30 Something Adventures: Happy Easter

Marrying into a Ukrainian-Catholic family, means participating and learning about their traditions. Saturday was one of those times - I spent time helping Dave put together his family's Easter basket.

Prior to Easter is lent, during that time Ukrainian-Catholics fast and abstain from meat and dairy products. Before Easter Sunday (usually a different day than 'English' Easter Sunday) families make Easter baskets that contain all those things they gave up during lent and other specific foods (each representing the holiday in one way or another) - smoked meats, salt, pepper, butter, cheese, horseradish, paska (traditional Ukrainian Easter bread), hard boiled eggs etc.

The baskets are covered with embroidered linens and the day before Easter Sunday the baskets are taken to the church and blessed by the priest. I also heard that the women judge each other based on how amazing their basket is (or not amazing as the case may be). OMG, did you see her basket? What was she thinking?

You're also not suppose to eat anything from the basket until after Easter mass on Easter Sunday. Not being Catholic, I felt it was my duty to break this rule - don't judge me I hadn't eaten lunch yet. How can you say no to smoke meats?

PASKA

Paska is a soft and eggy sweet bread - traditionally it is baked in the round pan topped with icing and sprinkles (or decorated with dough in floral or cross designs). The Paska is the focus of the overall Easter basket and can get quite elaborate. When the baskets are being blessed a lit candle is placed in the bread.

I found this great Martha Stewart Paska recipe online.

Ingredients

1/3 ounce active-dry yeast (from two 1/4-ounce envelopes)
6 2/3 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/3 cups high-gluten bread flour
1 2/3 cups milk, warmed
2 large eggs
8 large egg yolks
1/3 cup canola oil, plus more for bowl and brushing dough
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon spiced rum
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large egg white, beaten

Directions

In a large bowl, stir together yeast, 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon sugar, and warm water; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, high-gluten flour, and milk; stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place until bubbles form, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the 5-quart bowl of a professional-size 10-speed mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together eggs, 6 egg yolks, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar on high speed. Slowly add canola oil and mix until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add vanilla, lemon zest, and rum; mix to combine.
Attach the dough hook attachment to mixer. Add salt, 4 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, and yeast mixture. Mix on low speed until dough comes together. Slowly add butter; continue mixing until dough is no longer sticky, 10 to 15 minutes, adding remaining 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, a tablespoon at a time, to prevent sticking. Alternatively, you can knead dough by hand until smooth, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a large lightly-oiled bowl; shape into a ball and lightly coat top with oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel, followed by a layer of plastic wrap, and then a second clean kitchen towel; let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Line the bottom of two 6-quart ovenproof saucepans with waxed paper rounds. Line sides with waxed paper, leaving an overhang of 3 inches; spray paper with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
Weight out two 1 1/2-pound pieces of dough; pinch and shape each piece into a flat disk and transfer to prepared saucepans. Using a toothpick, pierce the dough to remove air bubbles. Cover with a clean kitchen towel; let stand in a warm place while preparing decorations.
Form remaining dough into suns, cross shapes, and fertility symbols for decoration. Brush tops of each loaf with egg white and top with decorative dough; secure using toothpicks. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let loaves stand in a warm place until dough comes to top of pan, about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining 2 egg yolks with 2 teaspoons water. Brush tops of loaves with egg yolk mixture and transfer to oven; bake until tops are golden brown, about 1 hour. If paska begins to brown too quickly, cover with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil.
Remove paska from oven. Immediately remove from pans and gently remove toothpicks from bread. Transfer to clean kitchen towel and cover with a second clean kitchen towel to cool. Paska can be frozen for up to 6 months.

MEATS

Variety of smoked meats, sausages (like kielbasa), and fat (Dave and co. just use fatty bacon in lieu of a slab of animal food thankfully) are placed in the basket - Dave says only meats that do not need to be cooked should be included in the basket. I eat my steak basically blue, so could I include that?

BUTTER

Butter is key and they take the presentations of butter very seriously. This beautiful rose made of butter was carved by one of the women at the church for Dave and his dad. Some families may choose to have the butter in a bowl decorated with a cross of cloves or carved a cute little lamb ready to be slaughtered when you can finally eat all the basket food.

A LITTLE SPICE

The basket also included salt, pepper, farmer creme cheese, and beet horseradish. Yes I realize cheese is not a spice.

Beet horseradish is super easy to make - just puree 1 cup of grated horseradish, 3 cooked beets, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 sugar, and 1/4 cup cider vinegar. Let it sit until it's the flavour you want. Hotter? Add more horseradish, milder? add more beets. Easy peasy.

EGGS

Hard boiled eggs are also included and they should be peeled, only food items that you actually eat should be placed in the basket and since you don't eat egg shells, you should peel those bad boys.