How to cook and decorate a traditional kolivo dish: wheat and rice recipes. A step-by-step recipe for making wheat kutya Decorating kolivo
We remember every year, although more than 1600 years have passed since the day when the Christians of Constantinople were saved from the atrocity plotted against their faith. And the consecration of the koliva remains a significant component of this holiday. But how important is this rite to us? Why are so many traditions of distant centuries transferred to modern life Churches? Has not our Orthodox faith become overgrown with all sorts of rituals?
About the practical aspects of ancient traditions, the attractive power of church rites, the search for reasons and the choice of a person - Archpriest Vladimir Puchkov, cleric of the Exaltation of the Cross Church in the city of Vinnitsa, Chief Editor newspaper "Orthodox Vinnitsa".
***
Archpriest Vladimir Puchkov
The Church lives by a simple principle - it never cancels anything. The canons can serve as an example: a certain council adopts some rule, for example, in the 4th century, a century or two passes, and another council adopts another rule concerning the same subject, but with a slightly different content - sometimes directly opposite. However, no one cancels the previous rule.
In the same way, many of us have survived: once they had a certain meaning, over time they lost it. But since the traditions themselves were already several centuries old, it turned out to be a pity to cancel them.
So, for example, it happened with godparents. Initially, the recipient acted as a guarantor for the newcomer. When a person came to a church community with a desire to be baptized, he was not immediately baptized. The one who came was prepared for a long time, but before that someone had to vouch that this person really came for the sake of Christ, and not for some mercenary reasons or for some other reason.
When in the 4th century the Church ceased to be persecuted and many began to be baptized, sometimes entire families, it was already difficult to vouch for individual people. In the recipients, as guarantors, the need has disappeared. But after all, a whole tradition has already formed. And the emphasis shifted - now the godfather was charged not with helping a person in preparation for baptism, but with taking care of the already baptized. Thus, the tradition was preserved, but its original meaning was lost.
The same thing is observed with the consecration of the koliva. At some point, the Church experienced this event as really very significant. , a time of special abstinence. And then the emperor Julian orders to secretly sprinkle the blood of sacrificial animals on the products in the market, so that Christians would be defiled, without wanting it and not suspecting it.
Then a miracle happens - moreover, especially if you think about who the Lord acted through. The Martyr Theodore Tyron appeared, as is known, to the bishop. But this bishop was an Arian - there was no Orthodox bishop in the city. Moreover, Eudoxius was also a man, to put it mildly, of a not very pious life. Professor Bolotov writes about him: an unattractive person, in his sermons reaching vulgarity and buffoonery, changing his beliefs, like not everyone else».
Such a person is a martyr only because, due to his position, many will hear him.
And Christians get out of the situation in a simple way - they boil wheat and eat it with honey.
Of course, this event was significant for the Church. God's providence was revealed to them - and after all, it was not about stopping some serious and obvious villainy, but about exposing an underlying, secret and petty plan. And the Lord even exposed him and showed how He cares about Christians, not disdaining for this an openly unworthy person - and the absence of worthy ones did not become a hindrance.
Lenten dish in a hurry
Of course, at the present time, kolivo itself means little. After all, what is a kolivo? This is a lean dish that can be prepared quickly. In our country, even kutya on the eve of the Nativity of Christ is now almost sacralized, giving it a special meaning. And the meaning, after all, is simple and purely practical: in the monasteries, the service of the Nativity Eve ended in the evening, the brethren did not eat anything all day, and soon they had to go to the Nativity Vespers. Therefore, they prepared something that did not need to be spent a lot of time on - boiled wheat and ate it with honey.
It was just a lean dish cooked in haste.
But today there are a lot of fast-cooked lenten dishes, and they cook faster than kolivo. Therefore, the practical meaning of koliva disappeared. Only a tradition that is many centuries old has remained. And despite the fact that it has lost its relevance, this tradition is dear to many people, for them it is part of church life, "it has always been like that."
