April 20, 2014 marked as the holy day of Easter - feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Orthodox calendar, the most important holiday of Orthodox Christians .
Entire period before Ascension is celebrated on the 40th day after Easter , is considered as Eastern , and the Orthodox greet each other with "Xhristos Voskres!" or " The Lord Hath Risen! " and the response "He is Risen Indeed! " In Church Slavonic, this phrase is represented by the Cyrillic letters “XB,” a which appear on eggs, kulich, and the paskha.
It has long been assumed that the first meal after the Lent should
be sanctified colored eggs, Easter cake (Kulich) and Easter curd
(Paskha) .
Custom of exchanging colored eggs has firmly entrenched in the life of the church.
Red Easter egg symbolizes conquering Divine Love.
Easter cake's (Kulich) shape resembles artos . Easter artos is a symbol of Jesus Christ. In Easter Paskha there are: a pone, sweet, raisins and nuts.
Properly prepared cake smells great and looks beautiful, it does not get stale and can stay for weeks without spoiling, all 40 days of Easter. Sweetness, pone, and beauty of Easter cake show the Lord's concern of every human being, His compassion and mercy to people.
Another main dish on the Eastern table is Easter Paskha. But apart from its symbolic value, Easter Paskha is just delicious, exquisite dessert.
Paskha is the image of endless joy and bliss of the saints, sweets of heavenly life, and blissful eternity. Mountain shape of Paskha represents the base of the new heavenly Jerusalem.
Its main ingredients are: grated farmer cheese, butter, sour cream or cream, eggs (or just yolks) and sugar. People can also add raisins, candied fruits, jams syrup, lemon zest, cinnamon - it all depends on person's taste.
Easter Paskha can be prepared in three ways - baked in the oven ; brew - when the ingredients are brought to the boil ; and cooled and compressed .
All three types taste slightly different . But the taste does not depend on the method of cooking but on the quality of the ingredients and some fine process.
Recipe of Traditional Paskha:
Ingredients: 800g of farmer cheese, 100g of butter, 2 tbsp. of powder sugar, 0.5 tbsp. of sour cream, 5 eggs, 1 tbsp. of blanched almonds, 1 tbsp. of steamed raisins.
- Drain farmer's cheese of all moisture by placing cheesecloth in colander and weighting down with bricks or other heavy items. Drain overnight in refrigerator.
- Beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until creamy.
- Whip 1/2 cup sugar with the 5 egg yolks until white.
- Add the insides of 2 vanilla beans to the egg yolk. (cut in half and scrape inside out.) Chop the outside of 1 vanilla bean as finely as possible and add to egg yolk mixture.
- Mix the butter-sugar mixture and the yolk mixture together. Add cheese and mix thoroughly.
- Whip the whipping cream until firm and fold into above.
- Line container of choice (wooden mold, clay flower pots or kitchen colander with damped cheesecloth.
- Fill mold with cheese mixture, wrapping excess cloth over top. Make sure to place plate to catch drips underneath mold.
- Refrigerate at least 6 days before you unmold the Paskha. Paskha should be firm to touch in order to hold the shape well.
- Turn mold upside down onto decorative plate and gently pull the cheesecloth off.
- Decorate with candied fruits, nuts, raisins or any other edible item you choose. Traditional decorations includes Christian symbols such as crosses, etc. This dish is only served during the Easter season in Russia.
Recipe taken from www.food.com
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