Eggs and cream, the raw material of many of northern Europe's traditional Easter dishes as with a wide range of egg and fresh curd preparations, are available as soon as the hens are back into lay and cows and sheep are back in milk.
I know, I know. Seasons are no longer an issue for those of us who shop in supermarkets and expect everything to be available all year. The spring equinox, however, is not so easily ignored by those who depend on the land to fill the storecupboard, as was the way among the self-sufficient farming communities of Eastern Europe. Which is why the last of ham from the rafters or the brine-pot, is the traditional meat of the Easter meal, a declaration of confidence that winter's gone, the fields are warming up for the plough, and this year's harvest is on its way.
For the Ruthenes of Ludomirova, Ukrainians marooned in the High Tatras on the Slovak-Ukrainian border in the wake of WW2, the traditions of Easter had a particular poignancy since observed in ways their fellow Ukrainians could not. At the time of my visit in 1992 - the year after Ukraine declared independence from Soviet Russia - a film-crew from Kyiv, to the surprise of the villagers, had come looking for their roots among a community too small to bother the state, that had been left un-collectivised under the communist regime in Prague.
The community continued to live as they always had, as self-sufficient farmers, filling their own store-cupboards, stocking their cellars and selling the surplus in the unofficial market in Svidnik, capital of the region and a minor tourist destination as the birthplace of Andy Warhol.
Easter Week was a time when the younger members of every household who worked elsewhere came home to plant the staple starch-food, potatoes - impossible till the earth warmed up - help prepare the festive meal, teach their younger siblings how to decorate emptied-out eggshells for the Easter table, and take turns at kneading the dough for an enormous batch of butter and egg-enriched babkas baked in tall tins.
Preparations were interrupted on Good Friday for a visit to the cemetery with prettily decorated baskets packed with the last of winter stores - reassuring the ancestors that the community had survived in good health. Once this was done, the baskets were taken up for a blessing at the church door from a Russian Orthodox priest who, being subsidised by Moscow, had the good sense to undercut than the services offered by the Eastern Orthodoxers and Roman Catholics.
Change was in the air. With two film crews in town, things were looking up. Kyiv had been interested in filming the Easter basket in the churchyard. The Australian outfit to which I belonged were filming an episode of The Rich Tradition, a 13-part series funded by SBS Australia, based on my first cookbook, European Peasant Cookery. Good reason for the youth of Ludomirova to celebrate the end of Lent at midnight on Easter Saturday in the wine-cellar under the railway-arch in Svidnik. It wasn't Studio 54, but local musical tastes ran to MC Hammer, there was new wine on tap behind the bar, and a frying vat in the yard preparing what our interpreter Katrina, trainee anthropologist from Batislava, described as Ukrainian fast-food.
“We say it is chicken kiev, but is made with last year's cheese."
Last year's cheese, soft from the heat, came in a jacket of crisp breadcrumbs with a dipping-cup of something white and creamy flecked with dill. I dipped and took a bite. After a long month on the road with a film crew whose main preoccupation was tracking down the nearest hamburger joint, it seemed like the most delicious thing I'd ever eaten.
On Easter Sunday, the whole family - some twenty strong, not counting babes-in-arms, film crew and me - settled down at the kitchen table, splendidly-dressed in its beautifully-embroidered tablecloth, to a heaped platter of sliced ham, a big slab of freshly-churned butter, bowls of pickled vegetables and relishes, babkas hot from the oven.
And finally, in pride of place, a shiny yellow egg-dumpling as firm and golden as the sun, symbolising, explained Katrina, of the triumph of light over darkness and hope for the year to come.
Ukrainian Easter egg-cheese
A solid sphere of scrambled egg and cream that looks decorative, slices up neatly, and goes well with ham and pickles.
Serves 6-8
1 litre full-cream milk
10 large eggs, whisked
1 teaspoon salt
Extra egg for glazing
Bring the milk to the boil, remove from the heat and whisk in the eggs. Add the salt and keep whisking until the egg is thoroughly scrambled.
Tip it into a sieve lined with a cloth - maybe a large square of old sheet - tie the ends together and hang in a warm place to drain with a bowl underneath to catch the whey (save it for pancakes, a traditional Easter dessert).
When the perfectly drained and firm (overnight is best), tip it onto a baking sheet, paint with beaten egg, and slip it into the bread-baking oven - 350F/180C/Gas4 - for 10 minutes to give it a shine.
Watch Easter among the Ruthenes at https://www.talkingoffood.com/the-rich-tradition-episode-3-the-ruthines.html
More festive recipes ub “European Seasonal Dishes” (Grub Street, 2020)
Yorkshire Baked Cheesecake for Easter
Hello Elisabeth, I saw your substack got on to the Featured tab the same time as my substack did (which explains if you were wondering why you received all those (sometimes quite random!) subscribers like I did today). Anyway, it encouraged me to have a look at your substack and I am so glad I did, I love the concept of storytelling through food and your illustrations are delightful!
Have you come across the book Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino? I think you would enjoy it as he tells stories or rare and forgotten foods.
Loving this, Elisabeth! Happy Easter to you and yours!