Christmas time is a great time to gather with the three Fs in life; family, friends, and, most importantly, food. I have gathered unique recipes that my family makes when we get together for Christmas, and even a few from other Knoch students. I even made a few and brought them in for classmates to try. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and enjoy your break!

Borscht

What is borscht?

Borscht is a popular soup native to eastern Europe and Russia. It consists mainly of a beetroot base typically with lots of cabbage and various other vegetables.

Ingredients for a Classic Ukrainian Borscht

• 3 Peeled and Grated Beets
• 4 Tsp of Olive Oil, divided
• 8 cups of Chicken Broth
• 2 cups of Water
• 3 Yukon Potatoes, peeled and sliced to bite sized chunks
• 2 Carrots, peeled and sliced thin

This recipe sautees the beets in some of the olive oil for a little bit, then adds in the rest of the ingredients. In addition, it sautees a number of other ingredients like peppers, onions, and celery while the rest of the soup is cooking.

However, this recipe is very different from the borscht my family eats on Christmas eve. My dad’s side of the family is Polish, so every Christmans we make a Polish Christmas Eve Borscht, also known as Barszcz Wigilijny. This Borscht is very different from typical recipes, especially in its simplicity.

Remember all the fun and flavorful ingredients from the classic Ukrainian borscht? Forget all of it, because our Polish Christmas Eve borscht has little more than what’s needed to make the broth, the beets, sour cream, a few hard boiled eggs and a few seasonings.

At the end of the day though, is it good? Eh, it’s alright. I eat a bit each year but I guess this beet-based soup just isn’t for me. 

Walleye

What is walleye?

Walleye is quite simply the second best tasting fish out of Lake Erie. An average walleye is about 20-22 inches long, with the biggest ones in excess of 40 inches. 

The way my family prepares this white fish for Christmas is about as American as it gets; fry that thang. 

Ingredients

• Walleye
• Half & Half or Milk Mixture 
• Breading
• Fryer Oil

To fry a fish, you first filet the walleye after you catch it. After you have the meat, dip it in the milk mixture so the breading sticks to the fish. Once it’s breaded up, toss it in the fryer ‘til it’s done; quick and easy. Personally I like to eat it with some ketchup or cocktail sauce, but it’s great anyway you eat it unless you’re my mom and eat it with tartar sauce.

Apple Cake

What is apple cake?

Exactly what  it sounds like. Take some apples and make a cake with them. It’s sort of like a crossover between cake and bread but it’s fantastic. This is a recipe from my grandma’s cookbook. Short, simple, and relatively easy to make. 

Ingredients 

• 1 ¾ cup of sugar
• 2 cups of flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of oil
• 6-8 apples, diced and peeled
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Beat the sugar and eggs together for about 5 minutes. Then, sift all the dry ingredients together. Once they’re all sifted together, mix everything but the apples together for about 5 minutes. All that’s left is to throw the apples in and scoop it into the greased pan.

Bake for about an hour at 350 and the apple cake is finished! The trick to making sure it’s done is to stick a toothpick into the cake, and if it comes out clean and dry it’s finished. You can mix with a power mixer to speed up the process, but do not mix the apples with it because they’ll get crushed. 

Pierogi

What’s a pierogi?

If you didn’t immediately think, “That’s a stupid question,” then you have absolutely no taste. Not even poor taste, just none. You don’t have to be a yinzer to love pierogies, but with that being said this isn’t your typical Pierogi von Roberto Clemente Bridge. 

Ingredients

• 4 ½ cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 egg yolk
• Some ricotta cheese
• Herbs
• Milk or half and half

I don’t have my grandma’s exact recipe, but mix the butter, oil, eggs and egg yolk together. Then add in the flour and salt. This should make a nice dough that’s tough but can stretch so it won’t tear easily. 

For the filling, mix the ricotta, some milk, and the herbs. Too much milk will make the mixture runny, so be frugal with the cream. Throw in some herbs, typically chives or thyme works great, and then the filling is done. 

Now for the hard part. The dough must be separated and stretched into circles; not too large but big enough to fit a decent amount of filling. 3-4 inches should do the job, but 5 could work if you have a big appetite. It can be tough to change the shape of the dough once it’s stretched, so make sure to get it right. 

Once the dough is stretched out, get as much filling in there as possible with the dough still being able to fold over onto itself. The easiest way is to put the filling on the half of the circle closest to you and fold the dough top to bottom, hamburger style. It’s very important that the filling doesn’t touch the edges anywhere because the dough won’t stick to itself. Once the dough gets folded, use the prongs of a fork to crimp the edges together.

To cook them, get some oil and butter in a pan and throw as many in there as you can. It’s important to always have a few in or they’ll start to burn. Cook and flip until each side is brown. Personally, I believe they’re best served with sauteed onions and sour cream. 

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

(Pig Nuts if You’re in Bryn Krason’s Family)

What are bacon wrapped water chestnuts?

They’re exactly what they sound like. There’s not much else to it.

Ingredients: 

• Bacon
• Water Chestnuts
• BBQ Sauce
• Toothpicks (are toothpicks an ingredient?)

“Cook bacon a little bit and then you wrap a water chestnut in the bacon. You just put bacon around it. Then you put it in a baking dish with a toothpick in it. Once you put it in the baking dish you put BBQ sauce on it then you cook it. I think you heat it to 375 then you cook it for like 15 minutes.” ~ Senior Bryn Krason

These ended up turning out very different than originally intended. I gathered the ingredients to make these at home but I couldn’t find the water chestnuts, so instead I used sun-dried dates and pineapple. I think they turned out very well, but senior Dade George wasn’t much of a fan. However, it is more of an acquired taste. 

Halupki

What is halupki?

Halupki is a recipe from our Czech side of the family. It’s made mainly of pork, beef chuck, cabbage and tomatoes. It might not win best dressed dish, but the beauty lies within.

Ingredients

• A head of cabbage
• ½ cup of raw rice
• ½ cup of water
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 ½ pound of ground chuck 
• 1 ½ pound of ground pork
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 egg
• 1 pound of sauerkraut
• 14 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

Loosen up the cabbage by taking off and setting aside the outer leaves. Remove the core and boil the cabbage in salted water for about 3 minutes so you can pull individual leaves off the cabbage. 16-18 leaves should work. Cut away the center stem from each leaf without cutting all the way through. Chop the rest of the cabbage up (except for those outer leaves hold onto them) and put them in a greased casserole dish or Dutch oven.

Rinse and then cook the rice in ½ cup of water until the water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let cool. Meanwhile, saute the onion in the butter until the onion is tender and also let cool.

In a large bowl, mix the rice, onions, beef, pork, salt and pepper to taste, egg, garlic, paprika, reserved sauerkraut juices and 1/3 cup of the tomato sauce. Unless you want  the meat to become tough, don’t overmix it. 

Put about ½ cup of the mixture on a cabbage leaf. Roll away from you, flip the left side, flip the right side, and it should look like a nice little envelope. Roll away from you again, and now you have the roll. 

Put the cabbage rolls in the casserole dish or dutch oven and on the bed of chopped cabbage with layers of sauerkraut and tomato sauce between the rolls. Top it off with the crushed tomatoes, remaining sauerkraut and tomato sauce, and then finally those exterior cabbage leaves. Add enough water to cover completely and simmer for 3-4 hours. These can also be made in a slow cooker and are served great with anything except for brussels sprouts because nothing is good with brussels sprouts.