Christmas kutia

When we think about Christmas, traditions and Christmas Eve’s flavours, the Kutia dish comes in thought, which we would eat all night long at the festive table at our beloved grandma’s house. For us, it’s the taste of childhood and our favourite sweet treat, which you can eat and eat nonstop.

If you never heard about it, here are some facts: kutia is one of a Christmas Eve’s sweet dishes, which is popular in the Eastern part of Poland and in the nearby counties of Eastern Europe:  Lithuania, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Good news for you is that it is another simple recipe, which requires some time but doesn’t require too much effort. The most complicated thing is to buy the main ingredient, which is wheat. But no worries, we will give you some tips on where to look for it.

If you still are not interested, at the end of the recipe we also will give a lazy version. So check it out!

Ingredients for Christmas kutia:

• 400 g of wheat grain
• 200 g poppy seed
• 200 g of fruit cake mix (you can buy one or make your own)
• 100 g of walnuts
• 1-2 tbs of honey

Method:

1. Where to find wheat? Look for it in the big supermarkets among bio food or in the bean section – it can be sold by weight or in packages. You can also look at the local market and in the Bio stores with healthy food.
2. Rinse the wheat grain a few times with water and boil it for 1-2 hours. You should boil wheat until it becomes soft. The cook time may depend on the wheat grain. If there is excess water left, drain it.
3. Rinse the poppy seed, pour boiling water over so that it covers the seeds and now mix it with a blender (in our grandma’s time this would be done in a mortar, but today we can receive the same effect without any extra effort thanks to new kitchenware 🙂 .
4. Pour fruit cake mix with boiling water. You can make your own mix using for example:  raisins, dried apricots, dates, cranberry, etc.
5. We mix poppy seed and dried fruits with the wheat. There should be some water in the dish, so that it has a soft texture, so we don’t drain water from seed and fruits.
6. Next, we smash walnuts into small pieces, add it to the mixture and well mix it all together.
7. Finally, we add the honey. Remember, that dried fruits also add a lot of sweetness, so be careful not to make your kutia too sweet. You can also add a couple of hazelnuts.

Your kutia is ready! You can store it in a fridge even for a week.

P.S. For lazy and really busy ones: you can buy a can of poppy seed mass with dried fruits and just mix it with cooked wheat. Voila! The dish is ready 🙂 

Here you will find our other options for the Christmas table.

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