Christmas Food :Misha Herwin
No, not the traditional turkey, goose, chicken, beef or pork. A pot full of golabki is one of the dishes we will be eating this Christmas Eve.
Because of my Polish family, my
children were brought up celebrating both Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day. Which meant cooking two different meals.
On the night before Christmas we laid
the table, putting wisps of hay, or straw under the cloth to remind us of
Jesus in the manger. Then the youngest was set to look out for the first star,
or that at least was the theory and it did give the kids something to do.
Once the star was sighted then
Christmas could begin. First the baby Jesus was put in our homemade crib,
then came the distribution of the oplatek. The thin wafer, like communion
bread, that in those days was sent to us by our family in Poland. Each person
took a piece and shared it with all the others, kissing them and wishing them a
happy Christmas.
After that it was presents under the
Christmas tree and finally when all the wrapping paper had been cleared up, the
food.
Twelve different dishes, one for
each of the disciples was the tradition. Some were British, like salad, or
cooked chicken, others Polish like the pot full of cabbage wrapped
parcels above.
Like a lot of traditional food much
of this cooking is very time consuming. For golombki the cabbage leaves must
first be blanched, filling the kitchen with steam while I am frying onions and
mixing them together with cooked rice, minced pork, seasoning and herbs.
When the leave are soft enough, they
are removed and laid out on a board to be filled and folded, a process which
requires asbestos fingers. Then the golombki are layered into a casserole and I
pour over a mixture of Heinz tomato soup, water, stock and tomato puree. Not
quite what my grandmother would have done, but over the years we have evolved
a truly fusion cuisine.
Everything goes into the oven for
about an hour, or so while I tidy up and remember all those long gone
Christmases and speculate whether my grandchildren will in years to come be
wrapping cabbage leaves around handfuls of pork mixture and thinking back
to their childhood.
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