please share your Easter menu

Once again it is upon my shoulders to plan and cook the holiday meal. I feel wrung dry though -- I'm at my culinary wits end. I know I can trust my fellow LTHers for some inspired ideas.

Having the traditional Polish Easter Feast, some ham, good polish sausage and kraut, some pierogies (made by my mom), eggs, fresh sauerkraut rye, etc...To top it off, the Mrs. is making her world famous pound cake and coconut macaroons...

MMMMM....I can taste it already.....

Friends are bringing salad - here's what I'm making:

Amuse: Carrot gelee on a light cauliflower aspic

Appetizer: Napolean of alligator, ricotta, shaved fennel, mushrooms and parmesagn crisps

Soup: Crayfish Bisque (I catch the crayfish myself at our summer place in Wisconsin)

Main: butterflied leg of lamb stuffed with pesto, burdock and caramelized onions, served over two types of lentils, with yard-long beans

Lemon granite palate cleaner

Dessert: Tart of Mangosteen, Soursop, and whatever else has been in my pantry a while. Maybe some fresh rambutan, too, if I can get some.

It's a family affair, at our house for the second time. Last year I did a moroccan lamb, but this year my wife is doing her family's tradition: ham (my least-favorite meat).

Tossed Salad: My mom
Cranberry Sauce: Her mom
Broccoli Casserole: Sis-in-law 2
Green Beans: Sis-in-law 3
Us: Ham, bread, artichoke dip (appetizer 1), tea-smoked chicken wings (appetizer 2), cookies of some sort, sweet potato empanada-like things from the trib last week

Hot cross buns (Saturday)

Russian Easter Bread w/homemade lemon curd
Steamed asparagus
Honey roasted ham
Kielbasa
Potato salad
Fruit salad
Deviled eggs

Bona Pasqua a tutti!

All of the following is subject to change, according to market availability, as well as whim and inspiration of the kitchen staff.

• Holy Thusday:
- primo: vermicelli "nun-më-scuccià" (cioè, alla fantasia di Antonio quando commincia a cuocere e guarda nella dispensa)
- secondo: baccalà con patate, pomodori, olive e capperi
- insalata alla paesana greca

• Good Friday
pizza di scarole, pizza Margherita

• Holy Saturday
Starting at noon...
Meat, perhaps more meat on the side... maybe some pasilla sauce from Casa de Samuel too to flavour some of the meat
(Muchas gracias, Sergio! ti ripago colle publicità! )*

• Easter Sunday
- antipasto di salume, formaggi, olive, etc.
- primo: ravioli casalinghi (ricetta più o meno segreta della Nonna)
- secondo: costolette d'agnello alla griglia
- contorni: patate al forno, asparagi
- insalata di denti di leone, cime di cicoria etc.
- dolce: pastiera napoletana ('a pizza c'u gran)

Antonio di Nugiersi
Montechiaro, Scicago

* Questo è solo uno scherzo, pe' pazzejà.

Antonius wrote:(Muchas gracias, Sergio! ti ripago colle publicità! )*

AHA! You've given yourself away, Antonius! Now we all know that you are trading your eloquent reviews for food and favors!!

Best,
Michael / EC

Tony, I need to get you a subscription to La Gaceta, America's only English-Italian-Spanish newspaper.

Though most of the articles are about strippers and horse racing best I can remember.

http://www.lagacetanewspaper.com/

Thanks to all. I'm still confused but you've all given me some inspiration.

hoppy easter

Appetizers:
Herb cheese-prosciutto rolls
Camembert w/ figs
Feta and olives

Main dishes:
Chicken adobo
Pork adobo
Pancit

Sides:
Sticky rice (not the sweet stuff; short-grain, white)
Cucumber salad
Green salad

Desserts:
Flourless chocolate cake
Somebody's bringing cheesecake from Eli's
And, the butt of all our Easter dinner jokes: a lamb cake from Jewel

Everything's homemade except the lamb cake and the cheesecake.

