TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY CUISINE
Russians are a celebratory people, always eager for an excuse to make merryand the merrymaking usually revolves around food. When Russians celebrate, it''s a lavish affair. A holiday feast is not just for family, it''s a pir na ves'' mir, a "feast for all the world." (Russians are as given to hyperbole as they are to extravagance.) Under the old Russian Orthodox calendar, there were plenty of holidays, each an excuse to celebrate. And around these excuses developed traditional meals, accruing ritual as the years went by.The holidays described in this chapter are those celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church, in which the role of food bears greater significance.
EASTER (PASKHA)
By far the most important holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church is Easter, a time of great feasting and rejoicing, when no meat or dairy products are allowed. Finally, on Easter Eve, the table is set with an abundant spread, featuring the traditional paskha, kulich and decorated eggs. This custom of decorating eggs can be traced back to the pagan spring festivals, when eggs were painted with bright colors to symbolize the blossoming of the plant world. Today egg painting is considered an art form.
For the Easter breakfast the table is set like a zakuska table, only on a grander scale, decorated with flowers and greenery to celebrate the arrival of spring, with most symbolic Easter dishes, the paskha and the kulich.. Paskha is perhaps the most glorious version of cheesecake to be found in any national cuisine. It evolved from the ancient Slavic custom of eating cottage cheese (tvorog) with honey at the onset of spring, but nowadays the cheese is sweetened with sugar. Traditionally the pasha is molded in a pyramid-shaped form indented with the Cyrillic letters XB, which stand for "Christ is risen."
The pasha is sliced and spread on its companion, kulich, a tall, stunning loaf of saffron-scented bread, topped with a mushrooming crown. The crown is first cut off from the top, and then the loaf is sliced horizontally. (The crown is always replaced after serving so that the bread will retain its moistness as well as its visual appeal.) Around the table other sweets and confections also proclaim XB. Typical Russian Easter desserts include mazurki (rich cookies), krendel''ki (boiled pretzel-shaped cookies), and babkj - (sweet yeast-raised cakes, which often exceed the kulich in height, attaining up to 19 inches, but not decorated). More substantial fare is provided by roast ham or suckling pig. And, of course, the table is laden with baskets of brightly dyed and decorated eggs displayed on beds of green leaves or grass.
ARRIVAL OF SPRING (ZHAVORONKl)
The only other springtime festival worthy of note is by custom celebrated on March 9, the day the skylarks, or zhavoronki, are said to return from their winter migration. Young girls used to go out into the fields to toss bread crumbs to the birds, wishing them welcome as the harbingers of spring. Bake shops were full of sweet rolls molded in the form of larks, and even today these confection larks are prepared in early March, although their significance has been lost.
CHRISTMAS (ROZHDESTVO)
On Christmas morning the young girls bring boughs of cherry blossoms to the church to place before the icons. The boughs are cut on St. Catherine''s Day (December 7) and kept in water so they will bloom at Christmas. Other gifts are offered as well, such as homemade ledentsy, fruit-flavored hard candies wrapped in brightly colored paper. Amusements include kolyadovanie, when groups of young people go from house to house singing in exchange for small gifts. Another favorite custom is mummery (wonderfully described in Volume 2 of Tolstoy''s War and Peace), for which the young people dress in exotic costumes and travel by sleigh from house to house, spreading mirth and good cheer.
Christmas means feasting in all lands; in Russia the holiday fare features kut''ya, a dish of steamed, sweetened wheat with fruit and raisins, and stewed dried fruits. Other foods that might enhance the Christmas Eve meal include hot soups, especially rich with fats for the occasion; pirozhkj, filled with meat or cabbage or mushrooms; fish, usually carp, served hot or sometimes cold in aspic; and roast goose stuffed with fruit. Most homes are decorated with a Christmas tree.
THE NEW YEAR (NOVYI GOD)
The New Year is a time of partying and drinking., but since the occasion has taken on folkloric aspects, it deserves mention here. Some of the Russian New Year''s customs are similar to Western tradition: the tree is put up and decorated with tinsel and ornaments, and Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost, makes a holiday appearance. Ded Moroz is a character out of old Russian folklore, a tall, bearded figure encrusted in snow and ice who lives in an ice cave and chats with the creatures of the forest. Ded Moroz can be ordered by telephone to pay a visit to the children on New Year''s Day. He is accompanied on his rounds by another folk figure, Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, a princess dressed in white and shades of blue, sparkling with snowflakes. She and Grandfather Frost distribute sweet cookies called pryaniki, which symbolize a sweet new year for the children. Since the New Year is a family holiday, a large meal featuring roast goose or chicken is usually prepared. This meal is eaten only after midnight, when the first vodka toasts to the New Year have been made.
NAME DAY (IMENINY)
Finally, food plays a significant role in the Russian Name Day festivities. The Name Day was celebrated in old Russia more often than the actual birthday. Before the Revolution, only the names of saints recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church were deemed suitable for a newborn child. Each day on the Orthodox calendar was named for a saint, as was each child, and the Name Day was celebrated according to the saint''s day on which it fell. The Name Day celebrant customarily hosted a party, inviting friends and family to share in the traditional treat of krendel, a large, rich pretzel-shaped loaf of sweet bread. Along with the krendel there might be khvorost, thin, deep-fried cookie twists sprinkled with powdered sugar. These sweets were often washed down with thick hot chocolate fortified with beaten egg yolks.
Although all of the recipes in this chapter are closely associated with specific holidays, they can be made at any time. Blini are wonderfully appropriate for a fancy brunch. Krendel'' and {ulich are excellent breads to serve at teatime. Kut''ya should please one''s vegetarian friends. And it''s possible to eat paskha not only once a year.
Besides here are some wonderful pictures of traditional Russian dishes.
