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Easter is a holiday full of joy. Families and friends gather to celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. They go to church, spend time together, and take part in fun traditions. One popular tradition is making and eating festive Easter foods. Many traditional dishes start with "E." There are savoury quiches with golden, flaky crusts. They have spring vegetables like asparagus and peas. There is also ham.
Easter Eggs
Easter eggs are a beloved tradition that brings joy to many families each spring. These festive treats are made of chocolate molded into an oval shape to resemble eggs. The creamy confections come in a rainbow of colours, like milk, dark, and white chocolate. Some are solid, while others have gooey caramel or candy fillings inside for an extra sweet surprise.
Making Easter eggs is a fun project for the whole family. First, chocolate is melted down into a smooth, liquidy mixture. Then, the chocolate is carefully poured into plastic egg-shaped molds and chilled in the refrigerator until hardened. Once solidified, the chocolate eggs are popped out of the moulds and wrapped in colourful foil or decorated with sprinkles or icing.
Easter Pie
Easter pie is a delicious Italian dessert traditionally served after the Lent fasting period leading up to Easter Sunday. This impressive pie features a thick, flaky pastry crust enveloping layer upon layer of savoury fillings. The fillings vary by region but often include eggs, ham, cheese, meats, and vegetables. Some pies have over 30 intricate layers of ingredients!
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To make an Easter pie, first the pastry dough is rolled out and used to line a pie pan, creating the crust. Next, the cook layers the fillings, often starting with eggs, ham or salami, cheeses like ricotta or mozzarella, and sautéed vegetables like spinach, onions, or artichokes. More layers of dough or pastry strips can separate some of the layers. The pie is then baked until the crust is flaky and golden brown. Finally, the pie is sliced and served, allowing the layers to be revealed.
Eccles Cake
Eccles cakes are small, round pastries originally from the English town of Eccles. The golden, flaky crust envelops a sweet currant filling spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. To make them, first roll out puff pastry dough into a thin sheet. Spoon dollops of the currant mixture onto the dough, leaving space between each.
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Fold the dough over into semicircles, sealing in the filling. Cut into individual pastries and bake until the exterior is crispy, and the interior remains soft and moist. To make Eccles cakes, simply gather the ingredients: puff pastry, currants, spices, egg wash, and sugar. Roll out the dough, add the filling, seal and shape the cakes before baking until golden brown.
Echicha
The traditional dish is native to Igbo and is also known as cocoyam and mgbumgbu stew. Echicha is a flavourful one-pot meal that makes the most of dried vegetables. To prepare this Nigerian specialty, dried shredded cocoyam and mgbumgbu peas are first steamed until fork tender. While the vegetable medley steams, a savoury sauce is prepared by sautéing onions, peppers, and palm oil.
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Once the cocoyam and peas have finished steaming, the vegetables are combined with the flavorful sauce. The cocoyam softens and soaks up the rich, spicy flavours of the sauce, while the peas provide protein. The resulting stew is hearty and comforting, perfect for enjoying during the dry season when fresh greens are hard to come by. This dish celebrates both the preserved local vegetables and the classic Igbo stewing technique.
Eclairs
Eclairs are a delicious French pastry with a unique oblong shape. The light, airy choux dough is piped into this distinctive form and baked until golden brown. Once cooled, the hollow pastry shell is filled with luscious custards, cream, or ice cream. Traditional eclairs feature a vanilla pastry cream interior and a thin coating of rich chocolate icing on top. Other flavours, like coffee, caramel, or fruit, are also popular.
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Making eclairs at home is fun and satisfying. First, the choux dough is prepared on the stovetop. Then the dough is piped into long strips on a baking sheet before going into the oven. After baking, the pastries are cooled and sliced open. Next, the filling is injected inside before being topped with icing or glaze. Finally, eclairs can be decorated with nuts, chocolate shavings, or fruit before serving.
Edikang Ikong
Edikang Ikong is a special soup from Nigeria's Akwa Ibom State. This rich, hearty vegetable soup contains beef, dried fish, and bush meat, making it expensive and thus reserved for celebrations. The soup features tender vegetables like pumpkin leaves, waterleaf, and okazi leaf. Traditional spices like utazi, aframomum, and uziza season the flavourful broth.
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To prepare Edikang Ikong, the assorted meats are first boiled until tender. Next, the vegetables are added and cooked until soft. Ground utazi, aframomum, uziza, and other spices are then sprinkled in for seasoning. Finally, the soup is simmered for another 10–15 minutes to allow the flavours to blend. This celebratory Nigerian soup is cherished for its richness and bold, traditional taste.
Egg Roll
Egg rolls are a beloved appetiser in Asian cooking, often appearing as the first course in Chinese restaurants across America. These savoury rolls consist of shredded vegetables like cabbage, carrot, and onion rolled up inside a thin, wheat-based wrapper alongside slivers of pork or chicken. The wrapper keeps the filling contained as the egg roll is fried to a crispy, golden brown in hot oil. The contrast of textures between the crunchy exterior and the tender, steamy filling is part of what makes them so craveable.
To make egg rolls at home, simply stir-fry minced pork and shredded veggies like cabbage and carrot. Let the mixture cool before rolling up tight cylinders in egg roll wrappers. Seal the edges with water before frying them in oil until golden brown and crispy. Serve immediately with chilli sauce for dipping.
