One of the main symbols of the Nativity of Christ is kutia. There are many options for its preparation. We propose to consider the most basic, as well as learn the subtleties and secrets of this ritual dish.
Recipe content:
- The basis of kutya
- How to separate wheat from chaff?
- Additional components
- How to cook uzvar for kutya?
- Traditional dressings
- Cooking secrets
- Traditional Christmas wheat kutia
- Rice pouches (memorial)
- Kutia "Cossack" from millet groats
- Video recipes
Kutia is an indispensable dish during the Christmas days, as well as during Great Lent and on the days of commemoration of the dead. This ceremonial porridge has many names: eve, kolivo, sooty, sate. Kutya is served as a memorial dish, on the eve of the Old New Year, on Christmas Eve and on Epiphany. It is also brewed on other Orthodox holidays. Conventionally, kutya can be divided into several options:
- A rich, lean porridge with many different ingredients. They cook it on Christmas Eve.
- Generous kutia is a quick dish with milk, cream and butter. It is served before the New Year.
- Hungry kutia consists of a grain base and a sweetener. They cook it for Baptism.
The basis of kutya
You can cook kutya from different cereals and grains. It is considered correct from wheat grains, which are previously pounded in a mortar with a small volume of water and separated from the chaff. However, in different regions they use barley, barley, rice, oats, and buckwheat. Cereals languish in the oven for a long time, sometimes about 3 days. In modern conditions, not everyone succeeds in adhering to the tradition, therefore they use the usual stove or oven. To speed up the cooking process, the cereals are pre-soaked, because it should be soft and well-boiled.
How to separate wheat from chaff?
Freeing the wheat grain from the shell can be done in 2 ways. First - fry the wheat in a pan, place it in a fabric cut or mitten and beat it off, then sort it out, freeing it from the husk. Second - grind wheat in a mortar with a wooden pestle, adding water. Then clean, sift and rinse.
Additional components
Chopped steamed or boiled dried fruits, frozen fruits and berries, jams, compotes, uzvars, nuts, poppy seeds, spices and spices are placed in kutya. Sometimes lollipops, candied fruits, candies and marmalade are added, but this is a departure from tradition.
How to cook uzvar for kutya?
Most often, kutya is filled with an uzvar. To prepare it, you will need 200 g of dried apricots, apples, pears, prunes, cherries and raisins. Rinse the components, pour 2 tbsp. water and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes over low heat. Insist the uzvar by cooling it to a warm temperature. Pour the liquid through a sieve and put honey in it. Stir until dissolved. Dried fruits are consumed in their own form. When using uzvar for ceremonial porridge, you should put less sugar and honey in kutya.
Traditional dressings
On Christmas Eve, milk from poppy seeds or almonds, hazel, Greek or a mixture of nuts is served to the lean booth. To prepare poppy milk, you need to crush the poppy seeds in a mortar and steam it, you can turn it through a meat grinder several times to release a white liquid. Nut milk is cooked in the same way: nuts are doused with boiling water, ground in a mortar or chopped with a meat grinder until a white liquid is released.
Moderate porridge is seasoned with milk, butter, cream. The traditional dressing for porridge is liquid honey or rag. To prepare the latter, honey is dissolved in warm boiled water. If desired, the kutya is also poured with jam, sugar syrup or diluted water.
Cooking secrets
- According to the Orthodox calendar, Christmas comes on January 6, so kutya should be cooked on the eve of this day. You need to have time to cook ceremonial porridge until 5 in the morning, before sunrise.
- Cooking kutyu in the house should be quiet and calm. They use selected wheat, spring water, and clean clothing.
- Correct kutia consists of 3 components: base, dressing and additives.
- To prevent the groats from burning, use thick-bottomed cooking utensils, and preferably cast iron.
- Having combined all the components, they need to be warmed up for 10 minutes, best of all in clay pots.
- Dilute thick kutya with boiled chilled water, a decoction of cereals or uzvar.
- Raisins in porridge swells and loses their taste, therefore add it as you eat kutya.
- Do not store porridge for a long time, since honey has the property of fermentation. Therefore, it is not recommended to put fresh fruit. It is better to add honey to the dish before serving it on the table.
