Pottery and Friends - Polish Pottery

Wigilia - Polish Christmas Eve Celebration

Wigilia is a Polish Christmas Eve
dinner celebrated on the 24th December. This traditional dinner
consists of 12 dishes, the number is related to each of the 12 Apostles, some
families though may prepare more than 12 dishes. Everyone is expected to at
least taste every dish to ensure a good luck during the coming year. There is
no meat served during the meal. The Wigilia menu typically will have a red beet
soup with the tiny pierogi – uszka, or a wild mushroom one, variety of pierogi
– sweet, or savory, fish – fried or pickled herring, savory cabbage, salads, bread
and lots of dishes with poppy seeds to include a poppy seed roll - makowiec. Eating
poppy seeds dishes are believed to bring lots of abundance in the coming year. J There are many
regional variations of standard menu served during the course. One of them is
pasta with poppy seeds, mostly made in the Eastern part of Poland. Here is a
simple, fun recipe for Polish noodles with poppy seeds.

Polish Noodles with Poppy Seeds

Ingredients: ½ pound of
poppy seeds, 3-4 spoons of honey, 1 cup of milk, 3 spoons of raisins or dried
cranberries, 2 spoons of chopped walnuts or sliced almonds, one spoon of
chopped candied orange peel, and about 8 oz of pappardelle pasta.

Directions: Bring poppy
seeds to boil in about 1 ½ cup of water for about 10 minutes. Drain the water
and grind the poppy seeds twice. Put the poppy seeds back to the pot, add milk
and honey and heat it together for a short time until honey is mixed well with
a poppy seeds mixture. Add raisins or cranberries and nuts. Boil pappardelle
noodles according to the recipe on the package. When ready, combine the noodles
with poppy seeds mixture. Serve hot as a main dish or cold as a dessert. Enjoy
it!

Wesolych Swiat!