So it is with koliv - this tradition has simply grown into the life of the Church. This is the first statutory prayer service in Great Lent, and the consecration of food in the absence of a holiday, and a good reason to pronounce an interesting lesson. Yes, and it's simple - it is written in Triodi to serve, so you must serve.
It's very hard to part
– Why does our Church observe traditions, the meaning of which has long been lost?
We keep traditions simply because we keep them. They no longer have any practical meaning. There are many things in the Church that have long lost their original practical meaning. For example, priestly vestments are an apron, armlets, a belt and a cloak. But over time, they lost their original purpose and became beautiful liturgical garments. Today, no one thinks that the stole is an apron.
Or the deacon precedes the censing priest with a candle. After all, at first they served in the catacombs, where it was dark and it was difficult to easily walk without light.
Now in our temples the floors are so flat that you can ride on them. And yet, the deacon still precedes the priest with a candle.
At the heart of so many rituals is a purely practical moment. But the practical component was forgotten, and the rite, because it is beautiful, remained. And when the tradition is very many centuries old, it is always very difficult to part with it.
Help people understand what's important
– Isn't it overgrown for so many centuries church life rituals beyond measure?
- And where is the criterion for determining the measure? The Church has what constitutes the basis of her life - the Gospel and the Eucharist. Everything else can be taken away, but our Church will still remain the Church of Christ. There are things that are important, and there are things that are secondary.
But then a man from the street comes to the temple, picks up the Gospel - will he understand it right away? And try to immediately explain to him what it is - will everything be clear to him? If a person versed in knowledge, with higher education Maybe it will be easier for him. And how to explain this to a grandmother, for example, or to an illiterate person ?! But our churches were filled with literate people only in the twentieth century. Before that, in the temples, mostly, there were simple people who could barely read.
The nobility and officials with education at the Liturgy were attended, as a rule, by several dozen people, no more. In ancient times, this ratio was even more not in favor of the literate. It was impossible to say: here is the Gospel - read it. Or: Communion and do not be philosophic. And, of course, over time, the Church, so to speak, acquired auxiliary means that helped these people understand the main thing.
One of the most simple examples- icon. After all, it is not without reason that it is called “theology in colors”. The same, for example, Rublev's Trinity can literally be "read". A ten-minute story about what, how and why is depicted on this icon is able to reveal a sufficient number of theological truths both to a church-going Christian and to a neophyte who crossed the threshold of the temple for the first time.
Of course, a person who has reached a certain spiritual height may not need all these rituals. But are there so many highly spiritual people in our churches?
So is it any wonder that the Church pays the main attention not to those who understand everything from a half-word and from a half-look.
There are many rites in the Church, first of all, so that the Church, in its essence and main thing, is understandable not only to educated and spiritual people. In the end, educated and spiritual people grow out of ordinary people who once needed icons, rituals and much more to understand elementary things.
Man no longer needs Christ - he lacks the rite
– But now it is the rites that become the main thing for many–people come to church to consecrate Easter cakes, eggs, willows, water.
Let's start by separating sanctification and blessing. If we consecrate water, then it is impossible to say literally that we consecrate Easter cakes. This is just a blessing for tasting what we denied ourselves during the fast. The fast is over, the holiday has come, and a blessing is timed to it. Hence his solemnity. But after the blessing, neither the egg nor the willow becomes a shrine. Therefore, by the way, I do not understand the concern of some Orthodox about where to put the shell from the Easter egg or the stump from the apple.
- But after all, the vast majority of people baptized in Orthodoxy believe that eggs, and willows, and apples, after sprinkling with holy water, become consecrated objects. And people who come to churches on Easter, Epiphany and other holidays only to sprinkle food, bouquets and water - they go for consecration, not for blessing!
- That's the trouble. But when non-church people think so, it's half the trouble. However, unfortunately, many of our conscientious parishioners are not alien to this. And all because in the minds of some people there is a certain substitution: a person no longer needs Christ - he lacks a rite. This can be compared to how Small child learning to walk.
You can't do without a walker, but if, having learned to walk, he does not want to part with a walker, we risk getting a cripple.
