Greek Easter time is full of traditional themes, with various charming elements. One of them is dyeing eggs red, and playing the 'Tsougrisma' cracking game (egg tapping). The game itself is well known all around Europe, when every Easter, it is played between pairs of competitors who repeatedly knock the pointed ends of their eggs together until one of the eggs cracks; the overall winner is the one whose egg succeeds in breaking the greatest number of other eggs.
The real fun in FISIKA's family has always been the dyeing process. The first step is to collect the eggs, day by day until we can fill a basket (counting every family member and visitor, plus some extras to play after Easter day's lunch). Then we vote on what colour to dye them- this year Maria's idea won and yellow it is!
Yellow and dark orange shades as if the eggs were a citrus mix- we loved it! That Tsoureki was lucky enough to last for a photo!
To make yellow eggs, we mixed 2 tablespoons of turmeric spice and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a small pot with water just covering 9-10 eggs. We let the water boil for 6 minutes and then to cool down, and the eggs to soak. We kept checking the eggs and when they finally turned a lovely shade of yellow, we took them out and placed them on a tray with paper towels to dry. Once dried, we rubbed them softly with a woollen cloth and olive oil to pop and warm the colours.
Two years ago Filio went for blue:
Naturally dyed with purple cabbage. Don't these playful teal shades remind you of Summer and Cretan beaches?
For the blue ones, we added chopped purple cabbage and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a pot of water and placed the eggs in so as to be completely covered by the cabbage. The rest of the method was the same as for the yellow ones. The result was magical! We scratched some of them for added texture. Don't you just love these?
Of course, we've also been traditional choosing the red for colour, yet we had to make it even more special:
Botanical red Easter eggs are an old time classic in our family and Voula's favourite!
This time we boiled our eggs in a pot full of red onion husks. We do eat a lot of onions in the family so that was not a tricky part. If you don't, you can always ask from your local grocery store to keep you a small box that carried onions once it's empty. Before putting the eggs in the pot to boil, we stencilled them with calendula flowers, wood sorrel, clover and parsley. How to do the stencil: wet the eggs a bit with vinegar or egg white for the flowers to stick (that's optional), press a herb or flower in place gently, then carefully place each egg in a piece of stockings, tying it with a linen thread or knotting it. Making a knot on the other side gives a starburst effect!
Stencil eggs with herbs and flowers. Image credits: Adventures in Cooking
Watch how to easily stencil eggs with herbs here. (YouTube link)
And that's it! These eggs can be used as Easter decorations, then as a fun family game, as a filling treat on Easter Sunday and finally as a plant booster in the garden by adding the eggshells to the compost which will help to add calcium in your final compost soil. Quadruple duty, wow!
Red and yellow botanical eggs without the oil treatment for a matte look, and our beloved garden hare carved in stone!
We have considered and adored Vegan options too:
1. White chocolate eggs dip-dyed in milk chocolate or dark chocolate- yum!
2. Wooden eggs, dyed with markers and your drawing skills!
Wooden eggs dyed with markers.
Let us know if you try any of these, or how you dyed your eggs. Share them with us on Instagram @fisikashop
We wish you all a Hoppy Easter! Kalo Pascha!