www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Recipes for the Great Fast

First, I want to think the Administrator for his post on Resources for the Great Fast, as that reminded me of this.

As a side note; jello contains animal products in it, that is gelatin. The definition of Gelatin: sticky substance obtained from animal tissues by boiling.

My spiritual father let me know this as we discussed my options for the Great Fast.

Now back to the topic at hand.

As many of you are aware, I attend a Melkite Greek Catholic parish. During the Great Fast we have Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday evenings followed by a pot luck dinner.

Now, those of you who know, the food offered will be of an arabic/syrian/lebanoness type stuff.

As one of the three slavic people in this parish, I thought it would be nice to torture, I mean expose , them to some slavic type food.

I would appreciate any recipes that you could send my way. Please keep in mind that I work till 4:30pm or so and Liturgy will be at around 7pm with about a total travel time of about 40 minutes (20 to get home, 20 to get to church).

So something that doesn't take more than an hour to prepare.

Thanks all!

David

[ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: DavidB ]

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Hi David

You can make meat-less stuffed cabbage. You can make them ahead of time and either freeze them and then simply heat them in the oven or make them the night before and put them in a crockpot and let them cook all day.

Of course, there's always the old stand-bys, pirohi and halusky.

the least servant of the servants....

mark

Hey, Mark! I think the idea is great. Unfortunately for me, I ADORE Halushky: just put me on my back, insert (wide mouthed) funnel and shove them in. Heaven.

Perhaps we ought to add alum or some other 'nasty' to make them repulsive!!! (Just kidding!!! Don't even THINK about screwing around with the recipe!!!)

Blessings, y'all!

Dear Dr John

I regret to inform you that adoration is reserved to God alone. Food, no matter how Divine it tastes, does not qualify for Adoration, save the Food be the Eucharistic Body of our Lord.

Thank you.

Dear All,

You're makin me hungry! I adore these foods, too, Dr. John!

Steve
JOY!

Hey,

Pagach(sp, I need to get the cook book for it)

need a large pizza pan
a dough like you would make for pirohi
roll it out to cover the pan
put your favorite filling like you would use for the pirohi over it
then roll out a top(like you would for a pie) and cover it
seal it by pinching the edges
bake at 325 until the curst is brown
slice it like a pie

You get pirohi without all the work.

I have used all the different fillings, my favorite is the sweet cabbage with onions, as long as it is cooked and drained well.

Also, unless you are doing a bloodless fast, the ricotta or dry cottage cheese mixed with fruit does well.

Have a great Lent as Emiril would say, "Happy, Happy"

GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST!
GLORY TO HIM FOREVER!

Hi Dr. John

We're having a FASENGY dance here in Baltimore on Sunday. The 2 chefs from the Slovak Embassy are doing the cooking. Guess what's on the menu??? HOME-MADE HALUSKY! SLOVAK STYLE!!!

Yes, I'll have a plate or 2 for you...

Think we still have tickets if you're interested...

mark

Dear David,

A cry in the diabetic wilderness - make straight the way of the kasha!

I find that eating grainy, bulky foods fills you up and keeps you that way. Perogies with kasha are great, just plain kasha, or crusty flat breads, Armenian, rye or wheat, what have you.

Vegetables raw are excellent as is vegetable juice.

4 carrots, a slice of ginger and half an apple juiced is a great detoxifier.

If possible 2-4 glasses of straight vegetable juice per day will keep you in vitamins and minerals.

Evening Primrose oil is also important.

Alex

Let me explain a bit more.

I need recipes, really.... I am not a cook and I was raised in a non-ethnic family. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Alex,
I do not have to worry about my "vitamins and minerals". See I will be cheating, with the approval and knowledge of my spiritial father.

See I live with my parents and younger brother. My parents are non-practicing catholics and my brother is "nothing". They do the fish on Friday thing during Lent.

I will be going meatless for any meal I do on my own, but dinner is a family thing. My parents will try to do the fish thing on Wednesdays for me this Lent, as well as more fish on Fridays and Wednesdays outside of Lent, as it is health for you.