KevinT wrote:Having the traditional Polish Easter Feast, some ham, good polish sausage and kraut, some pierogies (made by my mom), eggs, fresh sauerkraut rye, etc "

Ditto that over here. It's our first Easter without my mom and her obsessive desire to observe every single polish Easter custom that ever existed. I used to make fun of this when we were teenagers and even into my early 40's.

Now that she is gone I realized that it is upon our generation to keep these traditions alive. So , while I was in St Louis all week the wonderful irish lass that I married 24 years ago went all out to put together a traditional Polish Easter. My son and I will go to pick up Pops (85,still kicking strong and living independently) at 1:30.


This morning we went to have the Easter basket blessed at our church. I remember this being a much bigger event when I was a kid. It's called swieconka (sh-vee-en-soon-kah) . The baskets would be lined with monogrammed linens and boxwood flowers. We would bring several baskets, one with meat and bread, one with mostly eggs and one with sweets. The priest would use a little straw broom and sprinkle holy water over the baskets. If I remember correctly each food type was blessed in a different stage. In the old days the priest would come to the house to do this:





So our basket contents below is pretty much what will be on the table tomorrow

Ham (Szynka) bone in. Ham is to show happiness and wealth . My wife actually scored a home run and came up with the special polish tiny ham that is for the basket so we will have 2 hams


Polish Sausage (Kielbasa) This shows that God is generous. We will have 3 kinds of sausage, 2 smoked and one fresh w/ garlic.


Butter (Maslo) Shaped lilke a little lamb. Reminder of Christs goodness to all things.

Easter Rye- (Chleb) The round loaf with the cross on it. Reminder of Jesus, the bread of life.

Eggs (Jajka) Colored/decorated easter eggs. Eggs symbolize life


Horseradish (Chrzan) Good stuff. Symbol of the Passion of Christ

Salt (Sol) - Symbol of human existence

Jelly donuts (paczki) Reminder of the need for moderation in our lives. So only eat one.

A small candle - To represent Christ-

Some Water - Which is now holy water, which we all carry in our glove compartments. This may be a tradition only to my family

Those are the basics and of course we will have all the accompaniments, saurkraut (kapusta) , pierogies, pickled mushroom. And last but not least the decorated pound cake lamb made in an antique cast iron Griswold Lamb mold.


On the top of the doorway to our dining room it is written in chalk
2005
K + M + B
for Kaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, the names of the three wise men. The 2005 is the year. This is done on January 6th and is meant to bring us a good year but nobody really notices it until Easter dinner. So it is kind of an Easter discussion item in our house. I don't know a lot of people that still do this.


I want to wish all of you a Happy Easter

Bob

Bob, thanks very much and same here.

I just returned from North Milwaukee Ave. myself with ham, sausage, pierogi, etc. While the cook in my family growing up was exclusively my Italian mother, Easter, for whatever reason, was always our big Ukranian/Slovak meal, which honored my dad's side. At one time, the old man and his brothers would go searching the woods around Pittsburgh for horseradish. The foods are basically identical to the Polish feast. I really look forward to it.

On the Italian front, I picked up some simple cookies and an "Easter Bread" (with the whole egg baked in) and a pastiera from Ferrara. I like the place, but not as much as some other old-school Italian bakeries. The cookies are just fine, though they stayed in the oven a minute too long for me. And I wasn't happy to see margarine (not butter) on the ingredient lists. I was lucky enough to catch the sheet pizza coming out of the oven. Very good, and very different from D'Amato's. Following up on an earlier thread, Ferrara's pizza very much seems like it is made from the bread dough with little change. Hot from the oven with a very fresh, light topping of coarse crushed tomatoes and Spanish onion, it hit the spot. To my taste, the D'Amato's pizza more closely resembles focaccia. I also enjoy the Grand Avenue landmark's oil-heavy topping and, of course, the sausage.

Another aside, at Wally's I stumbled onto a smoked hot link that Peoria Packing used to cary but does no longer: BelMont brand. Very fatty, kind of cheap but addictive links that are great on the grill. Belmont makes a nice chicken liver pate with gribenes too. I'm thinking about trying some on the Baltic Bakery pumpernickel brick I picked up.

