My Big Fat Greek Easter

Looking for some new Easter traditions? Why not turn your typical Easter celebration into a Greek Easter celebration!

If you’re not starting Easter dinner at 1 a.m., you’re not doing it right—that is, if you’re celebrating Greek Easter. And this year, the Orthodox date syncs up with Western Easter, so it’s time to go H.A.M. on lamb.

“My Easter celebrations were just like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We followed the traditions to a T,” award-winning Greek chef and cookbook author Michael Psilakis says. For him, and many others, Easter is less about a floppy Easter bunny and more about boisterous family celebration, religious customs and, of course, a huge feast.

And don’t worry. Following traditions doesn’t mean finding a place to spin lamb on a spit (although that’s definitely welcome). It’s just as traditional to oven-roast lamb, Vefa Alexiadou explains in the recently released Greece: The Cookbook. The results, especially when you’re using plenty of garlic and oregano, are delicious (see the recipe). (Psilakis recalls a particularly colorful attempt at spit-roasting in the suburbs of Long Island, in which everything was going well until the neighbors called the cops. They’d confused the lamb on the spit for a dog. Needless to say, the oven’s a great alternative.)

Read full article here.