If I do not eat what is prepared and served it upsets my mother, so I will be eating meat, most likely, at those meals.


David

David --

"As one of the three slavic people in this parish, I thought it would be nice to torture, I mean expose , them to some slavic type food."

I can't resist this one.

I wouldn't hold my breath on receptivity to your efforts! My wife always says that one of the biggest drawbacks to becoming Orthodox (for us) has been that "the food is better with the Melkites". My wife is an American of Armenian descent, and we both eat Middle Eastern-style food at home fairly often.

Brendan

Brendan,
I know what you are saying, the food is great but they have requested this of me.

They actually asked me if I could do this, that is why I am trying to do it. That is why I used the word "torture".

David

Dear Brendan and David,

And the Middle Eastern diet is really the best possible one for longevity and for diabetics etc.

Slavic food is good, but it is notorious for lack of greens.

The Slavs often considered greens and leafy salads to be "grass food" and it was frowned on.

It was the Germans whom Peter the Great befriended to ostensibly bring Western European culture to his subjects who were laughed at for eating "grass food" and cold meat.

The Middle Eastern diet is rich in practically everything needed for full and complete health, with or without meat.

Sorry, but I go with Patriarch Nicon on this one!

Alex

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear David B,
Looking for a "gelatin" to use during the Fast? I would recommend that you go to any Oriental Grocery and you can get vegetable Gelatin, sometimes called Agar Agar. It can be used in the place of animal based gelatin in recipes calling for gelatin. It frequently comes in sheets that are softened in Hot water. You may recognize it as that unknown nearly transparent fruit in oriental made fruit salads.

You can find a Kosher Paerve Gelatin product that is flavored , very like Jello, in some health food stores and Kosher markets. A Paerve product can have no milk/dairy or animal products in it, making it a good product to use for the Great Lent Fast. At the Health food Stores there are several "Vegetable Gums" that are vegetarian versions of gelatins.

Hope that you have a holy and blessed Fast!

Your brother in Christ,
Thomas

Your brother in Christ,
Thomas

Hey,

Our priest is polish, so are we in a Melkite parrish. Whenever, we take something, and they want to know what it is, he will tell them nevermind. It isn't any good and take the dish off to himself. He is so funny, he througly enjoys it. He'll give out small samplings, but he eats polish that night.

BERT Pie
1 onion, chopped
oil
1 1/2 c cooked rice
1 10oz box frozen broccoli, thawed
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 pieshells.
Brown onion in oil. Add stewed tomatoes, broccoli and rice, simmer. Drain excess liquid. Pour into pie shell, cover with remaining shell. Cut slits in top pie crust. Bake at 375 for 35 min.

Fettucine and Tomatoes
5-6 fresh tomatoes
1/4 coil
S&P
1 tsp mint
1 tsp oregano
Parsley
Sliced black olives
1-2 T capers
1 # fettucine
1 tsp mint
1 tsp oregano
Parsley
Sliced black olives
1-2 T capers
1 # fettucine

While fettucine noodles are cooking, dip whole tomatoes in boiling water for 10 sec; peel and dice tomato. Toss tomatoes with herbs and seasonings, capers and olives, then with oil. Drain fettucine noodles, toss with tomato mixture.


Ginger-Sesame Shrimp and Vegie Stir-Fry
3 T soy sauce
3 T water
1 1/2 T sesame seeds
1 1/2 t garlic, minced
1 t fresh ginger, grated
1 cup carrot slices
2 c broccoli flowerettes
1/2 c green onions, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
2-3 c cabbage, sliced
1/4 c olive oil
1 pound medium shrimp,cooked*
1 1/2 t corn starch
2 pounds spaghetti

Cook spaghetti.

Meanwhile, mix first 5 ingredients together, then toss with prepared vegies. Allow to marinate 1/2 hour or more. Drain vegies, reserving marinade. Heat oil in pan, then add marinated vegies and stir-fry about 5 minutes. Add shrimp, continue cooking till heated thru. Mix reserved marinade with corn starch. Add to vegies, continue cooking till sauce is thickened.

