Pysanky

Easter is for kid’s right? Well the religious answer to that is No, but in addition to that, as often as kids were allowed to make Pysanky in my home town around Easter. Pysanky making is really an adult art, you are playing with fire literally, the dyes you use are permanent and do not come off of anything (I actually managed to stain some of my dishes with the stuff... that's right I stained glass go figure) oh yah! and the dyes are also poisonous. Yet somehow, wonderful dedicated school teaches in my home town would guide classes of young students through the process, despite burnt hair, finger and the odd bit of stained items. No one ever managed to poison themselves.

Our Pysanka Kit Please note the mike and Ike's are not part of the traditional egg making process

The smell of bee's was will always takes me back to Easter, the halls in school were filled with the smell of classes working on Easter Eggs. While I have memories of burning fingers, and dripping hot wax on myself, I still was excited to give this a try again. The last time I made a traditional Pysanky I was maybe between 8-12. I was personally surprised at how my hand eye coordination had improved since I had last attempted to make a Pysanky. I couldn't help but share photos of the kit online with my friends, and before long I had several people wanting to stop by and work on the eggs with us. 

            Our Egg making station

The challenge of getting an Egg Making Station set up in our small one bedroom condo took some thought and planning but I made a fairly decent set up for people to work at. You need dye, bee's wax (generally a black variety is used, but any color of bee's wax will do as long as you can see it on the egg) and a special tool called a kistka, which is a copper funnel attached to a stick with wire, that funnels the wax onto your egg when you heat it over an open flame. You have to draw on the egg with the kistka for each color, anything you cover with the wax stays that color, you must dye your eggs from the lightest color (yellow) to the darkest color (black) you can skip colors but you cannot use a lighter color once the egg had been dyed in a darker one. If you like your egg and want to give it a professional look you can varnish the shell after the dying process.

Pysanky - Image credit She Walks Softly Blog Pysanky are usually empty shells, you blow out the contents of the egg before starting the project, which can make them tricky to dye evenly, but if you want to keep them this is necessary. I know I have no artistic talent so we just left ours eggs whole and created them with the intent they will only last till after Easter. Some Pysanky are stunning works of art just google image search Pysanky and you'll be amazed by the detail and beauty of them.

Please note that if you do create a Pysanky using any kind of raw or boiled egg it is NOT EDIBLE the dye used in making them is not safe for food, if you wish to eat a Pysanky ensure you are using food safe dye. Traditional Pysanky are NEVER consumed (and usually hollow anyway) and regular boiled eggs are in the basket alongside them that will be consumed. Eating or breaking a Pysanky would be akin to eating one of your Great Grand Mother's china plates, or breaking it expecting food to fall out, to put this in a social perspective for anyone who hasn't made one before.

one of my friends who has actual Talent making her Pysanky

my Pysanky 

In addition to Pysanky one egg is reserved to be dyed red this is the krashanki (alternate spelling: krashanka) you see this egg more prominently in Greek culture.

However the uniqueness of the representation of red Eggs at Easter, and traditions surrounding them vary greatly from country to country, and even village to village. In Christianity the symbolism of the red egg is for that of the blood of Christ, or Mary Magdalene. In Ukraine prior to the introduction or Christianity this special egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the sun, and the shells of it were used to communicate with spirits of various origins and using various traditional methods based on the region. I have even heard Ukrainian people refer to the red egg in a similar manor as a Turkish Nazar (this has many other names but is also referred to as the "evil eye" charm) and the intent of the egg is to disperse the negative thoughts or looks that may be given to the basket or its barer. Since at one time in Ukraine Easter baskets were often used to display how prosperous a family was (I have hear of old tales of families using dresser drawers as baskets to display all their food) the "evil eye" thing may have some credit to it. However in conclusion I have to say that the history of the krashanki is too complex for me to narrow down into one story or symbol.

What I can say about the krashanki is that this egg is edible, traditionally made using an onion skin dye treatment, and is to be shared among family members when eaten. The egg is the first egg eaten at sunrise on Easter to bring lent to a close. The egg is cracked and cut by the father of the family, and then eaten by family members to promote prosperity, love and strong family ties.

As if I haven't listed enough types of eggs here, now we are getting down to are garden variety "Easter Eggs" that are edible hard boiled eggs that you just decorate in an Easter Basket. These eggs in Christianity are symbolic of new life and resurrection. This year I decided to go with a traditional look and since I don't have the artistic talent to make fine detailed Pysanky I decorated my hard boiled eggs with "egg wraps" which are plastic eggs sleeves with designs on them that shrink to fit the egg when place in boiling water. I hope you enjoyed this Eggciting edition of the blog! Happy Easter!

