Easter dishes

Easter is an ancient holiday very important for all Christians. This year Easter is celebrated on April 4th. All over the world Christians

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Easter is an ancient holiday very important for all Christians. This year Easter is celebrated on April 4th. All over the world Christians celebrate this holiday with various national Easter dishes of symbolic character: roast lamb, veal or pork with vegetables and special dishes: kulich cakes, curd paskha, buns and ginger breads.

Rabbit with onions

Ingredients:
1 rabbit (about 1.5 kg)
2 kg onions
4 tbsp sunflower oil
150 g white dry wine
salt, pepper

Cooking: Cut yhe rabbit into portion pieces, rub with salt, fry on a pan till crust appears, stew till ready. Cut the onions into semicircles. Put into a pot with sunflower oil and stew at a low heat for about 30 min stirring constantly, then add the onions to the rabbit and stew under lid till ready. Serve with boiled potatoes.

Mazurka with dried prunes

Ingredients:
100 g flour
1 tbsp potato starch
150 g sugar
5 eggs
40 g margarine
150 g dried prunes
butter for greasing the tin
bread crumbs
icing:
1 egg white
5 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
or a pinch of citric acid

Cooking: Soak the prunes for a few hours in water, drain, remove the stones, cut in thin stripes and sprinkle with flour. Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Rub the egg yolks with sugar; whisk the egg whites into steady foam. Gradually add the flour and then the whisked egg-whites to the egg yolks stirring slightly. Finally, add the melted margarine and the prunes. Mix everything and pour into the greased and sprinkled with breadcrumbs baking tin. Bake in the preheated to 200 C oven till golden. When ready, put the icing on top and leave in the hot oven for a few minutes. For icing rub the egg white thoroughly with icing sugar, and when it becomes white, add lemon juice or citric acid.

Jellied chicken

Ingredients:
1 chicken (about 1 kg)
parsley root
celery
leek
100 g green peas
assorted compote fruit (pears, plums, peaches)
1 tbsp gelatine
salt to taste

Cooking: Prepare the chicken, salt, pour with cold water and boil at a low heat with the peeled vegetables till the meat can be easily separated from the bones. Prepare the gelatine: pour 1 tbsp gelatine with 1/2 cup cold water, leave for 1 hour. Then add 3 cups of warm stock where the chicken was cooked to the gelatine, warm a little, but do not bring to a boil. Carve the compote fruit in different shapes and put them on the bottom of a deep dish, then put the chicken without skin and bones on them. Pour with 2/3 of the stock with gelatin. Drain the green peas; pour with the remaining stock with gelatine. Put the chicken and the peas into the fridge. When the jelly is ready, put the dish with the chicken in hot water for a few seconds, and then turn it upside down on a flat dish. Take out the jellied green peas and arrange it around the jellied chicken.

Curd sponge

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1.5 cup flour (it would be better if half of it is potato starch)
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
vanilla sugar
curd mixture:
500 g curd
1/2 cup sugar
125 g margarine
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp potato starch
essence to taste

Cooking: Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites into steady foam, continue to whisk, add sugar, then egg yolks, vanilla sugar, flour and baking powder. Grease the baking tin and sprinkle it with breadcrumbs. Put the batter into the tin, bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for about 30 min. Take out when chilled. Prepare the curd mixture. Grind 2 times. Put the margarine, sugar and milk in the pot, add whisked eggs and potato starch. Bring to a boil at a low heat stirring constantly. Cut the chilled sponge into halves, put the curd mixture on one half, cover with the second part and press a little. Level the edges, sprinkle with icing sugar. Chill in a cool place but not in the fridge.

Eggs stuffed with marinated mushrooms

Ingredients:
5 eggs
1 tbsp soured cream
1/2 cup marinated mushrooms
2-3 sprigs parsley (herbs)
salt, sugar to taste

Cooking: Hard boil eggs, shell them, cut the top from the blunt end (to the yolk), remove the yolk. Cut the mushrooms finely, mix with the soured cream and rubbed yolks (leave two yolks for garnishing) and stuff the eggs with the mixture. You can garnish the stuffed eggs as mushrooms with different tops: brown – with onion peel, red – with tomato slice with mayonnaise dots. Put the eggs on a plate the cut side down, put the top on the sharp end, sprinkle the plate with chopped herbs, and then with rubbed yolk.

