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What’s on your family’s holiday table?

Food traditions tie Catholics back to their homelands, ancestral culture

Published: November 21, 2016         

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Jennifer Ekeanyanwu fills her plate Nov. 11 with a dinner of traditional Nigerian foods including fried rice, stewed chicken, moi moi and plantains. She and her husband John (center left) are originally from Nigeria and are members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Little Rock. Pictured are their six sons Chike (left), 13; Chebem, 10; Kemdi, 8; Ugo, 6; Kelechi, 12; and Emeka, 15.

Aprille Hanson

Jennifer Ekeanyanwu fills her plate Nov. 11 with a dinner of traditional Nigerian foods including fried rice, stewed chicken, moi moi and plantains. She and her husband John (center left) are originally from Nigeria and are members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Little Rock. Pictured are their six sons Chike (left), 13; Chebem, 10; Kemdi, 8; Ugo, 6; Kelechi, 12; and Emeka, 15.

Try this at home

 

Nigerian Moi Moi

Makes 12 servings

1 package dried black-eyed beans

4 bouillon cubes

1 habanero pepper

2 tsp nutmeg

1 red bell pepper

1 onion

4 tbsp olive oil

4 cups warm water

Salt to taste

6 boiled eggs, cut in half

Aluminum foil

Put water and dried beans in a large bowl. Soak for 30 minutes then pour into a blender and press “clean” setting to remove the skins. Pour the beans into a bowl and add a little water to make the skins float and remove them. Without a blender, soak for 2-3 hours, then rub the beans until all of the skin is off. Drain excess water. In a blender, add beans (small amounts at a time), onion, red pepper and habanero pepper. Blend until it becomes creamy soft, adding water as needed. Add the bouillon stock, olive oil and salt and nutmeg to taste. Cut foil into pieces 8 inches by 16 inches. Put about 1/2 cup of the mixture on each piece of foil. Cut the boiled eggs in half and press into the mixture. Fold the foil up so water can’t get in. Place the packets into a pot of boiling water and simmer for 45 minutes, adding water to the pot as needed. Remove from the water and cool for 20 minutes.

 

Italian Crostoli

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

Beat eggs, sugar and butter. Add lemon juice and dry ingredients. Roll out dough as for very, very thin pie crust. Strips should be 2 1/2-inches wide, any length. Cut crosswise, like a diamond shape. Fry in hot oil. Turn quickly, as these cook fast.  Remove and sprinkle with sugar.
 

Mexican Pastel de Carne

2 lb lean ground beef

8 to 10 bacon slices

1 or 2 chicken bouillon cubes

3 eggs

2 cups bread crumbs

1 cup green bell pepper

1 cup red bell pepper  

1 cup yellow bell pepper

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup onion, cut into small pieces

Mix ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs, bell peppers, onion and carrot. Boil chicken bouillon cubes and cup of water in a microwave or on the stove and add to the previous ingredients. If you want a spicy taste, you can add small pieces of jalapeno to these ingredients.

In an ovenproof dish, place the bacon in a way that the top of the mix can be covered.

Cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and return to oven for 10-15 minutes or until the top is a little browned. 

 

Polish Czarnina (duck soup)

1 duck

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp ground pepper

1 onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 cup raisins

10 prunes 

1 cup diced apple

1 cup diced carrots

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar (optional)

Cover duck with water. Add salt. Remove scum as needed. Cook until tender.

Remove meat from bones. Strain the soup. Return broth to pot. Add diced celery, onion, carrots, apples, raisins and prunes. Add pepper to taste. Cook on low/medium heat for approximately one hour. Add vinegar and sugar to taste.

 

Polish Kluski (noodles)

4 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour

Mix eggs, oil, salt and water. Add flour and mix until mixture thickens. Let stand five to 10 minutes. Knead and roll out very thin, adding flour to prevent sticking. Cut in 2-3 inch strips. Stack 2-3 strips and cut noodles. Add to boiling water until cooked throughout (approximately 10 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent sticking together. Drain water and rinse with cold water. Can add to soup or keep in separate bowl.

Fall and winter provide many opportunities for family, friends and co-workers to gather for holiday meals.

For families with connections outside the United States, it is also a time to share their culture through food. Arkansas Catholic interviewed Catholics born outside the United States or who have immediate family members from Italy, Slovakia, Nigeria, Mexico, Poland and Vietnam about their favorite traditions and dishes.

Nigerian Moi Moi

John and Jennifer Ekeanyanwu, members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Little Rock, enjoy sharing the traditional Nigerian dish moi moi, a steamed bean pudding, with their six sons during Thanksgiving.

“It’s one of my favorites because it’s really healthy, everybody loves healthy food,” Jennifer said. “Because of the black eyed peas, the onions, the peppers, the tomatoes, olive oil, everything is healthy. That to me is my favorite food.”

To make it even healthier, John said his wife puts in olive oil instead of other fattier oils that could be used. It can traditionally be eaten with rice or beef or chicken stew. It can also be eaten with cooked plantains. 

“I know here rice is considered a side dish; in Nigeria it’s a staple,” said John, adding fried rice or Nigerian Jollof rice are popular main dishes.

John Ekeanyanwu immigrated to the United States in 1982 and his wife in 1999, from Owerri, the capital of the Imo state of Nigeria.

John said at dinner functions, “everybody eats happy” if moi moi is brought. Because moi moi is time consuming to make, bringing it to a potluck means the people or event is very special.

“I love the taste of moi moi. I enjoy making it because it reminds you of your traditional food,” Jennifer said. “It’s kind of tedious, but the end (of the) process is something I enjoy.”

