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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2009 8:10:53 GMT
The time has come to start talking about this. Do you have a traditional Easter menu, or do you look for new inspiration every year? Strangely enough, although I am an anti-traditionalist for Christmas dinner, I am drawn to the traditional French Easter lunch of leg of lamb. But I suppose that it's mostly because I love lamb and hate turkey. One of the advantages of leg of lamb is that you can generally please both lovers of rare meat and well cooked meat. People who want their meat fully cooked eat the outer slices and the others eat the very red interior slices.  |
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Post by hwinpp on Mar 31, 2009 8:39:09 GMT
In Germany I seem to remember that lamb is also served during Easter... in a long bean soup. Or is this just a northern German thing?
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 31, 2009 12:02:06 GMT
I like lamb, but for some, it smells rank.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 31, 2009 15:12:09 GMT
I was in Greece for Orthodox Easter once. Everybody had been fasting and then went to the church service on Saturday evening. The church was darkened; then as midnight struck the priest came out of a back room with a lighted candle. He touched it to other candles and so it went round the church until a hundred or more candles were lit.
Afterwards we went back to the little place where we were staying and they served the soup made from the entrails of the lamb.
On Easter Sunday at lunch the lamb was roasted on a spit and served with potatoes and salad and lots of retsina. We were the only fopreigners staying there. Everybody then piled into a ricketty bus with the band (which was styled the Potamos Symphony Orchestra) and made a tour of the villages on the island (Cythera). At each village tables were laid and there were coloured hard boiled eggs to smash, more lamb, more wine and the band played. Each village had a policeman and it was his duty to make sure the jugs of wine were refilled.
There were about six villages so it was evening by the time we finished.
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voy
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Post by voy on Mar 31, 2009 15:42:19 GMT
that sounds like a really wonderful Easter.
I agree with the lamb - and peas - and freshly made mint sauce.
somehow lots of Merkins have ham. why?? ( silly question - most Merkins don't like lamb)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2009 16:37:57 GMT
Most merkins have probably never even tasted lamb but they are sure they wouldn't like it if they did.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 31, 2009 17:19:04 GMT
I doubt I'll be making an Easter meal this year, though I may make a pasqualina (Easter Pie) to take; the friend doing the Easter dinner will most likely make lamb - our local Québec lamb is very good, though we've also been thinking of kid (chevreau).
I don't like roast turkey either - sometimes I'll buy turkey parts to make soup and meat for various dishes, simply because they are cheap some times of the year here. Turkey is very dry when roasted.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 31, 2009 17:29:50 GMT
Polish Maria was extremely suspicious when given lamb. I wonder if the Poles don't eat it. She certainly didn't approve.
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Post by BigIain on Mar 31, 2009 17:31:05 GMT
The best thing about Easter has to be the lovely sweet and spiced buns traditional in the UK. Each one bears Grecian's autograph you know.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2009 17:52:01 GMT
HW, what are long beans, please? And what else would be served at the Easter meal?
Lagatta, send some of that pasqualina over here!
Minus your "imported" contribution, what would a typical Easter meal consist of in Quebec?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2009 17:59:56 GMT
I have seen long beans in Thailand (I have even seen them at my Chinese supermarket.). If that is what hwinpp is talking about, they are really long.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2009 19:47:11 GMT
I know those long green beans and have even grown them. It's just that I don't associate them at all with Germany. Well, all that proves is that my mind is probably full of dumb stereotyped ideas.
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Post by bazfaz on Mar 31, 2009 20:19:37 GMT
Long beans are long. Except when I tried to grow them in my greenhouse in England. Then they were short long beans.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 31, 2009 21:09:48 GMT
Jelly beans are the only beans I serve at Easter!
I am American and I like lamb, but Easter dinner is all about ham here. Served along with the Easter ham are scalloped potatoes or potatoes au gratin. Or sweet potatoes.
Roast turkey is delicious and should not be dry if cooked right, lagatta. But it is more traditional at Christmas and mandatory at Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November for those nations who don't celebrate the colonization of the New World).
