A Kitten Story

A mother cat was dozing one spring morning.  Warmed by the sunshine, her fur softly ruffled in the breeze.  Her days-old baby kittens were playfully tumbling over one another.  Buzzing insects with little wings fluttered over their heads, taunting them towards the river bank.  The kittens pawed playfully, and rolled down the embankment.  Mother cat heard a soft meowing, and bounded to the bank of the river.  Her little ones were sopping wet in the cold rushing water.  A willow tree dipped her long slender branches into the water, and the kittens grabbed on eagerly to pull themselves out.  From that day forward, and every spring thereafter, the willow branches would sprout their little furry catkins at the places where the kittens had once clung for dear life.  

The Ukrainian tradition of pussy willows goes back to before Ukraine's Christian Baptism in 988.  The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification and fertility. After the hopeless cold of winter, the window of time where the dust of the past is washed away with living water calls for a renewal of promise. For Ukrainians it is a celebration of the first baptismal sprinkling of water! It is an end to the fast and a milestone in the human journey. Being switched with pussy willow branches is a gentle reminder of both the internal and external cleaning ahead. 

Halushky - the Gluten Free Varennyk (Pyrogy)



n.kryschuk



Craving pyrohy (varenyky) is an issue for people with gluten intolerance issues. But there is a way around it - truly there is. Here is a recipe to try, delicious and easy. Tastes almost like the real thing!! Enjoy!

 

Potato Halushky
1 cup mashed potatoes
½ cup flour (try non gluten flour with 1/8 tsp of xanthum gum)
1 egg beaten
½ teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Shape mixture with fingers into finger lengths. If you get creative, try varenyk shaped, little half moons or tiny triangles.  They will be sticky, but resist the temptation to add more flour. (makes about 10 fingers)

Drop them into rapidly boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes.

Remove with colander. Place on a serving dish with melted butter (margarine). (fried onions optional)

This quick and simple meal is for those who like pyrohi (vareniky) but are concerned about the amount of flour needed for the dough. With only ½ cup flour to one cup of potato, this is a good alternative. It’s probably not wise to make a big recipe.

Osvita Ukrainian Summer School 2013

Incredible opportunities abound for learning and travel this summer - for students and grownups!  Once again, Osvita's exciting Ukrainian Summer Immersion Program is offering high school Ukrainian language credit, and a trip to Ukraine for a fascinating, first hand experience in the culture, traditions, and to visit historic sites.  A totally fabulous experience awaits - make sure to contact the numbers listed below.   

Ukrainian Easter Bread - Babka Recipe

Babka by Roma Nowakowski

One of the traditional Ukrainian Easter Breads is the Babka.  It is a classic, sweet, yeasted bread rich in eggs, and milk.  Sometimes the babka, already yellow from the many yolks in the recipe, is given a rich suntinted color with saffron, orange zest, or even pumpkin puree.  Sometimes raisins are added to the dough which is then baked in cylindrical tins, soup cans, or coffee tins, which represents the dome of heaven, much like the domed cupola of an Orthodox Christian church.  

I have been thinking that the Ukrainian Easter babka bread is also probably linked to the intentionally mounded heaps of earth used in ancient burial places across Ukraine that in former times were marked with stone stelae babas.  Cutting slices of the mounded, cylindrical bread (slicing from the bottom)  will reveal a round shaped, sun-yellow tinted bread, a reminder of the ancestors who await the rising sun.   Interesting! 

 

This is a great recipe, well recommended and well tested.  The method will deliver a finer textured Babka..
 

Prepare soup tins, coffee tins (4-500 g tins), or tall cylindrical baking tins.  Generously buttering the tins or shortening with a dusting of bread crumbs will help the baked goods release.  Alternately, use parchment paper or wax paper.

 

Prepare ingredients: 

1 cup milk

1/3 cup flour

2 tsp. sugar,

3 packages yeast

12 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 cup butter, melted

Grated rind and juice of 1 orange

5 1/2 to 6 cups flour.

