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Stellaa

Stellaa
Location
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Birthday
August 21
Title
Flaneuse
Bio
I blog. I am not a writer by trade nor do I strive to be one. I love blogging. Ideas, flickers, and in no time, you have a body of work. Blogging is like a yoga practice for the brain.

APRIL 21, 2009 2:53AM

Greek Easter: Silence of the Lambs

Rate: 28 Flag

Greek Easter this year was one week after "regular Easter".  David Sedaris claims that us Greeks have Easter later so we can buy cheaper Easter candy.   I don't agree.  Easter candy is not part of Greek Easter.

It's not about story book bunnies like these, 

 

 

 bunnies 1

 or these....!

bunnies3

It is all about the lamb.  

People think of Greek food and lamb as being the same.  Lamb is really and truly enjoyed in the spring.  When the lamb is young and when lent is finished.   

Easter Sunday is lamb on a spit.   People in large cities cannot do it, so they discover their country cousins.  Greek immigrants will always try to recreate the Greek Easter tradition of the roasted lamb.  When we first came to America, we did it in a park since we lived in an apartment. It was  1966, not much ethnic stuff in public back then.  A crowd gathered and little children were chanting "they are killing an animal".  Needles to say, the taunting did not keep us from roasting lambs, we just found ways to do it in private.  

My brother Alex, who moved to New York, always did it and we were all shy of doing the lamb without him.  But, thanks to the internet, my other brother Anastassi, ( his name means resurrection, so it's his name day) a Sonoma rancher and a German mechanical husband, we had a roasted lamb.  

I nicknamed this Easter after two movies: "Silence of the Lambs" or "There Will Be Olive Oil", I used six quarts  of olive oil.  No olive, no Greek Easter.  Do you see any chocolate or bunnies?  NO.

Pictures of the mezes later: Spanakopites, tiropites, houmous, babaganoush, Egyptian eggplants and peppers, prawns with tomatoe sauce and feta (saganaki), tzatziki, taramosalata, beets, dandelion greens, Greek salad and dolmas.  I was so busy, I did not take many pictures. 

Buying the Lamb 

I found Bruce Campbell, a Healdsburg Sheep rancher via the internet.  All organic and local sheep.  On Friday, we went to his ranch to pick up the lamb.  We arrived early and could not find him.  We saw a man working in a garden and thought it was him, but it was his father, who then called Bruce to tell him, we had arrived.

 It was 9:30 in the morning and he was showing us his garden. Onions, garlic and ten acres of grapes.  He then got a glimmer in his eyes and said:  "You have to taste our wine, follow me".  

We followed into his house, out he comes with a bottle of Pinot Noir, CK ranch Pinot Noir.  Three glasses and what a way to start the day.  This is Sonoma, we have arrived.  We are now in the country, California's wine country:  Sonoma.   Napa gets all the publicity, but Sonoma is the mother lode of real California landscape, loads of wine, lots of farming and incredible weather.  

Bruce arrived, we said our goodbyes to his dad, a second generation Sonoman and we went to Bruce's house.  We loaded the lamb, he told us how to put it on the spit gave us some hints.  

We asked to buy some bottles of their wine.  He leads us to his labyrnth of a house inot his basement and we buy six bottles of a delicious Pinot Noir, but he just keeps giving us all these other bottles of wines.   Try this, and try that one, my friend makes this one.  We left with four extra bottles of wine and a bag of oranges and grapefruits.

Finally, the best surprise, he give us a bottle of his olive oil.  I did not use this olive oil for cooking, this will be used on my tomatoes this summer.  So, OS friends, if you are around these parts around tomatoe harvest, knock on my door for a sample.  

olive oil

This bottle is the perfect symbol of the cultures of America and the Mediterranean mixing, Olive Oil in a Jim Bean bottle, what can I say.  I will treasure this pure gold olive oil.  It's a long way from the park in 1966 to this bottle of olive oil from a Sonoma sheep rancher.  

This is local food. 

Preparation of the Lamb 

We kept the lamb in the workshop, with ice and air conditioning since the temperatures peaked into the 80's.  On Sunday morning, the lamb was prepared and put on the spit at around 9:40, it was ready at 3:30.  I will not say that I wanted the precise German to start it earlier, but it all worked out.  

IMG_2853

The lamb 45 pounds. 

IMG_2854

The fire, charcoal.  

IMG_2855

Salt, lemon, Greek oregano and olive oil for basting.  

