P.T.I.Y.F. Holiday Edition: Easter

As far as the major food holidays go, Easter doesn’t usually come to mind the way others do (looking at you Thanksgiving!). We think it’s high time Easter was moved up in the ranks. This time of year many fresh fruits and veggies are just coming into season, and they fit in really well with traditional Easter themes of spring and rebirth. Plus, we’re always looking for an excuse to make a giant ham and gorge ourselves on chocolate eggs. This Easter, we had our friend and partner in crime, John, over for a low-key dinner. True to form, made way too much food for three people. Oh well, more ham for everyone!

Deviled Eggs with Crispy Bacon

Deviled eggs have always been a go-to appetizer for us, and a great way to get rid of the pastel boiled eggs that were hidden all over the yard. Allie has been hooked since she was little, as the creamy, tangy treats often made appearances at her parents’ parties. What, you ask, could make deviled eggs even better? The same thing that makes everything better! Bacon! Kudos are due to Uncle Steve, we absolutely stole the idea of adding crispy crumbled bacon to these little devils from him. He brought the same thing to last year’s Patriots tailgate. It adds a great crunch to contrast with the silky filling. Highly recommended.

Ham, Beautiful Ham

A good quality ham is clutch to any Easter feast…er. (Sorry, had to do it.) Sub-par ham with way too much fat, soaked in salt water, with a pouch of neon mystery glaze just won’t cut it. In our opinion you just can’t beat a Honey Baked Ham. However, we don’t have $90 to blow on any part of a pig (Editor’s note: those are Allie’s words. Ben could be convinced), so we went with a simple and delicious Hempler’s at a much more reasonable $30. No fancy cooking tricks here, we just baked it and served it sliced with a choice of Dijon or brown mustard for dipping.

Fresh Peas with Mint Compound Butter

We saw English peas in their pods at our local market, and had to try them. We hadn’t really seen peas in non-box or can form before, and it turns out the minimal effort of shelling fresh peas is really worth it, with a sweet grassy note that you don’t find elsewhere. Ben mixed up mint from our herb garden with softened butter in the food processor, and we used that to quickly sauté the fresh peas.

Pommes Anna

We had asked John to bring a starchy side dish, knowing he could be fully trusted not to show up with a box of instant mashed potatoes. He went above and beyond anyone’s reasonable expectations, and made pommes anna, a masterpiece of wafer thin potato slices, drenched in clarified butter, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, and layered into a skillet. While baking, the potatoes crisp on the top and bottom layers, leaving the middle soft and delicate. When they were done, John flipped the contents out of the skillet onto the plate, revealing a lovely potato tart. Of course by the time we were done with it, it looked like it had been ravaged by wolves, but it sure was pretty while it lasted.

Homemade Crusty Bread

Our entire last blog post was about this exact recipe, so we won’t re-hash it in any detail here. The bread was still easy, still tasty, and still made the house smell awesome.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble with Strawberry Basil Ice Cream

Normally, we don’t consider desserts our strong point, so we were very happy and slightly surprised that we pulled this off. The crumble (recipe below, off of the Smitten Kitchen blog) had the classic sweet/tart combination of a strawberry rhubarb filling and a topping that was somehow soft and crunchy at the same time. The lemon zest in the topping gives it so much flavor, it was tempting to eat it alone. We topped the crumble with a homemade Strawberry Basil ice cream (which we whipped up with our ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixed), and it added a nice earthy creaminess to the tart filling. Honestly, though, any ice cream would be great.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB CRUMBLE
Yields 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients
For the topping:

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons Demerara sugar (or turbinado sugar aka Sugar in the Raw)
• We used granulated sugar here as well and it turned out fine
• Zest of one lemon
• 1/4 pound (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
• Juice of one lemon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugars and lemon zest and add the melted butter. Mix until small and large clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Prepare filling: Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. (I used an oval dish this time, because they fit better in the bottom of a shopping bag.)
3. Remove topping from refrigerator and cover fruit thickly and evenly with topping. Place pie plate on a (foil-lined, if you really want to think ahead) baking sheet, and bake until crumble topping is golden brown in places and fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 to 50 minutes.