - one of the main dishes on the table should be something whole and uncut. This guarantees the integrity of the family in the coming year. In our country, whole baked suckling pig, goose and duck are most often cooked. In Ireland and Scotland - smoked lamb or goose. In England, a whole stuffed turkey. In Italy and Hungary - large lake fish (trout or carp). According to the rules, the whole dish is divided into pieces by the oldest man at the table, and the first piece is served to the eldest son. If he has no sons - his wife, and then everyone else.
The rest of the traditions of the Christmas feast in each country are different. A light Christmas feast takes place in Italy and Spain, where fresh fruits are considered obligatory dishes: apples - a symbol of peace and humility, persimmons - power, grapes - wealth and great offspring. The most meat table in Finland, because as a treat, many types of fried poultry are prepared, various types of sausages are served, incl. the most festive - blood. In Holland, donuts are prepared oozing with copious amounts of oil. And in France, Christmas is the sweetest, they definitely serve a creamy Christmas log cake with a lot of sugar and butter.
Kutia
One of the most important of all 12 dishes for Christmas is Kutia (sochivo). It is with her that the feast on Holy Evening begins, both a modest lean and a rich meal the next day. The basis of kutia can be barley, wheat, pearl barley, rice. The products are mixed with different flavors: raisins, poppy seeds, nuts, honey. It is believed that the richer the kutia, the more prosperity and happiness awaits the family in the new year. Therefore, a variety of additives can be added to the dish: candied fruits, chocolate, seeds, coconut, etc.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 245 kcal.
- Servings - 6-10
- Cooking time - 4 hours
Ingredients:
- Wheat - 1 tbsp.
- Raisins - 0.5 tbsp.
- Poppy - 0.5 tbsp.
- Candied fruits - 0.5 tbsp.
- Honey - 2 tablespoons
- Walnuts - 0.5 tbsp
- Jam (any) - 4 tablespoons
Cooking kutya:
- Soak wheat grains in cold water for 4-5 hours or overnight. Then rinse the wheat, fill it with fresh water and send it to the stove. After boiling, reduce heat and cook until soft for 2-3 hours.
- Pour the raisins with boiling water so that the water covers it by 2-3 cm and leave for 20 minutes.
- Rinse the poppy thoroughly, scald with boiling water and leave to steam under the lid for 15 minutes. Then drain the water and grind it in a mortar. When the white "milk" appears, add a little water with honey and stir.
- Peel the nuts, fry in a dry frying pan and chop into small pieces.
- If water remains after cooking the wheat, drain it and refrigerate the porridge.
- Add swollen raisins, chopped nuts, poppy seeds, honey, candied fruits and jam to the wheat.
- Mix everything. If desired, you can add an uzvar prepared according to the recipe below to the kutya.
Uzvar
Uzvar, i.e. dried fruit compote - a drink on the Christmas table. If kutia is the mistress of the Holy Evening, then uzvar is its owner. But unlike the compote, which is boiled, the uzvar is insisted. Therefore, the drink retains all the beneficial properties. A drink is prepared with the addition of honey or sugar. Depending on the selected sweetener, there will be a different cooking technology. If you are preparing a drink with sugar, you must first boil the water and completely dissolve the sugar in it. Then add dried fruits, bring to a boil and immediately remove the pan from the stove. When preparing an uzvar with honey, immediately pour over the drying with cold water, bring to a boil and remove from the stove.
Ingredients:
- Prunes - 100 g
- Dried apples - 100 g
- Dried pears - 100 g
- Raisins - 50 g
- Honey - 3 tablespoons
- Water - 5 l
Cooking uzvar:
- Put dried fruits (dried apples and pears) in a colander, rinse with warm running water.
- Transfer them to a saucepan and cover with hot water. Cover and simmer for 1 minute.
- Then add the raisin prunes and boil for another 1 minute.
- Remove the compote from the heat, cool slightly under the lid to 70 ° C and add honey.
- Stir to dissolve completely, cover the pan with a lid and leave for 2-3 hours.
- In order to serve an ideally infused uzvar on the Holy Evening, cook it in the morning and insist until it is served.
Jellied pike perch
Pike perch jellied is a delicious treat for the Christmas table. This is truly a royal dish, which in the days of the USSR was an indispensable component of a festive feast. Pike perch was served in a large, beautiful dish, which could hardly be placed on the hospitable table. Therefore, during the feast, the hostesses carried the jellied around the guests and offered refreshments.
Ingredients:
- Pike perch - 1 kg
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Parsley (root) - 1 pc.
- Gelatin - to taste
- Lemon - 1 pc.
- Fresh cucumber - 1 pc.
- Cranberries - to taste
- Vinegar to taste
- Salt to taste
Cooking aspic from pike perch:
- Peel the walleye, remove the entrails, cut off the head with gills and tail.
- Remove the gills from the head and fill it with cold water along with the tail.
- Onions, carrots and parsley root, peel, wash, cut into medium pieces and add to the fish pan. For the broth to have a beautiful golden color, you can add the onion to the husk.
- Boil everything, add vinegar, salt and cook for 15-20 minutes. Then strain the broth through fine filtration.
- Cut the fish fillet into pieces, put in another saucepan, cover with broth and cook until tender.
- Remove the fish from the broth, refrigerate and place on a serving plate, alternating with rings of boiled carrots, slices of fresh cucumber, lemon wedges, cranberries and herbs.
