Celebrate Pascha With Lamb

[尼古拉前执事]

Pascha Midnight Soup (Magiritsa)

Serves / Yields: 6 persons

INGREDIENTS

Code: Select all

* a lamb's liver, heart, lights and intestines
* juice of 3 lemons
* salt
* 6 spring onions, trimmed, rinsed and finely sliced
* 25 gr. butter
* 2 cos lettuces, trimmed, shredded and rinsed carefully (use only their young leaves and hearts)
* about a teacupful of fresh dill or fennel, rinsed and finely chopped, or parsley
* 1.2 lt hot water
* salt and black pepper
* 60 gr. rice

  AvgolemonoSauce

* 2 eggs
* juice of 2 lemons 

METHOD
Rinse all the meat. Turn the intestines inside out with the help of a thin stick and rinse them thoroughly. Rub them with salt and lemon juice and rinse them again. Cube them into small portions. In a large saucepan, sautee the onions in the butter, until they start to change colour. Add the chopped intestines, liver, lights and heart, fry together for a few minutes, stirring. Add the shredded lettuces and all the fresh herbs and sautee for a few more minutes. Add the hot water, and seasoning, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Then add the rice and cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 10 minutes, before proceeding with the avgolemono sauce. Add the Avgolemono Sauce to the soup, stirring. Return to a very gentle heat for 2 minutes, stirring at the same time. It should be by now a quite a thick soup.

This recipe comes from
http://www.greek-recipe.com

[尼古拉前执事]

Orthodox Easter treats
Special breads and baskets are key to many celebrations
http://www.metronews.ca/lifestyle/food/ ... p?id=15552
easter_22_0420_article

Leyla Emory/for metro toronto

Romanian pascha, a cheese pie decorated with the cross, is quite different from the pascha Ukrainians make for Easter.

While some of us are still full from chowing down big Passover and Easter meals, Orthodox Easter is arriving this weekend, and with it a whole other batch of traditional culinary treats.

A few weeks ago, the Easter Around the World festivities at Toronto’s City Hall gave visitors a chance to check out many of these traditions —and making an appearance at almost every nation’s display was the Easter basket.

Celebrating the feast of new life, Easter baskets around the world are blessed in preparation for Easter Sunday.

“It’s very beautiful,” says Christine Bolubash, president of the Ukrainian Women’s Council. “They have a table in the shape of a cross with all sorts of baskets on it. They’re all lit up with candles and the kids are so excited.”

While the blessing is universal, the basket’s contents are specific to its country and region.

In Russia, the traditional Easter bread, known as kulich, takes centre stage. “We bake it especially for Easter,”

Elena Klinaeva says. “Before the night mass on Saturday, we don’t eat any meat or eggs. So when it ends at 4 a.m., we take it home and eat it along with a few eggs.”

“Eggs are the primary culinary ingredient for Romanian Easter,” says Radu Datcu, who has been involved with the event for the past 20 years.

But according to Datcu, for Romanians, pascha, “a cheese pie with the cross,” is the most important part of the basket. “It is made with cottage cheese, eggs, sugar and raisins,” he explains, “and originated in Greece.”

Like Romanians, Ukrainians also include pascha in their basket, but aside from sharing the same name, the two variants are quite different.

Ukrainian pascha is a yeast risen bread, Bolubash says. “It has to rise three times. There are a lot of eggs, butter and some sugar.”

leyla emory for Metro Toronto

Ukrainian Baked Pascha
easter_13_0420_article

Leyla Emory/for metro toronto

Ukranian pascha

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup water, lukewarm
1 tsp sugar
1 pkg dry active yeast
3 cups of milk, scalded
5 cup of flour
6 eggs, beaten
1/3 cups of sugar
3/4 cups of butter
1 tbsp salt
8 1/2 cups of flour

Procedure:

1. Dissolve sugar in lukewarm water and sprinkle yeast over it.
2. Let stand 10 minutes. Combine the lukewarm milk with the dissolved yeast and 5 cups flour. Beat until smooth.
3. Cover and let rise in a warm place until light and bubbly, approx. 45 minutes.
4. Add beaten eggs, sugar, melted butter and salt. Mix thoroughly.
5. Stir in enough flour to make a medium soft dough. Knead until smooth and satiny.
6. Cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours. xPunch down and let rise another 45 minutes.
7. Shape into round loaves. Decorate the loaves with same dough.
8. The central ornament on pascha is usually the cross. Some homemakers decorate pascha with breaded rolls. Be sure to grease pans well.
9. Set the loaves in a warm place until almost double. Brush with melted butter.
10. Bake in a 400F oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375F and continue baking for 30 minutes.

Yield: six small or four to five larger loaves.

[Liudmilla]

'cuz, it's that time of year again......
Milla