Illustration and explaination from Public Domain Clip Art. Easter Angel, The Book of Easter By William Croswell Doane Published by The Macmillan company, 1910, Original from Harvard University. Digitized Feb 7, 2008. 246 pages. Illustration by Fra Angelico (c. 1395 – February 18, 1455).

Illustration and explanation from Public Domain Clip Art. TITLE: Jerusalem (El-Kouds). Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Easter time. / American Colony, Jerusalem.

Easter, one of the two major holidays of the Christian church, is a rite of spring.  It is the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, a rebirth and renewal, resonating with the season. Easter, like Passover and the pagan rites-of-spring, is linked to the vernal equinox, and the date of celebration each year is calculated according to that and not our civil calendar.  For this reason, the feast dates are somewhat variable. Hence, these days are referred to as moveable feasts. Easter marks the end of Lent and the beginning of Pentecost, which will last for fifty days. Christmas, the other great feast of the Christian year, is only preparation for this one, the most significant of the Christian calendar.

This 1941 video is narrated by Msr. Fulton J. Sheen. (He was consecrated a bishop in 1951. There is “cause for canonization” and he would now be referred to as “Servant of God.”) Could it be I’m the only one who remembers him?  My mom and I used to watch him “religiously” every Tuesday night when his TV show, Life Is Worth Living, was aired. This video was posted on YouTube by Trad Catholic Media.

After forty days of fasting, of meditating on the Stations of the Cross, of focusing on the passion (suffering) of Christ, we are now ready to celebrate His ultimate triumph in the most sacred and sumptuous ways.  The sumptuous includes great family dinners.

Families tend to have different traditions regarding Easter dinner.  Many Americans have baked ham. Since my family is of Near Eastern and Greek origin, our preference is lamb.  During the years my son was growing up, I made giouvétsi, roasted leg of lamb with pasta in the Greek manner. This was usually preceded by a Greek salad with feta cheese and mint, accompanied by a good homemade or artisan peasant loaf, and followed by baklava and Lebanese or Turkish coffee.  The pasta was usually orzo, which is tiny and shaped like seeds or rice.  I haven’t found a wheat-and-gluten free version orzo that I like and that lends itself well to this dish.  The phyllo dough for the baklava can be hand-made gluten-and-wheat free. I’m still in the process of refining my recipe.

The recipe I share here is a version of giouvétsi that I developed as something quicker to make than the original and more adaptable for just one or two.  A nice green salad with feta cheese before and coffee and créme caramel after would make a fine dinner with little fuss and one that is not prohibitively expensive.

This video, which will teach you how to prepare créme caramel, was posted on YouTube by Cooking with Alia,  I recommend the second version using cardamom and saffron.

Gluten-Free Giuvétsi

The recipe

Serves two-three

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

• 1 pound of lamb shoulder, cut in cubes as for stew
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, not first press
• 1 small lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon dried marjoram
• 1 tablespoon organic tomato paste
• 1 small, white onion, minced
• 1/2 box of Brown Rice Rotini
• Cheese (Kefalotyri or Parmigiano Reggiano), freshly grated
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely minced

Place the lamb in a bowl and sprinkle with the oil, lemon juice, marjoram, and salt and pepper. Stir well to mix and coast.  Transfer the meat to a roasting pan and place in the oven.  Roast the meat for twenty minutes and then add the onion stirring well. Continue cooking for another twenty minutes.

Have a pot of water ready to go for the pasta, and about six minutes before the meat is finished, parboil the pasta, boiling it for about four minutes. Drain the pasta, but reserve about one-and-a-quarter cups of the cooking water.

Remove the pan from the oven. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Remove the meat from the pan and set it aside. Add the tomato paste to the pan and stir well to blend it with the meat juices.  Add the pasta and 1/4 cup of the pasta water and stir.  Put the pan back in the oven and bake for ten minutes.  (If the pasta and sauce seem dry and it seems that the pasta isn’t cooking through, add a bit more of the pasta water.) Add the meat and bake for another five minutes, enough to heat it through.  

Remove the giouvétsi to a serving platter and sprinkle with parsley.  Pass the cheese around separately.