The life of the Church is rooted in . Converging to celebrate the Eucharist, disparate Christians come together and represent the Church. By participating in the Eucharist, we are united with Christ and partake of the reality of the Kingdom of God. When the Eucharist recedes into the background in the mind of a Christian, then Christ recedes into the background with it.
The Tradition of Outrageously Rare Communion
How often do we take communion? Well, if once a week or two, but how many of these? Basically - once every few months, if not a couple of times a year. And this is also almost a tradition. And it has been formed for a long time. Even in synodal times, when the Church, in fact, was a ministry of confession, and in many areas of her life the spirit of formalism reigned. Officials were charged with the obligation to take communion at least once a year, which they did. Over time, this, so to speak, the norm spread to other church people. If someone took communion every fast, it was already very commendable. This is how the tradition of not just rare, but outrageously rare communion arose. Communion has ceased to be perceived as the norm of life, as a vital necessity.
Then the revolution broke out, the Soviet times came, with their forced atheism. And the tradition of outrageously rare communion has gained a halo of "pre-revolutionary", especially since it fit the new time. Time passed, generations changed. In the seventies, rarely taking communion was the norm; in the nineties, this tradition was even advocated in books and articles. Is it any wonder that in the first place for many and many all this time there were rituals - prayers, memorial services, twigs, willows and eggs.
I'm not saying that everyone - in the Church there have always been people who understood the primacy of the Eucharist. Open the book "Eucharist. The Sacrament of the Kingdom” by Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, and you will understand this without further ado. But always a certain number of people focused primarily on the ceremony.
And you don't have to give reasons.
– How can an Orthodox Christian correctly relate to the multitude of rites in our Church?
- Calmly. On the one hand, some rituals have changed beyond recognition, while others have not lost their original meaning. For example, the tradition of celebrating the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem with palm or willow branches in their hands is remarkable in its own way. Since the Church does not just remember the holiday, reproduces it, but experiences it in its entirety, as if it is happening right now, and not sometime ago, then, of course, we meet Christ in the temple with twigs too. But to the question of what to do with the consecrated willow, I must admit that I myself do not know how to answer.
On the other hand, for the non-church and the ignorant, churching often begins precisely with the rite. The need to consecrate the willow is another reason to visit the temple. However, when smart enough people see Orthodoxy purely from the ritual side, this is more than annoying.
And yet a person is so arranged that he always wants to explain everything. And always, no matter what he experiences, no matter what problems he solves, he wants to get to the bottom of the cause. Like Venedikt Erofeev: "I know many plans of God."
So, the only thing you should not do is to come up with your own interpretations of the rites and expect something extraordinary from them. And then, after all, for some it comes to the point that they begin to see the causes of serious life troubles in the prayer of the fortieth day that was not read a quarter of a century ago. The life principle “find a reason for everything” is bad because, without finding the reasons, a person easily invents them. It is important to remember that church rites are not intended for this.
Everything has its time and place
– So is it necessary in the Church to revise the old traditions - to cancel something, to modify it?
Yes and no. It is vital for us to place the Eucharist, and with it Christ, in the first place in the mass church consciousness. And this will inevitably entail a weakening of attention to the rites in general.
However, the Church is a fairly conservative structure, so no revolutionary changes in it will lead to good consequences. Any, even the most necessary changes in the Church must occur evolutionarily. That is, it is necessary to understand that this is always a long process, the basis of which is explanation, clarification, etc.
There is a constant replenishment of the Church with new people - churching of different ages, growing up children, youth. And these people need to be given a correct understanding of the centrality of the Gospel in the life of the Church, to make it clear that the core of Orthodoxy is. And if these believers become bearers of just such values, some changes will naturally begin to occur over time. No one will cancel the rites, no one will fight them - it's just that in the minds of church people the rites will take the place they should occupy, but no more.
Prepared Marina Bogdanova
Description
A traditional Orthodox dish that is prepared for all kinds of holidays and rituals.
