Polish Christmas Eve poppy seed noodles (kluski z makiem): poppy seed ground three times, honey, dried fruit
The Christmas Eve dessert without which, in many homes, there is no Christmas Eve: wide noodles tossed with a mass of poppy seed scalded in milk, ground, warmed with butter, honey, raisins, walnuts and candied orange peel. The poppy seed is ground two or three times so it is creamy, not gritty. Made the day before, because it deepens in the fridge.
Your own work in that: 50 min.
- Poppy seed scalding 90 min
- Grinding 20 min
- Noodles 20 min
- Mixing 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneScald the poppy seed
Rinse the poppy seed in a fine sieve. Bring the milk to the boil, add the seed, stir, bring back to the boil and simmer 10 minutes. Take off the heat, cover and leave 80 minutes, until the seed absorbs the milk and softens: a seed should crush easily between your fingers. Drain in a fine sieve and leave to drip. Cover the raisins with spirit or warm water.
Ingredients: 300 g blue poppy seeds · 600 ml milk · 50 g butter · 4 tbsp honey · 2 tbsp sugar · 60 g raisins · 60 g walnuts · 40 g candied orange peel · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 1 tbsp rectified spirit or rum
TipScalding softens the seed: only soft poppy seed grinds to a cream. Hard seed straight from the packet, ground dry, stays sandy.
Milk, ten minutes, then coveredGrind two or three times
Pass the drained seed through a meat grinder on the finest plate twice, ideally three times. Each pass makes the mass darker and creamier. A jug blender with a little milk works too, but the grinder gives a better result.
TipThe test: rub a little of the mass between your fingers. It should be smooth like a paste, not gritty. Gritty? Grind once more.
Finest plate, three timesWarm with the dried fruit
Melt the butter in a pan, add the poppy seed, honey, sugar, vanilla sugar, drained raisins, roughly chopped walnuts and candied peel. Warm over low heat 8 minutes, stirring, until glossy and fragrant. Taste and sweeten; it should be clearly sweet, because the noodles are plain.
Butter, honey, dried fruit, eight minutesCook the noodles
Cook the noodles in salted water according to the packet, al dente. Drain and toss with the butter so they don't stick.
Ingredients: 400 g wide egg noodles or pasta squares · 1 tsp salt · 20 g butter
Al dente, with butterMix
Toss the warm noodles with the warm poppy seed mass in a large bowl until every noodle is coated. Serve warm or cold; on Christmas Eve traditionally after the barszcz and the fish.
Every noodle in poppy seedThe day before
Make the poppy seed mass on 23 December and keep it in the fridge: the flavour deepens. On Christmas Eve warm it with a tablespoon of milk and toss with freshly cooked noodles. The finished dish keeps up to 3 days in the fridge.
The Christmas Eve table, the twelfth dish
Before you start
Homemade noodles
A dough of 300 g flour, 3 eggs and a spoon of water, rolled thin and cut into 3 cm squares: homemade łazanki, like grandmother's. They cook in 3 minutes.
With almonds and figs
50 g flaked almonds and 3 dried figs in dice with the dried fruit: a richer mass, closer to kutia.
Makiełki
The same poppy seed mass mixed with cubed stale challah or rolls instead of noodles: this is makiełki, known in Silesia as makówki.
