Here and There: 12 dishes Ukrainian Christmas Eve

Showing posts with label 12 dishes Ukrainian Christmas Eve. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2019

Fish Aspic

This is a dish that my Mom always had on the table for Christmas Eve.

Fish was delivered before Christmas to our village by a fisherman in the area. I remember people picking out whole frozen fish from the back of his truck, ie Jack Fish, Pickerel and White Fish.

White Fish

The fish was cleaned and cut into pieces. The whole fish was used for the broth including the head. The stock pot was filled with water and to this was added chopped celery, onion, chopped parsley, a bay leaf, salt and peppercorns. Although, Jack Fish has lots of bones, it was the best for the broth to gel. Once the fish was cooked, the fish was taken out, the bones and skin were removed and the cooked fish was placed in a dish or mold The broth was then strained through muslin to assure a very clear broth. Adjust the seasonings before pouring into the mold.

My Mom liked to add julienne carrots and celery to the mold. The fish is chilled, then flipped over on to a bed of lettuce, decorated with lemon slices. Truly a beautiful dish!

The recipe I share is my memory of my Mom making this dish for Christmas Eve.

A mixture of vegetables were chopped up and added first to the stock pot

Carrot
parsley chopped
chopped onion
bay leave
peppercorn

After preparing this dish this year, I realized that my Mom used carrots only a garnish. As I have found out in making turkey gravy, carrots add sweetness that I do not like. Also the carrots take away from the clarity of the broth. Something that my Mom was most particular about!

Wash you fish well inside and outside with cold water. Remove the fish scales with a serrated knife. Make sure that you check carefully to remove all the scales. Give another wash to remove any scales.

Cut into smaller pieces for the pot. I was surprised how tough the fish was.

Place the Fish pieces on the vegetables

Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Skim the foam. Reduce to simmer as soon as it comes to boil and simmer until fish fork tender.

Carefully lift the pieces of fish from the broth. Remove the the bones and place in a mould. Strain the broth through a cheesecloth so that it is clear. Taste for seasoning. There should be enough gelatine from the fish bones but;

1-2 packages of plain gelatine* can be soaked in 1/3c cold water.

Mix gelatine with hot broth

Pour over fish and chill.

*gelatine is collagen in the skin, bones, and connective tissue of an animal which breaks down into gelatine. For the purists at heart, skip this step but if you use fish pieces, it will not jell! On the plus side, it does make a delicious fish soup aka bouillabaisse.

I did make two dishes and did freeze both for Christmas Eve.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Ukrainian Christmas Eve, 2017

Something so special in celebrating Christmas Eve on Jan 6th. The focus is no longer on gifts but on family, the symbolic meal and church. So many memories of my grandparents family all attending regardless of the weather. Their daughter, Mary and family in spite of over an hour driving time in sometimes very cold or blizzard conditions always made the trip to be with the family.

This was my menu for Christmas Eve which is very much like my grandmother's but I have added a Beet salad and Fish Balls.

Christmas Eve

Kolach

Kutia

Borscht with uszka

Herring

Marinated Mushroom
Platter of smoked tuna and salmon

Beets with Smoked Salmon, pickled radish, oranges, preserved lemons

Fish Balls

Morel Mushroom sauce

Cabbage Rolls

Pyrohy, Sauerkraut

Potatoes and Cheese

Platter of dried fruit, nuts and oranges

Pampusky

My Mom and grandmother served all the food at the same time, starting with Kutia. I do it in stages, first the Kutia, soup, then the appetizers followed by the main dishes. Although, I am getting better in time management, I still find that I do not execute this meal as well as my mom did. I do remember the Christmas Eve dinner at my grandmother, where everyone was sitting at the table with some hay underneath the table scattered on a bed sheet. Candies were thrown into the hay for the children to find after the meal.

The Kolach was made with the help of my grandkids!

The traditional Kutia starts the meal following after singing "God Eternal"

Add caption

The mushroom filled tiny dumplings were cooked in water. Cooking them like I did the first time I made them in the beet broth results in pretty pink dumplings!

Borscht

This was my dish of food!

The fish platter that I bought in Chester Nova Scotia was filled with delicious smoked tuna and salmon, a generous gift from son in law that he brought from British Columbia! Pickled Radish and Red Onion garnished the fish!

This is a mixture of marinated mushroom that were purchased at out Italian store.

My daughter and husband were here from Vancouver. We all dressed up in Ukrainian clothing that have been embroidered by cousins in Western Ukraine.

We ended the meal with freshly fried Pampusky filled with dried fruit!

At the same time in rural Manitoba, my aunt who is in her nineties also prepared this feast for her family.

Aunt Marion wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Kutia

Monday, January 9, 2017

Christmas Holiday menu, 2016

Christmas menu, 2016

Along with a Christmas gift list, I find planning the Christmas Menu and work list a lot of fun. Although over the years, my list for Christmas gifts has shortened, yet my Christmas Menu has increased, especially for Christmas Eve Dinner. This year since we were going to have house guests over the Christmas season, I planned and prepared each day's meal so that it could be frozen in my deep freeze and brought out the day before to be popped into the oven. I find that everyone wants to hang out in the kitchen and eager to eat right away. Yes, our fast food generation!

I have posted my Menu planning list and have added links to the dishes I have blogged before, some more than others, so these links have also been included with a date. I will be blogging on the other dishes and including the link in this menu list!

I found that by making ahead casseroles, I enjoyed Christmas very much but it did take about 2 weeks to prepare before hand. But it was well worth it! Do note that since my niece was a vegetarian, I had two casseroles for each meal ready. The vegetarian dishes went well with everyone!

I must add that everything went smoothly before Christmas with my husband chopping most of the vegetables for the casseroles. Things went so went and ahead of schedule that on the 22rd, I decided to self clean my oven, not because the oven was so dirty, but my expresso pot was. Then my oven would not heat up! My hubby, an electrical engineer, could not find the fuse, so 118 dollars later, my oven was working! By then I had rethought how I was doing to prepare these dishes, at 2 am in the morning. On googling, it was suggested never to clean the oven before a holiday. Who knew!

Dec 23

Mexican Cornbread Pie