Serve over cooked pasta.
*may substitute scallops

This is for Pascha
http://carpatho-rusyn.org/recipes.htm

Lots of good info
http://www.iarelative.com/easter/index.html

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/slavic/lent.html

Rose
Hope this will help

[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: Rose ]

Here's my annual Lenten Food Rant

=======================

Very easy, no cook recipe for hummus.

Food processor HIGHLY recommended.

Requires:

Garbanzo beans (canned are easiest)
Garlic
Lemon juice (fresh or frozen. Avoid reconstituted unless you can stand the taste)
(optional ingredients up to you)

Peel as many garlic cloves as you like. (We use LOTS. As mentioned before, no vampires at our house.) Drop into food processor. Whiz with a bit of lemon juice until there aren't any big lumps. Open garbanzo beans, drain & pitch the liquid. Fling beans into food processor & whiz. If it's too stiff (beans won't mix) add some more lemon juice. When it's fully mixed, you are done.

If you don't have a food processor, you can do it by hand, but it takes lots of mashing. You can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or more. (We never have any left that long.) Keep in mind that the flavor will grow STRONGER over time.

Variations: add any or all of the following: tahini, peanut butter, jalapenos, black beans, spinach, dealer's choice.
================================
We usually serve it with tortilla chips and/or veggies.

Sorry for no quantities - we usually use the better part of a #10 can of beans, about a cup & a half of lemon juice & as much garlic (average about a full bulb) as my kids will peel. A #10 can of beans from the restaurant food supply store is usually cheaper than two small cans of Progresso garbanzos from the store.
=====================================
To repeat last year's rule o' thumb:

Animal protein (meat, eggs, milk) are complete proteins. All vegetable proteins are incomplete. Combining veggie proteins can make them complete.

Beans + corn = complete protein. Beans + rice = complete protein. Alex, I know that buckwheat (kasha) is protein rich, but I'm not sure what its complement is. BTW, I've never come across a kasha pierogi, but kasha knishes are classic Jew Food. Yum.
=====================================
With that in mind, easy main dishes - nuke a can of vegetarian baked beans, serve over rice, or with corn chips.

or

Cube up some firm tofu. Heave it into a ziploc bag with a splash of soy sauce, & a teaspoon or so of ginger & anything else you'd like. Close the bag, pushing out as much air as possible. Make sure the liquid has touched all the tofu, and leave it to marinate in the fridge for a couple hours or overnight. Nuke it, or heat in a nonstick pan. If you use the pan, melt a spoonful of peanut butter in the pan before you add the tofu. Yum. Serve over rice.
======================================
I keep mentioning rice. People think cooking rice is hard. It is dirt simple. All you need is a pot with a snugly fitting lid. Rice expands 3-4 times when it is cooked. Keep this in mind when you cook it. Ratio of cold water to rice is 2:1, no matter the quantities you use.

For white rices:
Measure rice into pot. Add the water (maintaining ratio). Put UNCOVERED on stove, on high heat. When the water boils (bubbles larger than what you see in a glass of coke are rising constantly) turn the heat down to the next-to-lowest setting. (On a gas stove, just turn the flame down very low) and put the lid on the pot. Set a timer for 15 minutes. When the timer dings, it should be done.

For brown rices:
Do exactly the same thing, just cook it for 45 minutes instead of 15.

Brown rices still have the outer coating (which contains most of the nutrients) on it. White rice is the same stuff with the coating "polished" off. Try brown basmati rice for something more flavorful & aromatic.

Obviously you'll want to add fruits & veggies to round out your meals. Good ol' Hunt's Tomato Sauce can also be used right out of the can for added flavor & color when wanted.

If you eat out, Chinese & Mexican restaurants are great. Most Chinese restaurants have tofu-based dishes, and most are happy to substitute tofu for meat in a dish. Have it over rice, or rice noodles (yum). Many, many Mexican dishes are rice & bean or bean & corn based. Yum again.

Hope this helps!