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2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
Also to Easter the world is divided into two categories: those who cook and the guests, in short, those who eat.
The former risk nervous exhaustion, sleep sleepless nights, look at the oven full of apprehension.
The others wait seated, forearms resting on the table, hand within reach of cutlery, stomach wide. And if asked about the success of what they eat they also answer in monosyllables. What do you want, they have busy jaws.
However, cooking readers should be consoled on the verge of a nervous breakdown: you are in good company. Even in the most remote Swedish village there is someone who, just like you, stares at the oven door with a tachycardia principle.
I propose you a quick one tour of Europe of the main dishes savory and sweet that are cooked at Easter. Vegetarians put their hearts in peace: lamb, lamb and more lamb. Just a few thin pigs and a little cod to respect Holy Week.
SALTY
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
Holy Week requires respect for the lean tradition, so go for garlic soups with stale bread and paprika, especially the "Christmas Eve soup" with chickpeas, cod, spinach and cod soup.
If you prefer something substantial, there is cod in croquettes and pancakes format.
Very popular the Pa torrat of Good Friday: it is toasted bread in the oven flooded with oil and accompanied by garlic and cod. You can also find it paired with cheese and puff pastry with fried anchovies and onions.
To continue in the line of "lean eating" (?!) In Castile you will find Hornazo: a kind of stuffed bread (it looks like our savory pies) filled with eggs, pork loin, ham. There is also a sweet version made with almonds, sugar, anise and eggs.
Lamb, needless to say, is the protagonist: however, since you will eat it in industrial quantities, if you are in Castile try the Cochinillo asado, a 6 week old pig prepared in the oven.
In Portugal, the Easter lunch requires roast kid and lamb stew.
FRANCE
Lamb comes in many versions: roasted, crusted, spit-roasted and stewed. On the Easter table you will find Gigot d’agneau (leg), Brochettes d’agneau (skewers) e Navarin (stew).
Once the binge is over, if you are still hungry, try the different versions of Pâté de Pâques, a sort of timbale filled with meat and eggs. Eggs in omelette format are also a must.
RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, NORTH
In Sweden, the Easter buffet includes herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs, meatballs, sausages (it's still cold up there, you know?). In Romania, even Easter is eaten Ciorba, a sour soup; then roast and lamb flan.
In Poland, eggs are the protagonists of Easter morning: next to them, for a very rich breakfast-lunch, cooked ham and sausages appear, a bit like in Croatia.
In Germany, chervil soup is a must (on Holy Thursday), while on Easter Sunday lamb is the focus of lunch.
In Russia, pork is tasted in the oven (first marinated with lemon juice, pepper and bay leaf, then salted, buttered and baked in the oven). In the evening, just because a broth is too little, still meat, fish and mushrooms.
ENGLAND AND IRELAND
Among the green valleys, the sheep that pose making Photoshop superfluous, the pastel tones that are seen elsewhere only at Easter while in those lands they enter Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe every day, the lamb is the king of lunch.
The leg, stewed with various herbs, seasonal vegetables (peas and carrots), is served with potatoes and mint sauce. In Ireland it is stewed with Guinness.
GREECE
On the Greek table, Orthodox Easter is celebrated with soup Maghiritsa, prepared with finely chopped lamb entrails and boiled with onion, dill, rice. Accompany it all with an egg and lemon sauce.
For lovers of the genre, the Kokoretsi, lamb entrails on a spit.
SWEETS
If, like me, you are not very interested in lamb and during Easter lunch you play with bread crumbs while waiting for sweets, well, this is your moment. A parade of leavened, fried, sweet breads, puddings awaits you with open arms.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
The Easter cake is there Mona, a cake decorated with eggs, but all Holy Week is a hymn to sugar: try the Torrijas, slices of fried bread sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, le Flores de Semana Santa, crunchy cakes in the shape of flowers fried in oil; so the Bartolillos, fried ravioli filled with custard, le Rosquillas (fried donuts flavored with anise), the Pestiños, a sweet of Arab origin cut into a square with two folded edges, then moistened with honey.
Still i Buñuelos, similar to our pancakes and the Leche frita, fried cream cut into small pieces.
In Portugal there are also the Arrufadas, leavened cakes often accompanied by almonds and chocolate eggs.
FRANCE
The Easter cake in France celebrates eggs, which garnish it richly.
In Alsace, lamb-shaped biscuits are prepared, a sweet variant of the main course of the meal
RUSSIA, EASTERN EUROPE, NORTH
Among the typical dishes of the festival: in Finland certainly the Pasha, based on cheese similar to quark, analogous to Pashka Russian and to the Pasca Romanian, circular in shape with a cross of pasta in the center, and the Mammi, a rye flour pudding seasoned with molasses that is eaten cold with cream and sugar.
In the Netherlands, on the other hand, the tables are dominated by Paasbrod, a sweet bread enriched inside with raisins and currants, soft like a donut.
We are now in Germany, here the lamb becomes sweet with Osterlamm, enriched with almonds.
In Bulgaria and Romania, the Kozunak, a kind of panettone (in some variants with poppy seeds).
In Russia, a similar dessert is Kulich. Enriched with mixed fruit there is also the Kisel.
In Croatia and Slovenia try the Pinca, a leavened product engraved with the sign of the cross.
In the Czech Republic, the typical dessert is Babovka (Babka in Poland): a donut with raisins, almonds and cherry liqueur, or candied fruit and nuts.
ENGLAND AND IRELAND
Easter symbols engraved on sweets of the English-speaking world: the Hot cross buns, milk sandwiches flavored with cinnamon or cloves, enriched with raisins, have a cross of shortcrust pastry on the surface.
Then there is an excellent cake, the Simnel cake, with a decoration that recalls the 12 apostles. It is a dessert enriched with two layers of marzipan, filled with candied lemon peels and dried fruit.
GREECE
On the table comes the Tsoureki, a sweet leavened bread, flavored with wild cherry seeds and decorated with hard-boiled eggs.