Kutia (Kutya) is an old Slavic dish known since pre-historic times. It is the main of twelve dishes served for Sviata Vecheria (twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper) during Winter Holidays (Ukrainian Christmas).
Th ancient recipe of Kutia from the traditional ethnic cuisine Etnocook is very simple. The main ingredients are wheat grains (wheatberries), water, poppy seeds and honey. Often walnuts and raisins are added.
Kolyvo is a traditional dish like kutia, but without poppy seeds. It is served at remembrance services and tasted from one bowl by everyone present.
After Kutia all the other dishes are tasted, among them Borshch and Vushka, Varenyky, Pampuhy.
Sweet Ukrainian cereal dish of of wheat, honey, poppy seeds and nuts
- before soaking wheat can be dried in 100C oven for 1 hour, stirring time to time
- pearl barley can be taken instead of wheat
- more or less honey or water can be added, to taste
- honey can be replaced by sugar (1:2)
- sometimes other kinds of nuts are added
Ingredients:
- wheat berries - 500 g
- water - 3 l
- poppy seeds - 50 g
- walnuts - 100 g
A walnut is an edible seed of any tree of the genus Juglans
Walnut seeds are a high density source of nutrients, particularly proteins and essential fatty acids.
Walnuts are a nutrient-dense food: 100 grams of walnuts contain 15.2 grams of protein, 65.2 grams of fat, and 6.7 grams of dietary fiber. The protein in walnuts provides many essential amino acids.Wikipedia
- raisins - ~80 g, to taste
- salt - ~ 4 g, to taste
Salt is a mineral substance composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl)
Salt is present in most foods, but in naturally occurring foodstuffs such as meats, vegetables and fruit, it is present in very small quantities. It is often added to processed foods to make their flavour more appealing and is also present at higher levels in preserved foods.
In many East Asian cultures, salt is not traditionally used as a condiment.In its place, condiments such as soy sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce tend to have a high sodium content and fill a similar role to table salt in western cultures. They are most often used for cooking rather than as table condiments.
Table salt is made up of just under 40% sodium by weight, so a 6 g serving (1 teaspoon) contains about 2,300 mg of sodium.
Sodium serves a useful purpose in the human body: it helps nerves and muscles to function correctly, and it is one of the factors involved in the autoregulation of water content (fluid balance).[49] Most of the sodium in the Western diet comes from salt
Too much sodium is bad for health, and health organizations generally recommend that people reduce their dietary intake of salt. High salt intake is associated with a significantly greater risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease in susceptible people. In adults and children with no acute illness, a decrease in the intake of sodium from the typical high levels reduces blood pressure and provides a health benefit, and a low salt diet results in an even greater improvement in blood pressure in those with hypertension than in those without. A reduction in salt intake of 5 g per day has been found to be associated with a 23% reduction in the rate of stroke and a 17% reduction in the rate of total cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization recommends that all adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium (5 g of salt) per day. A 2013 report from the Institute of Medicine states that there is insufficient evidence to show that there is any additional benefit in lowering sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day.
Instructions:
1. Prepare all the ingredients for Ukrainian Kutia
Clean and prepar the wheat grains, poppy seeds, raisins, walnuts
2. Cook the wheat grains
Сarefully wash wheat in cold water three times, soak in 1 liter spring or filtered water for 5 hours (or for the night). Drain water, add 2 liters of fresh water, add salt and 1 tspof sugar to taste, bring to a boil. Reduce the fire to a minimum and cook it under a closed cover until the grains become soft (~ 30-40 min.). If necessary, add warm water if it is very boiling up. After cooking, drain water, and put the finished wheat into a deep dish, in which ingredients for Kutia will be mixed.
3. Prepare poppy seeds
Add hot water to poppy seeds in a deep bowl and soak for 1 hour. Drain and strain through the gauze. Grind to a homogeneous whitish mass.
4. Add raisins
Add raisins to wheat in deep bowl and mix.
5. Add nuts and poppy seeds
Finely cut nuts, mix with poppy seeds, add to other ingredients for Kutya.
6. Add honey
In a glass (150 ml.) of warm water (~ 40C) put honey and mix. Add to the other ingredients of Kutia.
7. Serve Kutia
Serve lightly warm Kutia for Sviata Vecheria (Sviatvechir) as the main dish. Actually, Kutia is the first out of twelve dishes served for Sviata Vecheria to be tasted.
