Easter Eggs Dyed with Onion Skins Recipe

The tradition and the roots of dyeing the eggs over the Easter Period of celebrations now might be linked by many to modern and commercial aspect of Easter, but as a matter of fact, it takes us back to the history of the celebration of these events. It is believed that the custom of dying or colouring Easter Eggs started with the early Christians in Mesopotamia.

The eggs were dyed in various colours to represent and symbolise different aspects of the Easter story, yellow represents the resurrection, blue represents love and red represents the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the Cross for the sins of the world.

This tradition would spread over time through Catholic and Protestant churches in Europe, even though in pagan cultures eggs were a symbol of rebirth and fertility, and the arrival of Spring. It is another example of the early Church adapting, transforming existing pagan rites, and rituals to the Christian story and its message for the world.

In Slovenian Istra, where I come from, and all the regions of Slovenia, dying eggs during the Easter festivities is a deeply rooted tradition and has passed, luckily, the tests of modern times; Christians and non-Christians can get involved with this fun and family friendly activity. One of the most popular and inexpensive way to colour the eggs is using onion skins.

I am sharing here how the eggs have been decorated with fresh herbs leaves and flowers and dyed with onion skins in my family for generations.

The beautifully decorated and dyed eggs would be put in a wicker basket together with cooked ham, sweet Easter Bread (Pinca) and taken to Mass on Holy Saturday or early on Easter Sunday to be blessed, and only after being blessed, the food was taken from the basket, shared and enjoyed.

Recipe

In this recipe I am using different types of leaves from fresh herbs to decorate the eggs before dying them. If you are short of time however, or not feeling up to the task, you can easily skip the step of decorating the eggs and just colour them, and they will be equally beautiful.

Ingredients

• 12 eggs at room temperature (white or brown shell eggs or a mixture of both). You can easily change the quantity of the eggs used according to your needs.

• big mixing bowl full of dry onion skins (from yellow or red onions or a mixture of both), roughly 3-4 handfuls

• 2 Tbsp white vinegar

• 1 egg white

• a selection of fresh herbs and flowers (from the garden or a meadow)

You will also need

• some old ladies’ nylon tights (quite thin,15 Denier or less)

• scissors

• cotton thread or thin string

• paint brush

• a big pot

• vegetable oil

Method

Cut the tights into 10-15cm wide strips (this size of the “pocket” should accommodate nicely the egg)

Lightly brush the inside of the herb leaf or flower with a paint brush dipped in egg white.

Gently place it on the egg, press it lightly to help it stick.

Brush the edges of the herb leaf or flower with the egg white so it adheres better to the egg (preventing the herb or flower moving around). Leave to dry just for a few minutes.

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Carry on with the process until you decorate all the eggs with herb leaves or flowers.

Place the decorated egg inside the tights strip, wrap it tightly around the egg, this will allow the decoration to stay in place and not move around (you will need to stretch it a bit and adjust the strip of tights).

Tie the end with a thread or a thin string, or stretch the tights pocket a bit and make a knot.

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Put half of the onion skins in the pot.

Place decorated and prepared eggs into a pot on top of the onion skins.

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Cover the eggs with the remaining onion skins.

Add cold water so the eggs are completely covered and submerged in water.

Pour two tablespoons of white vinegar.

Bring to boil.

Turn the heat down and gently simmer for about 30 minutes.

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Turn the heat off and leave the eggs to cool completely.

Allow the eggs to soak (check the eggs for desired colour).

You can leave the eggs to colour for about 4-6 hours, you can leave them to colour for longer or overnight (I leave mine overnight for practical reasons). The longer you leave them to soak, the darker they will get. You can also remove half of the eggs after a few hours and the rest of the eggs the following day (in this case you will end up with some eggs being lighter in colour compared to the ones that were left to soak for longer).

Remove the eggs form the pot.

Cut off the tights with the scissors, remove decorative herbs with the help of some kitchen paper.

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Dry the eggs with kitchen paper.

If desired, wipe gently the eggs with a bit of vegetable oil. This will give them a beautiful shine.

Display the eggs in the basket.