Traditionally, kutya is made from wheat groats or whole grains of wheat. No less often you can also find a recipe for cooking kutya with rice. In both cases, kutya turns out to be incredibly satisfying and tasty. Such it is made by additional ingredients that we will also use in our recipe.
Kutya is traditionally cooked at home.
Step by step recipe kuti with raisins and dried fruits is presented below with visual instructions and a photo. From it you will learn how you can tasty and properly cook wheat for kutya, as well as what ingredients you can add to it.
To diversify the taste of kutia and make it more expressive, we will use dried fruits in cooking, which we boil in advance. Such wheat kutya will turn out to be very juicy and deep in taste.
Let's start cooking a festive wheat kutya.
Ingredients
-
(1 st.) -
(150 g) -
(100 g) -
(100 g) -
(100 g) -
(3 tablespoons) -
(2 tablespoons)
Cooking steps
We wash the wheat groats, sort it out, and only after that we fill it with water and leave it to infuse for at least 3 hours, and best of all, all night: so it will soften and be easy and quick to cook.
We drain the water in which the wheat was infused, pour the cereal into a suitable bowl, fill it with new water and cook over low heat until tender.
Pour about 2 liters into a deep and voluminous pan cold water, put on fire. We sort out the prepared mixture from a wide variety of dried fruits, get rid of excess debris and twigs, as well as seals.
After the liquid in the pan has come to a boil, pour all the prepared dried fruits into the water and cook them for 10 minutes over low heat. After the specified time, remove the pan from the heat and leave the fruit to infuse and soften for another 2 hours.
Pour the specified amount of poppy seeds into a deep bowl, pour it with the first portion of boiling water, rinse thoroughly and drain the water. After that, pour poppy seeds with boiling water again and leave it to infuse at room temperature under a closed lid for 30 minutes.
Drain the water from the bowl, put the softened poppy seeds into a mortar or a suitable dish, add sugar and grind the ingredients until a homogeneous mass.
A small number of already cleaned walnuts transfer to a baking sheet and dry slightly in a preheated oven, then cool and chop with a sharp knife or in a blender. You can also pour the nut kernels into a towel and crush them with a kitchen hammer. We wash the raisins and pour boiling water for about 15-20 minutes.
We remove dried fruits from the pan, chop them and add to the already prepared wheat. There we also send poppy seeds crushed with sugar, chopped walnuts and steamed raisins. Add the specified amount of sweet honey to the wheat. Thoroughly mix the ingredients in a deep bowl.
Ready meal Decorate with finely grated walnuts and serve hot. Wheat kutya with dried fruits, poppy seeds and honey is ready.
Enjoy your meal!
The Church recommends starting the time of fasting by “anointing your head and washing your face,” as before a responsible meeting. On a clean Monday, you can often hear congratulations: “Happy Lent!” But this time is considered to be one of the most severe in the life of a Christian. And they usually congratulate with something joyful. What is joyful in the post? With this question, we turned to Orthodox Christians of various occupations.
Maxim SYRNIKOV, culinary specialist and researcher of Russian cuisine, talks about what you still don’t know about cereals and offers exclusive author’s recipes
It seems that our restaurateurs do not even know about the fact that an Orthodox person is supposed to fast every Wednesday and Friday, and besides the Great Fast in the year there are three more long fasts. We tried to understand: is it possible for a fasting person to have a quick bite somewhere, or even a full meal, running out of the office for an hour? Yes, so that later heartburn does not torment and the blow to the wallet does not turn out to be too strong?
The Great Lent meal doesn't have to be boring. After all, it's not just food. Gathering at a common table is an opportunity to communicate in love, with your family, friends and guests. Introducing Delicious Meal Recipes
Lenten pies yeast dough, potato patties with mushrooms, dryers for tea, baklava and gozinaki prepared according to our recipes will help the hostess to please her loved ones
In Russia, there are traditional dishes that were prepared for a certain day. "Larks" - on the day of memory of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste - this is March 22 according to the new style, "ladder" (ladder of dough) - on the day of memory of St. Posta) baked crosses from dough. And larks, and crosses, and ladders were consecrated in the temple, then they ate.
