Easter on a South Saskatchewan Farm
By: Habeeb Salloum/Arab America Contributing Writer
It was the mid-1930s and the week before Easter. For a month, my mother had been gathering and saving onion skins to make Easter eggs. As well, she had also put aside about five dozen eggs over the past month that she had collected from our few egg-laying hens.
As a young boy, I looked fondly on her work as she carefully boiled the eggs and onion skins together to transform white eggs into rusty yellow and orangish colors. If an egg cracked while boiling she would give it to me to eat while I continued to watch her magically turn the eggs into brilliant colored ones.
This scenario may seem a normal one in today’s preparations for Easter, but back then in the early 1930s, Saskatchewan was suffering through extreme drought and the Great Depression. The eggs my mother made, may have, in retrospect, lightened the mood of the hardship we were experiencing but through which we survived.
Life had never been easy in our early homesteading years and with the drought and its dust storms and the Depression, those years became even more difficult. So, when the few holidays arrived, it was a time of joy. And thus it was this Easter.
Despite the lack of money and luxury, holidays were special occasions for the family and mother spared no time as to allow us the happiness of them. Easter was one of the celebratory holidays that meant so much for her. After all, in Syria, Easter was and is still, the holiest of holidays and the most festive. There, in Syria, the homeland of my family, Easter for the Eastern Christians was a time of traditions, joy, and excitement. When children awoke, they would greet their parents and the rest of the family with “al-Masīḥ Qām” (Christ has risen) to which the family’s response would be “Ḥaqqan Qām” (Indeed, He has risen).
But for us, children we were not thinking of the religious aspect of Easter but rather anticipating eating these hard-boiled eggs during those barren years of little or of none. Although our few hens did provide us with eggs, these eggs were used, primarily, to trade in for the staples we needed, such as sugar and rice, at Kouri’s Market in Pontiex, since Norman (Nu’man) Kouri, the owner, was a relative of ours from the same hometown of the Qaroun. I still believe that he took our eggs and even our butter as trade-ins because he felt sorry for us. We children thought he was the richest man in the world since he owned a store.
On Easter day, the colored eggs seemed to lift our holiday spirit. Mother would place them in different places in our living room to give Easter an aura of color. Then we would get down to the real part – eating the eggs until we were filled.
Throughout the following week, my mother would recycle the remaining Easter eggs as ingredients in various dishes, especially salads. These recipes are my own versions of her dishes.
Potato Salad with Sardines
Serves 4
On our farm, various types of this salad were often prepared by my mother on those occasions that sardines were available. This was when my father would have a few extra pennies to buy a can or two from Kouri’s Market.
1 can (106 g) sardines preserved in oil, bones removed, then chopped into small pieces and the oil reserved
4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
4 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 small hot pepper, seeded and very finely chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 medium-sized potatoes (about 3 inches long), boiled, then peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Place all ingredients, except potatoes and eggs, but including the reserved oil, in a salad bowl then thoroughly mix. Add potatoes and eggs then gently toss just before serving.
Potato Salad – Batata Mutabbala
Serves about 6
This Syrian version of potato salad, which mother often prepared, makes a refreshing change from the usual mayonnaise-based type and is perfect for picnics and barbecues.
4 large potatoes, cooked, peeled, then diced into 1/2-inch cubes
2 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Place all ingredients, except oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, in a salad bowl.
Combine oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper then stir into ingredients in a salad bowl. Toss gently, making sure potatoes and eggs do not crumble too much, then serve chilled.
Tuna Salad
Serves about 6
8 oz canned tuna, flaked with a fork
1/2 medium head lettuce, chopped
2 cups finely chopped spinach
1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)
1/4 cup green olives, pitted and sliced in half
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Just before serving, thoroughly mix, in a salad bowl, all ingredients, except the eggs then add the eggs. Gently toss then serve immediately.
Beet and Tahini Salad – Salatat Shamandar
Serves 6
Beets are not used extensively in the daily menus of the Middle East. However, my mother did use beets occasionally. Tahini was not available to us during this period, so my mother would substitute something like peanut-butter to prepare this salad.
2 medium-size beets, cooked, peeled and finely diced
4 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered or chopped
Place beets in a bowl then set aside.
Thoroughly combine tahini, lemon juice, yogurt, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, then stir into beets. Spread on a platter then decorate with eggs and serve.
Deviled Eggs
Makes 16 deviled eggs
Deviled eggs may have been appetizers for our neighbors, but in our home, they were a joy around Easter time as a great breakfast treat. The traditional ingredient labna, is a type of cream cheese that we made at home by draining yogurt of all its water in a cotton bag. Labna can be purchased in any Middle Eastern grocery store. If not available, just replace it with cream cheese.
8 large eggs, hard-boiled
1/2 cup labna or cream cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped pimento
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Mixed greens, for garnish
Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and carefully remove the cooked yolk, taking care not to break the whites.
In a bowl, thoroughly mash the yolks with the remaining ingredients, except the lettuce leaves. Stuff the white halves with the mixture, spreading across the entire surface of the white and with enough to form a dome over the whites to bring the eggs back to their original shape. Line a serving platter with the mixed greens. Arrange the eggs on the greens and chill before serving.