Italian Crostoli

Olga Vaccari Dal Santo, 91, has fond memories of cooking for both her family and the church during the holiday season. Born and raised in Little Italy, Dal Santo said her family emigrated from Venice. While she can rattle off a list of Italian dishes she’s made, she said one of the best is crostoli. It is a crisp Italian pastry or cookie. She has used her sister Irma Vaccari Belotti’s recipe.

“It’s kind of thin and diamond shaped,” Dal Santo said. “You have to have a big long rolling pin. Roll it out flat, just as flat as you can get it and cut it in a diamond … You can buy those, but if you bake them like I do everybody used to really like them.”

Dal Santo does not cook or bake much anymore, but fondly remembers cooking her authentic Italian spaghetti for parish dinners around the holidays. 

“We’d get up at 4 a.m. and start cooking,” Dal Santo said. “My sauce, I’m not trying to brag, but it was really good. I think they’re still using my recipe … everyone seems to enjoy it.”

Mexican Pastel de Carne

CoCo Torres, children’s ministry coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, said she and her family often spend quality time in the kitchen.

“It’s not just mom in the kitchen. Everyone helps in some way,” she said of her two children, Efrain, 23, and Milea, 14. “… The kitchen and dining room are the gathering places. We get together and always enjoy our time together.”

Torres immigrated to the United States from Northern Mexico, the state of Durango, in 1991. While her children were born in America, during holy days and holidays, like Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day), she enjoys making traditional Mexican dishes. One of the favorites is Mexican pastel de carne or Mexican meat loaf. Torres said it’s the flavor that sets the meatloaf apart, which includes ground beef, bacon, bread crumps and red peppers. 

“The bacon gives it a different flavor. Also bouillon cubes — I add two of those or one depending on how people like it … Some people like it with more flavor.”

It can be served with side dishes like salad, rice or pasta.

Polish Czarnina

Around Thanksgiving, Carolyn Koscielny Bettinger remembers fondly making czarnina (also spelled “czernina”) and homemade kluski, a polish duck soup and homemade noodles, for family gatherings at her aunt’s house. The group of about 15 or so would bring potluck dishes and since Bettinger’s family heritage stems from Pozna?, Poland, making the duck soup with her mother was tradition.

“My mom when she was still alive, we loved making the kluski,” Bettinger said of the noodles. She is a fourth-generation member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in North Little Rock (Marche). “She always made perfect kluski. I’d cut the stripes and stack up the dough with flour in between. Mine would be so haphazard, but they all still all tasted the same.”

Traditionally, the soup was made of duck blood and meat, along with a variety of other fruits and veggies. Bettinger, who does not kill the duck herself, said she and others do not “bleed the duck” anymore and the meat itself is enough to give the soup its rich flavor without the blood.

“It tickles the taste buds. There’s all different recipes, we kind of put in whatever we happened to grow, that’s why we ended up with carrots and apples added to it,” Bettinger said. “It’s kind of a sweet sour. The apple cider vinegar, you kind of add that at the end and it gives it a little bit of a tang.”

Slovakian Nut Rolls and Poppyseed Rolls

Throughout November and December, Adelaide Drotar, a member of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in Slovak, bakes her famous Slovakian nut rolls and poppy seed rolls to sell, but also to occasionally give.

“I remember watching my mother do this baking and after I got married it was years later” that Drotar actually started baking the traditional desserts, she said. “I remember how she did things.”

Drotar said about 12 to 15 rolls can take up three-fourths of a day to make.

“I get a lot of my stuff ready the night before. The flour, sugar, salt, dry ingredients,” she said. “I’ll get up really early, start my baking.”

While she said she can’t reveal her secret recipe, she did say dough made the same day is lighter and “makes a world of difference.”

For the poppy seed rolls, “I ground my own poppy seed; I still do that sometimes.”

“If it’s ground too much, it loses its flavor,” Drotar said. “I have a little grinder, some relatives way back gave it to me that I use.”

Though her baking does provide a little extra income, Drotar said it’s also a chance for her to do what she loves.

“Right now at my age, it gives me something to do,” she said. “Being 88 years old, there’s not a whole lot I can do. I enjoy doing it still for other people.”

Vietnamese Bánh Chung

Janice Tran, who immigrated to the United States 34 years ago from North Vietnam, said her family and her adult children cook traditional American food for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, for Vietnamese New Year or “Tet” which falls on Jan. 28 next year, cultural foods like bánh chung make a comeback.

The meal is made of glutinous rice or “sticky rice” — which is soaked for about eight hours prior to cooking — pork, mung beans (soaked about four hours), onions and spices. The ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves or green leaves called “lá dong” and tied together with twine in a square. Tran said in South Vietnam, they shape them into rolls instead. They are cooked for about five hours, depending on the size, in a pressure cooker or a pot of simmering water.

“It’s a lot of work to prepare that. They have a story for that in our country,” a legend of how this recipe came to be, Tran said.

According to vietspring.org, about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, Emperor Hung-Vuong had several sons and challenged them to bring him a special or unique food and whoever had the best would become the next emperor. Tiet-Lieu made a simple dish he called bánh chung or “square cake” and the round version, bánh giay, and won the contest. The cakes symbolized the sky and earth — which was square according to ancient Vietnamese understanding, according to vietnamesefood.com. It is made on the New Year in his honor.

For the Vietnamese New Year celebration at Sacred Heart Church in Barling, Tran makes bánh chung as a way to raise money for Catholic education.

“To let the kids know our traditions,” Tran said, adding her now five adult children all attended Catholic schools until high school. “I feel like at least we can support our Church to help the kids be able to go to Catholic school.”

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