Mucenici: Dessert soup of the Martyrs
Pasta and cinnamon? Walnuts and honey? Sugar and water? Hallelujah!
I must confide in you that I loathe hearing about Yet Another holiday celebrating some dead christian from 900 years ago as if it were an impactful relevancy today. Now, mind you, I don’t mind the historical education about St. Nimeni who was killed by a ravenous pack of undomesticated hampsters while trying to bring spiritual endarkenment to the good people of Oriunde village. And I even can appreciate the brightly colored illustrations which those in power used to indoctrinate the ignorant masses for the purpose of tithe-based enrichment.
Wow! Is it just me or did it start to feel a little hostile in here? I apologize. Despite my personal aversion to calumniation of pedagogues, I respect your quite natural perogative to believe in the mythology of your choice.
Now that we’ve dispensed with the pleasantries, let’s talk about grub!
Boy howdy, them there Mucenici vittles are a-fixin ta make yer mouth feel like theres a hootenanny a-goin’ on all over yer tastebuds. I tell you whut, yessir. Now, I’ve no idea who came up with this idea or how what mad science experiments surely were suffered through in order to arrive at a palatable conclusion, but this mucenici is clearly a culinary winner. Oh, sure, to some of you it may sound a little bizarre to mix pasta with cinnamon and water, but you’ll just have to have a little faith (self-contradiction full recognized) and step right off the cliff. Trust me when I say you may feel like you’re falling but the ground will catch you. Adevarat.
Apparently, the whole Mucenici celebration on March 9th is a bit anticlimatic because Martişor on March 8th is a bit more popular with the ladies. Nonetheless, it’s suffering is quite apropo in that Mucenici is about the suffering of past christian missionaries who were brutually slaughtered in their attempts to convert-or-kill non-christians in foreign lands. You know, martyrs. Pshaw, don’t tell me you thought it was only Islam!
To properly celebrate the brave dead for their intellectual enslavement of others, you must do a little cooking. But there are two ways to go about it, you see. The traditional Mucenici and the more modern mucenici.
Dying to master and revive the classical style? Make yourself some dough (you know the drill: water, salt, flour) and knead it, let it set an hour, and then roll it out into a long thin string. Say, about 1/4″ diameter or so. Cut it into lengths around 2″ and make yourself an infinity symbol. (Note: NASCAR rednecks can make the shape of a demolition derby track.)
While the dough is setting, toss a cup of walnuts (sans shell, va rog) into your food processer and let that baby whirl around until it’s looking like sand. Add in a teaspoon cinnamon, maybe 1/4 cup or so of wildflower honey, and a smidgen of water. Press the buzzer some more to make it a very fine paste.
Put your cinnawalnutmiere paste into a nice pot on the stove. Add 2 parts water to 1 part paste and toss in your pasta dough algebraic signs (or tarmac shapes). Let ‘er boil 5 minutes or so while stirring to keep the pasta loose. Check your pasta for when they are done, yourself. I am not responsible for your undercooking or overcooking. For more details, please contact my lawyer. Serve warm in a bowl.
What’s the other method? Buy some farfalle and rotini instead of making your own pasta. Use sugar instead of honey. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same idea.
Bear in mind that the pastas are to represent the mucenici (martyrs). A student of religion would recognize the whole Body of Christ influence playing out here in typical Catholic and Orthodox idolatry. But don’t let the confusions between mortal saints and the Son of Gawd deter you from enjoying this brilliant dessert soup.
Let us not allow all their suffering to be for naught. Yummy!
March 13th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Apparently this christian holiday celebrating the 40 saints mucenici has a considerable importance for the believers. It is said that in the city of Sevastia, a ruler named Agricolae, by means of a fierce hate against christians, decided to kill all the men that believed in Christ. These 40 men were the ones who confessed their belief and didn’t treason their god by not admitting it. So, as told, they were sentenced to “death by rocks,” wich is, in our days terms, throwing rocks at them till they were dead. Apparently, something went wrong with the calculations of mathematic, physics, and number balance, because the stones actually hit the ones that threw them!! .. meaning they made a boomerang kind of movement(..guess is some sort of magic implied here.)
However, the second time was to be more effective, so they put them in a cold lake, and let them take a long bath (with no bubbles!) till the second day, when they eventually died, and then they were all burned. The admiration for these saints comes from their belief that nothing could change.
This “mucenici” dish is however delicious, they make this as a sort of offering, like the ones you make for gods. It is also said that it represents their bodies in the water or stuff like that. One way to do it, is to make a “cozonac” dough, a romanian traditional sweet bread, made with eggs, milk, butter, walnuts, raisins, and the usual flour and yeast. To the cozonac dough, you apply the same technique as any other kind: cut into thin strips and make an 8 or infinity form, times 40, boil ‘em with water and add the cinnamon and the nutmeg whenever you want… some say that after boiling is better ’cause it looks better, meaning it won’t become brown and stuff, but i’d say it doesn’t really matter, because it tastes sooo good both ways.
Anyway, the funny thing, as almost all the christian holidays, this was originally an agricultural holiday, related to the vernal equinox, the occuring of the spring, and having some rituals that eventually would bring spring faster- like beating the ground with a sort of thick stick. I wonder why that ruler’s name was Agricolae, wich is a latin word for agriculture, and…what would have happened to the delicious meal without the saints?!
ps. This day also represens the man’s day, following right after the woman’s day on 8th march. But unlike women, that are supposed to get presents…men have to drink 40 glasses of wine. That i guess, to make them forget about the money they spent on presents the other day.
March 13th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Ah, the favorite pasttime of yore, to stone persons one does not care much for. I’m intrigued to learn they weren’t stoned so much as drowning (in alcohol?). Surely, the hand of God reached out to intervene and extend their lives for just a few more hours. Praise be.
So, they were put into a cold lake to get hypothermia? That does not sound particularly pleasant at all. I think the fire may have been intended to warm them up but appears to have come too late and perhaps too close as well.
Yuck.
It’s a little strange to commemorate their death by redrowing the pasta, but I’m starting to grasp a flicker of understanding here.
As for Christian holidays, yes, they are almost all entirely based on pagan traditions, including Christmas, Easter, and some others. What strikes me as odd is the dogmatic denial of people who claim to have faith, but never bother to do a little basic fact checking into the very thing they claim drives their lives (and purport to drive all our lives).
Ah, Christ, Allah, Brahma, and Ramtha. All very curious, indeed. Fanatical followers without much examination of their own beliefs.
But then, I know the sky is green. And anyone who says otherwise must be a minion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Hahaha… indeed, the nice boys must be drinking to forget the cruel details surrounding the objects of their affection! (Bitter, party of one!)
March 14th, 2006 at 7:20 am
well, whatever…it sounds like it would be well worth trying for the gastronomical experience!!!
March 14th, 2006 at 11:34 am
Oh, yes, it certainly is delicious. At first glance, I was both concerned and curious. Fortunately, the better half of my response gained control and I sampled it.
Mmm Mmm Good.
And it is ridiculously easy to make!
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 am
[...] made out of corn puffs), the hungarian-inspired cold fruit soups they have in transylvania, the “dessert soup of the martyrs” and so on… and, no, a russian guy who’s an expert on uzbekistan will not know these [...]