Sochivo is prepared on the eve of big holidays, the so-called Christmas Eve or Nomads. It is customary to eat it, according to the Church Rule, in the evening, after a complete refusal of food throughout the day.
No guests were invited home on Christmas Eve. But in the evening the children carried their relatives home to their relatives’ homes, treated them to grandparents. Dinner always started with soaking, it was necessary to eat it first. Everyone at the table had to eat at least a small amount of it, and then, according to legend, he will live in prosperity and health all year round.
At first, it was made from rye grains, but with a decrease in its crops and an increase in wheat, they gradually began to switch to cooking from wheat grains. In the 20s of the last century, due to the ban on the sale of unprocessed grain in the stores of the USSR, when wheat grain was very difficult to get in urban areas, people began to cook it from more affordable rice.
Juice is a dish that has special meaning and is not an everyday food. During fasting, the resources of the human body are involuntarily mobilized, and internal tension arises. But this tension does not go away by itself even after the end of the fast. To take it off, they came up with a good idea. Due to the ingredients in the dish, such as wheat or rice grains, walnuts and honey, sochivo is high in calories. In addition, it contains poppy seed milk, and poppy seeds are known to have a relaxing effect that relieves anxiety and fear. It is precisely this effect that needs to be achieved with the help of ointment.
There are not so few ways to make soch. Let’s take a look at a few traditional recipes.
The standard ingredients for sochiv are: 1 glass of millet, 3 tablespoons of honey, 100 g of poppy seeds and about 100 g of walnuts. A simple way of making soch is as follows: you need to cook ordinary porridge from wheat grain in water. Poppy must be ground until poppy milk is formed and mixed with honey. All this must be mixed with boiled wheat grains and chopped walnuts added.
There are also more complex recipes. First, the grain must be allowed to soak in cold water. Sometimes this is done in the evening, but 2-3 hours will be enough. Then the grain must be thrown onto a sieve and washed with hot water to get rid of excess flour. Next, transfer the grain to a saucepan and cook it with water in a ratio of 1: 3 over low heat for about 2 hours or simmer in the oven at 180˚C until the grain becomes soft.
Poppy needs to be poured with boiling water and let it brew until it swells. A small part of the resulting decoction of grain must be drained into a separate cup and mixed with honey. The rest of the broth can be poured out, it will not be useful. The resulting honey water should be poured over the wheat. When the poppy swells, it is necessary to drain the water from it and scroll through a fine grate several times in a meat grinder. Finely chop the nuts, and you can use not only walnuts, but also almonds. Wheat, poppy seeds and nuts must be mixed together and allowed to brew. The dish is ready.
Usually, before preparing the oozing, the wheat grains were pounded in a mortar with warm water to remove the shell. But it is healthier to cook it with whole grains rather than refined grains. If you cook sprouted grains, it has healing properties, strengthens health and restores the body, especially after heavy operations.
