13 April 2022 / Fruzsina Szegő
We talked to four winemakers from four wine districts about their childhood memories of the holiday. We were curious about how they celebrate Easter now, as adults, and what their favourite wines are to accompany their spring dishes. We’ve even shared a few family recipes, so you can add an exciting new wine and food pairing to your Easter celebrations this year!
“Easter in our house was perhaps always a little different from the usual family visit focused on eating and drinking. When I was a little girl, of course, we couldn’t miss the egg painting on Saturday, so that on Sunday, the few ‘sprinklers’ who showed up would get a glass of wine and a red egg. We still stick to this custom today, that is if we manage to spend Easter together. Lunch usually includes stuffed eggs with Russian salad, ham, dad’s freshly baked bread, meatloaf and carrot cake for dessert. The big favourite was always granny’s egg gratin. Sadly she is no longer with us, but we still remember and make this recipe! But, for as long as I can remember, the most important Easter tradition in my family is the family outing. We used to set off on Sunday and Monday in a foursome, hiking in the Bakony, eating cake in Balatonfüred, going to places that could be visited in one day, but that we couldn’t find time for during the rest of the year.”
“When spring arrives, our family quickly switches to light fruity wines, so it’s perhaps no surprise that, in most cases, a Riesling will be on the table in the garden, weather permitting. On cold, rainy days, if you’d rather withdraw inside, then pull out a red wine, a Merlot or Cabernet Franc and sit down and play a board game. The Settlers of Catan is our personal favourite, and it comes out every holiday season. “
Auguszta’s Easter recipe
Granny’s egg gratin
Ingredients
8 eggs
1 small onion
100 g ham
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
ground white pepper
20 g butter
300 ml milk
100 g cheese
Method
Boil the eggs until hard, shell and cut in half. Carefully remove the yolks, leaving the whites intact. Then gently mash the yolks with a fork. Finely chop the onion and ham. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the chopped onion, sauté until translucent and season to taste with salt and pepper. Then add the ham and simmer for a few minutes. Finally, add the egg yolks and then remove from the heat and leave to cool till lukewarm.
Grease a casserole dish with butter and place in the egg whites, side by side. Fill each with the warm filling, drizzle with sour cream to taste and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Place in a preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is nicely melted and slightly browned. The eggs can be served warm but are also delicious cold.
“I grew up in Soltvadkert, in a big family with many cousins, and we always went to ‘sprinkle’ the girls together. It was a really family-oriented, all-day event. We learnt poems for the sprinkling, which we recited conscientiously with boyish embarrassment, tugging at the sides of our trousers, in exchange for pocket money or painted eggs. My mother was a nursery teacher, so in the morning, she immediately lowered all the blinds and hid inside, lest the children find her at home, and my father and I sent off on our big march. Wherever we went, there was a tray of something waiting for us – to be more precise, for the adults – with the classic water glasses lined up in a row, each containing 100-200 ml of white wine, Kövidinka or Ezerjó, with the soda jug next to them. I remember that my dad never touched the water jug as he never watered down his wine into spritzer! And for us kids, there was an incredible amount of chocolate – by the time we got home late afternoon, we could hardly walk. (Neither could dad, but that had more to do with those special water glasses).
Later, when we had the winery, we developed a nice family tradition, with family friends, of going to Visegrád each Easter for a long weekend of hiking and bobsleighing. Today, the focus is more on the next generation. My mother, as grandmother, hides the eggs in the garden for the grandchildren, and we adults drink wine from a proper wine glass, maintaining my dad’s good habit of drinking it without soda.”
“When the family comes together at this time, we like to taste the wines we’ve been given, but we always open our own Cserszegi Fűszeres or Generosa to go with the boiled ham, mum’s egg salad and the goulash soup.”
Péter’s Easter recipe
Egg salad
Ingredients:
6 eggs
4 spring onions
100 g sour cream
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp mustard
½ tsp salt, pepper
Method:
Shell the hard-boiled eggs, cut them in half, then scoop out the yolks and mash with a fork. Dice the whites, mix with the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, egg yolks and chopped whites and season with salt and pepper to taste. You should get a creamy mixture. Transfer this to a serving dish, cover and refrigerate for at least two to three hours, but better still, leave overnight to allow the flavours to come together.
“When I was little, I remember how much I prepared for the egg painting, working a lot on the different patterns and then hiding from the neighbour’s kids when they came over to sprinkle me. If they found me and asked if they could sprinkle me, I said NO.
Nowadays, the rhythm of the holiday in my husband’s family is set by the rituals of the three holy days of Easter. Maundy Thursday is the celebration of the Last Supper, the slowing down. Good Friday is strict fasting, the death of Christ on the cross and the associated Stations of the Cross. Then the Holy Saturday vigil, with the Resurrection procession, the consecration by fire, an uplifting communal experience, crowned by the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday morning. And of course, the associated egg painting and poetry recitation on Easter Monday.
The usual Easter dishes on our table are ham, horseradish, fresh salad, radishes, eggs and brioche.”
“We, of course, drink natural wines and I also recommend them. In our house, the inevitable palinka will surely be followed by a good cloudy pét-nat this year. Then there’s room on the table for both lean whites and full-bodied red wines, alongside hams aged and prepared in different ways.”
Fanni’s Easter recipe
Granny’s sweet curd cheese
To this day, it is made in the “bowl’ of carved wooden plates that can be assembled into a cone shape, which mum’s grandma brought with her to Hungary after World War I. The curd cheese sets in it, and when you turn it out, you can see the carved symbol: the Resurrection of Christ.
curd cheese (if you have time, you can make it yourself with fresh farm milk)
egg yolks
icing sugar
vanilla essence
vanilla sugar
raisins
Home-made curd cheese:
Leave the fresh cow’s milk in a cool place for 1-2 days a week before Easter. Start heating the fragrant curdled milk over a low heat (but don’t bring to the boil) until the curd forms a warm elastic mass on the top of the pan. Set aside to cool in a cool place. Place a clean (cotton) cloth or tea towel on a sieve or colander, pour the contents of the pot slowly into it and wait for most of the whey to drain off. Tie the four corners of the cloth with string, then hang it up and put a bowl underneath, into which the remaining whey can drip. (The whey itself is a nice, refreshing liquid, and can be used in many ways, just don’t let the midges bathe in it!) You will need at least 12 hours in a cool place before the curd is ready to be transferred from the tea towel to a bowl.
Whisk the egg yolks until frothy and smooth, with a little icing sugar, vanilla essence or vanilla sugar. Mix this into your home-made or bought curd cheese. Wash the raisins thoroughly and serve them in a separate bowl with the curd cheese, so that everyone can add as many as they wish.
“It’s interesting to see that nowadays it’s not at all fashionable for young people to sprinkle in the traditional sense. When I was in my twenties, I used to go to girls’ houses with a group of friends. Even then, I have to add, it was more for fun than for tradition. On Easter Sunday afternoon, the fun started with a sprinkling party, which in most cases ended at the local disco. You can imagine how much fun we had the following morning at 7 am… But the home-made palinkas and spritzers we were offered still slipped down somehow.
This holiday is also more peaceful today. On Saturday, we celebrate with a blessing of the ham at my partner’s family home, and on Sunday morning, my family and I sit down for breakfast together. My niece is already four years’ old, and she already has such renowned sprinklers as Zoli Heimann’s son and Peti Vida’s son. For years, I’ve been making home-made brioche for our breakfast, based on Károly Hemző’s recipe. A real, sweet, raisiny, soft loaf, sprinkled with almonds. Another one of my favourite Easter ‘dishes’ is beetroot with horseradish, which is a mixture of spicy horseradish and grated beetroot.”
“A crisp Kadarka, a light Kékfrankos or even a Zweigelt are the perfect match for the ham and fatty foods. If you prefer white wines, I’d recommend a more acidity-driven approach. For example, we really like Olaszrizling, Riesling and Hárslevelű.”
Csaba’s Easter recipe
Soft brioche
500 g plain flour
250 ml milk
½ tsp + 60 g icing sugar
30 g yeast
1 sachet (10 g) bourbon vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
3 egg yolks + for glazing
grated zest of ½ an organic lemon
60 g butter/margarine
20 soft raisins
Sift the flour into a bowl. Warm the milk until lukewarm, mix ½ tsp sugar and the crumbled yeast into half of it, make a well in the middle of the flour and pour it in. Mix a little flour into it, cover and leave to rise in warm place for 15 minutes, i.e. to make a leaven. Mix 60 g sugar, the vanilla sugar, 3 eggs and grated lemon zest into the remaining milk. Add to the flour with the melted butter/margarine, cooled to lukewarm, and knead with the kneading attachment of a food processor until light and fluffy. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until doubled in size (30 minutes).
Turn out the dough, roll it into a long stick, fold it in half and “plait” it.
Place the loaf on a lined baking tray, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for 15-20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (170°C fan oven), place a pan/can containing two inches of warm water underneath (you need steam to bake a good loaf!).
Brush the loaf with egg yolk and bake until golden brown (about 20 minutes).
