Finding Meaning in Orthodox Lent, and Pleasure in Potatoes.

I grew up, not Catholic, but surrounded by Catholics, and so with the Catholic conception of Lent. It's more lax in that only a couple of days a week are affected, but in one important way it's a more meaningful affair: you vow to give up an indulgence- something that has significance for you. Orthodox lent is more culturally obvious- special menus at 24 hr fast food places obvious. There is a (largely theoretical) prohibition against all products from any animals with blood for 40 days- no pate, no ice cream, no gyros, no chocolate mousse, no beurre noisette, no fish and chips (except on the day of the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday- then we have fish). But, there is convincing lenten "cheese" in every supermarket- a yellow 'gouda" type, and a crumbly white brined "feta" type. A larger transgression against the spirit of abstinence? Unlimited quantities of crustaceans, cephalopods, bivalves. 

But what about the substance of things? The letter of Catholic or Orthodox law is not the point. It would takes nights of fried shrimp and steamed crab to make me finally ache for a hamburger. And "blessed" non-dairy "cheese" is morally ridiculous. 

What is not ridiculous? A season of simplicity and purity, a modesty in our cravings. Knowing there is not more piety in a lobster tail than in a broth of naked chicken bones. Above all, an abstinence from excess.

The secular rewards are great- a jaded palate is cleansed, and subtlety, quality, the nature of things just as they are shines again. At the table, the secular and the spiritual meet- this time in the form of a boiled potato, with oil and salt. If this does not excite you, you are probably not truly hungry enough to eat. If you are, it will be more delicious than you could imagine.

We will need:

2 potatoes

water

salt for the water

flaky sea salt for the finished potatoes

olive oil

I schlepped this 10 K bag of excellent high altitude potatoes from beautiful Archangel, Almopia:

When the Aegean pools up in rocks off the shore,
and the wind and sun whisk the water away,
this is what is left of the sea.

Scrub the potatoes, leave them whole and unpeeled, and cover them just barely with water. You can salt the water or leave it sweet, but some salt (a little less than you would for pasta)} deepen the flavor of the potato. Boil them gently until a knife slips in all the way to the middle without resistance. Perhaps 35-40 minutes.

The skins slip easily from the potatoes when they are sill hot- spear one with a fork, and coax the peel from them with a knife.

Slice them thickly, pour good oil over them, and shower them with fat flakes of salt. Of course, they are wonderful with herbs, or onions, or capers. Potatoes are bland. But they are not flavorless- they are subtle, rich and full- and no more need an accent than a bridal gown needs a red belt. Just this once, let them be the picture rather than the canvas, and enjoy them as they are.

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New Year's in Greece- More Family, More Feasting, More Everything.

Pressure to have a good time makes true enjoyment elusive. New Year's Eve as I knew it centers on a countdown, and don't even get started on who to kiss. Here in Greece, New Year's is a fat two day holiday (and you kiss everyone). Like many things on the charmingly relaxed Greek time table, the jovial Saint bearing gifts is later than everywhere else- it is St. Vassilis, not Claus or Nick, who slips down the chimneys of Greece, and he celebrates on January first (along with everyone named Vassilis or Vassiliki).

Like Christmas Eve Day, New Year's Eve day starts early- more little carolers, this time with a a different song. Same as before, save up your change. And if you had hoped to sleep in a little, set some earplugs out on your night table the evening before. But don't sleep too late- you'll miss them altogether. The door bell used to ring all day, not just a few groups in the morning.

When you go downtown to shop (and you should definitely go downtown- this holiday in particular, and Greece in general, is not about convenience), bring more change-carolers are everywhere- also very practiced students with instruments and varied repetoires. And like before, bring chocolates.

Go early so you can finish up in enough time to join your friends for an ouzo- everyone is out today and with even more "kefi" (Greece's boisterous, infectious joie de vivre). 

The best part of New Year's here is that there is a family dinner. There is all the glitter of soires as abroad, but they start after midnight. Before midnight, the streets are quiet and the bars and clubs are dark- everyone is home enjoying a large family dinner. Like elsewhere, someone turns on the tv a few minutes before midnight strikes to get an accurate time. The first person to step into the house after the New Year strikes who was not in the house when it did, is said to bring the luck of the year. For this reason, a few strokes before the hour, the halls of apartment buildings are filled with festively dressed children waiting to step in, right foot first, bringing with them good fortune. Everyone kisses everyone on both cheeks with good wishes for health and joy.

To ensure that good fortune may be as abundant as the garnet seeds of a pomegranate, a whole one is smashed against the wall to burst.  Like the glass at a Jewish wedding it is wrapped, although less festively in plastic. Still, the walls of our hallway are splattered deep purple towards the bottom- no plastic bag can contain the enthusiasm of children hurling good fortune- and it needs to split open for the luck to be released. This all happens quickly, because we then all spill out onto our balconies, to see the fireworks and greet our neighbors from across the streets and alleyways.

