Kutia is considered to be one of the main dishes served at Christmas. It is with her that the evening meal begins and it ends with it. Each family member, including animals, should taste kutya in order for the next year to be successful, rich, fertile and happy.
Correct kutia is made from cereal porridge, to which poppy seeds or poppy milk and honey are added. The grain is necessarily crushed in a mortar. This is done in order to separate the husk. Traditionally, the choice of wheat, pearl barley or barley is taken for the preparation of a Christmas meal. Serve kutya with honey on the table.
What do the ingredients in the holiday dish symbolize?
Grain represents immortality and fertility.
Honey - pleasure and well-being.
Poppy - wealth and fertility.
The tastier and more satisfying Christmas kutia is prepared, the more successful the next year will be.
How to cook kutya: traditional cooking features
For the manufacture of kutya, they took refined grains and boiled them for several hours. In the villages, this festive porridge languished in the oven until the grains became soft and light. In the conditions of modern life, you can use the oven. It is worth considering that the dishes must be ceramic or cast iron.
A Christmas carol was usually served with milk made from a mixture of hazelnuts and poppy seeds. To prepare it, it was necessary to steam the poppy seeds well, and pour boiling water over the nuts. Then mix everything and grind until a white liquid appears.
In addition, kutya was often seasoned with honey mixed with hot water. Steamed dried fruit was also added. The more satisfying the kutia turned out, the better.
A modern recipe for kutya for Christmas
How to cook kutya? First you need to decide exactly on the ingredients.
You will need the following components:
- 250 grams of wheat grains;
- 250 grams of dried fruits (apples, prunes, dried apricots, pears, cherries);
- 100 grams of walnuts;
- 100 grams of any raisins;
- 100 grams of poppy;
- 6 glasses of water;
- 4 tablespoons of honey (tablespoons);
- salt and granulated sugar;
- vegetable oil.
To make wheat kutya, the grains are sorted out and washed well. The polished grains do not need to be presoaked beforehand. If you decide to cook kutya not from a similar version of wheat, then the grains must be soaked in the evening.
The process of directly preparing a Christmas meal is as follows:
- Pour wheat with water (about 3-4 glasses), add salt and vegetable oil, cook until tender; on a note: to make the cereal softer and tastier, at the end of cooking you need to put the porridge in the oven for 15-20 minutes;
- poppy must be poured into a suitable container and poured with boiling water, then leave for 45 minutes;
- then drain the poppy seed water, add sugar to taste, mix well and grind in a coffee grinder (you can crush in a mortar);
- after that you need to soak the raisins in hot water for 30 minutes;
- a very rich compote is cooked from dried fruits; when it is ready, you need to get the fruit, and add honey to the resulting broth.
Put the finished wheat on a plate. After the Christmas porridge has cooled down, add fruit from compote, poppy seeds with raisins, crushed nuts to taste. At the end, pour everything with the resulting honey syrup and mix. You can also decorate kutya with fruit for Christmas.
