April 30, 2008

• Greek Easter 2008

  Once again it is time for my yearly Greek Easter Feast.

  For those new to the game, every year since college I have prepared a traditional greek easter meal for my friends. This tradition began way back when i was a little kid, leaving easter church services (which i could not stand) The one upside was that after the mass, we would go to my aunts house and have easter dinner with a bunch of greek food. So of course i spent all my time in the kitchen and little by little my aunt began to teach me how to make some of the traditional foods.

  I am no longer greek orthodox, but i still hold dear the traditions and foods associated with easter and wanted a way to share my greek heritage with my friends, so i began making the easter dinner for them. Simple at first, just a few friends and some lamb and dolma. Years later I can make all of the easter foods, more than my aunt or mother does since they dont enjoy cooking, and i prepare an 8 course meal for about 15 people every year that takes me about 4-5 days to make in entirety. I plan on continuing this for as long as it is humanly possible, though admittely it got a little trickier with 3rd year schedule

  So lets start cooking!

  
  First we saute about 4 lbs of spinach, then mix it with onions and feta cheese and cover it in phyllo dough, that paper thin pastry that is so fragile it rips if you breath on it and dries almost as soon as you take it out of the package.

  After 4 years I finally have gotten the hang of working with the phyllo dough and with my rhythm going, i barely cursed at all this year. Yay me!

  Next day was the dolmathes, stuffed grapevine leaves

  
  The leaves are edible and impart a lemony tang to the meat

  Then the pastitsio or greek lasagna

  

  
  Followed by my famous lamb stew with a tomato sauce and merlot base (this year with 8 lbs of lamb, fresh from the butcher)

  
  And another favorite, the Chicken Avgolemono…chicken sauted in butter and onions, boiled with dill, and then covered in a avgolemono sauce and placed on grapevine leaves with olives

  Then it was time for the other big easter event for me…saturday, the day before easter, I dye the eggs and bake the Tsoureki, a traditional sweet bread made only for easter.
  
  Weird fact about me, I like to draw on eggs. This is mostly because when I was little, my mom would write H on hard boiled eggs so we knew which ones they were…my brother and I just started doodling cause we though writing on eggs was fun. hijinks ensued
  
  The dye for the eggs is a special red dye i purchased from greektown, and one that is only sold around easter. The second pic is simply my collection of spices, the majority of them fresh from the Spice House, a local chicago spicery
  
  The above ingredients are what I use to make the bread. From Scratch. Not only do I cook, I BAKE! Line forms to the left ladies
  
  Ha , I kill me
  
  So here is the raw dough, which is left to rise for several hours. Then I take strips of the dough and roll them out while jamming to streaming greek music from my computer, and fold the strips into little bread dolls, or jesus fish
  
  One doll for each of my guests, or about 14 in total. You may notice that the top left doll is much cleaner looking than the bottom right. Well, lets see how good your bread making technique is when you only do it once a year

  Okay so all the food prepared, lets spruce the apartment up a little, eh?

  
  Purchased some flowers in the color of the greek flag to serve as a centerpiece, and arranged them in an ascending staircase. The blue ones are iris and the white i dont know but if you do, tell me please

  
  This old school mortar and pestle isnt just for show…its what I use to crush the almonds and walnuts to make the one greek dish everyone knows…baklava!

  
  Here is what the final table looked like…lets delve a little closer shall we?
  
  Spanakopita, Baklava, Pastitsio, and Dolmathes
  
  Tsoureki and Rosemary Potatoes
  
  Spanakopita and Dolmathes again, with Chicken Avgolemono. The Lamb remained on the stove simmering.
  
  So happy easter in greek is Kalo Pascha. Anytime you answer the door, you greet your visitor with Xristos Anesti, which means CHrist has risen. If they know greek or have done this easter thing with me before, the response is Alithos Anesti, or truly, he has risen.

  A similar game is played with the tsoureki, called Tsourimos. Everyone takes an egg, which in this case was baked into the bread. The eggs, a symbol of life held in abeyance, or a symbol of rebirth, are dyed red for the blood of christ. Two guests will turn to one another and say xristos anesti while the other answers alithos anesti. Then, they will tap their eggs against each other, checking to see if one has cracked. All the guests do this until only one uncracked egg remains. That person will receive a year of strength. The eggs are cracked to represent the resurrection, life springing forth from death.

  The other tradition done exclusively with the bread. Into one loaf of bread (or in this case, one doll) a drachma (or quarter for me) is baked. As each person eats their bread, the one who finds the quarter will be treated to a year of good fortune, provided they keep the quarter on their person.
  
  
  With all the tradtional games out of the way, we all had a wonderful dinner
  
  Everyone stuffed but not quite ready to retire, I busted out one more toy from my culture
  
  WHat better way to end a night of fun and feasting than some after dinner hookah and conversation.

  Until next year, Happy Easter

  • 8:52 pm
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