EASTER
I’ve never really questioned the origins of our accepted Easter traditions. I simply accepted them as they were passed on to me (I know that’s not a sign of a discerning individual, but I was a child and I loved chocolate). Of course rabbits and lambs and eggs are the mainstays and symbols of Easter! And obviously the eggs we hunt for in the garden come from the aforementioned rabbits - a no-brainer!
Not to get sacrilegious on Good Friday of all days, but many aspects of Easter and other Christian celebrations were actually absorbed from pagan traditions. Emperor Constantine, upon converting to Christianity in 312 AD, was the one who determined that Easter should fall after the first full moon of the spring equinox, and so the resurrection of Christ came to go hand in hand with the rebirth of nature (ie. spring). The spring equinox represents the end of winter, and the rebirth and renewal of nature and plants. With darkness coming to an end, and flowers and leaves regrowing after a cold winter, the spring equinox is a cause for celebration for pagans and Christians, and all major faiths, by the way. That being said, no one has found an egg-laying bunny yet, but I’m sure Big Science is out there working on it.
Today, we’re starting with:
Easter Bunnies
Easter Eggs
Hot Cross Buns
Easter Lambs
And then proceeding to our leek deep-dive:
Playing with your food: cute shapes
A reimagined leek and potato soup
Leek chips
Leek oil
Leeky fried eggs (bonus)
Braised leeks
Beet soup
Easter Bunnies
Why a bunny for Easter? Well, Easter represents (re)birth in a literal sense, a religious sense, and an agricultural sense. Rabbits, known for their enthusiastic ✨breeding✨, have always symbolised fertility (that’s also why Hugh Hefner chose a rabbit to be the iconic Playboy mascot - ever thought about that?)
Sidenote: Easter bunnies have no business being this creepy.
Easter Eggs
Similarly, eggs have been used as fertility symbols since antiquity - they’ve long been associated with the notion of rebirth and new beginnings. All over the world, different cultures enjoy eggs for Easter - whether boiled and dyed, deviled (Macy Blackwell’s creations sometimes haunt my nightmares), in sweet pastries, in soup (can someone vouch for this soup? It’s not the prettiest), or made of chocolate.
Unsurprisingly, the bunny x egg crossover came from Germany (along with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Struwwelpeter). From my 2023 Easter newsletter:
Speaking of the Easter Bunny, another good old Pagan invention, did you know that carrots are to him what cookies and milk are to Santa Claus? The Easter Bunny (or Oschter Haws, as they called him) was first mentioned in Germany in the 1600s, where children were told they would wake up to a basket of colourful eggs, courtesy of a nocturnal rabbit, but only if they behaved well. Some of the more strategic kids would leave out carrots for the Easter Bunny as a pick-me-up during his nocturnal adventures.
Speaking of deviled eggs, I can’t stop thinking about this triple-decker edition:
There’s a village in France that orchestrates a 15,000-egg omelette for Easter, to feed the surrounding villages. I was surprised to read that it takes only half an hour to cook!
Another beautiful tradition hails from Ukraine, where Easter eggs - pysanky - are adorned with elaborate geometric and floral designs.
Nobody knows when exactly this tradition started, and a number of different origin stories persist, some dating back to before their association with the Easter holiday. One of these stories says that the ritual is meant to represent the return of sunshine after a long winter, and eggs are used because the yellow yolk is thought to resemble the sun, according to Sofika Zielyk, a New York City-based ethnographer and pysanka artist. (via TIME.com)
Hot Cross Buns
These doughy little buns take the whole crucifixion theme the most literally. The pattern, made from flour paste, represents the cross on which Jesus died, and the spices pay homage to the spices he was embalmed in after his death.
In England, hot cross buns come with a nice dose of superstition. It is said that a bun baked on Good Friday won’t go bad for the whole subsequent year, that a piece of said bun can help a sick person recover, that they will protect against shipwreck if taken on a sea voyage, and that they can prevent fire and ensure perfect bread baking every time, when hung in the kitchen.
I’ve never made them myself, but the savoury version pictured above sounds delicious (the only drawback obviously being the lack of embalming spices). Also, as I wrote this,
‘s HOT CROSS BUN letter hit my inbox, and it looks fabulous.Easter Lambs
The lamb represents Jesus, aka “the lamb of God”, sacrificing himself and dying on the cross. But we didn’t just stop at eating lamb - we’ve taken it to the next level with butter lambs, lamb cakes, lamb-shaped chocolate, sweets, and rice krispie lambs.
I loved thank you, ok’s recent deep-dive into butter lambs. They are so cute, and they align nicely with butter’s comeback in recent years.
There really is something fun and exciting about seeing the rows of lambs with their fleece curls and peppercorn eyes, adorned with red and lavender bows (which Dorothy added because she loves the colour). The lambs come in two poses - straight face or head turn. via thank you ok
The traditional Easter lamb is just a standard cake with a light dusting of powdered sugar, though you can get out your piping bag and frost it to your heart’s desire (see this fellow or this fellow). In Italy, you can make them from almond paste, see here. Martha Stewart just shared a video of her version, too. You probably heard it here last, but lambs are having a moment!!!!
Should you choose to go down the frosted route, you’ll need a lamb-shaped cake tin (lots of options online), along with a steady hand and whole lot of patience. Let me know which lamb you are below, I’m a mix of 2, 6, and 11 today.
LEEKS
All this talk about Easter lambs, bunnies, and eggs just for me to go on a LEEK frenzy! I wasn’t feeling carrots for Easter, and I think leeks are beautiful and delicious. They may be available year-round, but to me, they have a late winter/early spring feel (or at least that’s what I tell myself to justify today’s newsletter).
Some important notes before we start:
The leek is the national emblem of Wales (I’m not making this up!)
Most leek recipes will inevitably tell you to chop off the green ends and use only the white and light bits. Not today! We’re using the whole leek and making her do the absolute most.
I cannot stress this enough: wash your leeks before cooking them. Their many layers can be full of dirt and sand. How you wash them will depend on how you’ve cut them / will be using them. You can clean the leeks fully sliced by placing the slices in a bowl of cold water and swirling with your hands to remove dirt and grit. You can can clean the leeks whole by slicing straight through the green parts of the leek and swishing it through a bowl of water to remove the grit between the leaves.
PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD: CUTE SHAPES
A REIMAGINED LEEK AND POTATO SOUP
LEEK CHIPS
LEEK OIL
LEEKY FRIED EGGS (BONUS)
BRAISED LEEKS
BEET SOUP