Oh, and for what it's worth, Costco has today wild caught fresh, never frozen halibut for next to nothing. Fresh as a daisy. The fish and a box of Cafe du Monde beignet mix I've had sitting around has inspired me to do a fish and loaves thing tomorrow. I'm a sucker for the seafood beignet gimmick.

Peace

Not being a Christian, I don't have an Easter feast tradition, but still thought it would be fun to cure and smoke a ham for tomorrow. I pumped and wet-cured the shank end of of a fresk pork leg for about 9 days. The ham was warm-smoked all day and most of the night yesterday at ~ 165-175F with pecan and apple smoke until it reached an internal temp of 155F. A test piece proved to be very juicy and tender and flavorful. I'll gently reheat it tomorrow in the oven. Menu:

Home cured/smoked ham
Mustard/honey sauce
Fresh-baked croissants
Creamed spinach
No dessert - I'm exhausted

There will certainly be lots of ham for leftovers. Ideas?

Bill/SFNM

Home cured/smoked ham

If and when you are not so exhausted, could you explain your process? I suggest either on the dry curing Virginia ham or country ham threads.

For a long time I have wanted to cure and smoke my own ham. For as long a time I believed I needed to acquire a place in the country to do these food adventures. I have a feeling once I know, if you agree, how you did it, then I will kick myself for not trying earlier.

Happy Easter!

Cathy2 wrote:If and when you are not so exhausted, could you explain your process?

Cathy,

Making your own hams is not very hard. The most important part is getting really fresh pork. Didn't Carl Sandburg say something about your fine city being the "hog butcher for the world?" I think he also said something about wicked and painted women ... but I digress.

My method comes from the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas. Any chance you have it? If not, I'll be happy to go into the details once I get some rest. The good news is that you can easily cure all kinds of pork cuts (e.g. butts) and hot smoke them for really great "ham".

Bill/SFNM

Neither of us are very religious, either, though I believe that my dining companion/Evil Twin saw God at the Allstate Arena this evening, as his beloved Illini pulled off a near-miraculous victory over the Evil University of Arizona. Dinner tomorrow will be quite festive, I think. We're not hog-wild about ham, and are lambed out at the moment, so we're having:

Chilpotle Hummus with miniature whole wheat pita

Senate Bean Soup

Rib-eye Roast of Beef with Sauce Bordelaise (stole the recipe from the chef at Per Se, Jonathan Benno)

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Thyme-infused Yorkshire Pudding

Asparagus/Prosciutto Bundles

...and for dessert, White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie, recipe courtesy of the Buckhead Diner in Atlanta.

Happy Easter to all! GO ILLINI!!

JeffB wrote:Another aside, at Wally's I stumbled onto a smoked hot link that Peoria Packing used to carry but does no longer: BelMont brand. Very fatty, kind of cheap but addictive links that are great on the grill.

Jeff,

Are those the unnaturally red, slightly stubby, links? I hate to admit it, but I've never tried those links. I'm a fan of Peoria Packings cheap, fatty, hot links.


Couple hours on the smoker renders out the fat, leaving flavor, spice and a nice smoke taste. Another favorite sausage for the smoker is Andy's fresh Polish. Bruce Cook, another BBQ man, has been known to drive in from South Bend just for Andy's Polish. Well, that, S & P shrimp, and crisp rice noodle at 'Little' Three Happiness.

JeffB wrote:Belmont makes a nice chicken liver pate with gribenes too. I'm thinking about trying some on the Baltic Bakery pumpernickel brick I picked up.

Can this be found at Wally's? I haven't been to Wally's in a while, not since Andy's opened their newly remodeled store on the 5400 block of Milwaukee.

