Easter Foods - The Basket

Part III of III

There is a lot of preparation that goes into an Orthodox Easter basket but still the most memorable and probably the best known is the decorated egg. Though many examples have been shown throughout history, the Russian Easter egg was made famous by Faberge during a time of decadence that saw such expensive baubles being exchanged instead of the real thing.

Yet Faberge drew his inspiration from the carefully conscripted eggs of the peasants. Eggs that were carefully colored with bees wax and natural dyes to produce the most stunning pieces of miniature art. Often taking days to make the pieces were sometimes made with uncooked eggs that were later blown out to be saved for later. Now a days this is a faded art, though craftsman still produce beautiful eggs they are now done in wood and paint. Made to last for years upon years in their robe of lacquer. 

But eggs are still an important part of the Easter basket. Traditionally dyed red to represent the spilled blood of Christ they represent the resurrection. A new beginning and new life. They are so important that they are the only food items given out as part of the Easter service itself. These blessed eggs are traditionally eaten first to break the Lenten fast.

(At the end of the service worshipers come up to kiss the cross and recieve their egg)

Eggs are also given out as gifts on Easter morning to those that did not attend services so often dozens are colored at one time and most are taken to be blessed along with the rest of the Easter food. And because I give most of them away I like making them interesting or unusual.

For many years I have been dying my eggs with brightly colored Easter dyes but this year I wanted to try something different. When I was little, I remember my parents dying eggs with onion skins and wanted to try all natural dyes this year. I wracked my brains trying to figure out what else I could use and in the end, produced three different colors. The most numerous of which was the onion skin eggs. I think they also turned out the prettiest. 

To get the skins, since I can’t eat onions, I went to the local grocery store and asked permission to gather the discarded skins from the onion display, a request the manager was only too happy to oblige me in. However I think I gathered too many and made a happily serendipitous discovery. If I cram a large pot full of onion skins and nestle the eggs between them I get the prettiest tie-dyed looking eggs ever. Some of them looked like they had whole galaxies tattooed on their smooth shells. I was fascinated by them. They were utterly beautiful!

I don’t remember the ones my parents made looking like that. With fewer onion skins the eggs turn out a uniform deep reddish-brown that is lovely all by itself. 

I also discovered a method the keep the eggs from cracking, one of the major problems that I face every time I prepare to color eggs. I discovered the method by accident as well. It seemed that every recipe that I looked up for natural dyes described two methods: 

1. Boil the eggs and the colorant for a half an hour to forty-five minutes which produces intensely colored but inedible eggs. Or… 

2. Boil the eggs and the colorant separately and soak overnight in the cooled colorant. But cooking the eggs first is usually how I break half of them. 

I didn’t think either method sounded very practical. So I devised one of my own. 

I put my colorant into the water, added a tablespoon or two of white vinegar and put the eggs inside. I brought this to a boil and turned off the heat, covered the pot and let it sit until the desired color intensity was reached. Most of the eggs were ready in less than an hour and I didn’t have to bother trying to cram yet another bulky container into my already stuffed fridge. 

The method produces a hard boiled egg that is not overcooked with a nice bright yolk that is still satisfyingly saturated with color. 

For the yellow I used and entire bottle of turmeric and about 4 tablespoons of paprika. This was the hardest color to get saturated as the spices simply wanted to settle in a dark sludge at the bottom of the pot forcing me to continually stir it up, gently of course. They also took longest to set. 

The dark blue ones were dyed with grape juice. Kosher grape juice to be precise. I had been hoping for purple but the longer I looked at the deep blue eggs the more I decided I like them. They were also the easiest to do since I all did was pour the grape juice over the eggs, add a splash of vinegar, brought to a boil and then covered them off heat. 

What I had really hoped for and failed miserably with was red eggs. I was told that hibiscus tea would produce red but even an entire box of tea only produced and interesting grey color.  And I would have been happy with that because it looked like the egg was made out of stone but alas the grey was simply a thin film that rested on the surface and came off almost immediately when touched. 

Next year I think I will try pomegranate juice for red and spinach for green.

(The preiest blessing the easter baskets with holy water)

And as important as the eggs are they are not the last things that go into my basket. Each element of the basket has its own symbolism and meaning. And different people place different things in their baskets. It is not uncommon to see bottle of wine and water offered for the blessing. Every few years we bring salt to be similarly blessed though people also bring horseradish, butter and oil. 

For us though, no basket is complete without a plate of meat and a plate of cheese. Mild flavored cheeses are favored representing moderation. While the cured and spice sausages represent God’s generosity. Even the thin slices of heavily smoked pork (roses) are symbolic. Pork, being unkosher, represents Christianity’s freedom from the old laws as all things have been made clean by Christ

And while the meanings and traditions are certainly important, it is not those things we think about when we come home from Easter mass in the middle of the night, weary and bleary-eyed. Though we are as jubilant as we are tired, we think only about the food, crossing ourselves before we take the first bite and savor that which we have denied ourselves during the long lent. Because lent is the time for reflection, Easter is a time for celebration.

Comments

[Pille]

The onions on the top picture are so beautiful! I'm using also onion skins to colour my eggs, but I wrap each egg individually inside onion skins, and tie with a string. Your method sounds easier, though you probably need more onion skins for that..