My Egg Wrap Easter Eggs

Patience in the Paska

Please note this is an actual recipe used by an actual human.

In the blog I go over my negative experience trying to use some of the recipes floating around out there on the internet for Paska. I hope that by using my modified recipe you get the results of a good bread. For whatever reason people seem to be getting very bad results of online Paska recipes. My theory in this is that the ones floating around on the internet are "cut down" versions of bakery recipes. They were originally used for mass production of bread in a bakery setting. Sometimes when trying to get a "home cook" version of a professional recipe the ratios get off course when industrial recipes are divided many times. I am of the mindset that the flour ratio is off in many of the online recipes such ans Martha Stewart's. It's just a theory, but the modified recipe I have here is intended for home cooks it isn't a scaled back bakery recipe.


Let us begin...

Dear Martha Stewart.... what the heck is wrong with your Paska Recipe??????? I was enamored of Martha's recipe after watching a video of how the recipe is made, and for the first time seeing some of the bread designs being created for the top of a Paska. I thought "YAH that's right I can do this!!!"

You can watch the video here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/926601/decorating-ukrainian-easter-bread-part-1#993486

And View the recipe I followed here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/344718/easter-paska

The video features a dough that is light and fluffy and smooth... after I followed the recipe I knew I was in trouble based on the texture of the dough.... my dough was a lump of unworkable mess, I baked it anyway and while it did hold its shape very well, it did not rise the way Paska rises, did not turn the deep brown color on top, and tasted pretty much like a rock.

My First Paska 2014

I guess if I didn't want to eat it, it isn't the worst looking creation that I have had come out of my kitchen, but I was extremely disappointed in the bread. The bread in an Easter basket represents Christ himself, so it is something you really don't want to turn out poorly. Part of the reason I had such an issue with the recipe I think is because most bread recipes are not traditional by hand recipes anymore, and while you would think that you can beat a loaf of bread as good as any tin can mixer.... some recipes you just can't get the same texture with no matter how many times you punch the snot out of it.

I came to the conclusion that if I did not get a pretty looking bread I could live with it, after all I'm not experienced in making it, so I can't expect the thing to be a work of art on the first go... but I couldn't put up with something in my basket that tasted bad so I shrugged my shoulders took a picture and started again.

Paska Fail oh well

The bread actually requires quite a bit of work compared with the breads I usually attempt. The dough is temperamental, you need to cook it in a really high pan, and it rises.... a lot so the chances of it spilling over the pan are pretty good. Along with all these complications, there are the superstitions that go along with making the bread. Normally I will bow to superstition out of habit, but when it comes to baking I'm pretty confident so I thought I could get away with doing what I wanted so I ignored the superstitions on my first attempt. On my 2nd attempt at making the bread I decided to do it the way superstition says you do it and see if my luck improved.

First I had to look up a new recipe and I came across this one:

Classic Paska Recipe:

Makes 1 large Ukrainian Easter Bread

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teapoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 1/2 cups plus 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 beaten large eggs
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

I decided that both this recipe and Martha's were nothing like what I wanted, and decided to make some changes cutting out the worst parts of both, and adding what was needed. In Martha's recipe, I didn't like the fact that it called for 8 egg yolks. I don't mind making an egg white omelet to use them up, but I generally look at recipes that use a lot of one part of an egg as wasteful.

Here is the Recipe I came up with:

Ebony's modified Paska Recipe

·  1 teaspoon white sugar for the yeast

·  1/2 cup White sugar sugar

·  2 heaping TBSP brown sugar

·  1/2 cup lukewarm water

·  1 package active dry yeast

·  1 1/2 cups milk

·  2 cups bread flour

·  4 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·  3 beaten large eggs

·  2 TBSP Spiced Rum

·  2 TSP Vanilla

·  The zest of half a lemon

·  1 cup dried cranberries

·  1/3 cup melted butter

·  1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Steps:

#1. Combine water and 1 tsp sugar and yeast let stand 5min

#2. Meanwhile scald your milk and let cool for 5 min

**Side note. I have been told time and time again traditional paska contains saffron... I hate to tell you this but most saffron on the market today is really bad quality or not actual saffron at all and is only going to add color to your bread. However if you do insist on spending and extra $9 to put a pinch of saffron in the bread it is added to the milk before you scald it. The heat will bring out the taste and color of the spice.


#3. Add milk, bread flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour to yeast mixture, mix till smooth cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap, and let stand 30 min till the mixture is bubbly, gooey and stringy.

