Easter Feast

Easter is the most important celebration for the Orthodox church and for Greeks, whose religion is almost synonymous with their identity. The Holy Week is a build up to Christ's Resurrection and a wrap up of fasting. Easter Sunday is the time to enjoy good food with family and friends. However, during the Holy Week there are many other culinary traditions which lead up to Easter Sunday's great feast and complete the festive table.

Keeping in touch with my roots, my culture and my love for cooking is enhanced during this time of year. Keeping up with some traditions is of out most importance. It is almost like a blessing for the remaining of the year. It is a blessing for good health and prosperity in the family. So, no matter what, I try to keep them.

These traditions have been imprinted in my memory ever since I was old enough to help my mother around the kitchen. A little apprentice learning while helping and mastering an art by watching. A grown up woman perfecting this art by cooking and cooking some more every year. Indeed, most of these traditions are old but, as always, I try to bring in new influences and, without spoiling them, add a unique twist.

Holy Thursday is the time to color our eggs. According to tradition the eggs represent new life and the color red symbolizes the victory of life over death and Christ's blood. However, there are many who dye eggs different colors either by using non-toxic food colors or by making natural colors from red onion skins, spinach, coffee,cabbage etc. My touch to this year's egg tradition was to dye some eggs yellow (by using Turmeric) and brown (by leaving red onion skins cook longer than the time required for red color).

Holy Friday or Saturday we bake the Easter Bread "Tsoureki" (from the Turskish word 'Corek') or "Labropsomo" (in Greek). According to tradition the bread symbolizes life (as the flour changes form and becomes bread). The word "tsoureki" was most likely adopted by Greeks during the Turkish occupation.

I have always feared making tsoureki simply because there are as many recipes as there are cooks. So, it is a bit confusing as to how much to make, how many grams of each ingredient and, in fact, what ingredients to use. I have searched and searched and also asked my mother for her recipe and I believe this Easter I have finally found the one that worked for me (check the recipe here). The result was amazing and I will most definitely do this again.


Last, but not least, comes the lamb. Traditionally lamb is prepared on Easter Sunday. I have eaten it before in other celebrations but, in Greece lamb is synonymous with Easter. Buying a whole lamb on a spit is commonplace. Fastened securely with barb wire, it is then placed on top of an open fire where it is left to spin slowly for hours and hours to cook till the meat drops off the bone. Yum! According to tradition lamb is eaten during Easter because it symbolizes the body of Christ who sacrificed himself, like a lamb, for the salvation of humanity.

As great as all these sound, our reality is somewhat different here in Finland. We live in an apartment block so we had to restrict ourselves to grilling only some parts of the lamb; the tender and yummy ones ;) Lamb sirloin and rib stakes :) And, boy, did we enjoy them!

As we say in Greece "Και του χρόνου με υγεία" (Kai tou hronou me ygeia).
May we be healthy to do this again next year!