Easter pate

Ingredients:
700 g chicken liver
100 g cream
300 g lean pork
300 g tail fat or axunge
3 eggs
60 g brandy
salt, pepper, nutmeg
200 g smoked ham
10 boiled quail eggs

Cooking: Pour the liver with the cream, leave for about 1 hour. Slice the ham finely. Grind the pork and the fat twice, and then chop the liver. Mix the pork, fat and liver, add spices, the remaining cream, brandy, ham and stir. Put half of the mixture into a rectangular baking tin 1.5 litre in volume, then put the quail eggs and cover with the rest of pate. Put in a preheated to 180C oven on a water bath for 1.5 hours. It is better to leave pate in the fridge for at least 1 day, better 2-3 days. You can make a traditional German green Easter dressing to the pate. Usually this dressing is made of 7 spring herbs: parsley, chive, chervil, borage, water cress, pimpernel, sorrel. If you cannot find some of them, take the ones you can get – basil, lemon balm, mint, etc. Rinse the herbs thoroughly and chop finely. Rub a few spoons of sunflower oil with egg yokes of four boiled eggs, 1 tsp mustard, and then mix with 300 g thick soured cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes finely chopped egg whites are also added to the sauce.

Poppy baba

Ingredients:
(per 1 baba)
For the pastry: 600 g flour, 30 g yeast, 1/2 cup milk, 4 egg yolks, 100 g sugar, 150 g butter, lemon zest, salt
For poppy filling:
150 g poppy seeds
1/4 litre milk
40 g sugar
20 g butter
30 g crumbled gingerbread
lemon zest
cinnamon
20 g chocolate
1 tbsp honey

Cooking: Prepare the yeast pastry, put in a warm place for fermentation. Meanwhile prepare the poppy seed filling: boil the milk with the sugar, boil the poppy seeds in it till soft, then thoroughly pound it in the pounder. Mix the mass with honey, grated lemon zest, cinnamon, crumbled gingerbread and chocolate. Roll out the pastry, spread the poppy seed filling all over the pastry, roll, put in the prepared tin and leave to rise in a warm place. Bake at 180 C till ready. This recipe is unusual because of a beautiful pattern in the cut.

Almond paskha

Ingredients:
1,2 kg dry curd
6 cups double cream
1 cup sugar (you can put sugar to taste)
1,5-2 cups sweet almond
10 kernels of bitter almond

Cooking: Keep fresh curd under press for 12 hours, press through a sieve, add the cream, stir thoroughly, put in a cloth and hang to drain the whey. Shell the sweet almonds, crush it as finely as possible (with no grains), adding a little water so that the almond does not become oily. Add sugar to the almond and rub. Add the mixture to the curd, mix everything thoroughly, put into a paskha tin, keep under press for the whole night. Garnish the paskha with grated bitter almonds.

Easter biscuits

Ingredients:
5 eggs
100 g matzo
10 g sugar
5 g lemon juice
20 g goose fat for pastry
20 g goose fat for frying
cinnamon, salt
5 g icing sugar for sprinkling
1 g cinnamon for sprinkling

Cooking: Mix the egg yolks with salt, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, melted goose fat and crushed matzo. The pastry should be liquid. Leave to rest for 1 hour, then add egg whites whisked into steady foam. Boil the goose fat in a small pot, take the pastry with a spoon and put into the fat, fry, take out, sprinkle with icing sugar and cinnamon and serve hot.

Big kulich

Ingredients:
(per 1 kulich)
1 kg flour
800 ml milk
1/2 cup thick yeast
20 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups melted butter
salt to taste

Cooking: Mix 1 kg flour, milk (800 ml), and 1/2 cup thick yeast, leave to rise. Add 20 yolks, rub with 1 cup sugar, add 2 cups warm butter, add salt, the rest of the flour, knead, leave to rise, knead again, pour into a tin, and when the pastry rises for the 3rd time, put in the oven for 1 hour. You need 2 kg of flour for the kulich.

Bon appetite!