1 cup raisins (optional)

Bring milk to a boil and remove from stove top.  Add hot milk gradually to the 1/3 cup flour beating thoroughly until smooth.  Press the mixture through a seive to remove any lumps remaining.   Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the sugar in lukewarm water, sprinkle the yeast over it, and let stand until yeast is softened.   Combine yeast mixture with flour, milk mixutre and beat well.  Cover and let this rise in a warm place until light and bubbly.  This is the sponge.   Beat the egg yoks and whole eggs, add salt, and sugar gradually until light.  Then stir in the butter, orange juice and grated rind.  Combine this mixture with the sponge and mix well.   Add the flour to this mixture, cup by cup to make a very soft dough, kneading it into a soft, almost sticky, supple dough for 10 minutes.  The dough will remain very soft, smooth and elastic. If raisins are to be added, this is the moment to incorporate them, after the dough is kneaded.. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.  Punch down the dough and let it rise again.  Knead again and let it rise yet again.   Fill the baking tins only 1/3 full.  Cover and let the dough rise in a warm location until the dough rises to the lip of the tin.   Brush the loaves with beaten egg diluted in 2 tablesppons of water.  Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes.  Lower temperature to 325 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Then lower the temperature yet again to 275 degrees, continuing the bake for 15-20 minutes.  The baking time is dependent on the size of loaf.  Covering loaves that darken too quickly is a good idea, sheltering them with aluminum foil is easy.   Remove the baked goods from the oven and let the babka rest for 5-10 minutes before removing them extremely gently, tipping them gently onto a soft, cloth covered pillow.  Do not cool the loaves on a hard surface as they will become misshapen, fall or settle.  Change their resting position frequently as they rest and cool. Babka is always sliced in rounds across the loaf starting from the bottom. 

Traditional babka has a plain, domed top, and is sweeter than the braided Ukrainian Easter Paska Bread.  Enjoy!

The Blessings of Baba

Photo: Oleksandr Dirdovsky

Did you know that among Ukrainians the term for grandmother is Baba?  While the name Mama is universal it seems, Baba is a special term, loved among Ukrainians for her empathy, care and love.

It makes me so happy to read that Ukraine is reinterpreting for herself, the archeological treasures scattered in museums of former colonizers.  Re-assessing the ancient stone steppe stelae called babas is an important step in reclaiming her mystical and unique past. 

At one time in history, stone babas dotted the horizon in Ukraine - standing as sentinels over mounded earth funeral structures.  From a time 5-6 thousand years ago, ancestral graves on the lands of Ukraine were marked with a limestone or sandstone slab, like the sentinels at Stonehenge.  The stone babas perhaps personified the deceased within the mounded grave, and standing to witness the sunrise, performed the same function for the souls of the dead as the pyramids in Egypt. 

With economic possibility came new technology, and after a time people started carving shoulders, heads and faces into the stones, the image of the person within.  Equipped with the tools of life, perhaps they indicated high status too. 

Do the stone babas reveal gender?  Not in all cases.  And because so much of Ukraine's archeological history is being re-assessed through contemporary thought, in a time of relative freedom, with increasingly more sensitive use of technology I would reserve judgement.  It is obvious that the material culture of the period would venerate the gift of ancestors.  It is also obvious that material affluence would indicate longevity.  Longevity would indicate women lived beyond their childbearing years, and would through their unique talents assist in the nurture, survival and education of children born to a younger woman. 

The ancient stone babas are authentic expressions of gratitude for some person's generosity of spirit in life.  I like to think that all the ancients, the ancestors, made a significant contribution to the world's cultural achievement.   From the very edge of archeological history,  here's a thank you for the BLESSINGS OF BABA.

Have a glance at this artcle about how the stone stelae are being appreciated as Art in Ukraine.  http://www.artukraine.com.ua/eng/articles/1051.html

Amd here the Smithsonian is also reconsidering the role and value of women, beyond their child bearing years. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/10/new-evidence-that-grandmothers-were-crucial-for-human-evolution/