KUTIA: ONE OF TWELVE UKRAINIAN DISHES FOR CHRISTMAS EVE
Myroslava Lemko
Kutia is always served as the first of the twelve traditional meatless dishes during Christmas Eve. It is typically made with wheatberries that are sweetened with honey and augmented with poppy seeds, dried fruits and nuts. It is eaten from a common dish to symbolize unity and, in some families, a spoonful of kutia is thrown up to the ceiling. If it sticks, a plentiful honey harvest can be expected.
One Ukrainian-Canadian is taking Ukrainian dishes to a new level, by sharing recipes of classics like borscht, khrusky, pampushky and perizhky on a free cooking and baking blog www.claudiascookbook.com. Jamie, the website's initiator and main contributor, was inspired by her mother Claudia. Prior to Christmas Jamie featured a recipe of kutia.
Ingredients
1 pint (2 cups) cooked wheat
11-12 cups water (to boil wheat)
6 tablespoons ground poppy seeds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
3/4 cup hot water
Instructions
To cook the wheat, dry wheat in 205 Fahrenheit oven for 1 hour, stir occasionally. Wash, soak in cold water overnight. Next morning, bring wheat to boiling point in 11-12 cups of water, simmer 3-4 hours, (or more) until kernels burst open.
To prepare the poppy seeds, scald poppy seed, simmer 3-5 minutes. Drain, grind twice using the finest blade of food chopper.
