What to cook for Christmas 2023: the best menu with recipes

Believers all over the world celebrate on December 25 the birth of the Infant Jesus from the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Our Country, festive events fall on January 7th. Different dates of Christmas are explained only by different systems of chronology: the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar. 

The holiday is preceded by a forty-day Advent fast, from November 28 to January 6. On Christmas Eve – the day before the holiday – there is only juicy on the table – a dish of wheat or rice with honey. On the night of Christmas, from 23 p.m. January 6, the Divine Liturgy is served in churches. Believers go to the all-night vigil, and after it, on January 7, they break their fast at the festive table. 

It is believed that 12 dishes should be present on the Christmas table (according to the number of apostles). Traditionally they prepared pancakes, fish, aspic, jelly, suckling pig, fried chicken, pig’s head with horseradish, homemade sausage, roast, honey gingerbread, bread with poppy seeds and honey.

Lens

Speaking of Christmas dishes, one cannot help but talk about the lenten food that is usually served on Christmas Eve. This includes sochivo – a kind of kutya, lean porridge. Traditionally, it is made from wheat grains, rice, barley, seasoned with honey or honey water, nuts, poppy seeds or raisins.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. Rinse the wheat well, fill it with cold water and leave for several hours. Then change the water and cook until tender, adding more water from time to time. The grains should become soft, but retain their shape. 
2. Rinse poppy seeds and steam with hot water. Then drain it and crush it. 
3. Steam the raisins. Chop the nuts. 
4. Combine poppy seeds, raisins, nuts with wheat, add honey and sugar to taste. 

Salad of beets and apples with walnuts

Herring under a fur coat is a traditional dish on the New Year’s table. But this is not the only version of the salad with herring and beets.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. Boil or bake the beets until cooked, let cool, peel and cut into cubes.
2. Peel the apple from the peel and seed box, cut into cubes. To keep it from darkening, sprinkle it with lemon juice.
3. Mix apples and beets, salt, add mayonnaise, sprinkle finely chopped walnuts on top.

Cabbage butterfly

Soup is very rarely served on holidays, but cabbage, or cabbage, was traditionally served at the Christmas table. Let’s try to cook this sauerkraut soup.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

Wash and clean vegetables and mushrooms. Cut the potatoes into cubes, cut the mushrooms in half, and cut the ham into thin strips.

Pour potatoes with water or broth, add pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until the potatoes are soft.

Sauté the onion until transparent. Add ham and mushrooms to it, fry for 2 minutes. Add paprika, cumin, minced garlic, mix.

Put the sauerkraut and zazharki in the broth with potatoes and cook until the cabbage is ready, about 10 minutes.

Christmas goose

Goose or duck is a traditional holiday dish in many countries, including Our Country, and when, if not on Christmas, should you treat yourself to it?

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. The day before cooking, you need to prepare and marinate the goose carcass. Wash it well and remove excess fat. Rub inside and outside with salt, a mixture of peppers, and garlic – only inside. Leave to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
2. The next day, cut half the apples into cubes and stuff the goose with them. After fasten the edges of the abdomen with toothpicks or sew, tie the legs of the bird.
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place the goose on a lightly greased baking sheet or a suitable sized baking dish and cover with foil. During baking, change the position of the carcass every 30 minutes, turning it on the breast, then on the back. Drizzle with oil and cover again with foil.
4. 40 minutes before cooking, place apples around the goose, whole or cut in half. 20-30 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the foil and grease the carcass with a mixture of honey and soy sauce to form a golden fragrant crust.
5. The average baking time is about 2,5 hours. It depends on the fat content and age of the goose. Check readiness by piercing the carcass in the thickest place with a thin knife – the juice that stands out from the finished goose will be transparent.

Sicheniki

It is impossible to imagine a holiday without meat dishes. An interesting option would be sicheniki – finely chopped meat, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. Wash, dry, remove films and veins and finely chop the chicken breast.
2. Add finely chopped onion and garlic to the meat, salt and pepper.
3. Add chicken egg and mix thoroughly.
4. Form cutlets from the meat mass, roll them in breadcrumbs.
5. Fry in a hot skillet until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.

Stew

For Christmas and Christmas time in Our Country they prepared pryazhina – pork ribs fried and then stewed in sauce with homemade sausage. Traditionally, it was served with savory pancakes.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. Cut the pork ribs into pieces of 1-2 bones, the sausage into circles about 0,5 cm thick.
2. Fry the ribs in melted lard on all sides so that they are lightly browned. Set aside the prepared ribs.
3. Fry the sausage pieces and set them aside too.
4. Fry the chopped onion.
5. Reduce the heat, add flour to the onion, stirring, saturate it with fat and fry.
6. Pour warm water into the flour (in portions, stirring constantly) until the consistency of watery sour cream.
7. Add bay leaf, pepper and bring the sauce to a boil. Don’t forget to stir.
8. Combine sauce with ribs and sausage. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then simmer over low heat for about an hour. Finally add crushed or minced garlic.

Kozuli

What’s a holiday without dessert? We offer a recipe for ancient Arkhangelsk gingerbread. Their name comes from the Pomeranian word meaning “curl”, “snake”.

It is necessary:

Cooking:

1. Pour 1 cup of sugar into a dry saucepan with a thick bottom, stir. When the sugar darkens, carefully pour in boiling water and cook until the caramel is completely dissolved. Add a second glass of sugar and cook until completely dissolved.
2. Remove from heat, add butter to hot caramel, mix thoroughly, add spices.
3. Shake one egg and two yolks additionally in a separate bowl and add to the caramel when it has cooled. Stir, add a pinch of salt and soda.
4. Gradually add the sifted flour, mixing the dough.
5. As soon as the dough becomes homogeneous and stops sticking to your hands, wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
6. The next day, roll out the dough into layers of 3-5 mm, cut gingerbread out of it.
7. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Bake gingerbread for 5 minutes. Let them cool down.
8. Whisk the protein with powdered sugar. With the resulting mixture, apply patterns to the finished gingerbread.