Kalimera and happy Easter Weekend to all of you taking the next few days to vacation and rest. Today’s post has some vital info for you all: what to cook for Easter this year.
In typical me fashion, I am probably overdoing it celebrating both Easter weekends (Orthodox Easter Sunday lands April 12th) but I do so love any excuse for a party so I’ve prepared an epic menu, filled with my favourite spring time dishes from the yiayiades and nonnas I’ve spent the past decade cooking with and I am so happy to share it with you all.
Below you’ll find the spread of my Easter dishes with two options for lamb. It’s everything my own Yiayia will typically have on the table at Easter time, including snacks for guests and a dessert of dreams. I’m also sharing Yiayia’s tips for naturally dying easter eggs and her method for shining the eggs. There are links to the recipes, giving you a sneak peek into the world of my books Yiayia and MEDITERRANEA and a chance to try the recipes before buying the books.
Hope you all have a lovely Easter, whichever and whenever you’re celebrating!
Filakia (KISSES!)
Anastasia x x x
Red dyed eggs
On the table throughout the Easter weekend
There are many theories around exactly why we Greeks dye our eggs red for easter, from symbolising the blood of Christ to a mythology that dates back to the ancient Greeks and the story of Demeter. When her daughter Persephone died, to deal with the pain of the loss, Demeter created the poppy flower - with its blood red petals - giving it the power to make people fall into a blissful sleep.
Whatever the reason, these are a mainstay on my easter table and every ‘Megali Pempti’ (Holy Thursday) Yiayia sets to work dying her eggs. She never uses shop bought dyes but tends to combine natural dyes, experimenting with different types over the years.
These are her favourites:
Beets
Ren onion skins
Spanish onion skins
Seaweed
An easy one that most people can try at home is left over beet peel and onion skins. I found that a Spanish onion and red onion skin combo are good for a nice bright red colour.
Method
Yiayia collects the skins from ten onions over the course of a week or two of cooking, places them in an old piece of tulle fabric (most home cooks will have a fine cheesecloth but this is her preference as she refuses to waste anything) and gently simmers her eggs in a big pan of water for at least half an hour. She then removes them with a slotted spoon and shines them using a piece of tissue paper blotted with olive oil.
Tsoureki
Easter breakfast with a Greek coffee
The Easter brioche of my dreams is the one my friend and head baker Ianthi makes at her Athenian bakery Kora. It’s infused with mahleb, cardamom and mastic for a beautiful depth of flavour in every, squidgy, buttery bite. A woman after my own heart, Ianthi is inspired by her own Yiayia Nota and her recipe for Tsoureki is in my book, Yiayia. For those of you who don’t own it, there’s a sneak peek of the book and the full recipe here.
Now for lunch
Sacrifical lamb
Very much sticking to ‘meat as a treat’, we Greeks ‘fast’ for forty days before Easter Sunday. This means forty days of veganism: no meat or dairy and some hard core people (Yiayia) even forego olive oil. I have no idea how she manages but having a compulsory vegan diet multiple times a year (she also does this before Christmas) has meant that she’s still live and kicking and living alone in her 90th year on the planet. So she must be doing something right.
Easter Sunday though, is a MEGA treat day and that means lamb. Our own lamb tends to come from my godfather’s farm, right next to our home in Corfu. Since I was a little girl, I became quite accustomed to my godfather running around the meadow that I can see from my garden, chasing no-longer frolicking lambs that clearly had a sense that they were in for it. He even made me watch one being slaughtered at the tender age of seven, much to my British mother’s chagrin. Still, I’m glad for this proximity to my food and the understanding of the great value of what was sitting on my plate from a young age.
My two favourite lamb recipes are of course credit to two incredible Greek Yiayiades. One is a classic one tray dish of lamb and roast potatoes, made succulent and extra sweet with the addition of oranges. The other is a Greek Yiouvetsi (a pasta bake using orzo): an indulgent fall-off-the-bone lamb dish that my family now demand on a monthly basis.
Here they are…
Yiayia Eleuteria’s aromatic orange lamb and potatoes
Yiayia Litsa’s Lamb Yiovetsi (Orzo baked lamb)
Accompaniments
A plate of feta drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and oregano. Non negotiable.
I love to dip my orange roasted potatoes into this creamy tzatziki. Here’s how to make Yiayia’s ultimate tzatziki.
As it’s citrus season, here’s an incredibly juicy, light salad recipe to serve alongside your lamb. It features in my book MEDITERRANEA and is one I picked up from Nonna Cece in southern Sicily that never fails to wow.
It’s a refreshing, flavour packed dish which strikes a great balance between sweet, salty and spiced typically found in southern Italy. The zing of citrus and the subtle sweetness of the pith of the citron combines with a salty kick of anchovy and a punch of chilli pepper to express Sicily on a plate.
A sneak peek into MEDITERRANEA
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