Photo of decorated Easter eggs by Tibor Fazakas.
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KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE™.
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April 2007
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Easter & Spring Entertaining
Quick Tips For Great Dinners
Whether you’re planning for Easter or just happy that it’s spring, here are some ideas to celebrate—some of them remarkably easy yet very impressive. While we’ve applied an Easter theme, you don’t have to celebrate Easter to enjoy any of these foods.
Adult “Easter Eggs”
The kids may enjoy the colored eggs and chocolate eggs galore, but we prefer these grown-up versions. Serve them on an hors d’oeuvres tray or for a first course.
- Caviar Easter Eggs #1. Take your favorite deviled egg recipe and mix in crunchy red or green tobiko (wasabi-flavored tobiko adds an extra kick); then decorate the tops with salmon caviar. If you want to upgrade to sturgeon caviar, go for it. In fact, you can buy different infused whitefish caviar and have your own colorful easter egg tray. Click here for our review of infused caviars, and see our Caviar Section for more information on different kinds of caviar you can use.
- Caviar Easter Eggs #2. A popular appetizer served at top restaurants is a small boiled egg in its shell with a caviar garnish. Snip off or crack off the top of a room-temperature egg and spoon on half a teaspoon of sturgeon caviar. (It’s just as impressive with inexpensive salmon caviar.) You don’t need egg cups either: fill any small cup, bowl or dish halfway with kosher salt and stand the egg up in it. Dot the salt with snipped chives.
- Crab Deviled Easter Eggs. Cut 8 large or jumbo hard-boiled eggs lengthwise. Carefully remove yolks and mash 4 of them with: 3 tablespoons quality mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon minced shallot and 1-1/2 tablespoons snipped fresh tarragon. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Stir in 8 ounces of crabmeat. Fill each egg white with a mound of the mixture and garnish with a tarragon sprig. Set eggs on a mesclun bed. Crumble remaining yolks and sprinkle them on the plate, to decorate, along with snipped tarragon leaves and diced lemon rind.
Cocktails
- Easter Cocktail #1: Bellini. If you normally enjoy a Mimosa (champagne and orange juice), celebrate Easter with a Bellini—white peach purée and Prosecco, a sparkling Italian wine. Many specialty stores also sell the purée; or you can click here to order it online. You can make individual servings or combine the purée and Prosecco in a pitcher to serve a crowd—use flutes if you have them. If you can’t get your hands on the peach purée quickly enough, you can make it: boil 3/4 pound ripe peaches (preferably white) with 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 2 teaspoons sugar.
- Easter Cocktail #2: Passion Mimosa. For a spin on the Mimosa, substitute passionfruit juice for orange juice. You can purchase the juice at specialty food stores or international supermarkets, or squeeze it from fresh passionfruit. Add 2 ounces of juice to each flute or wine glass; then top with chilled Champagne. Most bartenders don’t stir because it destroys the bubbles. If you want to blend prior to serving, use a swizzle stick and give it half a very gentle stir from the bottom.
- Spring Bloody Mary. After our recent tastings of tomato juices and Han Asian Vodka, we created a Spring Bloody Mary, perfect for Easter or any rite of spring. For each drink, take 2 to 3 ounces vodka, 2/3 cup Knudsen’s Tomato Juice (available at Whole Foods Market and other natural food stores), 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (instead of Worcestershire sauce), the juice of 1/2 large lime, a shake or two of salt and a sprig of fresh rosemary (rush the stem of the rosemary to let the flavor infuse). If you like spice, add Tabasco® Green Pepper Sauce (if you don’t have the green you can substitute any pepper sauce). Pour into a glass tall enough so that about 1/3 of the rosemary can peep out and give the drink a stir with the rosemary sprig prior to serving.
Brunch or Dinner
- Easter Buffet. If you make a sit-down Easter brunch or dinner, think about having a buffet this year. Setting everything out at once and letting people serve themselves gives you more time to spend with your guests. Put the food on a sideboard and seat guests at the main table, or set food on the main table and have a lap-style seating around the sofa or wherever guests want to group and talk. If it’s a nice day and you have a yard, some people may enjoy dining alfresco.
- Crudités. Baskets aren’t just for Easter candy: turn your crudité platter into a crudité basket like the best caterers do. With bright-colored red and yellow peppers, red radishes, red and yellow grape or cherry tomatoes, green broccoli and white cauliflower florets plus Peter Rabbit’s favorite—baby carrots—your basket will look as tempting as any filled with jelly beans. For an equally bright-colored holiday dip, try yogurt-curry dip made with nonfat yogurt. It’s also very low-calorie, so your crudité basket is more than a pretty still-life, it’s health food. Into one cup of yogurt (you can substitute sour cream, mayonnaise, or mix half-yogurt, half-mayo to lower the calories), add 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, one clove minced garlic or equivalent garlic juice, or substitute garlic salt. Optional: snip in fine pieces of fresh tarragon. Chill 3 hours or overnight to let flavors mix. Adjust seasonings and add salt as necessary.
- Caviar Endive “Flowers” Hors D’Oeuvre. So tasty, so pretty, so spring-y, so easy to make! Line up endive leaves on a rectangular platter. Place a tablespoon of crème fraîche one inch from the top of the frond. Top the crème fraîche with alternating colored caviars: red salmon caviar, green wasabi tobiko, golden whitefish roe. You can throw in black caviar too—no one will complain! Click here for our article on infused caviars and read our Caviar Glossary.
- New Ham Glaze. Don’t make the same old ham glaze this year—do something exciting. Moosewood Hollow’s infused maple syrups—in flavors like Lavender, Chai, Sweet Autumn, Sweet Ginger and Sweet Heat (delightfully sweet and hot) provide that kind of excitement. There are recipes on the website. Click here for our review.
- Special Easter Wines. Click here for our recommendations.
- Spring Spinach Salad. Instead of your regular salad, use baby spinach in this charming recipe, perfect for spring: Take a bag (10 ounces) of baby spinach, 2 cups of sugar snap peas or pea pods and 2 cups of sliced strawberries. Cut half a medium red onion or a sweet Vidalia onion into thin slices. Add a 1/2 cup of sliced unsalted almonds (raw or toasted, depending on your preference). Toss with a honey vinaigrette: 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of vinegar (balsamic, wine or cider) and 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of honey, depending on how sweet you like it. If you have lavender honey, it’s a home run! Click here to read about one of our favorite lavender honeys, from award-winning Restaurant Lulu Gourmet Products.
Desserts
- Dessert Chocolate Tasting. Instead of traditional desserts, serve the best of both worlds: a cheese course with fruit, followed by a chocolate tasting. Your cheese shop can recommend selections to follow your dinner, and may even have a selection of fine chocolate bars (most specialty food stores do). Have four milk chocolate bars and four dark chocolate bars from brands like Lindt, Michel Cluizel, Scharffen Berger, and Valrhona. Cut the bars into 1-inch squares and either set them out on labeled plates for self-service, or arrange them clockwise on dinner plates for a formal group tasting. Use the glossary and tasting guides in our Chocolate Section to discuss the different flavors, aromas and consistencies.
- Easter Cupcakes. Even at the last minute, there’s time to make a fun and easy Easter dessert that kids and adults will treasure. Buy plain frosted cupcakes, shredded coconut and malt ball “Easter eggs” (or any kind of small “egg” candy,
 including jelly beans or small chocolate eggs). Dye the coconut green with food coloring and let it dry for a few hours. Then, create green coconut nests on top of the cupcakes and put one large malted milk ball Easter egg or three small jelly bean-size eggs in the nest. If guests asks what they can bring, you can put them on cupcake patrol (homemade or purchased). As an activity, have an adult supervise the kids (or adults) as they create the “nests” while you’re getting dinner on the table. Photo courtesy of BakedNYC.com.
TIP TO TINT COCONUT: Put 1-1/2 cups coconut in a resealable plastic bag. Mix 1/2 teaspoon water with a few drops of green food coloring. Add the green water to the coconut; seal the bag and shake it until the coconut is evenly tinted.
- Quick Dessert #1: Lemon Curd. Americans don’t eat enough lemon curd: smooth, silky, buttery, and intensely lemony, balancing tart and sweet. Popular from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, you now can find curds in blood orange, raspberry, and key lime as well. Celebrate spring—or your Easter brunch—with one or more of them. In addition to breakfast duty, they fill tartlet shells for dessert and garnish fresh berries, pound cake, shortbread, ice cream and sorbet. You’ll find them in any fine food store, or click here.