#4. Meanwhile combine eggs, white and brown sugar, rum, vanilla, lemon zest, and beat well till bubbles form in the mixture 3 - 5 min BY HAND (go figure people still do that)

#5. Melt your butter and set aside to let cool.

#6. After the 30 Min for the yeast mix has passed, add the goopy yeast mix to your wet egg mix combine with your hand till well mixed slowly incorporate your butter while doing this, then your cranberries or raisins (optional)

#7 Add and incorporate the 4 cups of all-purpose flour one cup at a time till you hit 3 cups. Then dump the additional cup on the surface you will be kneading the bread on, and kneed for 15 min. Your dough should be smooth and not too sticky to work with. If you dough is too sticky you need to add flour up to an additional cup. Do this slowly and only as needed if you have to add more than an additional cup of flour to get the dough right you it will affect the taste and texture of the bread.

#8. Oil a bowl with canola oil, and place the dough in the bowl, oil the top of the dough and place oiled plastic wrap or a damp cloth over the bowl let rise in a warm place for 2 hours (note if you put a cloth over the bowl the dough may rise and stick to the cloth so plastic is advised)

#9. After 2 hours pass punch the dough down again, spray an oven safe pot with non-stick cooking spray generously, you should have room in the pot for the dough to double in size and a bit extra... if you don't have a high enough one, line the sides with baking parchment and spray with nonstick spray, so that you have an overhang of paper above the pot the bread can rise to and still be contained.

#10. Cut off one third of the dough to shape decorations for the top. Place the remaining dough in the bottom of the pot and decorate the top of the bread with shaped dough. If you are doing more complicated patterns secure your dough with tooth picks and also remember to keep your designs small as anything you put on the bread will double in size after it rises again.

#11. Glaze the bread with an egg white wash to keep it moist. Allow the bread to rise in the pot till doubled in size (about an hour)

#12. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes after the first 20 Min pull your bread out and cover the top with foil to prevent over browning.

#13. Remove bread from oven and immediately dump out of pot. The top of the bread should be fairly sturdy and you can let the bread sit on the decorated part while it cools a bit if you are afraid it is too top heavy but if it stands upright alright then you are good to let it cool that way.

GOOD LUCK!!!

I set to making my bread using my modified version of the two recipes and going by superstition. You are not allowed to have any negative thoughts when making the bread so I cleared my mind, and thought about my friends and family and happy Easter memories I had shared with them. This ensured my bread would be sweet and taste good. I did not sit down, because the superstition is that if you sit down while the bread is rising the dough will collapse.... ok I did sit down a bit and I am convinced that is why it has a little bit of a sag in the top.

Over all, I was happy with the result. This dough didn't hold its shape as good as the other one but it tastes great!!!! Part of the shape issue I had with it was that I used a smaller pot to bake it in and it overflowed the top a bit in the baking process. These are things I can chalk up to a learning experience, and do better with next time I make the bread. For now I have my Easter bread. The decorations I chose to put on the bread were the infinity ring which is a two strand twist that goes around the border of the bread, and a three strand braided cross to represent the trinity. More traditionally crosses with spirals on the end are used for the top as well as chrysanthemum flower shaped dough for fertility, and a good harvest. I'm not so thrilled with how my design held shape but I will work on that next year.

                                                                       My Final Bread

               

IMPROVEMENTS 2017:

To also note I've made some improvements to this recipe (It's already changed above). In 2017 I'm having much better results with it so if you are using my modified recipe it should turn out good for you. Please do stay away from Martha's recipe as well as the standard one on the internet, I've heard A LOT of internet feed back surrounding these recipes from people who have spent hours baking bread and the consensus is the flour ratios are off. Most people get bread that is simply to hard to eat after hours of work which is really sad. Mine should work out just fine for you just make sure you are using the right yeast Dry Active Yeast (none of that "quick rise" stuff Paska takes time and rise of the bread is a very big part of the process) Hopefully if you are starting out you can skip the part where you get a bad recipe. That is my hope for you.

 These were my  3 results this year. I'm slowly getting better.

If you are interested in learning more about the breads in Ukraine or would like to see more samples of ornate traditional breads. Check out the following YouTube videos. One is a museum traditional bread exhibit, the other is longer, and in Ukrainian (so again only if you are really interested) and features examples of how traditional bread is made and some of the rituals surrounding bread.

