Easter is this Sunday. For some of us, this holiday is a time for introspection, renewal and growth; as a shovel dug deep, tilling the the earth, in preparation for planting seeds. It’s also a time for honoring family traditions with special dishes.
The following recipe is my new Easter tradition and I intend to make this every year. You see, my father passed away right before Easter last year, and my next door neighbor, Krystyna Bobowski, brought Polish-Stuffed Easter Eggs over to my family that evening. As we looked at Dad’s photographs, telling stories of his life, we ate these eggs. I recreated a similar recipe for today’s blog. Preparing them elated me; I was celebrating his life.
A recipe as lovely as a daisy chain passed to me from Krystyna, these stuffed eggs are now our new family tradition evoking memories of my father. Krytyna’s mother made them for her in Wloclawik, a town in northern Poland, prior to World War II. So many of us have stories and traditions behind recipes that evoke memories such as this.
According to wikipedia, “…Easter eggs are a widely popular symbol of new life in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and other Central European countries’ folk traditions. A batik (wax resist) process is used to create intricate, brilliantly colored eggs, the best-known of which is the Ukrainian pysanka and the Polish pisanka.”
Alecia Lapinsky, an Ann Arbor friend, tells me, “Easter is far and away the major celebration in the Orthodox tradition. From early childhood, I have fond memories of white dresses, ribbons, and beautiful baskets with decorated eggs, chocolates and marzipan,” she says. “Although my family was from the Ukraine, we were ethnically more Russian. Our church was Russian Orthodox versus Catholic, and we spoke Russian versus Ukrainian.”
Stuffed Eggs Florentine
A cruise through the internet tells me there are as many recipe traditions for using leftover hard-cooked eggs as there are cathedrals in central Europe. My mother always made Curried Creamed Eggs, and egg salad sandwiches or stuffed eggs, such as Stuffed Eggs Florentine, make good use of leftover Easter eggs.
Leftover Easter eggs keep a good week, refrigerated, left in their shells. The dye seeps into the egg white a bit, so advise the bunny to use food safe dye, available at this time of the year with other holiday accoutrements at most groceries in town.
Krystyna’s recipe is simpler than the one below. She doesn’t include dill and only uses a small amount of chives. Nor does she include mayonnaise or mustard; only sour cream. I’ve also seen other recipes including chopped Polish ham or cheese. But recipe differences surrounding these stuffed eggs are fine by Krystyna. “Growing up in Poland,” she says, “Every home was doing something different with their eggs.” Happy Easter!
