Posted by Adam Kuban, March 22, 2008 at 3:00 PM
If you're celebrating Easter, you've probably already got plans for tomorrow night's supper, but if not, I've found this recipe, adapted from The River Cottage Meat Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, ideal for a Sunday afternoon. I'm posting it a little ahead of schedule, just in case you want to get to the butcher and grab some lamb shanks. Because you're braising the shanks—a great way to handle a cut that can otherwise be easily overcooked—you've got time to go out and attend church or visit with family while the oven does most of the work. Once the lamb is tender, it's only a matter of finishing the sauce and serving with some appropriate sides. I like this one because I can still do lamb without cooking a very large piece or going through a large amount of fuss to have a taste of this traditional Easter dish.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, March 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!
This Easter, the eggs won’t all be dressed up in pretty colors and beautifully arrayed in a basket.
As compared to the white-glove treatment most Easter eggs receive, the fate that awaits eggs at bars such as Green Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is much more harrowing. Last Easter, bar manager Misty Kalkofen marked the holiday by serving a menu full of cocktails that had eggs, in whole or in part, vigorously shaken into them. No word on if she plans to repeat the event this year, but here’s a drink created by Misty that certainly belongs in the Easter canon.
Mixed with applejack, Benedictine and maple syrup, the Fort Washington Flip retains hints of the winter just past; given the early Easter this year, don’t be surprised if the weather suits up to match the drink.
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Posted by Gina DePalma, March 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Eggs are essential ingredients in Italian Easter celebrations, playing a role that extends beyond the huge, elaborately decorated chocolate eggs that decorate every shop window in the weeks before the holiday.
Eggs were a symbol of new birth and renewal for many of the ancient civilizations predating the Christian era, when they were adopted as a representation of the resurrection of Christ. They evolved as part of the traditional Easter feast partly because they were one of the foods originally forbidden to have during Lent. These traditions are still intact today, ingrained in the mind, heart, and stomach; each region of Italy has its own special recipes for consuming eggs on Easter.
Romans are likely to enjoy a light first course of Brodetto Pasquale at their Easter table, the local version of a soup that features eggs as well as lamb, another iconic Easter food.
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