Bread Exhibit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg8S1ZmiOeY

Bread Ukrainian Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9haNHtMfCl8

My Easter basket is coming along nicely but there is an important part of making it coming up.... that is tasting everything to make sure you don't poison someone of course, it is your duty as a cook. I made us up some nice lunches in the style of "Japanese bento" as a preview of our Easter basket and to make sure that everything we have made is a good enough quality to put in the Easter basket. This is what Bento would look like if they were made by Polish and Ukrainian people. I put faces on the Perogies and cut the cheese into flower shapes and decorated some eggs for lunch, the bakery also had a deal on hot crossed buns.... and since I have been working so hard at this Paska I figured it was ok to let someone else do the baking this time and enjoy some Easter Treats.

Easter Lunch Box Bento



To Market To Market To Buy a Fat Pig

There are three meats in a traditional Easter basket. Bacon, Ham, and Garlic Sausage (Kubasa) symbolizing Mercy, Joy, and Generosity. While yes you can cure your own meat and make your own Sausage, I personally am lacking some time a equipment to do this. I take this as a chance to support my community butchers and go out and get the very, very best product for my basket. I have a separate butcher for each type of meat.

Old Country Sausage Winnipeg - Image credit Nilo Manalo

The bacon in an Easter basket is symbolic of God's mercy and  I'm off to Old Country Sausage to pick some up. Old Country is a business that's been around over 100 years in the city. I'm greeted by two colorful ladies when I walk in the door, and by the time I'm out we've discussed everything from the weather to bag boys at grocery stores. I am not sure what it is about Winnipeg but the best butchers are in the absolute most run down parts of the city, regardless you won't get the delightful service, and top quality product at extremely reasonable prices without making your way around the city. In my mind it is always worth the trip.

If you want to learn more about Old Country Sausage and the wonderful family that run's it check out this video from their 100 year anniversary.

If you want to make your own bacon I'm going to suggest this recipe posted by Punk Domestics:
http://www.flamesandfood.com/making-bacon-home/

 

Image Credit - Flames and Food 

For the ham in my Easter basket there is only one place to go for my ham and that is Wawel (pronounced - Va-vel) Meats. Ham in an Easter basket is symbolic of joy and abundance. My Easter basket is only for two people so I am going with some sliced Polish ham. If you are trying to make a basket to feed 4 or more people I can see the point of sticking a whole ham in the basket, but in my case that would be a little overkill.

If you have not, had Polish ham before. Please RUN don`t walk to your nearest Polish butcher and try some. I have been eating Polish ham since I was a kid and we would drive an hour just to get it. I was horrified when I got ham from the grocery store in my school lunches as a kid. Polish ham may as well be a completely different meat. It keeps the nice pork texture, has actual flavor rather than just salt, and isn't so pink it looks unnatural. When I was traveling in Europe I had to question my local butcher and see for myself if this ham did indeed resemble actual ham made at authentic Polish butcher shops, and I have to say the taste is EXACT I felt like I was right back in Winnipeg on Selkirk Ave. even though I was half a world away. Wawel Meat Market is authentic to the core and you will not find better quality and taste of Polish meats anywhere in the city.

Image Credit - Google Maps

Want to see inside the shop and meet the butcher check this youtube Video out. This family has been a staple in the Winnipeg Polish community for years.

Want to learn about curing your own ham check out this blog:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/zen_of_ham.html

Last stop is for the Kubasa in the Easter basket it is symbolic of God's favor and generosity. While I have to say Wawel has equally as good Garlic Sausage, I like to support different businesses and have to say, that Tenderloin Meat and Sausage may not be specifically a Polish Butcher shop but their Kubasa seriously upholds the quality and taste. I can't find any fault with their product, so heck yah I will add another stop on my list and give these guys some well-deserved business for their superior quality product. 

Image Credit - Globe and Mail

 Image Credit Winnipeg Free Press (Click here for business article)

Winnipegers love Garlic Sausage all year round. Yes it has a special place around holidays, but we pretty much go nuts for it at any time of year. Want to know what one of my friends got for Valentine’s Day this year?

If you guessed a heart shaped Garlic Sausage then you must be from Manitoba... if you actually are thinking that's a pretty darn good gift, you beyond a doubt were born and raised here.

If you happen to have your own meat grinder just sitting around.... and come on who doesn't? You may want to give making the Food Network's version of Garlic Sausage a try. You can find the recipe here.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/garlic-pork-sausage-recipe.html

Well I have managed to get some great stuff for my Easter basket today, and if you are from the local area, then I have made some suggestions on where you can get your Easter basket meats from. If you have been following along with this blog you may have noticed you can leave me comments. If you want to suggest your own butcher or have questions, feel free to drop me a comment. Now that I have all the piggy I need home again, home again, jigitty jig.