Because my father sang in
a Byzantine choir, following the Russian Orthodox rite, we were asked also
top take part in the other customs.
One of the eastercustoms is the
making of Kulich and Pashka, and bringing them to church, where they are
blessed and shared.
We were lucky to have a priest from an area where
still old recipes were used, but ofcourse we had to find substitutions for
some ingredients that could be bought here.
Like at the old
tradition I started the preparations many days before easter.
One
of the extraordinary items was the old milk cooker in which the kulich was
baked.
I was lucky that an old aunt of the family had the thing.
The
original kulich is made in a tall cilindric shaped pan and the old odd
shaped milk cooker was perfect for the cake to rise and spill over the
edges.
The recipe I used follows here.
Keep in mind that each
over is different and that some ingredients should be added in quantities
that fit the amount. The yeast here for example might be a bit different
from yours.
Kulich
2 packages dry -
yeast
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
10 eggs
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/8
teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
lemon extract
lemon
rind
flour
nuts (like almonds)
fruit (like raisins, candied
fruit, and fresh fruit).
1 tsp. vanilla extract or some fresh
vanilla
3 drops oil of roses
powder sugar
Slice the fruit
and the nuts and put it together in a bowl with the lemon extract, vanilla
(extract) and drops of rose oil and some fluid, which might be lukewarm
water, or water with brandy or a couple of drops of wodka.
Let it stay
for at least a couple of hours, preferably a night.
Put the yeast in
half a cup of warm (not hot) water and let it "work". (Don't cool).
Mix
milk and cream and put cool.
Split the eggs.
Beat the egg-yellow
with the sugar and the butter.
Beat the egg-white with a bit of
salt
Mix the yellow-mix with the milk-and-cream.
Spoon it through
the egg-white adding air.
Then add spoonfulls of sifted flour and
spoonfulls of yeastwater untill you have a dough.
If the fruit-nut
mixture is cold, heat it a bit to make it luke-warm.
Get a couple of
spoonfulls of the mixture out. (As dry as possible).
Add half of the
rest bit by bit to the dough.
Add flour and kneads till it's a stiff
dough.
Put it in a bowl under a clean towel to let it rise (to about
twice its size).
Knead the rest of the fruit mixture in until it
resembles the dough of a rich fruit cake.
Divide it into parts that
fill the baking form about half.
Grease baking paper and put it in the
can.
Cover with flour.
Put the dough in it.
Let it rise.
Put
it in the oven at 325 degrees.
After about 10 to 15 minutes cover the
top with foil.
bake it altogether about an hour.
Remove the foil the
last minutes to get the top brown.
Let it cool and store
it.
Before serving:
Add to powder sugar a bit of water to make a
thick substance.
Put the rest of the fruit-nut mixture on top and
aside
and drip the white frosting all over.
It's a tradition to
add the letters XB in the frosting with fruit or nuts.
XB are the
Cyrillic letters for "Cristos voskresjne" ("Christ is
risen.").
Pashka
The Pashka is made from
wet cheese.
Take a clean thin towel and put the cheese in it.
Hang
it to let the fluid drip out.
Then put it between two board with a
weight on to get more moisture out.
Press it through a sieve.
Add
the same fruit-nut mixture as in the cake, flavored with
vanilla,
dissolve sugar in lemon- (or other fruit-)juice.
Add it to
the mixture.
In some areas this mixture is mixed with cream and
butter and put in a pot and simmered on a low flame for about an hour. (No
boiling allowed) and after that is put under a weight for about 24
hours.
Serve it beside the Kulich, also with XB engraved in it.
It's tradition that the iced top of the Kulich is served to the
guest of honor or the oldest person present.
Note that these
are not Dutch traditional foods, but Russian.
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