JeffB wrote:Oh, and for what it's worth, Costco has today wild caught fresh, never frozen halibut for next to nothing. Fresh as a daisy.
Peace

I was at 'our' Costco yesterday, no fresh halibut, only headless farm raised salmon at the seafood kiosk. I did pick up a beautiful rib roast for Easter lunch today. I bought the cryovac 7-bone model, $70 15.5-lbs. There are only 6 of us for lunch so I'll cut off what I need for Sunday's roast, cut the rest into steaks, vacuum seal and freeze. The price difference between the precut, preportioned rib roast was $1.50, my Tilia vacuum sealer, from Costco, is turning out to be a smart purchase. (unlike most single use kitchen electronics)

I plan on rubbing giving the rib roast a nice wet-paste rub of kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, garlic/onion powder, worcestershire, olive oil and a hint of guajullo for color and spice. Cook that bad boy to 125° internal over lump with a light mix of oak and hickory and Bob's yer Uncle, the Easter bunny smiles.

JeffB wrote:The fish and a box of Cafe du Monde beignet mix I've had sitting around has inspired me to do a fish and loaves thing tomorrow. I'm a sucker for the seafood beignet gimmick.

Care to elaborate on the seafood beignet.

Hoppy Easter,
Gary

Andy's Deli
5442 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
773- 631-7304

Wally's Market
6601 W Irving Park Rd
Chicago, IL 60634
773-427-1616

Peoria Packing
1300 W Lake St
Chicago, IL 60607
312-738-1800

Gwiv wrote:Bruce Cook, another BBQ man, has been known to drive in from South Bend just for Andy's Polish. Well, that, S & P shrimp, and crisp rice noodle at 'Little' Three Happiness.

Don't forget the Al's Italian Beef for dessert! Thankfully I had the foresight to bring home a pound to nibble on this weekend. After wonderful dim sum with the Ultimo and Evil Ronnie at Shui Wah on Friday I just had to run down to Al's for a small beef for dessert. Although it made the drive home rather sedating.

I will be having Easter dinner with my wonderful Hungarian in-laws who's idea of spicy is too much marjoram. I know we are having a pre-cooked, regular, grocery store ham. I will be taking a green bean/shoepeg corn/water chestnut casserole that was requested. While this is good, I've grown tired of it.

The bright spot for me is the leftover Al's nibbles!

Man, that sounds great Gary. I have to say, the Peoria hot link looks superior to the BelMont sausage. They were good, but I was put off by an ingredient that seems to be a fake fat, made with milk and other stuff. It has a horrible sounding brand name, sure-gel or something. Wally's has a large line of BelMont stuff, including the pate. After trying a few things, such as the Polish bacon, I have to say that most of it can't hold a candle to the house made stuff around town.

Boy, the fish was good, too. I basically thinned out the Cafe Du Mond beignet batter with beer, added some vaguely Cajun spices, and battered the halibut steaks, frying them in peanut oil at around 350 degrees on my propane ring out back in the in-law's yard. While the ladies were in their final kick to get the table ready and finish off the other foods. I enjoy a beer and some deep frying almost as much as a beer and some BBQing.

PS, some people raved about the Wally's "homemade" peirogi. I found them to be very fickle: overstuffed and prone to bursting, and the dough was way too gummy for my tastes. I remedied this by frying the dumplings a bit more than usual in butter/salt pork/bacon/onions/scallions. Also, there was quite a lot of sage in the kraut pierogies, making them taste like Thanksgiving to me.

Any fail-proof recos for pierogies? I'd like a more "hand-made" tasting option than Kasia's, though Kasia's are good and a huge improvement over travesties such as Mrs. T's.

Jeff--best as I can tell, there are uncooked and precooked pierogi available in the delis. For a more homemade taste, I've had better experience buying the frozen uncooked pierogi, which are dusted with flour. You then cook them by throwing them in a big pot of boiling water, and fish them out gently when they float to the top, just like with ravioli. At that point, if you want to crisp them, garnish, etc., you know what to do.

I've had very good experience with the frozen uncooked at Montrose Deli (Montrose & Long), same owners as Cicero Deli, near Belmont/Cicero. From what I remember, J&J Deli (Lawrence/Austin, 1/2 block west of Halina's Restaurant) also stocks the uncooked frozen (they also have a very interesting selection of homemade sausage from a different region of Poland than most of Chicago's Polish delis).

