Tangerine Memories
Happy 2019! How was your holiday season? Do you already miss all the festivities, or are you glad it’s finally over?
Well, if you’re the former and come from any of the Slavic or other Eastern Orthodox cultures, this holiday season is just starting. It begins on New Year’s Eve, also known as the biggest holiday to anyone born in the former Soviet Union (I’ll explain why), followed by Orthodox Christmas on January 7 (today is Orthodox Christmas Eve), followed by “Old” New Year holiday on January 14 (an oxymoron in itself but very important nevertheless), and some stretch the holidays as far as to January 18 when the Feast of Baptism of Jesus Christ is celebrated, another important religious holiday for the Eastern Orthodoxy. So, wherever a traditional holiday season in America starts on Thanksgiving weekend and ends on New Year’s Day, your Slavic neighbors have almost two months to celebrate. There is just not enough holidays for all that vodka in only one month! I’m kidding. Partially.
New Year’s Eve/Day was the most important holiday during my childhood, and all my Slavic readers who also grew up in the former Soviet Union will understand. All religious celebrations (as religion and faith too) were outlawed during the Soviet Era, so only secular government holidays were allowed to be observed. The only religious holiday still (unofficially) celebrated was Easter, so it wasn’t uncommon to see dyed Easter eggs and sweet breads “Kulichi” at Easter time. Maybe the government just couldn’t find any other secular holiday to transfer the traditions to, or maybe even them needed a brief reminder that a soul without God’s Spirit is a dead entity.
Soviet Era New Year’s celebration resembled Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, and one big birthday party combined in its vastness and a mishmash of all traditions and holidays. Since Christmas holiday wasn’t allowed to be celebrated till it resurrected again in the early 1990s, after the country’s collapse, Christmas tree with all its attributes and meanings made its appearance for New Year’s, and we, as children, waited for Father Frost and his granddaughter Snow Maiden to drop off gifts under the tree on New Year’s Eve. We also had city and state sponsored winter balls, really a carnival-like celebrations with various performers, Halloween-like costumes worn by children, singing and dancing around huge Christmas trees, and, most importantly, little food gifts that we all received at these balls that usually consisted of some hard or tootsie roll-like candies, maybe 1-2 pieces of small chocolates, if you were lucky, and if you were really really lucky, a tangerine or a small orange.
To anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union, tangerines will always remind us of childhood and New Year’s celebrations. Tangerines will forever be a symbol of a happy childhood (even though most of us were hardly happy to be growing up in a socialist country), winter holidays and school breaks, safety and security (in a way a child feels taken care of and indulged in little luxuries, and, to a soviet child, a tangerine was a small indulgence that you only got to have if your parents could afford to buy you one at a public market stand, since the stores barely had basic foods, let alone such exotic ones as citrus fruits). When we were little, and if we were lucky (or rather say, if our parents were lucky and were able to find those tiny orange symbols of happiness), we had a toy under our Christmas tree, some clothes or shoes (and we were very happy because the stores had no good clothes either, so that means the parents shopped at some black market to bring something cute to their children), and several tangerines in a bag waiting to be slowly savored over a holiday break.
“Old” New Year celebration is an informal holiday that stems from the time when Eastern Europe followed the Julian calendar. In our current, Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve and Day fall on January 13 and 14 respectively. Even though it’s not an official holiday, it’s still a tradition for many Slavic people to have another celebration on these days. Who’d say no to an extra party time?!
Our flight from Moscow to New York took off on January 7, Orthodox Christmas day, 27 years ago – a good omen to start a new life with, if you think about it. I was no child then, around the age my own son is right now, but that desire to have as many tangerines as I wanted to promised little glimpses of happiness in a recreated childhood at a thought of tiny citrus fruits awaiting me on the other side. My whole adult life has been in the US, and this is home now since that first day we landed here, but, childhood memories still persist, reminding me what’s important in life, prompting me to pay attention to little joys and indulgences we get to experience every day.
So, cheers to my family on our 27th anniversary of being Americans! Merry Orthodox Christmas to me and all who celebrate! And let’s not forget all the memories and tiny tangerines of happiness that each holiday season brings us, and we can then pass them on to our own children!
Please enjoy this video of beautiful Ukrainian “kolyadki” (Christmas carols).
What’s Cooking This Week
Guess what kind of fruit we’re using in today’s dessert. Yep, tangerines! Today’s recipe is simple Russian cookies we call ‘little ears” or “ushki” (when they’re folded, they resemble ears). They are similar to sugar cookies but with an actual twist. These cookies are made with farmer cheese dough, which is a traditional dough in many Slavic recipes, that produces a very soft texture and makes it easy to roll out and bend it. The cookies themselves are not sweet at all, but they are dipped in sugar before baking and folded twice to coat each side. Traditional recipe uses just a hint of vanilla, but my version also incorporates tangerine zest and juice to really bring out that citrus flavor. I hope you get a chance to make “ushki” and wish Merry Christmas to your Russian friends. Scroll down to see delicious looking pictures to get you in a baking mood.
Vanilla and Tangerine Gluten Free “Ushki” (“Little Ears” Cookies)
This dough is completely fuss-free and is made in a food processor, so it’s very easy to make any time you want some cookies. Make sure farmer cheese is drained from any liquid if it has any (cottage cheese will not work here as it’s too moist, use a cheesecloth to strain all moisture if this is all you have).
In a food processor, combine gluten free flour with salt, sugar, half of tangerine zest, and baking powder, pulse a few times to combine.
Add vanilla, tangerine juice, soft butter, farmer cheese, egg, and orange extract and blend in a food processor.
Scrape dough and form a ball. Chill in a fridge for 30-40 minutes so it’s easier to roll it out.
Cut dough ball in quarters and roll it out to about 1/4 inch. Using a large glass or biscuit cutter, cut out circles.
In a bowl, combine granulated sugar with powdered vanilla sugar.
Dip one side of a circle in sugar, fold that side in half with the sugar inside, then dip in sugar half of the circle again.
Fold cookie circle in half again with the sugared side in and dip the quarter side in sugar again.
Lay out cookies on a parchment lined sheet and top each cookie with the remaining tangerine zest.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the tops are slightly golden.
Sprinkle extra vanilla sugar on top.
These “little ears” are soft and full of tangy citrus flavor.
Have yourself a few of these delicious “ushki” and celebrate Russian Christmas with me!
Vanilla and Tangerine Gluten Free "Ushki" ("Little Ears" Cookies)
Ingredients
- 2 cups of gluten free flour I used King Arthur Measure per Measure
- 250 g of farmer cheese liquid drained
- 1 stick of butter soft
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp fresh tangerine juice
- Zest from 1 large or 2 small tangerines divided
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsps orange extract
- 1/2 cup sugar for coating
- 2 packets vanilla powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine flour, salt, sugar, half of tangerine zest, and baking powder and pulse to combine.
- Add farmer cheese, butter, egg, vanilla, orange extract, and juice, blend to make a soft dough.
- Scrape dough together to make a ball and chill for 30-40 minutes.
- Cut dough ball in quarters and roll out each part to 1/4 inch.
- Using a large glass or biscuit cutter, cut out circles.
- Combine granulated sugar with 1 packet of powdered vanilla sugar.
- Dip one side of each dough circle in sugar.
- Fold it with the sugar side in, dip the half in sugar, fold into a quarter, dip in sugar again.
- Lay cookies out on a parchment lined sheet.
- Top each cookie with the remaining tangerine zest.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle with more vanilla sugar on top.