What is good cranberry jelly? How to shade the taste of ginger in tea and how to make lemonade yourself? We offer several recipes for drinks that can diversify the table
From beets with garlic croutons, from beans, from tomatoes and lentils, dried mushrooms and carrots - every day you can cook a new soup, nutritious, tasty and lean
Assumption post is a happy time for the hostess. August gives us such an abundance of fruits that the preparation of lenten dishes is not difficult. For those who are not ready to come up with recipes on their own and compare them with the prescriptions of the charter, we are starting a series of "culinary" publications. We offer a menu for every day of the Assumption Lent. The first day.
What to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner? For those who are not ready to independently check recipes from cookbooks with the Lenten calendar and charter prescriptions, we publish culinary ideas for each day of Lent. main character today's menu is paella.
We continue the series of "culinary" publications. It's time to remember such a useful, protein-rich product as chickpeas. And today, several dips are served with traditional potatoes at once - from cucumbers and avocados.
The central dish of the table is kutya.
Kolevo in Orthodoxy is a symbol of the Christmas holidays. Each nation and nationality has its own unique recipes for preparing Christmas kutya.
When and where did kutia appear in Russia
In Orthodoxy, kolivo did not appear immediately. His homeland is Greece, which found meaning in every subject.
Initially, this dish was prepared as a memorial dish in countries where there is a cult of worship of the dead.
Christianity arose when the world lived according to pagan laws. Many rituals of that time have taken root to this day, only their meaning has changed.
In Russia, kolivo has become a symbol of life and wealth; it is made for weddings and the christening of children.
Boiled wheat flavored with poppy seeds and honey is called kutia in Greece.
How is Sochivo connected with the birth of the God of gods, the King of kings, the Savior of mankind?
Just as Jesus gave people eternal life through faith in Him after renouncing the sins of this world, so the grain is a symbol of fertility, which, dying in the spring, gives life to many spikelets.
A person who eats kolivo symbolically joins the eternal cycle of life, being reborn through faith in Jesus
- The blessing of eternal life, sweet stay in paradise is connected with honey.
- Poppy - symbolizes prosperity and fertility, tranquility and a lot of bounty.
Every hostess tries to holidays prepare the richest and most satisfying kutya to attract wealth and prosperity to the house.
Coliva varieties
Every Christmas holiday, be it Christmas Eve, Christmas or Epiphany, the Orthodox celebrate at the table, the “queen” of which is kolivo.
Depending on the holiday, the time of the Nativity fast and the rules of the Church, there are several types of kutya:
- rich, served on New Year and Christmas Eve;
- generous differs from rich only in the way poppy is poured, in this case, May is poured with hot milk;
- hungry, as a rule, is prepared for the evening before Epiphany from grains, a small amount of raisins and a sweetener.
Read about New Year's Eve:
Kolivo always has grain as its basis.
On the night before Christmas, rich kutya is eaten, to which many ingredients are added, but it is strictly forbidden to use fast foods such as milk, cream or butter.
The Christmas main dish of the table is truly generous in terms of the number of ingredients and the method of preparing sochiva, this is another name for kutya. Sochivo differs from koliva only in the presence of liquid, which means a more juicy dish.
Important! Despite the fact that the fast has already ended, the dinner before Epiphany is strictly limited in the choice of products, lenten kolivo is prepared, only grain and sweets.
Christmas kutia
Folk traditions associated with sochiv
The main Christmas dish, filled with symbols, is associated with many folk traditions.
- During the holiday, the owner of the house took a full spoonful of juicy and threw it to the ceiling. All family members carefully counted the grains stuck at the top. The more grains left on the ceiling, the richer the harvest will be. Each grain stuck to the ceiling is a symbol of the sheaf that God will give in the coming year.
- Spikelets placed under a bowl of koliv were considered a talisman of the house. They were kept for a whole year, until the next holidays.