Haven't tried the Andy's Deli pierogi, so can't give you an opinion, but Andy's consistently puts out a superior product. Some native Poles swear by Alexandria Pierogi (those are pre-cooked). They have an outlet store on Central, south of Belmont at School, I believe, just south of the former home of the A&G Fruit Market.

Another option is to cater from one of the restaurants that make their own in house. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't made pierogi in about 20 years--it's a labor of love, and well worth it. Smacznego! Anna

Anna Z. Sobor wrote:I'm ashamed to admit I haven't made pierogi in about 20 years--it's a labor of love, and well worth it.

Pierogi, vreniki or pelmeni ... I know I can make better than the shops. When you buy a package of frozen Siberian meat pelmeni $2.29 for 50 pieces, then just cook and eat with sour cream. It's hard to work up the enthusiasm to make several hundred, when you take into account your cost of materials, time and love.

I go dumpling happy about once a year, then buy the rest!

Regards,

Anna, as always, thanks for the leads.

I finally got around to producing the easter pics and thought I would post a couple of our little sweet table with the lamb cake. She is only a memory now

Bob

No Easter mulligan for our unwashed heathen family this year, we are on our own - but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate the more heathen aspects of springtime in my very favorite way - baking!

I saw this post on Tastespotting, and thought it would be a great way to capitalize on Sparky's recent interest in origami. I also decided that while the muffin looked delicious, I wanted something springier - and I wanted to use up last year's strawberry jam, as strawberry season fast approaches. A bit of searching for a jam cake brought me to this recipe; I particularly liked the use of coffee in the batter.

Folding the bunnies was no easy task, even though it's a "beginner" project - based on the origami water balloon (there's also a balloon with wings somewhere on that site) You need to start with a square, so I folded and cut my parchment sheet in half the long way, then made squares by creating right-angle triangles and cutting off the outside edge.

So, we made our parchment bunnies - a word to the wise, creasing with something like a blunt knife or the back of scissors is crucial, and don't skip the step where you fold to score the top and bottom after you've made your bunny ears. Then, we loaded our cake batter (a bit thicker than I was expecting, but there's nothing wrong with that) into a ziploc bag, and cut off the tip.



We then gave each bunny a serious neti treatment. I wanted the bunnies full at the end of the process, so Sparky and I squoze a generous amount of batter into each bunny's nose. There was a little bit of a learning curve, here, but nothing as compared to the origami itself.



Then, we piled our bunnies onto a cookie sheet and popped them in a 350 degree oven. Checking them was a bit difficult; every 5 minutes or so I squeezed the sides to see if they sprang back; I think they took about 15 minutes all told. Amusingly, the bunnies I overfilled grew bulbous noses like a cross between Pinnochio and Cyrano de Bergerac - but the noses proved to be too tasty, and none of them made it into the photos.



The bunnies then were removed to a plate to cool - aren't they cute?



Each bunny opened up slowly to reveal...



A tasty strawberry Bunny Pat!



Sparky couldn't wait for the cake to cool entirely, but declared them delicious. The coffee really does add a nice flavor to this strawberry spice cake!

Easter this year is being celebrated at my in-laws' place, as usual. Normally my wonderful mother-in-law is a no less than a holiday-food warrior, but this year we sensed that she really, honestly meant it when she said she wasn't planning on anything special. So, to cheer her up, Llama and I picked up some of the slack. (Forgive the photography; I'm still getting the hang of it.)

Easter usually consists of a cold breakfast of ham, cheese, and polish sausages cooked the night before, and a fairly traditional ham dinner. I made the sausages this year, smoked and fresh. The smoked Polish was bluntly seasoned and heavily smoked; it seemed saltier, and the casing was satisfyingly snappy. The fresh sausage was more complex and sweet and was well-received by all. I tend to prefer smoked sausage to fresh precisely because it usually seems to be more flavorful, so I tried to overcome that stigma of blandness; I feel I succeeded.