- Soak gelatin in a little cold water. In this case, keep in mind that 40 g of gelatin goes to 1 liter of water.
- Strain the hot fish broth, combine with the swollen gelatin, stir and cool.
- Pour the broth over the fish and place in a cool place to solidify.
Christmas wreath salad
Usually, it is customary to decorate the doors of houses with wreaths on the eve of Catholic Christmas or before the New Year. But you can also arrange a salad in the form of a wreath. Moreover, the salad itself can be any. In such an interesting design, it will still be festive, it will become a beautiful and original decoration of the festive table.
Ingredients:
- Boiled potatoes - 4 pcs.
- Boiled chicken breast - 600 g
- Fresh cucumbers - 1 pc.
- Boiled eggs - 4 pcs.
- Dill - 2 bunches
- Bulgarian pepper - 2 pcs.
- Canned peas - 150 g
- Cheese - 100 g
- Mayonnaise - 400 g
- Garlic - 1 clove
- Chili peppers - 4 pcs.
Preparation of the "Christmas wreath" salad:
- Peel the potatoes and chop finely together with the breast.
- Grate the cheese and egg yolks on a fine grater, and the egg whites on a medium shredder.
- Wash the cucumber, dry and chop finely.
- In the middle of a flat dish, place a glass, jar or other round object, around which spread the food with soy, greasing them with mayonnaise. Lay out the salad in the following sequence: potatoes, chicken, cucumber, protein.
- Peel the garlic, pass through a press and mix with cheese, yolks and mayonnaise. From the resulting mass, form 4 "candles", which are set or put on the salad.
- For chili peppers, cut off the tops and insert into the "candles" like a flame. Peel the bell peppers from seeds, chop finely and place the "ribbons" at the base of the candle. Then carefully remove the jar from the salad.
Apples curl
Apple curl is a baked roll with a fruit filling, where apples are the basis. It is important to take sweet and sour fruits for baking. The ideal option is the Granny Smith variety. If the fruit is too sour, the dessert will sour, so you will need to add more sugar. If the apples are too sweet, the dish will turn out to be sugary.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 3-4 tbsp.
- Margarine - 100 g
- Sugar - 130 g
- Yeast - 50 g
- Sour cream - 100 g
- Apple - 1 kg
- Ground crackers - 2 tablespoons
- Pitted cherry jam - 2 tablespoons
- Raisins - 50 g
- Chopped nuts - 100 g
- Cinnamon - a pinch
- Orange peel - 1 tsp
Cooking apple curl:
- Dissolve the yeast with sugar in a little warm water. Grate margarine on a coarse grater. Sift the flour through a fine sieve. Combine all ingredients and stir. Leave the dough to rest for 1 hour.
- Wash, dry the apples, remove the seed box, peel and cut into cubes. Fry the nuts in a pan and chop finely. Steam the raisins with boiling water for 15 minutes to soften. Combine food, add cinnamon with chopped zest and breadcrumbs, and stir.
- Roll out a thin tortilla out of the dough, brush with cherry jam and apply the apple filling evenly.
- Roll the dough into a roll and place on a greased baking sheet with vegetable oil so that the seam (attachment point) is at the bottom.
- Cover the roll with a towel and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes for the dough to come up.
- Sprinkle it with sugar and bake it in the oven at 220 ° C for 45 minutes. Cool the finished curl and cut into slices 2-3 cm wide.
Sweet roll "Christmas log"
The Christmas log is a cake invented by French pastry chefs. Today this dessert is the national Christmas dessert in France and Italy. It is prepared from a biscuit roll, which personifies an unburned log. The burning of the "Christmas log" is an ancient obligatory Christmas-tide ritual among many peoples of Europe. A Christmas log was chosen very responsibly for its implementation. On Christmas Eve, the head of the family placed a tree in the hearth, poured a log with vegetable oil and warm wine, rubbed it with salt and turned to him with requests. When the log was burned, everything that was bad that was in the past year burned down, and the house was cleared.
Ingredients:
- Eggs - 4 pcs.
- Flour - 110 g
- Powdered sugar - 110 g
- Brewed coffee - 60 ml
- Natural coffee - 150 ml
- Cognac - 2-3 tablespoons
- Mascarpone - 250 g
- Egg yolk - 3 pcs.
- Sugar - 100 g
- Cocoa powder - 3 tablespoons
Making a sweet roll "Christmas log":
- Separate the whites from the yolks. Whisk the whites with the powdered sugar into a firm and firm foam. Add the yolks to the whipped whites and beat until smooth.
- Pour the sifted flour into the egg mass and mix.
- Pour in coffee (30 ml) and stir until smooth.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper and pour out the dough. Level it into an even layer no thicker than 1 cm.
- Send the cake to bake in a heated oven up to 220 ° C for 7-8 minutes.
- Remove the paper from the finished biscuit and cool on a wire rack.
- For syrup, mix the remaining coffee with the cognac.
- For the cream, combine the yolks with sugar and cocoa powder and whisk. Add the mascarpone and beat again until smooth.
- Soak the cooled biscuit with syrup, lay out the cream in an even layer and roll it up.
- Next, decorate the Christmas log of your choice and put it in the refrigerator overnight. For decoration, you can pour it over with chocolate icing, make all kinds of chocolate figurines, grease with meringues or marzipan, sprinkle with nuts or marmalade. The more the dessert resembles a wooden original, the better.