- Some masters believed so much in healing power sochiv that they fed it to domestic animals, so that they would get sick less and give a good offspring.
- At night, a little kutia was left on the table in memory of deceased relatives.
- In the evening, children always took kolivo to their grandparents, who live separately, and to their godparents.
More orthodox recipes:
The basis of the koleva is grain, each locality uses its own component:
- wheat;
- pearl barley;
- barley and others.
Each cereal has its own cooking secrets.
- Rice will turn out crumbly if it is poured with water in a ratio of 1: 2. Boil for 3-4 minutes over high heat, then reduce to medium. Cook porridge for another 6 minutes. For the last 5-10 minutes, cook slowly. After that, turn off the fire, leave the rice to “steam”. Kolivo from rice is mainly prepared for Epiphany, only raisins and a little honey are added to it.
- It is advisable to soak wheat, pearl barley and barley overnight to reduce the cooking time, pour until tender. If there is still water left in the porridge after complete readiness, it can be drained.
Each experienced housewife has her own recipe for preparing Christmas kutya.
Kolivo will turn out juicy and saturated with sweetness, if hot porridge, immediately after cooking, is poured with an almost boiling bowl so that it covers the grains. Add a little sugar, wrap and leave to evaporate.
If there is no uzvar, then any jam can be diluted in boiling water, but in this case sugar is not put.
It is forbidden to add honey to the hot mixture, the healing elixir becomes a carcinogen when heated.
While the porridge is gaining sweetness and juiciness, dressing is prepared from the following ingredients:
- washed raisins,
- ground poppy;
- chopped nuts;
- small pieces of dried fruits remaining from the preparation of the uzvar.
Poppy at Christmas is allowed to be poured with hot milk, and in other cases, boiling water is used to remove bitterness.
After the porridge has cooled to 30 - 40 degrees, add all the ingredients, honey and mix everything thoroughly and wrap it again until it cools completely. Then each component of the koliva will be filled with the taste of the “neighbor”.
Advice! Do not cook juicy for the future, this dish can ferment when kept warm for a long time.
Watch the video about the Christmas kutia
Kutya- it's orthodox memorial dish, which symbolizes faith in eternal life, resurrection and in the kingdom of heaven.
Another name for Kutya is Kolivo.
Christmas, wedding, christening, Orthodox holidays... they also cook Kutya, but they call it differently - Kolivo.
Kolivo- it's orthodox holiday dish. When Kolivo is already ready, it must be consecrated in the church at the service and a prayer is read before the meal. Kolivo blessed in the church and served on the table on Friday of the first week of Great Lent in memory of the miracle of St. Martyr Theodore Tyrone, who, appearing on this day in 362 in a dream to Bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, warned of the desecration of food in the markets with idolatrous blood.
The word "kutia" in Greek means boiled wheat.
In fact, kutya (Kolovo) is prepared from any cereal, such as rice, buckwheat, millet..., sweetened with honey or sugar and adding raisins and other dried fruits, candied fruit, poppy seeds, nuts, muesli, jam, marmalade.
It is customary to serve Kutya (Koliva) in a separate gravy boat with lean milk - Uzvar, which is made from poppy seeds, walnuts or hazelnuts, or from a mixture of them, or from almonds. Accordingly, poppy, nut or almond milk is obtained. Kutya
Based on 25-30 people. Ingredients:
Rice long - 100 grams
Raisins - 70-100 grams
Candied fruits - 50 grams
Honey or sugar - 1 tablespoon
Purified water - 600 milliliters
Cooking:
1. According to Orthodox customs, fruits that are added to Kutya are associated with heavenly fruits that God has given to all mankind. In this dish, you can add not only raisins, but also dried fruits if desired: dried apricots, prunes, and also candied fruit and poppy seeds.
So, put the raisins in a small saucepan, fill it with plain water and leave for 20-30 minutes. Then rinse it under running water.
Pour into a bowl of dried fruits. 200 ml purified water and boil it over medium heat 5 minutes. If you use dried apricots or prunes, cut them into small pieces after cooking.
