Wigilia – Polish Christmas Eve Feast
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. Eating poppy seeds dishes are believed to bring lots of abundance in the coming year. 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 poppy seeds. Add raisins or cranberries, candied orange peel and nuts. Boil noodles according to the recipe on the package. When ready, combine the warm noodles with poppy seeds mixture. Serve hot as a main dish or cold as a dessert. Enjoy it!
Wesolych Swiat!