Easter 2023
It was our first Easter in Germany. We started the day with a slice of Osterbrot, or Easter Bread, which I bought from my favorite bakery at the farmers market. It was lightly sweet, soft dough with raisin and almond slices. Unlike hot cross buns, the bread didn't contain candied orange or lemon peels or spice like cinnamon. Basically it was a giant raisin bun. That was fine because it tasted lovely.
By the way I didn't run into any hot cross buns in Wiesbaden. Perhaps they are a British tradition, which have been adopted in the States. Instead, many bakeries sold bunny shaped buns before Easter. I couldn't help but take some home. They were cute and yummy.
The main dish of the Easter dinner was pan-seared lamb chops. Apparently lamb is not a common meat for Germans to consume. I haven't seen any form of lamb at a local butcher or a meat section in any grocery stores. Still there must be some demand. There is usually a small lamb specialty vendor at the city's farmers market to sell various cut of lamb, where I bought the lamb chops at. I like lamb chops because they are not too gamey or fatty, they are cooked quickly and I can easily buy small portions so that we won't need to eat too much meat. Marinated with rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic and olive oil and pan-seared for 2-3 minutes each side, the lamb chops were tender, buttery and delicious. German-style boiled potatoes with butter and parsley and roasted green asparagus were accompanied beautifully.
Talking about asparagus, fresh white asparagus has just come back to the market. Easter dinner was a great opportunity to try a new recipe with the Germany's favorite veggie. I bought about 500 g of thick white asparagus to make white asparagus soup.
I adopted a recipe that I found online. It was a French-style. Ingredients were super simple. White asparagus, small onion (I didn't have a shallot), small potato, olive oil (to sauté them), a little of white wine, tiny bit of lemon juice, water, and a little bit of milk. That's all. Stock, herbs or spices are not needed to purely enjoy the delicate flavor of white asparagus. The soup as is was fine but since it was a holiday dinner, I made a toasted baguette float with Fol Epi, a smooth nutty French semi-soft cheese. Plus, Parqueoliva Serie Oro, one of the three "Extraordinary Extra Virgin Olive Oils" that we brought back from our Andalusia trip.
Fresh green salad were a must for our Easter dinner. Feldsalat, or lamb's lettuce, which is my new favorite salad leaves, marinated artichokes from a Mediterranean deli vendor at the market, radishes, and according to J's request, deviled 'chick' eggs were in the salad bowl. While I was preparing the dinner, two chicks were somehow napping...
Dressed with homemade white balsamic-lemon vinaigrette dressing and the excellent Spanish olive oil, the salad bowls were ready to be served.
The dessert was a part of J's findings from the egg hunt that I organized that morning. He did a very good job!
Five kinds of Turin-based chocolate company, Venchi's chocolate eggs and four kinds of praline eggs from a German chocolatier, whose name I forgot..., Läderach, maybe? A special finding was Sachertorte by Gmeiner, the Black Forest region-based confectionery. Wonderful. Thank you, Easter Bunny!
Frohe Ostern!
