Traditional Russian Christmas Dinner Recipes

A traditional Russian Christmas dinner goes beyond featuring a baked ham. For Christmas dinner in Russia, many families roast an entire piglet.

Our Russian Christmas dinner also includes a vitamin-filled salad to prepare for the rugged winter, potatoes stuffed with mushrooms, and dainty Russian tea cakes for dessert.

Russian Christmas Piglet

Our piglet is all cleaned out, of course, and then placed in the sink and scalded with several rinses of boiling water. Then we rub the inside with salt and place the piglet on a baking sheet. Sides are brushed with sour cream, and then coated with melted butter.

Our piglet is baked on medium heat for 90 minutes, but we might want to set the oven a little higher, maybe 400 degrees or 425. This is because we're constantly going to be opening the oven door, in order to repeatedly brush the drained piglet fat onto the piglet's skin.

We serve the piglet on a large dish, and allow everyone to cut their own helpings.

Russian Vitaminous Salad

This simple concoction is named for its healthful qualities. All we do is grate two big carrots and one apple, chop a lemon into small cubes, and put sugar on top. Yes, we include the peel of the lemon. We're following Russian tradition and come to think of it, we aren't accustomed to grating apples, either. Obviously, we can double or triple this salad recipe as required.

Mushroom-Stuffed Potatoes

First we find the biggest potatoes in the sack, so that we will have room for plenty of mushrooms. We peel them and cut them in half, and boil them until they aren't quite done.

After the potatoes cool a bit, we carve out the centers and set the cut-out portions aside for use in other dishes, such as potato pancakes. Our filling consists of chopped sauteed mushrooms, embellished with some finely chopped onion.

For our topping, we mix 3/4 cup of sour cream with 2 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/3 cup of grated cheese.

We bake our mushroom-stuffed potatoes in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, and then add the topping mixture for another 15 minutes.

Russian Christmas Tea Cakes

We start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. We cream 1 cup of softened margarine, mixed with 1/3 cup of confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. When our mix is creamed, we blend with 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of either pecans or walnuts (or whatever kind of nuts we choose).

We chill our dough for 2 hours, and then roll it into small golf balls. Our baking time is 10-12 minutes. After cooling, we roll our Russian tea cakes in some more confectioner's sugar before serving.

SOURCES

http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item001E4/default.asp

http://www.russianamericancompany.com/info/russianchristmas.htm#Recipes

http://www.theholidayspot.com/christmas/worldxmas/russia.htm

http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item001F3/default.asp