Istrian Pesto Recipe

This quintessentially Istrian Pesto, is a paste like mixture, made with cured pork fat or pancetta, garlic, fresh flat leaf parsley, and sea salt, it is used for adding extra flavour and aroma to the dishes, but equally delicious spread on a slice of fresh or toasted bread.

Istrian food and dishes are quite poor, born out of necessity, and were made from what was available and seasonal.

In the past, people of this land had to be very resourceful and creative with the ingredients they had, and think of ways to enrich poor peasant food, and they came up with ways to flavour what could potentially be bland tasting stews and soups. So, a taca or pest, as locals call it in dialect, was created.

Istrian pesto has very little in common with the Italian styles of pesto sauces used as condiments for pasta, except for the name pesto, which originates from the Italian word pestare (to pound or to crush).

My nona told me that taca (as she refers to it) was used instead of precious cuts of various meats, that would otherwise give the most wonderful taste, but was reserved for special occasions and most certainly not added to everyday meals. 

She went on to tell me that this Istrian paste was exclusively made in the households, done by hand using a very sharp knife with which you could cut this fairly soft cured slab of fat, made from the back fat of the pigs. These delicate slabs of fat were then cured in sea salt for a few months, and the fully cured piece of fat, which is predominantly whitish in colour has a hint of pink, and is rather “sweet” in flavour since fresh pig meat does not absorb salt.

There always has been a strong connection in the region, reminiscent in this country, to the rural life described in many of Thomas Hardy’s novels, to the kind of local culture that comes with a life of hard labour on the farms and fields. Farmers would eat the cured fat either for lunch or as a snack, it would be very thinly sliced on a piece of rustic bread and accompanied by fresh tomatoes, and by a bicerin (a dialect word of Italian origin, indicating a small glass) of red wine. This type of eating kept them strong and fit.My nona also explain to me that there have been times when families kept their own pigs, and nearly everyone in the region was curing the fat in their typical Istrian cellars, which provided the right temperature, and the level of the humidity for the optimum results of the curing process. I very clearly remember my grandfather (nono as I used to call him), curing the fat and hanging it on big metal hooks to dry.

This Istrain taca is not available in the food stores to buy, and these days it is very rarely made with home cured fat. This is why I am sharing here the family recipe for pešt, made with pancetta (as alternative to cured fat) to enrich your stews and soups.

Make sure you always add this flavoursome mixture into cold water at the very beginning of cooking, as the fat will gradually dissolve into the dish (without making it fat or greasy!) and it will eventually completely disappear.

When you add the paste to the cold water it will at first most probably float, do not worry since this is quite normal. You can just take a fork and break the lump of paste pressing it against the wall of the pan until you break it completely and give a good stir.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 100g pancetta or cured lard in one piece (can use already sliced pancetta)

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed 

• a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 7g), finely chopped 

• sea salt

• black pepper

Method

Cut the pancetta into small pieces.

Transfer into a small food processor, add crushed garlic, finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, and a pinch of sea salt.

Blitz all the ingredients together until you obtain a paste like consistency. 

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Enjoy spread on a slice of fresh or toasted bread, or add to dishes to enrich the flavour.

Chicken Goulash traditional Istrian Recipe

This hearty, comforting, succulent, and delicious meat dish, is as rustic or as elegant as you want to make it. It is made with only a few ingredients, fresh marjoram, being one of them, which gives this dish a distinguished flavour, very often found in Istrian cooking. 

Chicken goulash is one of the most representative dishes of Slovenian Istra, known in local dialect as Kakušji šugo  or in standard Slovenian Kokošji golaž, and it is a part of Istrian Žgvacet or Žvarcet, a collective term indicating traditional stew or goulash made with different kinds of meat like chicken, beef, venison, rabbit and then cooked in a sauce. 

Nowadays, chicken goulash is prepared in the households on a regular basis, but this certainly was not the case in the past, as my nona told me. When she was a child,  meat dishes were a rare sight on the dining table, and this particular dish was no exception, served exclusively to mark special occasion and during festivities. This may be a concept a bit difficult to grasp, as in today's world chicken meat is easily affordable and accessible for most people. 