I also experimented with Easter Cheese - a "custard cheese" made by allowing eggs to curdle the warm milk - which was not nearly as bad as I worried it would be. In fact, it was pretty tasty, although nothing like cheese. It reminded Llama of tamago custard sushi, and I think he hit it on the head: mild, eggy, lightly sweet, and tender. Although the custard did, indeed, devolve into curds and whey and was hung and compressed into a cheese-like shape, I tasted no cheesiness whatsoever. Because both spiced, sweet recipes and plain abound, I took the middle road: lightly sweetened without spices. I felt it was safer for a first attempt. When my mother-in-law told her sister about it, however, Auntie suggested adding garlic (!) or bacon (!!) to make it more flavorful. I will certainly let you know how that goes!


Hope you're all having a delightful Easter!

I guess you could call it an "Easter" dinner since none of us are actually religious, but I'm making a big meal for some friends:

- Garlic and rosemary roast pork loin
- Roasted red pepper and garlic potato salad
- Olive bread
- Mixed greens salad with feta and balsamic vinaigrette
- Sauteed rainbow chard and onions... See More
- Meyer lemon layer cake with curd filling and mascarpone frosting

Not as impressive as what some of you will surely do, but it takes some skill to do in a 1-bedroom apartment with 2 sq ft of counter space.

Those bunny muffins are adorable. Even better when they taste good too!

For Easter this year, my fiance and I hosted at his place so that our families could meet for the first time. We kept appetizers simple by serving hummus with carrots, red peppers, and homebaked pita chips with fire salt.

For dinner we baked a ham, grilled asparagus, mac & cheese, and gougeres. Others contributed a fruit salad, a mixed greens salad, a potato salad, and roasted carrots. For dessert, I made a lemon curd tart and a velvet chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and coffee buttercream.

There were 13 adults + 3 children + 1 puppy. We're amazed at how much time, energy and effort went into the evening. For those of you that entertain regularly, how do you do it??!?! I tried to keep the menu simple, but maybe it wasn't simple enough!

Hi,

I wasn't really certain what to make. I was strongly considering roasting chickens, when my sister plopped a spiral ham on our doorstep. This was somewhat annoying because she had called earlier from the store inquiring if I needed cream cheese. She did not call again to inquire if I wanted the darn spiral ham. When I told her I didn't especially like spiral cut ham, she did a sing song, "Well, I do!"

The quickest way to get rid of a spiral ham is to eat it, thus it became our Easter dinner. I cooked it cut side down, wrapped in foil to preserve any moisture and never glazed it. The packet is sitting in my kitchen ready to give it to my sister.

I made Ceasar salad following James Beard's method in American Cookery. I used a raw egg, though James did note the controversies whether the original had raw or coddled eggs. My Mom almost hijacked my niece's interest when she enthusiastically reported there were anchovies. My niece went into full anchovy alert inspecting the salad carefully. She relaxed and ate it once I reported they were finely minced in the salad.

I am on a Julia Child kick. I watched a show where she braised boston lettuce for several hours. I considered doing the same with the baby bokchoys I bought at H-Mart. Instead, I opted for braised carrot slivers from The French Chef series cookbook.

I made a jello mold for the nieces, because it's not a holiday without Jello. I bucked their preference for mashed or double-baked potatoes, serving instead potatoes gratin. It met one niece's approval because she took all the gratin leftovers home.

I had Easter lamb butter. I also bought a braided bread cross from Maria's Bakery in Highwood as a centerpiece. It is not sitting on a dinner plate, rather it is a large platter.



I did make an Easter lamb with red velvet cake and cream cheese icing. It looked picture perfect until I did a last minute bit of final detail frosting. I should have left it alone. I will provide an update later on the Easter Doggie thread.

Regards,

To celebrate Greek Easter (which this year fell on the same day as American Easter) we had:

Appetizers
Spanokopita
Taramasalata
Crudités
Feta Cheese
Olives

Mains
Spit Roasted Leg of Lamb
Spiral Cut Ham
Greek style Rice
Greek Style Green Beans
Greek Style Potatoes
Pastichio

Dessert
Hand dipped Strawberries
Rice Pudding
Cookies

Greek Easter celebration here as well..

We grilled a 35 pound lamb on the spit
We also grilled up some home made loukaniko
Also had pastitso, greek salad, spanikopita, tiropitas and an assortment of home made Greek pastries for dessert