The Christmas menu is not set in stone, and can also be Prime Rib of beef. The best Christmas dinner I ever had was a "fresh ham" that had been simmered on the stove top for hours before roasting. Fall-off-the-bone tender and so savory. Makes my mouth water to think of it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2009 21:12:00 GMT
Asian long beans  |
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voy
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Post by voy on Mar 31, 2009 23:01:26 GMT
speaking of growing long beans - or shorter ones for that matter, my favorites for growning were the ones that are purple on the plant, and then turn green in the cooking. SO much easier to pick!
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voy
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Post by voy on Mar 31, 2009 23:02:26 GMT
ps - those beans in K's picture -- look like they have been cut off a plant? like you would cut off broccoli florets???
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Post by hwinpp on Apr 1, 2009 3:27:18 GMT
Sorry for confuse, I wasn't thinking properly. Not long beans. In German they're called 'Schnippelbohnen', something like (to) cut beans. They're still in a pod as opposed to normal bean soup where only the beans are used. What are these called in English? They're the ones to use: ![]() Apparently I wasn't allowed to use the pic, Sorry. But I think you got it.[/img] |
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 1, 2009 3:35:45 GMT
Your link isn't showing a picture, HW. Are they these beans:  (green beans or snap beans or string beans in English) Or are they more like this: culinarty.sapiensworks.com/articles/yellow-pod-bean-soup/There is a kind of bean sold here in the pod. It's looks as though it should be shelled, but the pods are broken in pieces and cooked with the beans inside them. |
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Post by hwinpp on Apr 1, 2009 10:00:19 GMT
Here, on my browser, I see both pictures. The ones you show are the same I think. Not like the yellow ones in your link.
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Post by bazfaz on Apr 1, 2009 10:24:49 GMT
I used to grow blue beans (or purple according to your colour sensitivity) in England. Delicious.
Here at the local market last summer one stall had them. I used to buy them. But while standing at the stall I would hear French folk exclaiming over them - and then walking off.
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Post by hal2000 on Apr 1, 2009 10:35:38 GMT
Blue beans?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 10:40:53 GMT
I've never heard of them either, but if that's what these are, they just look incorrect.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 11:03:06 GMT
I have very fond memories of Easter from as far back as I can remember. Our family of Polish descent observed a very traditional Polish Easter which is a very important ,probably the most important Christian holiday symbolizing rebirth,fertility and renewal.
Although Easter observances in Poland begin on Ash Wednesday,it culminates on Holy Saturday on through Easter Sunday into Monday,known as Lany Poniedzialek or "Wet Monday".
On Saturday people take to churches decorated baskets (Swieconka) containing a sample of traditional food to be blessed:hard boiled eggs,ham,sausage(kielbasa),salt,horseradish,fruits,bread and cake.. Prominently displayed among these is the Easter lamb,usually molded from butter.It sits on a platter surrounded by the colorfully painted eggs called pisanki. The eggs are elaborately decorated with floral designs using a treated wax or paper and or fabric applique.
After a special Resurrection Mass is celebrated people return home to eat the food blessed the previous day.
The Easter table will be covered with a white tablecloth. On the middle is the basket of pisanki,cold meats,coils of kielbasa,ham,yeast cakes,pound cakes,poppy seed cakes,and the sugared lamb.
Before the meal we would have a huge Easter egg hunt (I had 59 first cousins on my father's side alone).
After the hunt we would sit down to dinner. A special toast would be offered and EVERYONE would have a glass with straight vodka in it that we would have to drink. The children's portion was the equivalent of about a shot. From there all hell would break loose and I remember many an Easter when I got in trouble for staining my frilly little Easter dress.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 11:06:32 GMT
 Pisanki,traditional decorated eggs |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 11:24:43 GMT
 Traditional Polish Easter lamb,BAAHSKI Traditional Cake,Babka |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 11:33:41 GMT
I can imagine the butter lamb being a problem on those rare occasions when there is an Easter heat wave. But it looks like a lot of fun.
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Post by bazfaz on Apr 1, 2009 11:40:59 GMT
As Voy (and I) said, those blue beans turn green in boiling water.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2009 12:03:03 GMT
I forgot about the soup! See Galley for recipe for Horseradish Soup
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 1, 2009 14:07:59 GMT
Wow ~ I've seen pictures of the Ukranian Easter eggs, but the Polish ones are beyond gorgeous!
Is the butter lamb to symbolize the end of Lent and the beginning of Spring abundance?
(baahski ~~ not really?!)
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