IMG_2857 

 Sorry kids for the explicit photographs, but meat does come in this form.  

lamb cooking

 

 The video of taking the lamb off the spit.

 
We invited friends, family and neighbors.  With one special friend you all may know, the wonderful Ms. Walsh. 
 

 
3048_1137539832532_1048466998_435275_5933394_n
 
 
 
 
I promised Ricky B  in Israel, pictures of the lamb roasting.  Here they are, with extra attraction of You Tube and the elegant Ms. Joan Walsh.
 
 


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Comments

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I hope it's not too rude, but I am inviting myself to your house for Easter next year. I promise I won't bring bunnies or candy ;) Looks like a wonderful time, Stellaa!
Sandra, now that we know the tricks without the "expert brother", who I will tease forever, he who thought we could never have another real easter without him..., you are most welcome.
I'm with Donna, but I think those tomatoes are going to be even better than the lamb, so I'll wait for summer.
Look, I already know I have no life. Footage of roast lamb AND Joan were not necessary to make me realize I'm missing out. :-)

Um, yum. I am also crashing next Easter. Then again, I really don't need to travel half the globe for lamb. All I need is cash. Oh, yeah. Back to work.

Drool.
julie, yes looking forward to the tomatoes, if only I would get to it, my favas are in.

Ricky, of course you have no life, you have little children. When they get older they will tell you, you have no life.

Lambs, they really are not into these monotheistic celebrations, they always seem to involve them in some way.
What a lovely post. I am drooling over everything. Remind me to visit Sonoma and your house and SF next Easter.
You know...I think I would prefer Greek Easter. In fact, I know I would. Lamb trumps Chocolate always, s'far as I'm concerned.
Is there no room for chocolate?

Just kidding.

What a bountiful feast, how fortunate you are to have such a lovely family and friends to celebrate with together.

I too would like to invite myself for next year. I can produce a lamb friendly dessert, how about a passionfruit cheesecake? The passion thing works well with Easter...
There was plenty of chocolate. But one star of the show.

jon, if you bring a bottle of the golden juice of Scotland you will be welcome. Leave the hagis back home. Still have not tried it.

Cheescakes always welcome!!!
Stella - if you're into cheesecake and want to indulge, have Junior's, in Brooklyn, ship you some. It's that good. And if you're ever in the Apple, you absolutely MUST make the pilgrimage across the bridge for it.
Ricky, my brother lives in NY, I will make him bring me one.
a very different presentation from gmgaston's leg of lamb, which I attempted....
Damn, I'm hungry now...
Once! Ah yes, once I had spring lamb roasted over a fire. Nothing has compared since.
You, Stellaa, are a very fortunate woman.
There is nothing quite like Greek Easter. I could smell and taste that lamb from here. You didn't offer Joan the eyes or balls, did you? Just wondering. Perfect menu, perfect company and it looks like you had perfect weather, too.
I love lamb AND tomatoes with perfect oo.
Wow Stellaa - great tradition, and photo and video story. Thanks for sharing your celebration with us.
What a feast! My mouth is actually watering at those pics. I just hope you didn't have to pour out the Jim Beam to recycle the bottle...please tell me it wasn't wasted? Looks like a great time with food and family. Great post!
Rated & Cheers!
I do love lamb! And I suspect that I've never had anything comparable to this, Stellaa!

You continue to educate us in the most delicious way...
I once landed on the island of Corfu and decided I would never leave. Obviously, I did, to my everlasting regret. I have always wanted to be Greek, and I'm not talking sorority.

You will have to invite all of us next year!
Cartouche, these days, the ranchers don't give head. Also my family does not partake in the eyeballs of mammals, just fish.

Texas, no the rancher I am sure after meeting him, did not empty the Jim Beam into the sink for the olive oil.

KTM, phew..glad you liked it I thought you did not eat meat.

If you all come we will have to get more lambs.
But......but..... You forgot to mention the Ouzo!! How can you possibly have a Greek feast without Ouzo?!!
Or even Metaxa?


