St Andrew the Apostle and a jumping game

Although for many, many years I had a very close friend who was Ukranian, and I learnt a lot about customs, traditions and food, I only found out today that the feast of St Andrew the Apostle is celebrated on this day, December 13th. He is particularly associated with Kiev and there is a wonderful church built, according to legend, on the very spot where Andrew erected a cross when he visited the region; he had arrived after travelling up the River Deneiper but it was eight hundred years before Kiev was founded here.

As with many Christian festivals and special occasions, St Andrew’s feast day was grafted on to a much older pagan custom, and as with many traditions associated with a festival or special day, a special sweet bread, kalyta or kalita, was made , originally representing a sun god, but taken over to be associated with the Apostle. A game was played with the bread, which was suspended from the ceiling by a red beam and family and guests, especially the boys had to try and jump up and take a mouthful… my husband and son are so tall that not much jumping would be involved in our house!

I can’t find any recipes for kalyta, but here is a recipe for delicious varenyky, little yummy filled dumplings which another Ukrainian friend made!

16 oz flour
¾ tsp salt
1 oz butter
6 fl oz evaporated milk
warm water as needed

I’m sure everyone making these has their own way of doing it, so if when you make a dough from all the ingredients it doesn’t seem quite right, add more of whatever you need to adjust it!

mix all the ingredients to a dough
rest, knead, rest for at least 3o mins
roll out and cut small 3 inch circles to be filled with your choice of vegetables, fruit, meat
gently poach in boiling water in a large pan
once they start floating they are cooked
leave them to drain on an oiled tray, not touching because they are sticky and at this stage they can be frozen
fry, poach or stem them and serve with soured cream

4 Comments