- Do not throw away the remains of kutya. She can remember the dead at the next meal.
- Usually ceremonial porridge is consecrated at the morning service. But forgetting to do this, sprinkle it with holy water at home. If not, then pray and God will hear you.
Traditional Christmas wheat kutia
Nowadays, not many housewives cook Christmas kutya, and some do not even know what it is. We revive the ancient traditions of our ancestors and cook the most mysterious and amazing dish for our relatives on Christmas Eve.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 232 kcal.
- Servings Per Container - 4-6
- Cooking time - 3-3, 5 hours (of which 2, 5-3 hours for steaming the poppy)
Ingredients:
- Wheat - 2 tbsp.
- Water - 4 tbsp.
- Poppy - 200 g
- Raisins - 150 g
- Walnuts - 200 g
- Honey - 3 tablespoons
- Sugar to taste
- Dried apricots, dried figs, prunes - to taste
Step by step cooking:
- Place the wheat in a cooking pot, cover with water and simmer until tender and soft. If necessary, add boiling water. The porridge should come out crumbly.
- To prepare poppy seeds, steam it in boiling water for 2-3 hours. Drain the water, and thoroughly grind the poppy in an earthenware (makitra) or manual coffee grinder until white poppy milk is released. To make the poppy mix faster, knead it with a little sugar.
- Put honey in the pounded poppy, add sugar, crushed nuts, raisins and fill everything with water, or better with dried fruit uzvar. Soak for 5 minutes and season with boiled porridge.
Rice Kutia (memorial)
Kutia or kolivo is an Orthodox memorial dish that symbolizes the faith of the living in the kingdom of heaven, eternal life and resurrection. Rice kutya is cooked for commemoration, but it can also be cooked for Christmas Eve and other Orthodox holidays. Today it is very popular.
Ingredients:
- Rice - 1 tbsp.
- Drinking water - 2 tbsp.
- Salt - a pinch
- Raisins - 150 g
- Honey - 2 tablespoons
- Fruit jelly - 100 g
Step by step cooking:
- Rinse the rice under several waters to remove the starch. Then it will become crumbly.
- Fill it with water, close the lid tightly and put it on gas. Cook the cereals for 3 minutes over high heat, after 6 minutes over medium and again 3 minutes over low.
- Then steep the cereal for 12 minutes under the lid. The rice should be soft and crumbly.
- Pre-pour the raisins with boiling water and leave to swell for 10 minutes. Then tip it over onto a sieve to drain the water.
- Cut the marmalade into 1 cm pieces.
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Add raisins, marmalade and honey to the finished rice. Stir and serve.
Note: Rice can be steamed or milk-cooked. However, it should be remembered that cereals in milk may not boil well. When preparing generous kutya, a mixture of water and milk is used.
Kutia "Cossack" from millet groats
Christmas kutia is one of the 12 traditional dishes of the Christmas feast. It is no less tasty from millet groats, raisins and almond milk.
Ingredients:
- Millet groats - 2 tbsp.
- Sugar - 1 tbsp.
- Raisins raisins - 1 tbsp
- Ground cinnamon - 2 tsp
- Almonds - 1 tbsp
- Honey - 4 tablespoons
Step by step cooking:
- Pour boiling water over the raisins and let stand for half an hour. Drain the water.
- Rinse dark millet under cold water, cover with water in a 1: 2 ratio and cook for 10 minutes until half cooked. Drain the excess liquid and refill it with cold water, but with less water. Cook it over low heat until tender. The water should completely evaporate, while the porridge does not burn.
- Make almond milk. Soak the almonds in 3 tbsp. cold water for 4 hours. You can pre-exfoliate the nuts and pour over boiling water, then the milk will be beige. But this option is optional.
- Grind the nuts in a blender until smooth.
- Pour the milk through several layers of cheesecloth and mix with honey. Store it in a glass jar in the refrigerator for 5 days.
- Add raisins, sugar, cinnamon to the finished wheat porridge and stir.
- Drizzle with almond milk before serving.
Video recipes:
