In My Eggy Kitchen

I really hate being predictable, but eggs and Easter just go together – an inescapable fact. Indeed, I believe the egg is a universal symbol of rejuvenation and fertility. As appropriate, and in keeping with the promise of spring (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere), there were a lot of eggs in my kitchen in the past month.

It started with fish eggs, otherwise known as roe. Traditional for Greek Lent is taramasalata, a creamy pinkish dip which I made with smoked cod roe (see my post Tarama for more on that).

Then, of course, we couldn’t escape Easter eggs. Over the years I’ve collected tin eggs, which are printed with designs taken from the famous jewelled Fabergé eggs.

I fill them with pastel sugar-coated mini chocolate eggs – eggs within eggs.

I think there would be a revolt in my house if I didn’t buy Cadbury chocolate creme eggs this time of year. I leave these “treats” with their sticky gooey white and yolk-yellow insides to others. Like Marmite, one has a love or hate relationship with creme eggs. There is also no escaping them in the supermarket!

The old novelty egg cups from my mother-in-law also make an appearance this time of year – purely for decoration. I’ve always wondered if people actually use egg cups on a regular basis. Like toast racks, they’re interesting tableware, but how useful are they? I have my doubts – plus I like my eggs scrambled and toast crispy and warm, straight out of the toaster (typical American preference – like cold beer).

Then, there was the obligatory baking with eggs – the traditional Greek sweet Easter bread, tsoureki, scented with mastic, machlepi, and orange zest. The braided loaf was enriched with eggs, but I didn’t bother with the decorative red hard boiled eggs that are often nestled in the braid. Leftover tsoureki was turned into Bread Pudding with a lemon-orange curd filling – yet even more eggs.

And, I’m not the only one egg-centric this past month – a lot of eggs appeared in posts by fellow bloggers. There were a few interesting variations on eggy toast (AKA French toast, pain perdu, Gypsy Toast). Several of you also posted on the traditional Italian torta pasqualina, a chard (or spinach) and hard boiled egg Easter pie. But, the main event was the poached egg. In particular, one poached egg sighting made me chuckle – Cheesy Biscuit’s inventive method of poaching eggs in clingfilm. Brilliant, and yes, it really works!

With all these eggs, I thought I was going a bit bonkers when I began seeing egg look-a-likes. Has anyone else noticed that different types of spring flowers resemble eggs? In my kitchen are narcissi, tulips…and eggs – scrambled, fried and boiled.

Hopefully, back to sanity next month.

A monthly IMK (In My Kitchen) post. Check out the fabulous Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial who lists all of us IMK bloggers, writing about what’s been happening in our kitchens each month. A chronological listing of my In My Kitchen blog posts can be found on a separate page, just click the link or look under the heading of Diaries in the Menu bar above.