Last week was Orthodox holy week and whilst I’m not very religious I do enjoy going to church during this week. The services are powerful, moving, hypnotic..
I’ve also had my SIL staying who helped me out by dying our traditional eggs. These are eggs which have been hard-boiled in a red powder dye. My SIL also places patterns on the eggs by putting a leaf or two on them and tying them in place with small lengths of tights (new ones I hasten to add!)
When the leaves and tights are taken away the pattern is then on the egg. We play games where each person chooses an egg and takes turns to see who has the toughest egg (almost like a game of conkers!)
I chose this week to try and make kataifi for the first time after I managed to track down the elusive shredded wheat like pastry in a Kurdish shop which specialises in Medditerranean groceries.
chopped almonds, sugar and cinnamon are rolled up in the kataifi and then baked. Afterwards a sugar syrup is poured over them. It’s very sweet and very delicious. If you like baklava, you’ll probably like kataifi too.
My SIL left today, so before they did I knocked up a batch of Nigella’s chocolate muffins, we love these!
At Anna’s Kitchen Table 
Happy Easter! Your desserts look incredible. And those muffins…yum!
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Happy belated Easter, Anna! Oh,the tradition with dying the eggs with leafs we have too…I haven´t done that for a long time thoug…I get all nostalgic her 😀 Also seeing the kataifi brings back memories from Greece: I like this dessert a lot althou it´s wuite sweet. Yours look just perfect, isn´t it hard to make it? Is that pastry soft from the start? How do you rool them up? Anyway, you seemed to have had a great weak:)vsxx
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Well done, found you on Tastespotting 🙂 those eggs are simply beautiful. As do those muffins – Nigella has a knack for amazing muffin recipes!Laura 🙂
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You are so talented!Thanks for sharing.
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The kataifi looks wonderful Anna as do your muffins. I have never seen shredded wheat like that. The eggs are stunning. I see they made TS. Well done.xxx
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it is a Chinese tradition to have red (hard boiled) eggs (no leaf imprint though) during one’s birthday or a child’s one month celebration traditionally…..of course, I don’t see them now and yr red eggs brought back memories of my childhood. Tks.
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Thanks all for your lovely comments and taking the time to stop by!Granny, thanks for letting me know the pic had got on to TS, I didn’t know :-)Eva, once we got into the swing of rolling the pastry up, it wasn’t too difficult. Afterwards we learnt, from my daughter-in-law’s mother, that one can place a wet tea towel for about 10 minutes over the kataifi before wrapping it up, in order to moisten it.We didn’t do that though, and they still worked out – though we did brush a little oil over before wrapping up.xx
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The muffins look amazing! You’re blog is looking so good!Lots of love,Vicky xxxx
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Happy Late Easter! I found your egg photo on tastespotting, and it captured my attention because I noticed the leaf pattern… which reminded me of my grandmother who dies her eggs like that too for Easter (the same way you described in your post). I guess it gave me some good memories 🙂
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Anna your kataifi looks delish. I remember a turkish cypriot friend of mine making this ;o)Mariax
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Anna, me again. Just to let you know I have an award for you on my blog ;o)Mariax
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Happy Easter Anna – love the look of those eggs!Bron
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Thank you everyone for your lovely comments!xx
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Happy Easter Anna 🙂 Everything looks gorgeous, I love the eggs with the leafs on them, so pretty!
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Happy Easter!!What a wonderful feast Anna and well done on the taste spotting pic.
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Happy Easter, Anna! Everything looks beautiful, and I am impressed with your kataifi!Love,Lisa
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