Russian Christmas Dishes

Christmas Goose
1 goose, 10 cooking apples,5 slices white bread, cinnamon,1/2 glass (1/2 cup) cream, 1 tbsp salt.

Peel the apples, remove seed coats and dice the apples. Spread over the diced apples the white bread soaked in cream, as well as cinnamon and salt at the edge of a knife. Mix the filling. Fill the goose well washed and rubbed with salt and pepper both inside and outside. Sew the bird up, butter it and put into the oven to roast for 30 minutes at 220°C (428°F) then reducing the heat to 150°C (300°F). Roast the goose until tender (approximately for 3 hours) often pouring it with the drippings of boiling water.

Roast Duck
1 duck, 4 cooking apples, 0.5 tbps salt,3 glasses water.

Thoroughly wash the duck outside and inside and fill it with the washed and dried apples, sew up, rub with salt and put on the griddle or frying-pan placing down the side that will be the top when served. After pouring a glass of boiling water cook first on one side and then on the other, frequently pouring over and, if necessary, adding water. Serving the duck, remove the apples and arrange them around the duck.

Stuffed Suckling Pig
Suckling pig, 1 tbsp salt, 2 onions, 8 sweet pepper corns,100 g (1/2 cup) butter, 2 loaves white bread,1 glass (1 1/4 cup) milk, 4 eggs, 1 tbsp flour,6 glasses (6 3/4 cups) stock or water,1.5 glasses (1 3/4 cup) stock.

Clean the pig thoroughly. Boil the lungs and heart until tender together with raw liver after removing the outer skin and veining. Grind the chopped meat through a colander and add 20 g (1 1/2 tablespoons) of butter rubbed until foamy, loaves of white bread well soaked in milk, eggs, salt and 4 ground pepper corns. Mix all well and fill the cleaned pig’s cavity with the mixture. Sew the pig up. Grease it with butter and put into the oven for 1 to 1.5 hours frequently pouring it with boiling water of stock. Garnish with soaked paradise apples, red whortleberries, greens and salads of fresh vegetables.

Pelmeni
(Poached Pasties with Meat Filling)
For the dough: 2 glasses (3 1/4 cups) flour, 1 egg,5 tbsps cold water, 1 tsp butter, saltFor the filling: 0.5 kg (1 1/4 lb) meat (pork and beef in equal proportion), 2 or 3 onions, 1 tsp salt, 2 or 3 tbsps water, black pepper, nutmeg to taste.

Put the beef and pork through the food chopper after trimming off sinews. Add onions (also put through the mincer), salt, spices and cold water. Sir thoroughly and set aside. Form a hill of sifted flour on the board. Break an egg into a dump/pot made in the middle. Add a little water, salt and then mix the flour with liquid carefully – at first with a knife and then with hands – and thoroughly knead the dough. It should be resilient. Add to the dough 1 teaspoon of butter, knead once again and cover for 5 to 10 minutes by a hot bowl or saucepan. Then roll out the dough into a thin cake, less than 2 mm thick. Cut the dough leaf into rounds with a thin glass or a mould, touch the edge of the round with a wet finger dipped in ice-cold water to make the edges paste up better. Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each round, fold it over and thoroughly pinch to make a crescent shape. Boil the prepared pelmeni either in a usual meat and bone stock or in salted water. Season the stock or water with onions, bay leaf and paper and add salt.

Meat Jelly
1 pig’s head, 4 pig’s legs, 1 calf’s tail, 1 carrot,1 parsley root, 10 black pepper corns,5 sweet pepper corns, 5 bay leaves, 1 or 2 onions,1 garlic bulb, 1 l (4 1/2 cups) waterfor 1 kg (2 1/2 lb) meat.

Singe the head and legs, clean, cut into pieces, pour water and boil together with the calf’s tail for 6 to 8 hours over low heat until the amount of water reduced twice. Add onions, carrots, parsley and salt 1-1.5 hours before the end of boiling. Then take the meat out, separate it from bones, cut into small pieces and put in another vessel, mix with minced garlic and a small amount of ground black pepper. Boil the stock with remaining bones for another half an hour, salt it, strain and pour it over the boiled and prepared meat. Cool the dish down. Serve the meat jelly with mustard, horse-radish and crushed garlic.