2. In history, memorial dinners symbolize the gathering of the disciples of Christ, who were glad for the Resurrection of their mentor and waited every time at the table for his appearance. Therefore, in early Christian societies, by holding joint meals, they expressed love for each other and honored the dead, telling stories about them and remembering pleasant moments in their lives. And when the Risen Christ appeared to his disciples, he ate honey. Therefore, since ancient times, honey has been put on a funeral dinner or added to other dishes so that the deceased can get enough of heavenly sweetness.
In order for this ingredient to be well absorbed into the rice, and Kutya to turn out sweet, you need to melt it a little.
So, put honey with a spoon in a small saucepan and, stirring constantly, heat it over medium heat literally 1-2 min. We control the time ourselves, since honey can be candied, and because of this, it will take a little longer to tinker with it. Instead of honey, you can add another sweet component to Kutya - sugar. To do this, simply dissolve it in a small amount of hot water.
3. Grind candied fruit to the size that you like best. This ingredient is added to many dishes, such as Easter cake. After all, candied fruits are fruits boiled in syrup with a dense texture. They are very sweet and serve as an excellent substitute for sweets. Therefore, when adding candied fruit to Kutya, be careful with sugar so as not to over-sweeten the dish.
4. First, soak the rice in a medium-sized saucepan with plain water for 1-2 hours. After - drain the water and fill the rice with already purified water. According to the proportions, 400 ml of water is needed for 100 grams of cereal. As for rice, you can take either round-grain or long-grain.
We put the pan with cereal on the stove, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a minimum. During the cooking process, do not stir the rice with a spoon. Don't worry - it won't burn. On a small fire, the rice will “breathe”, slowly evaporating the water.
From time to time we check Fig. When there is practically no water left in the pan, and the cereal grains become soft, add raisins or other dried fruits, chopped candied fruits, and pour in honey or sugar water. Mix everything well with a spoon and keep on fire 1-2 more minutes.
5. We shift the finished Kutya from the pan with a spoon into a deep plate or bowl. We level the surface of the dish with a spoon and, if desired, decorate with raisins and candied fruit. And now we cover with a lid from the pan so that Kutya slowly cools down.
By Orthodox traditions after consecrating Kutya, a prayer is read at the table and the memorial meal begins with a spoonful of this sweet dish.
Enjoy your meal !
Tips:- Instead of rice, you can add other cereals to Kutya. For example, wheat, buckwheat, barley ...
- Funeral Kutya is prepared for a wake on the ninth, fortieth day, for six months, a year, for a memorial day, as well as special dates allotted for this.
- After the funeral meal, Kutya can be put in a cool place or in the refrigerator and commemorate the deceased with it the next day before eating, until Kutya is over.
- The funeral kutya is placed in the center of the table and, as usual, each person eats one spoonful before the meal. You can also take this dish with a fork or directly with your hands.
Kolivo
Ingredients:
Wheat - 1 cup
Walnuts - 100 grams
Poppy - 1 glass
Raisins - 100 grams
Dried fruits (apples, pears, apricots, plums) - 150 grams
Sugar - 4 tablespoons
Honey - 3 tablespoons
Purified water - 500 milliliters
Cooking:
1. On the Christmas Holy Evening, it is Kolivo that must be on the table. This dish is prepared in the evening from January 6 to 7, and also on January 13. Kolivo is a traditional Slavic dish that reflects abundance and fertility. In order for Kolivo to turn out really tasty and festive, you need to know how to cook it correctly.
Let's start preparing the main ingredient - wheat. To begin with, we sort out the grains on the kitchen table and separate the spoiled ones from the good ones. After pouring the cereal into a deep bowl and rinse under running water. Fill with water so that it covers the wheat, and soak at 12 o'clock or all night. From the water they swell and become not so hard. Such wheat will cook twice as fast.
In the morning, drain the remaining water from the soaked wheat. We shift it from the bowl into a deep saucepan and fill it with fresh water. Stick to proportions. For example, for our recipe: 100 g of soaked wheat requires 500 ml of water.
