🎄 Kutia

Kutia (bahata kutia, "rich kutia") is a ritual dish of boiled whole grain with poppy seed, honey, walnuts and raisins. It opens the Ukrainian Holy Supper: kutia goes in the centre of the table and is eaten first. Ethnographer Lidiia Artiukh says it should be like a thick soup, not running off the spoon but not dry either.

The base is wheat, usually soft wheat, cooked as whole kernels. Grain used to be husked in a mortar and boiled in its own pot; poppy seed was pounded in a makitra bowl, raisins were added, and the dish was sweetened with syta (honey diluted in water) or with uzvar. On the Left Bank of the Dnipro it was made of barley or rye, and historian Oleksii Sokyrko notes that wealthy townspeople in the Hetmanate era cooked it with rice, raisins and dried plums. Many families still make rice kutia.

It is called "rich" because as many good things as possible go into it, for a generous year. Ethnographer Fedir Vovk even suggested that boiled grain with honey dates back to the Neolithic.

Why this matters to you: for good kutia, cook whole wheat until soft, scald and grind the poppy seed first, and loosen the honey with warm water or uzvar so the dish does not turn out dry.