Edible Easter Eggs! Edible Centrepiece too! - Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs.

Yesterday morning, it was a perfect spring day ..a pleasant morning with lots of sunshine and breeze and blue sky and we were enjoying our lazy morning chit-chat in our balcony and in between, I asked CJJ to share some of his childhood memories on Easter, thinking that he will be able to throw some light into the family traditions at the time of Easter, as he was raised in a typical Kerala Christian family. I confess I had some vested interests behind asking that question, yeah.. I wanted to get some childhood stories for preparing my write up for the latest post on Easter eggs ;) But he thoroughly disappointed me saying that it was all about 40 days lent and attending the midnight mass to observe Easter Vigil and no fun stuff like Easter egg hunt or Easter bunny et al ! And since I was brought up in a Hindu family, the only picture I have in mind is that of a yellow coloured egg which P aunty gifted along with some other Easter delicacies to my grandma. As a kid, that yellow coloured egg did tickle my curiosity and honestly I always used to wait for P aunty’s Christmas and Easter trays as she used to prepare yummy cakes and puddings ;) Anyway, CJJ’s response did get me into a thinking mode. It is true, there was no Easter egg hunts or Easter bunnies or peeps or jelly beans, atleast in those parts of Kerala, where we grew up. There it was all about Lent, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday and Pesaha Appam, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter vigil and Easter Sunday; a pure religious festival celebrated to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and there is usually grand dinner or lunch in homes and visits from relatives. But after coming to US, my picture of Easter celebration has been completely changed... every year around Easter time, I see the grocery store aisles showing up a myriad of objects like Easter baskets, decorated eggs, bunnies, peeps, jelly beans and what not.

This visible difference between traditions and customs forced me into some googling yesterday and found out that though Easter is a festival celebrating the resurrection of Christ, ‘some’ of the Easter traditions go back to medieval times and some are pagan in nature, have nothing to do with Christianity and some are influenced by European settlers to North America. Wikipedia says that the English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern," are not etymologically derived from Pesach (another name used by Europeans for Easter) and are instead related to ancient name for the Anglo Saxon goddess, Eostre, Goddesses of mythology signifying spring and fertility whose festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox. It is a spring holiday and spring is synonymous with fertility and new life and eggs are linked because of their connection to the fertility. Painted eggs represented the sunlight of spring in medieval times and it seems German settlers in America are said to have brought over the tradition of a bunny named "Oschter Haws", the white Easter Hare who would visit houses on Easter Eve, leaving coloured eggs for children. Now, that explains why Easter bunny is not popular in our place :)

So, it is that egg-stra special time of the year where kids and adults get to enjoy the fun in decorating eggs. There are various colouring kits and acrylic paints available in craft stores for decorating eggs but using natural dyes also produce equally beautiful and at the same time, edible eggs. Our kitchen is full of natural dyes. Just rummage around your pantry and refrigerator and to your surprise you will come across numerous options available from turmeric to beetroots, blueberries to onions and coffee to spinach !! Here’s my share of the fun: -

Ingredients:

• Hardboiled eggs
• Beet roots
  
• Turmeric
• Coffee Powder
• Vinegar
• Vegetable shortening or butter

Directions:

• Hard-boil know-how: Boil around 8 cups of water, or enough to cover the egg, in a saucepan and when it brings to a boil, simmer it and place the eggs into the pot and let it cook for 8-10 minutes. I usually use a ladle to place the eggs gently in the boiling water, to avoid cracking. When it is done, turn off the stove and drain the hot water and fill the saucepan with cold water. Completely dry the eggs before colouring them and apply some vinegar on the shell in order to help absorb the egg colour.
• Pink & Red Eggs: Boil the beetroots (3 nos) chopped, with some salt and 1 tbsp vinegar in 4 cups of water and crush them well to extract the maximum juice and strain the dye; soak the hardboiled eggs overnight in the refrigerator. For a lighter pink shade, soak the eggs for not more than 3-4 hours.
• Yellow Eggs: Boil 3 tbsp turmeric with some salt and 1 tbsp vinegar in 4 cups of water and soak the hardboiled eggs overnight in the refrigerator.
• Brown Eggs: Make strong coffee solution and leave the hardboiled eggs in it over the night and keep them refrigerated throughout the dyeing process.
• Polishing: Remove the soaked eggs from the natural dye and place on a paper napkin to dry. When dry, gently polish it with a bit of vegetable shortening or butter to make it look glossy.

Note: Naturally dyed eggs are edible (make sure they are refrigerated until they reach the breakfast table) and they make a great centerpiece too, on your Easter breakfast table. It is safe to eat naturally dyed eggs but if you display decorated eggs longer than two hours outside the refrigerator, do not eat them. Adding a pinch of salt while hard boiling eggs makes it easier to remove the shells. The fun part is that you never know what colour will appear when using natural dyes. If you try soaking the eggs in two beet solutions, it will produce two different shades and the patterns :)

Check out for some Easter facts here and egg decorating techniques here and for some eggy facts,click here.

I would like to thank Johanna of The Passionate Cook for accepting my entry at the last minute for her WTSIM (Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter basket!) event !

Let me also thank Janelle of "Talk of Tomatoes" for accepting my entry for her Centerpiece of the Month Event, an excellent idea to come up with novel and unique centerpieces every month from all fellow bloggers.

This may be an Easter tradition, but I think it’s also a great craft idea to have some fun-play-time with kids and also to lure those fussy eaters to a colourful plate of nutritious food.

Have fun colouring the eggs and HAPPY EASTER/SPRING HOLIDAYS :)

Luv