And the cold quickly chases us back in again, to cut the Vasilopita- the New Year's pie. 

The window of every neighborhood bakery-
this one in Ano Poli,
across from the church of Agiou Nikolaou Orphanou-
display the festive Vasilopita for 2016.

The pie is actually a cake, either a sweet yeast-risen butter-rich bread like a tsoureki (a challah or babka type of bread), or a simple orange and yogurt cake. A coin signifying luck has been baked into it. The cake is simply decorated with the New Year, often stencilled in powdered sugar. If this is the case, the pieces are identified by making in the sugar. Otherwise, we use a paper graph. The first piece is for the Savior, the second for the home, then there are pieces for each family member and guests, To even up the count, we often fill in with things that matter to us- our club, our pets (this is not strictly traditional- but surely there are many slices named for favorite teams....). This ritual is repeated throughout the month of January- in school classrooms, offices, and clubs of every kind.

You would think you would be tired by now. But after the children are tucked in, the streets jam with traffic. By one o'clock everyone is out in their way to celebrate. There are special holiday programs of live music, and celebrations of all the Vasillis and Vassilikis, private parties, and festivities at every bar and many restaurants. 

The morning of the New Year starts early if you have children- just like Christmas morning elsewhere, they want to see what is under the tree. We nibble on slices of vasilopita (and drink coffee), and relax with out families, If the sun is out, as it so often is on the first day of the year, we dress up and go for a walk- the promenade at the seafront is full of neighbors exchanging good wishes. We return home for another festive meal, grateful for the good fortune that brings us together.

And some us may take a swim.

Wishing you Health and Joy- καλη χρονια!

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Marble Eggs for your Easter Table

How did these first come to be? Like so many things we enjoy, it must be thanks to the innovation of an inspired homemaker very, very long ago. With all the pre-festivity preparations going on, there are always a lot of onions around, and before commercial blood-red* dyes became available, onion skins were used to tint eggs for Easter. They have an astonishing amount of pigment in them- they look flimsy and blond, but they give a deep bronzy hue to the water. Leaves and petals (happy reminders of our season of rebirth) are often affixed to the outside of eggs before dyeing to leave their silhouette. From there, it was a probably easy jump to use not just the pigment from the onion skins, but their beautiful veins and patterns as well. A happy transformation takes place, as the vegetal patterns give the egg a mineral quality- they truly do look like marble.

As the onion skins dye the eggs an orang-ish hue- very much like that of brown eggs, it's useful to start with white eggs from the outset to get as many variations of color as possible. Save the skins from several onions- no matter if some are in small pieces:

Then wrap pieces around the egg- a damp egg grabs them better. Overlapping and gaps both make the patterns more complex.

Now take a clean nylon stocking (cut off one whole leg so it is easier to work with), thread your hand in to the toe, and grasp the egg through the stocking, pulling he stocking up and around the egg, and keeping the onion skins firmly in place. 

Tie a knot to make as tight of a little package as you can

Place another onion skin-wrapped egg right over the knot, tie it snugly, and continue on, until you have a knotted rope of wrapped and tightly secured eggs:

Cover them with water, and add a couple of shots of vinegar (to strengthen the pigment? to keep the eggs from cracking? I hear both. The smell of boiling vinegar always makes me think of Easter.) White shelled eggs can be fragile- the nylon helps protect them, but best to boil them slowly all the same- at medium, barely bubbling, for at least twenty minutes, maybe a half hour. They'll be well boiled and hard, but we are going for a beautiful exterior, rather than a delicate, creamy yolk.

The water now will be a deep bronze. Using blue dye strengthens the contrast. Add a packet of dark blue egg dye to the water and leave it for another twenty minutes- you can pull the strand out to check he color through the nylon stocking. the uncovered white parts of the shell will take in the blue, while the boiled onion skins will seal the other portions of the shell. We now have an ungainly looking messy and dark rope of eggs- rinse the rope, and put it in a plate. Now they are ready to be cut out of the nylons with a pair of scissors:

Peel the onion skins away to reveal the richly patterned eggs- each is lovelier than the last. They do look quite dry- liven the surface by buffing with a paper napkin soaked with a few drops of oil:

The egg on the left has a glossy sheen from the oil,
but, well-buffed, is not at all sticky to the touch.

*The blood-red egg is iconic of Orthodox Easter. Eggs are dyed red on Holy Thursday, in honor of the Crucifixion. On Easter, as the light of the resurrection is passed from candle to candle, the blood red shell is peeled away to reveal the white egg (life everlasting?). Curiously a competitive element was introduced somewhere along the way- everyone seeks out the hardest egg in order for it to remain intact as it crushes the shells of the others when they are tapped together.

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