Easter
563 recipes found
Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Onions
Here is an easy, healthy addition to a Thanksgiving feast or weekday dinner from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, which was included in a Julia Moskin video feature in 2013. Chop up a few red onions and a butternut squash, roast them in high heat, and drizzle them with tahini sauce, herbs and pistachios. That’s it. (Keep an eye on the onions, though. They may cook faster than the squash.)
Slow-Roasted Turkish Lamb
This lamb must be cooked until completely tender and succulent, but if time is a concern, it may also be prepared well in advance and reheated in the pan juices to serve. Shoulder is the best cut to use, or lamb shanks. It’s finished with a bright garnish of pomegranate seeds and sliced persimmons. Small Fuyu persimmons are delicious eaten firm and raw, like an apple, unlike the larger Hachiya type, which must be ripe and soft to be palatable (and would not be suitable here). Lacking persimmons, use more pomegranate. Serve it with rice pilaf, if desired.
Glazed Parsley Carrots
This is a French classic, carrots Vichy, or glazed carrots. The idea is simply to cook the carrots with some sugar, water, lemon juice and butter until they are tender and glazed with the melted sugar. Care must be taken to avoid overcooking and burning the sugar mixture.
Brussels Sprouts With Peanut Vinaigrette
This recipe came to The Times from Karen Van Guilder Little, an owner of Josephine, a restaurant in Nashville, along with her husband, the chef Andrew Little. These succulent brussels sprouts are served there and at her Thanksgiving table every year. “I started playing around with peanut butter — it’s rich and salty like bacon — and it just clicked," Mr. Little said.
Chamomile Tea Cake With Strawberry Icing
This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isn’t required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly recommended. In life and in food, you always need balance: A sip or two of the grassy, herbal tea between bites of this cake counters the sweetness, as do freeze-dried strawberries, which lend tartness and a naturally pink hue to the lemony glaze. This everyday loaf will keep on the counter for 3 to 4 days; be sure the cut side is always well wrapped.
Roast Leg of Lamb With Fork-Mashed Mint Peas
Brian Bistrong, the chef of the clubby TriBeCa restaurant the Harrison, ushers in spring with lamb cooked to a perfect pink and fork-mashed peas that have been simmered in pan drippings and tossed with torn mint leaves. Add a pile of potatoes roasted with rosemary and garlic for a meal that couldn't be more simple, or sublime. And if your carving skills are shaky, practice on a cantaloupe.
Savory Bread Pudding With Artichokes, Cheddar and Scallions
Tangy marinated artichokes star in this cheesy, golden-topped casserole, which is layered with scallions, Cheddar and baguette cubes that get crisp at the edges. Look for the best-quality marinated artichoke hearts, then taste them before using. If they seem very acidic, give them a rinse and pat them dry before proceeding.
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie
This is your grandma’s puddin’ pie, only it’s vegan — a smooth, cool and creamy pudding in a classic graham cracker shell. To make life even easier, you can use a store-bought crust. For added grandma love, serve with vegan whipped cream and shaved chocolate. (This recipe is an adaptation of one found in “Vegan Pie in the Sky: 75 Out-of-This-World Recipes for Pies, Tarts, Cobblers and More” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.)
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake
This cake version of a peanut butter cup boasts moist devil’s food cake wrapped around a soft, peanut buttery cake core. The peanut butter cake batter will stay nicely centered if you enlist the help of a resealable plastic bag or pastry bag to pipe it into a ring in the middle of the batter, but you don’t need to be so exacting. If that feels too fancy, spooning it in will yield equally delicious results. The cake is nicely sweet on its own, but take it over the top by adding peanut butter and chocolate glazes. Keep the glazes thin so that they’re fluid enough not only to evenly coat the surface and run own the sides of the cake, but also so they combine and marble together to make Instagram-worthy swirls.
Ham-Cured, Smoked Pork With Cognac-Orange Glaze
Think of this cured, smoked pork loin as ham you can make in a hurry, with 2 days’ curing time and an hour or so of smoking, as opposed to the weeks or even months that a traditional ham takes. Plus, the loin has no bones, so it’s a snap to carve. For the best results, use a heritage pork loin, like Berkshire or Duroc. Depending on your grill, the pork and the weather, smoking time may be as short as 1 hour or as long as 1 1/2 hours. The orange juice in this Cognac-citrus glaze cuts the saltiness of the cure, while the Cognac makes a nice counterpoint to the wood smoke. Besides, brown sugar and orange marmalade go great with salty ham.
Easter Egg Nest Cake
It is, I hope, the acceptable face of culinary cute: a chocolaty flourless cake that falls on cooling. The sides crack, forming the outside of the nest, and into the cake's sunken cavity you spread a soft, voluptuous mixture of whipped cream and melted chocolate. And on top of this you drop small, sugar-coated candy Easter eggs. It's ease itself — especially as you can make the cake the day before, and given that the cracks and crevices are part of its charm, you don't need to be filled with perfectionist angst. And if not complying with the traditions of this holiday, you can fill the crater instead with cream whipped with a teaspoon of vanilla, and dust the top, cappuccino-style, with some cocoa pushed through a strainer. I've used both bittersweet and semisweet chocolate in this cake. Either way it works, either way it seduces. It has the denseness of a chocolate cake, but the lightness of a mousse. Even those who customarily push dessert away, smugly claiming not to eat sweets, will be coming back for second helpings.
Grilled Garlicky Lamb Shoulder Chops with Sherry Vinegar and Radicchio
Roast Lamb
If you haven't cooked a whole leg of lamb before, here is the place to start. This is not a revolutionary recipe, but slathering on butter and (take our word for it) anchovies makes this version truly essential. It is excellent for the Easter feast — lamb has ancient associations with springtime, and it pairs well with sharp spring vegetables like asparagus, dandelion greens and artichokes. Lamb is also popular for Passover, but the leg is not considered kosher unless the sciatic nerve is removed. Some kosher butchers offer that, but we also give options for other cuts like shoulder and double loin. The butter can be replaced by duck or goose fat, or olive oil, but the gravy (made from pan drippings) will need to be adjusted. For roasting, meaty American lamb is preferable to cuts from Australia and New Zealand. Most American lambs are fed both grass and grain, yielding meat that is fine-grained, earthy and mild. More Easter lamb recipes and how to carve a leg of lamb.
Butterflied Leg of Lamb With Lemon Salsa Verde
One of the joys of a butterflied leg of lamb is that it satisfies lovers of rare and medium-well meat at the same time. This is because of its uneven thickness. When you spread the meat out and roast or grill it at high heat, the thicker parts stay pinker than the thinner bits. Everyone ends up happy. Here, the meat is seasoned with cumin, lemon, chiles and plenty of fresh herbs, and is served with a mixed-herb salsa verde perked up with preserved lemon. It makes a particularly zesty main course for any large gathering. If you would rather grill the lamb, go right ahead. It will take about 12 to 17 minutes per side when grilled directly over the coals or flames.
Leg of Lamb With Savory Beans
In France, gigot d’agneau — leg of lamb — is, well, de rigueur for a proper Easter meal. But it is always appropriate for any special dinner party, or any occasion throughout the year when you want an impressive main course. The technique is simple and requires few ingredients (garlic, thyme and rosemary), but the result is very flavorful. Seasoning the lamb for at least an hour in advance of roasting is essential. Refrigerate it overnight for more intense flavor; it’s also less work to do on the day of the feast. Just remove from the refrigerator, bring it to room temperature, and it’s ready for the oven.
Coconut Marzipan Cake
If you live near a store that sells good coconut ice cream, then please buy a tub to serve alongside. But these days I am all restraint and go simply for a jeweled scattering of raspberries.
Avgolemono
Venetian Cauliflower
Give commonplace cauliflower an upgrade and it becomes holiday fare. Take a classic Venetian approach by using a mixture of sweet spices. Caramelized onions, saffron and cinnamon build the fragrant foundation, along with fennel and coriander seeds. Currants, golden raisins and pine nuts add complexity.
Maple-Glazed Fresh Ham With Hard Cider Sauce
Fannie Farmer’s Parker House Rolls
In 1896, Fannie Farmer, then principal of the Boston Cooking School, wrote and published a cookbook that revolutionized the way home cooks thought about cooking and housekeeping (she introduced the concept of using measuring cups and spoons, among other things). The book, originally titled “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book,” was a smash hit in the United States and became known simply as “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.” It is still in print. This classic recipe is an adaptation of one found in a revised edition by Marion Cunningham. It takes time but very little effort, and you will be rewarded with soft, pillowy, butter-rich rolls worthy of your best breadbasket.
Braised-Then-Baked Ham
Here is a sensible prescription from Julia Child for cooking a whole ham, which was featured in a New York Times article by Julia Moskin that explored the quandary of how to make a flavorful Easter ham. Braise the meat in wine and water to finish the cooking, then roast it in a hot oven to crisp the surface. The end result is glazed with mustard and brown sugar and crusted with golden bread crumbs. One note: this is a recipe for a cured ham, not a fresh one.
Ethel M. King's Glazed Ham
Sicilian Involtini With Ham and Cheese
In Sicily, where I learned to make these savory bundles, cooks make them at home, or buy them in butcher shops, ready for the oven. Fillings vary, but this one with prosciutto cotto and cheese is a favorite. The rolls are threaded on skewers with bay leaves and bread slices, showered with bread crumbs and olive oil, then baked.
Pizza al Formaggio
This is a kind of rich, eggy cheese bread that is sometimes served with scrambled eggs seasoned with mint for Easter breakfast, and with salami for lunch, in central Italy.