My nona also told me that in the past, in more rural settings, on small land holdings, even if not a farm, chickens were a very common sight, and were most common animal around. They roamed freely around the courtyards of the farmhouses, and kept safe during night time in fenced spaces (called in local dialect Kapunere). They were fed exclusively on corn or scraps from home grown vegetables, which made the meat particularly tasty. This was the reason, my nona explained, why a long list of ingredients were not used for this dish, as you really want to taste, elevate and appreciate the flavour of the chicken meat of such high quality. 

Old chickens, no longer able to lay eggs would “disappear” from the courtyards and appeared in pots and pans in a slightly different form. Traditionally, for this recipe, the whole chicken is used, even the parts that have very little or no meat on them like ribs, but will truly add crucial flavour to the goulash and are removed and discarded when the dish is fully cooked. 

This once festive food was accompanied by home made potato gnocchi, polenta, typical Istrian home made fresh pasta like bleki, fuzi, pljukanci or bigoli, pan-fried potatoes with onions and pancetta, or simply with some crunchy bread to soak up the sauce. This recipe for Chicken goulash can be served with mashed potatoes or oven baked potatoes, although these alternatives are slightly a less traditional, but are still quite common side dishes. These days this dish is still enjoyed in this same way!  

I am sharing here my nona's recipe, a very simple but very special recipe, as it has been in the family for generations. My nona learned how to cook this dish from her nona, and as the story goes for most of the recipes, this one also has variations and ingredients like white wine, a bit of chopped fresh tomatoes or a tablespoon of tomato concentrate, crushed garlic and other fresh herbs like a bit of finely chopped fresh rosemary, sage, basil and parsley, few celery leaves finely chopped can be added to the basic recipe. 

Recipe 

Ingredients 

Serves 4-6 

• 1 whole chicken (roaster or cockerel) 1kg-1.5kg, skinned, jointed and cut into chunks (your butcher will be more than happy to do this for you) 

  You can use just chicken thighs or drumsticks on the bone (or boneless pieces) or a combination of the two, and some chicken wings. 

  If you skin yourself, make sure you remove most of the skin to avoid the dish becoming to oily and greasy, and potentially unpleasant to eat. 

• 2 Tbsp olive oil 

• 2 medium onions (about 240g) peeled and finely chopped 

• 1 Tbsp white all purpose plain flour 

• 1 Tbsp fresh marjoram, finely chopped  (can use dry marjoram) 

• sea salt 

• black pepper 

Method 

Put olive oil, finely chopped onions, and chunks of chicken in a fairly large shallow cast iron casserole dish or frying pan. 

Add salt and pepper, and cook on a gentle heat until the onions become soft and caramelized, and meat is golden brown in colour, stir occasionally. This process should take around 45 minutes. 

If it starts catching at the bottom, add a tiny bit of water. 

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Sprinkle flour and add finely chopped fresh marjoram (or dry if using), stir with a wooden spoon. 

Add water to the pan, about ¾ full, and scrap with a wooden spoon bits and pieces that attached to the bottom and the sides of the pan. 

Simmer for a few more minutes until the sauce thickens a bit. 

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The dish is fully cooked when the sauce becomes nice and velvety in consistency, it should not be either too thick nor to watery and too thin. 

If you are using whole jointed chicken, fish out and discard pieces that you are not going to serve, like knuckles and chunks of ribs for example. 

Taste and adjust seasoning with sea salt and black pepper. 

Serve hot with potato gnocchi , soft cooked or grilled polenta, typical Istrian home made fresh pasta like bleki, fuzi, pljukanci or bigoli, pan-fried potatoes with onions and pancetta , mashed or oven roasted potatoes or simply with some crunchy bread to soak up the sauce. 

Wine suggestion

Provincia di Pavia Pinot Nero IGT “Junior” 201 - Monsupello

Egg frittata with wild herbs Istrian Recipe

Egg frittata with wild herbs is a very simple and rustic dish, quick to make and a perfect recipe choice for an easy and uncomplicated midweek or weekend lunch, dinner, brunch or breakfast.

It is delicious when eaten hot, but equally very tasty at room temperature or cold, it can be made ahead, providing a great picnic solution, and frittata cut into small bite size pieces will make a brilliant finger food feeding larger groups served together with some drinks.

