Easter Fare
Sun Herald
Sunday March 23, 2008
Lamb soup, sweet bread and cracking eggs for good luck: Helen Hawkes experiences a Greek feast.
On Easter Sunday at the Benardis household, there's a state of olfactory euphoria. Perhaps it's the aroma of lamb basted with olive oil, garlic, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemon zest, sea salt and cracked pepper as it sizzles in the oven. Or maybe it's the pungent scents of garlic, chilli and basil as they are blended with fetta and yoghurt for a spicy fetta dip.In the Greek Orthodox calendar this year, Easter falls on April 21-27 and Maria Benardis, 39, owner of cooking school Greekalicious in Sydney, is making a dress-rehearsal meal. "Easter is about family, food and celebrating the most important event of Easter," she explains. "It's about resurrection, new life, renewal and remembrance of loved ones."Today, Benardis is preparing a family spread at home for her sister Katina; aunty Stravroula Kargas and her sons, Con and Chris, and Chris's wife, Melissa; and her cousin's godmother, Maria Kontors. For Benardis, the idea of remembering loved ones holds special significance: her mother died when she was three. She and Katina were raised by their grandmother, now 95, on the island of Psara and later by her aunt in Sydney. "I watched my grandmother cook, making her own yoghurt, bread and cheeses, from the age of five," says Benardis. "I also remember fresh seafood - prepared with traditional ingredients, such as olive oil and cloves of garlic - was always on the table."As Benardis blends fragrant spices for her own version of baklava - using fresh honey rather than syrup to sweeten the delicious mixture of nuts, spices and butter - she seems just at home in the kitchen as her ancestors."I have always loved to cook but I did get waylaid a bit," she laughs. Benardis's cooking school, which also runs twice-yearly culinary tours to Greece, was set up in 2007 after she decided to relinquish her accounting job and follow her passion for food.She explains that traditional Greek food and the Orthodox religion are intertwined, especially on Greek holidays. Some Greek Easter traditions may be familiar - Palm Sunday, when churches are decorated with palm leaves and fragrant flowers; Good Friday when women visit the church in the morning to decorate a symbolic funeral pyre.Others may be less well known: on Holy Thursday, dozens of eggs are hard-boiled and dyed red, symbolising the blood of Christ, says Benardis. Some will be used in the final adornment of the tsoureki, a three-strand plaited sweet bread that represents the Holy Trinity. Easter Saturday is the time to prepare the magiritsa, a lamb soup with an egg and lemon sauce, while Sunday morning is when families cook a multi-course feast, with lamb as the centre dish. Benardis also hand-dyes eggs, using the colour red as well as blue for the Greek flag. For the roast lamb, she's prepared a pomegranate dressing with cumin, olive oil, garlic, lemon, red wine vinegar and parsley. "Pomegranate symbolises life, death and renewal," Benardis says. "When someone passes away, you cook wheat and add pomegranate, cinnamon, cloves and almonds and give it to those who are grieving. At weddings and christenings, the Greeks crack a pomegranate on the floor for the bride and groom or the child. It means may you have a long, healthy life."At the end of the meal, each of the family will grab an egg and crack it against that of another guest, symbolising the opening of the tomb and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Greek tradition dictates, one will say, "Hristos anesti" ("Christ has risen") and the other will reply, "Alithos anesti" ("Truly Christ has risen"). As the Benardis and Kargas families re-enact the ritual, with satisfying cracking noises, it seems there is a competition to see whose egg will remain intact. "Oh, that's right," laughs Benardis. "In Greek tradition, the person whose egg remains unbroken will enjoy good luck for the rest of the year."
© 2008 Sun Herald