- Quick Dessert #2: Sorbet Easter Eggs. Buy sorbet in three Easter colors and scoop oblong-shape Easter Eggs. Decorate with jelly beans. We love Ciao Bella Gelato’s Blood Orange Sorbetto along with a lemon or kiwi and a mango or passionfruit. You can do the same with ice cream. Serve with tiny cookies, like Byrd’s Key Lime Coolers and Razzberry Tarts.
 Marshmallow Petit Fours. After dessert, serve colorful gourmet marshmallows with coffee. These, by Plush Puffs, come in a variety of flavors. The limited-edition D.C. Cherry is especially lovely for spring. There’s more on gourmet marshmallows as Easter candy below.
Easter Bread
- Bread is a metaphor for the resurrection of Christ, and several cultures have a celebratory Easter bread—often a rich, sweet yeast style baked with eggs, fruits and nuts. Think of English hot cross buns, Italian colomba di Pasqua baked in the shape of a dove, Greek tsoureki, plaited with nestled red Easter eggs (symbolic of the blood of Jesus), and Russian kulich, a cake-like yeast loaf filled with candied fruit and often iced. Even if you don’t celebrate Easter, enjoy its culinary treasures by sampling these delicious baked goods. If you can’t find them at bakeries in your town, find recipes on the Internet. Assign different breads to friends and have everyone bring one—you can start an exciting “Easter Saturday” tea tradition.
“Easter Egg” Salads
- Easter Egg Salad #1. Quail eggs are small, beautifully speckled in blue and brown, and make a spectacular first course or salad course, hard-boiled and
 nestled at the front of a lightly-dressed mesclun salad (set 3 in a lettuce leaf “cup”). Check around to see if you can find quail eggs (or click here to purchase them online). Boil the eggs for 5 minutes with a teaspoon of vinegar, and serve them warm or at room temperature in the shell. Provide ramekins of salt water so diners can simultaneously rinse and salt their eggs after they’ve peeled them. Snip some fresh herbs (chives, parsley, dill) into the salad, and you have an exciting spring dish that takes very little time to make.
- Easter Egg Salad #2. Grape tomatoes are somewhat egg-shaped, and in bright yellow and red they have a festive easter-egg appeal. Add a handful to your salad along with small basil leaves. It will be tempting enough to attract Peter Rabbit to the door.
Gourmet Marshmallows
- The Best. Marshmallow Peeps® are an Easter tradition in many homes; but if your palate demands the best, you deserve a marshmallow that tastes out of this world. The marshmallows handmade by the great Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini are an ethereal experience. They’re available plain or with chocolate sprinkles. Michael Recchiuti’s hand-cut marshmallows are also an experience; and Tiny Trapeze, available at Whole Foods Markets, has vanilla as well as chocolate (a must-try). You’ll never look at a marshmallow the same way again.
 Sugar-Free Marshmallows. There’s great sugar-free chocolate for those who can’t have sugar, and also great sugar-free marshmallows. If you can’t have sugary Peeps®, you can have something that tastes even better and is almost as cute: the perky pink and white sugar-free marshmallows from La Nouba. Made with maltitol, they’re available plain and chocolate-covered (the plain ones are just 15 calories). Click here for our review.
Table Decor
 Chocolate Bunnies. A perky Easter rabbit makes a combined table setting/place card and party favor. (These rabbits are from Bissinger’s.)- Jelly Bean Vases. Fill shot glasses or liqueur glasses with gourmet jelly beans (Jelly Belly® makes a sugar-free version for people on restricted diets). Stick small silk or paper flowers in each
to make “flowerpots.” After the dinner, you can recycle the flowers to wrap packages.
- Still Life. If you have a glass fruit bowl or other glass dishes, assemble a few green Granny Smith applies, a red pomegranate, and brown and white boiled eggs into a beautiful, natural and edible centerpiece.
Leftover Easter Eggs
- Have more boiled eggs than you know what to do with? They’ll go quickly in these preparations: egg salad, tuna salad (consider both in stuffed tomatoes or stuffed bell peppers), potato salad, deviled eggs, and in one of our favorite lunches, a cobb salad on a bed of iceberg lettuce with rows of sliced chicken, tomatoes, bacon, avocado, diced tomato, and sliced eggs. Serve with blue cheese dressing or vinaigrette.
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