Rated(between drools)
Larry, of course the ouzo will be shown with the mezes. I got to great bottles from Lesvos, they make the best ouzo.
Nothing better than meat fresh off a spit! Yum!!!!
In college we used to roast several pigs for our end of the year bar-b-que. If the weather wasn't cooperating, we'd cook them in the student center pizza ovens :)
this is fantastic! a friend of mine who taught english for a few years in Greece (outside of Athens, if i remember correctly) siad that his absolutel favorite time to be there was for Easter - for the food.

rated
Yummm! Can't wait for the pictures of the mezes! :D
Yo cartouche, you know the one about the tourist in the restaurant in Spain and the Bull's balls? :-)
This is Open Salon at it's best. Informative, interesting, quirky. A feature I could see as a magazine feature yet told by a friend.
Bob, wowzers, what a compliment. I think the whole thing was worth it cause we met Bruce the sheep rancher:)
Oh my god. Drooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllllll...
My family used to pit cook whole baby goats.

A goat is a hard critter for me to kill. They're smart and know what is about to happen. They bleat in terror. I especially hated slaughtering ones we'd raised. I can still remember is absolute clarity some of them capering and how they would head butt their mom's udders while nursing. My little brother had the bad habit of naming them which added to the tragedy, but damn they were tasty.

I am very impressed with your outdoor roasting apparatus. We would go up to a public park that had 55 gallon drums welded together to make bar-b-q pits three drums long. We rigged up a spit and it was good.

I've always liked lamb. Hard to find good cuts at a decent price these days. I envy you the left overs. monkey fingered.
So good. So very, very good.
BBE, the motor is rented. The grill we bought used, Craigslist is your friend. We used to do the hand cranking and pit part.

Verbal...you would have loved it. I love just hanging around the carver and getting bits.
I grew up in Astoria, Queens, NY and I remember during Easter the smell of roasted lamb wafting through the neighborhood.

Culturally Enlightenment Rated
BBE, you got an education on what it means to be a locovarian.

Trudge, that is the epicenter of Greek lambiness.
WOW! What a cool tradition and I love food from the Mediterranean countries, it always feels like spring when you eat it.
Thanks for sharing and making me realize that I am suddenly awfully hungry.
Oh, no Stellaa! It's wheat that I cannot eat. That and dairy, and soy, too, but who cares about not eating soy.

(Until you try to buy something that doesn't have it in there as some kind of extraneous ingredient.)

In fact, I love meat, especially lamb. I do love lamb. My daughter is really good at preparing it. It's in her genes. Both her father and grandfather were really good a preparing it, too, and apparently she inherited that ability.

I must confess that sometimes I send a link to one of your posts to some online friends... like that earlier one about piracy. Just because your POV is always so interesting. You even do these excellent food posts in your own way.
I'll be there for the tomatoes, too.
Christos Anesti!
Although French, I am Russian Orthodox (to make it short: some Russians escaped the Revolution in 1917 and settled in France, since French was often the language spoken at home in aristocratic Russia) and in our Easter, same date as yours, we do not have chocolate candies, Easter bunnies, etc.
But we have eggs! Eggs are painted red for the simplest, or we make "pysanki", an elaborate painting with dyes and wax involved (burnt fingers guaranteed), and the richest get the Faberge egg. The tradition in my family was to offer a miniature Faberge-like egg to all the girls and women at each Easter. They are then hung on a rather solid golden chain. Some of the babas (grandmas) at Church probably suffer from an osteoporosis brought about by the 40 days during which they wear this very heavy necklace: if you are 80 and have 80 eggs around your neck, it hurts!
And we have lamb too, but only as a memory. Russians are more into piglets, or Russian salad (with tons of mayonnaise), and of course the heaviest cakes possible: koulich (a variation on panetonne), and the cheese Pascha, a pyramidal cake, with 10,000 calories per tablespoon.
I guess after 40 days of Lent + Holy Week, the Feast of Feasts is truly Easter!
Sarah, pictures of the eggs tomorrow. We do not do the fancy Russian ones, just red.

Ooh, faberge egg necklace, sounds great. It would get heavy.
Chistos Anesti, my friend!

Some of my best memories of my family are sitting around the table at easter with the lamb and the eggs and the talking and the laughing and the drinking and the gossiping and the fighting and the eating.

No bunnies. Well, we were kids. We got one chocolate bunny each. Provided by my grandfather. They were the best things ever. But never as good as my grandmother's lamb.
Liz, alithos anesti.

Yep, the fights. That was all part of it.
Hehe I'm in Thessaloniki now and saw a T-shirt I loved. It had a pig on it, and a lamb. The pig was saying "Kalo pasxa" (happy Easter), and the lamb was answering "aide gamisou!" (oh, fuck you!).