Easter & Food
Go straight to the Easter recipes
Easter !!! Every year we are so happy when Easter break approaches because that means jumping on a plane and visiting our family in Slovenia. This is a fantastic time of year. Spring is on the way and during the break we enjoy beautiful weather, family gatherings and yummy Easter food. Could we wish for more?
Easter is the second most important holiday in Slovenia too despite the fact that it is one of the least religious countries in Europe. People celebrate it in a similar way to the rest of Europe apart from the UK where Easter holidays are somewhat different. In England the whole celebration is too commercialised and is mostly just about buying Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs. But in Slovenia and some other Eastern European countries Easter egg decorating bears a very long tradition. Decorated eggs are called "pisanke or pirhi" and this practice predates Christianity. Today "pisanke" refer to any form of decorated eggs, but originally the word refers to a very specific form of craft. Authentic "pisanka" egg is not painted but written on.
In present times many Slovenian families decorate Easter eggs in their own unique way. They use dying colours from the shop or natural colours. Dying with tree bark provides a brown color, eggs cooked in tea will be green, dried blackberries dye eggs yellowish/orange, red onion peels make them red, spinach leaves make them green and so on.
Of course you can use decorating pencils and stickers as final touches. Kids love decorating Easter eggs and that's mostly their duty, sort to speak. Do I need to say that they may be too eager and make a lot of mess? Probably not but make sure you supervise them or else you may end up with more than just decorated eggs.
But it is not just about "pisanke". Easter is also about food and Easter recipes. One of the most famous Easter recipes is the recipe for "potica" (a nut roll). "Potica" is a yeast dough rolled and stretched paper-thin and spread with a mixture of ground walnuts, butter, eggs, cream, honey and sugar. It is then rolled and baked - simple. Well, there is more to it but hey, I'm writing about this elsewhere.
Though "potica" is not the only traditional Easter food. Whole cooked ham (which symbolizes the body of the Christ), the whole radish root (symbolizing the nails), red dyed cooked eggs (symbolizing the three drops of Christ's blood), Easter sweet bread are found in every house and every table. Yes, I am talking about a proper feast here so you can imagine why we love it so much!
Traditionally women should bring all the food to church to be blessed on Holly Saturday. Everything should be put in a wicker basket (representing Jesus' grave) covered by a cloth (representing the cloth Jesus was wrapped into). Today most families don't go to church anymore but traditionally wait until Sunday morning when the whole family gathers around the table to have this yummy food. The whole thing seems kind of really homely and nice, doesn't it!
In our family the tradition has taken a slightly different route. Every Easter Monday we visit one of local Tourist farms around the city where you can taste fantastic homemade Easter food using their own Easter recipes. Yep, all this yummy, fresh and homemade food always makes me really happy and wraps up Easter celebrations in a truly grandiose way.
Oh yes, we do our own share of cooking and baking as well with many Easter sweets and desserts.
Here are some Easter recipes that fantastically match coffee:
Good to know
- What are Easter eggs? Easter eggs are special dyed, painted, chocolate or plastic eggs given to celebrate Easter
- Easter egg hunt: Easter eggs which are hidden by the Easter bunny and children have to find them on Easter morning
- Easter is not held on the same date every year. Easter day in 2011 is April 24th.
- Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.
- Do you know what Easter word means? It comes from the ancient German word, Eastre, Goddess of the Spring.
- "Potica" (poh-tea-tsah) is a traditional Slovenian festive pastry known all around the world. It used to be baked in special baking dishes which are usually round with a cylinder in a centre of the dish. It is yeast-raised dough rolled around variety of fillings. "Potica" is often made with walnuts or poppy seeds. It is a gorgeous dessert to be served with coffee. The name "potica" derives from the Slovenian word "poviti" (to wrap in). It is mostly baked for Christmas, Easter or New Year. "Potica" is one of my favorite desserts ever and it tastes absolutely yummy.
- There are at least 50 different kinds of "potica", predominantly differing in fillings.
- Every country in the world have their own Easter recipes.