So, put the pan with wheat on the stove, bring to a boil and only after that reduce the heat to a minimum. Cook the cereal for at least 2 hours until fully cooked. Ready-made wheat should be soft in texture, but not overcooked. Wheat grains in our dish symbolize long and eternal life, in abundance and kindness.
2. While our wheat is being cooked, we are preparing Uzvar.We take dried fruits, wash them under running water and then put them in a deep pan with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Immediately after boiling, reduce the heat and let the mixture reach readiness over low heat. 15 – 20 min. In 5 minutes until cooked, add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
The knot is ready.
To make it more tasty and rich, for this we insist it for another 4-5 hours.
3. After Uzvar has been infused, we separate the liquid from dried fruits. We put the fruit in a sieve and let the remnants of Uzvar drain. We spread the finished dried fruits on a cutting board and chop with a knife into small pieces. The size of the pieces doesn't really matter. Transfer chopped dried fruits to a plate.
4. We spread the poppy on a plate and pour boiling water over it so that it is steamed. After the water in the poppy has cooled, drain it. Add two tablespoons of sugar to poppy seeds and grind with a blender until white juice appears.
This juice is called poppy milk". In general, the poppy is a symbol of prosperity.
5. There is nothing difficult in preparing raisins. It is desirable that it be boneless. If there are grape tails in this ingredient, we clean the raisins from them. Then we wash it under running water, put it on a plate and pour it with boiling water. Steam the raisins for 30 minutes. This process is necessary so that the dried grapes absorb some water, swell and become more juicy and soft. After - we drain the rest of the water. Gently squeeze the raisins with your hands and leave them in a bowl.
6. Using a blender in the first or second modes, grind the peeled walnuts. In no case do not use turbo mode, as we need small pieces of the ingredient. And this mode turns any product into crumbs.
Transfer the walnut pieces to a plate. By the way, according to Slavic customs Walnut added to Kolivo, as it was a symbol of fertility, productivity and good luck.
7. Our Kolivo is almost ready!There are a few key points left. We spread the cooled cooked wheat, raisins, chopped dried fruits, poppy seeds and nuts in a deep bowl. We fill our mixture with honey and Uzvar.
Mix everything well with a spoon until a homogeneous mass is formed.
Kolivo must not only be put first on the table, but also offered to guests to taste it, as this is the main dish for the Holy Evening. Kolivo is served cold with cream, milk or Uzvar.
According to Orthodox traditions, after consecrating Kolivo, a prayer is read at the table and the festive meal begins with a spoonful of this sweet dish.
Enjoy your meal !
Tips:– If you don’t have a blender handy for grinding nuts, then you can use a rolling pin, or crush the nuts in a mortar, or finely chop them with a knife, or you can just break them with your hands.
– In the process of preparing the filling for Kolivo, you can grind poppy seeds with sugar in a mortar. You can also use a bowl and a regular tablespoon. Of course, preparing poppy seeds in this way will take more time than if we could use a blender. In any case, the result will be the same.
– If for some reason you don’t have dried fruits for Uzvar, you can make sugar syrup with jam. To do this, you need to dissolve sugar in a small amount of water and then add a couple of tablespoons of your favorite jam.
- You can add any dried fruits, frozen berries, any kind of nuts, and even candied fruit and marmalade to Kolivo.
– Not only wheat is suitable for Kolivo. It can also be prepared from different cereals, such as, for example, rice, buckwheat, oatmeal, pearl barley ...
- Porridge is best cooked in a cast-iron cauldron or a saucepan with a thick bottom. In such containers, the cereal will not burn and it will turn out crumbly.
- If Kolivo turned out to be very thick, it can be diluted with Uzvar.
- Very important: Kolivo is not stored for a long time, as honey, in combination with all the components of the dish, can begin to ferment.
- If for some reason you could not consecrate Kutya in the church, do not be discouraged. You can simply sprinkle the dish with holy water at home or just pray before the memorial meal.