Top Five Ukrainian Christmas and New Years' Dishes
It is considered that in order to make the forthcoming year full and rich, the New Year’s table has to burst with treats. Therefore, while cooking for major winter holiday, most housewives try to surprise and satisfy the loved ones with number and originality of dishes. We picked five most popular dishes of Ukrainian cuisine that will enrich and adorn any New Year's table.
Dressed herring is one of the most popular New Year's salads. Despite originating from Russia, “Shuba” as it is commonly called moved to Ukrainian cuisine long ago and since then is considered to be one of the national dishes. It is multicomponent dish with herring of spiced salting as main ingredient. Then the fish is covered with layers of different vegetables: onion, potato, carrot and beet root. Sometimes, the grated apple can be added to the dressed herring salad. Such a combination of sweet and salty gives the dish piquant taste.
Meat jelly or kholodets is another must on the Ukrainian New Year's table. It represents thick jelly-like dish made of meat broth with garlic and spices. It is cooked with water, meat (regularly pork or chicken), spices and some vegetables. The meat jelly may be served as main course or as cold snack with mustard or horseradish.
Golubsti. Despite the cabbage rolls are considered to be an everyday dish due to its easy-to-cook nature and simple look, it can be a good complement to festive table. It is a peculiar cabbage roll stuffed with minced meat and rice, and braised in tomato sauce. The cabbage rolls are traditionally served with sour cream. For its simple as well as original taste, this main course made a list of favorite Ukrainian New year dishes.
Kutya is the main dish of classic Christmas table. Kutya is traditionally made of wheat or rice with honey, poppy, walnuts and dried fruit. Moreover, every ingredient has its symbolic meaning: wheat is a symbol of resurrected life, honey – health and sweet life, poppy – plenty in family. It is commonly considered that the tastier and more nourishing is kutya, the sweatier and happier the life will be.
Kapustnyak is another must of any Christmas dinner. It is mouth-watering, nourishing soup with sauerkraut and meat – often it is pork because it enriches flavor and aroma and various vegetables – potato, onion, carrot, herbs and spices. It is seasoned with mixture of dairy butter, flour, sour cream and garlic. Kapustnyak with millet is called 'Zaporizhian', (it was cooked by Ukrainian Cossacks since early times). Kapustnyak is regularly served with sour cream sprinkled with herbs.
