Christmas Eve is my most favourite holiday of all 🎄🎅🏻🌟! I love the cosiness, warmth, love and family traditions that are created each year!
A traditional Eastern European Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner comprises of 7, 9 or 12 meals (all sacral numbers in Christianity). Seven represents the days or the week, nine – the length of a pregnancy and 12 – the months in a year.
You never start a Christmas Eve dinner without making sure that you have the right number of meals – 7, 9 or 12 – no more, no less 🌟
An Eastern Orthodox Christmas dinner is supposed to be very modest and quiet. Traditionally, all meals are lenten food (постни ястия) – no meat, no dairy, no animal products; as 24th December is the 40th day of Lent. It is traditional to serve food that “swells” – grows in size when cooked – like beans and rice which is a symbol of growing prosperity and fertility. Quiet, dim-lighting, and a somewhat mystical atmosphere is characteristic for Christmas Eve 🕯
I started cooking around 1 pm.
1. Sarmi (сарми) – stuffed cabbage leaves with rice and mushrooms
One of my favourite meals which takes about 2 hours to cook alone 😃
Start by steaming 3-4 onions until very soft. Add 300 g of Portobello mushrooms. Season with savory, salt, pepper and paprika to taste. Add 200-250 g of long grain rice and keep on adding water until the rice is fully boiled. Rice is cooked in proportion to water 1:3. When the stuffing is ready, there comes the rolling. I managed to find already sour cabbage leaves which makes the process easier, but if you cannot find them, then a raw cabbage would do as well (it won’t taste the same, though).
When you’re done, pour the cabbage sour juice in the casserole and use a ceramic plate as a lid. Boil on low-medium temperature for 40-45 minutes.
2. Stuffed (sun dried) peppers with beans
I could not find any sun dried peppers so I had to use raw ones which I boiled at at a low temperature for about 20 minutes to soften. I had soaked overnight 200 g of white beans in a bowl of cold water (make sure you do that!). The secret to boiling beans is patience. Boil the beans at a low to medium temperature for about 2 hours.
3. THE BREAD! 🥖
The traditional Christmas Eve bread loaf is the dinner centre piece.
It is decorated with a cross, flowers, fruit – all symbols of fertility. When you knead the dough, you put a fortune coin (make sure you wash it properly!) as a symbol of prosperity. At dinner time, the bread is crumbled by hand by the guests – whoever finds the coin will be very lucky throughout the upcoming year.
Start by sieving 350g of white flour, add a teaspoon of salt, sugar, vegetable oil and 200 ml of lukewarm water. In a separate container, add a sachet of baking soda and mix with 3 spoons of apple vinegar. Stir well and then add the substance to the other ingredients. Mix everything until a soft dough is formed. Insert the coin and keep kneading until all sides of the dough are rounded. You can decorate the bread, if you wish. Cover with a towel and set aside to rest for as long as possible so the bread can raise (I left mine for about 2 hours). Cover with a bit of vegetable oil and bake at 180C for 40 minutes
4. Honey – 🍯 a symbol of sweet life
5. Garlic – 🧄 to protect your home from evil, bad thoughts and colds
6. Walnuts 🥜 (or any nuts really) – to predict the wealth at home.
If you crack the walnut and it is full, the family will be wealthy. If it is rotten, well… Get another walnut! 😃
7. Dried fruit boiled in sweet water – oshav (ошав)
Boil pretty much any dried fruit, add sugar to it and you have the oshav.
8. Fruit – the more the better, symbol of fertility and prosperity
9. Salad or as I did – gherkins 🥒
Don’t forget the red wine 🍷. The whole family sits at the table together and no one can stand up until everyone has tasted each meal. The oldest person breaks the bread.
Everyone stands up together at the same time which symbolises family unity. The food is left on the table overnight. It is believed that the lost members of the family come during the night to eat – that way they know they are not forgotten.
Presents are opened after dinner 🎁 🎄🎅🏻