This humble frittata is a very traditional dish in the Slovenian Istra where I grew up, it is similar to an omelette, it is Italian in origin (Italian word frittata roughly translates to “fried”) and to me, is more than just a quick meal solution.

This type of frittata together with other two most common variations (frittata with dry sausage and frittata with wild asparagus and pancetta) represent a real speciality in Slovenian Istra which, due to close geographical proximity to Italy, made this dish very popular and is referred by locals as Fritaia de erbe, Fritaja, Fritata or Frtalja, Fritaia, and all of these words derive from the Venetian word fritaia, given Venice's domination of the region.

Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers loved all variations of frittata and would have them for merenda (a dialect word, from Italian meaning snack) indicating in the past a quite substantial late morning breakfast (a slightly less sophisticated version of a “modern” brunch) for pheasants, farmers, fishermen and workers. They all started work at dawn, so by mid morning, when they finished working, and before returning home for lunch, they were all quite hungry, and more than ready to have some food to replenish the energy. Nowadays, merenda indicates a light mid morning or mid afternoon snack, that can be savoury or sweet, and of course, children always push for a sweet option...

Both my grandfathers would pick up wild herbs (spring providing the widest range) when returning home from spending a morning working in their vegetable gardens, orchards or olive groves, in which case egg frittata with wild herbs would be prepared for lunch or dinner.

Wild herbs frittata and other types of frittata were for a long time considered a dish for only the poorest people, but thanks to new gastronomic traditions, they are very proudly back on the menus of many homes and restaurants, and given the true dignity they deserve. They are quick and cheap to prepare, have low caloric intake, and are abundant with nutrients from freshly picked herbs in the local area.

I am sharing here a very easy family recipe for this modest frittata. All you need to do is take a nice walk in the natural world around you - forests, meadows etc., and pick some seasonal wild herbs. What can be easier than that?

Well, if you are mainly in an urban area, you can skip the walk and use store bought baby spinach, wild rocket, some fresh basil and flat leaf parsley and you are ready to go...

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 100g-150g (about 4 full handfuls) fresh mixed wild herbs, washed and finely chopped

  In this recipe I used wild garlic leaves, wild fennel, stinging nettle, dandelion leaves, mint, chives, lemon balm, sage, marjoram, flat leaf parsley, basil.

  You can also use store bought baby spinach, wild rocket, any combination, proportion does not really matter as long as you have more or less the total amount of fresh herbs stated in the ingredients list.

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 8 medium sized eggs (in this recipe I calculated 2 eggs per person)

• sea salt

• black pepper

Method

Wash thoroughly fresh mixed herbs, dry them using a salad spinner, if you have one.

Finely chop the herbs and set aside.

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Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk well, add sea salt and black pepper.

Add finely chopped herbs into a mixing bowl and mix well with the egg mixture.

Put extra virgin olive oil in a fairly large non stick frying pan (28cm or 30cm) and heat it up a bit.

Pour the egg and wild herbs mixture into a pan, cover with a lid (glass lid with steam hole works very well if you have it) and cook on a gentle heat.

The frittata is ready and cooked when the underside is set and the egg mixture on the surface no longer has “runny and raw” consistency.

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Hold a plate upside-down over the pan and turn the two over together so that the frittata inverts on to the plate. Slide the frittata back into the pan and cook for a further minute or so.

Fresh herbs frittata can be eaten and enjoyed warm, room temperature or cold and will make a complete meal accompanied by some salad, fresh crunchy bread, soft cooked or grilled polenta and it also makes a great sandwich filler.

If you want to enjoy it Istrian style, pour yourself a small glass of red wine.

Just a thought

This type of frittata will keep in the fridge in an air tight container for about two days and is not suitable for freezing.

In this recipe, I have chosen to cook the frittata in a traditional way, on the stove with a lid, as my family has always used this method. However, if you are familiar cooking the frittata in the oven, and that is your preferred method, it is perfectly fine to do so.

Wine suggestion

Friuli Colli Orientali Ribolla Gialla DOC 2021 - Torre Rosazza