Priest Florin-Ionuţ Filip from the Dacia-Cetate church in Timişoara talks to us both about the Easter traditions and about the recipes he prepares during this period with love. A gourmet by nature, the father also makes the fast shaorma, and the family custom is that at every meal everyone holds hands, while they say the Our Father prayer and the blessing is given.
“We are a family of priests and we eat the traditional Easter food: lamb soup, tripe, red eggs, lamb made with herbs (greens, green onions, green garlic), we also keep a little of the Old Testament tradition. There is no shortage of fresh cheese with green onions. In our house, most of the food that requires a lot of effort is prepared on Maundy Thursday, such as the lamb shank or dyed eggs.
This year, exceptionally, we will dye the eggs on Friday. Soup and steaks are made on Saturday. The children also eat lamb, but we also make them poultry. There is no shortage of homemade cakes. Thursday evening and Friday are already dedicated more to prayer. Friday is black fasting,” the parent told AGERPRES.
In the priest’s family, the children share in the Thursday liturgy, and the afternoon is dedicated to the joy of play. Grandparents and parents hide many chocolate eggs in the grass in the yard, among the fir trees or among the flower bushes. The little ones look for them and collect them in baskets. The one who manages to find the most chocolate eggs receives the trophy: an even bigger chocolate egg, with surprises.
“Thursday evening, we all go to the 12 Gospels, the eldest boy, who is eight years old, beats the drum, and on Friday evening, the whole house is at Prohod’s denia. On Saturday, the final touches are made, and in the evening, at Resurrection, the boy walks with the icon or the bell. We don’t take care of our grandparents’ graves on Maundy Thursday, as is customary, but on Lazarus Saturday, before Florii, when the last commemoration of the dead before Easter takes place, the next one being on St. Thomas Sunday,” says Father Filip.
During Easter Lent and especially during Passion Week, the staple food in the priest’s house is potato and olive oil, along with the dehydrated vegetables that he himself prepares from the summer.
“The basis remains the potato, olive oil, pumpkin oil for breakfast, in a bowl we put olive oil in which we soak the slices of toasted bread, we call on the reserves of zucchini and eggplant, baked pepper, pumpkin, all stored since the summer , and olives are in first place. I also like dehydrated tomatoes with spaghetti. The great chef in me also makes shaorma with fried potatoes, fresh cabbage, pickled cucumbers, strips of soybeans made in a pan, with ketchup.
I have a fantastic Lenten mayonnaise recipe, taken from a mother from the lower church in Frăsinei: puffs soaked in water mixed with oil and mustard. The problem is that it cannot be stored for too long, it must be eaten fresh.
We eat stews, hummus, lentils, beans, salads, potatoes baked in olive oil, stew. I make the paprika at home, I dehydrate the Romanian zucchini and dice it. The tomatoes we use during this period are dehydrated tomatoes from last summer, which I rehydrate and use for food. We like Broth Broth, Cream of Broccoli Soup. It cannot be said that one starves in fasting, but fasting means self-restraint. It’s no longer fasting if you eat a pot of beans a day; that’s called a diet, a weight loss cure”, says the priest.
During Passion Week, the whole family eats only once a day, at lunch, he adds. “At the table, we all hold hands, around the table, when we say the prayer,” confesses the father.
At the Şag-Timişeni Monastery, the nuns have a lot of work these days, because every Good Friday, 1,000 eggs are fried here, which will be offered to the pilgrims, after the Resurrection service. The abbess of the monastery, Mother Casiana, tells AGERPRES that the tastiest Lenten food here is, by far, the white bean stew, which is also the most filling.
“Sauté the onion a little in oil, steam it more, so that it doesn’t fry. We add paprika, salt, then put the beans to boil. When it is low, we rub it with onion, garlic and oil. We have in the freezer all the vegetables that we prepared both for Lent and for the winter. In Passion Week it is like in Holy Week in fasting, with breakfast until 3:00 p.m., without oil. Then the table is not set, but everyone eats when they can. Each mother fasts according to her strength, because they are old and sick. Young people no longer come to the monastery, the vocation has decreased”, says the mother abbess.
Egg dyeing is done only naturally, using red onion skins for red, nettles or spinach for green, beetroot for blue and purple, lemon peel or golden onion for yellow.
“After the Denia of the 12 Gospels on Maundy Thursday, on Friday we paint the eggs, place them in cross-shaped forms, on the grass in the yard, and the priest consecrates them. First we check that the eggs are not chipped, then we place them in large pots, boiled, with a little vinegar, so that they do not crack. After that, we put them in the pots with paint and leave them on low heat until they get the desired color. We make 1,000 eggs each”, explains Mother Abbess Casiana.
She says that usually the monastery received two or three lambs, from which the lamb and the roast were prepared on the day of Resurrection.
“If we get lamb for Easter, we will cook drob from the washed and cleaned entrails, boiled and chopped, mixed with lots of green parsley, eggs, salt and pepper. Everything is wrapped in breadcrumbs and put in the oven. The rest of the meat, legs, ribs are left for a few hours in a bath of oil, salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, paprika, bay leaf and then put in the oven”, says the abbess of the Şag-Timişeni Monastery.
Every night of the Resurrection, the believers present to take Light receive a small package with a red egg, a slice of cake and Pasti (sanctified anaphora).
Source: AGERPRES
Tags: CUSTOMS TRADITIONS Priest dies hunger fasting fasting means selfrestraint
-
