Easter Food - Lamb, Relish, and Savory Cheesecake

Greek Roast Lamb

The oldest prayer for blessing lambs as a sacrifice and symbol of Christ can be found in the seventh-century sacrament book of the Benedictine monks in Italy. Two hundred years later Rome had adopted it, roast lamb became the main course of the Pope's Easter dinner for centuries. After the tenth century, in place of a whole lamb, certain meat cuts were used instead. Benedictine monasteries in some regions still cook and bless whole lambs for Easter.

Ingredients

• Leg of lamb
• Several cloves of garlic
• Oregano
• Pepper
• Lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• Olive oil (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F

• Place the meat into a baking dish and make several slits all over the leg of lamb with a sharp paring knife.
• Insert cloves of garlic into the slits complete.
• Sprinkle the leg generously with oregano, pepper, lemon juice, and a just a pinch of salt. Cover the meat with aluminum foil and roast in the oven until brownish pink when cut into with a sharp knife.
• The meat should still be brown/pink when done (1.5 hrs or according to the meat wrapper information).
• Uncover the leg of lamb for the last 20 minutes for browning. You might drizzle olive oil over it when you uncover it.

Ukrainian Beet & Horseradish Relish

This traditional Easter relish is delicious if you like horseradish and accompanies ham and roast pig or roast lamb as well as any mint jelly can serve. Choose a younger fresh horseradish root so that it is not old and bitter tasting. Commercially bottled horseradish and canned beets can be used but will not taste quite the same and may be a bit mushy. Still, they are also good.

Wash the horseradish root and cut off the very tough parts of it. Peel and grate the root fine. Wash, cook and remove skin, and then grate the fresh beets coarsely. Combine the grated beets with the grated horseradish.

Moisten the vegetables with white vinegar and add sugar and salt to taste. The proportion of horseradish to beets is up to you, but I use 1 cup or more of horseradish to 10 medium-sided beets.

Ukrainian Savory Cheesecake (non-sweet)

This is a savory dish served as a side dish with the meat course. It reminds me of one of dear Mr. Marmalade's pavlovas, only savory instead of sweet. In fact, I was thinking of a savory version after I read Mr. Marmalade's hub and found this recipe in my recipe collection already. My thought would be add ripe olives to it!

Serves 10-12 people.

• One 24-ounce carton large curd cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
• ½ cup sliced ripe olives for me!
• 1 beaten egg yolk (in addition to the two eggs above)

PROCEDURES

• Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Put all of the cottage cheese into a wire sieve and press out all of the water. Put the cottage cheese and the 2 eggs into a blender and blend until smooth.
• Stir in the sugar and lemon zest.
• Spread the cheese mixture into a well-greased or non-stick sprayed 8-, 9-, or 10-inch pie pan.
• Ukrainians often stencil a small cross onto the center of the cheesecake. Set a metal cross-shaped cookie cutter into the middle of the cheesecake and use a wash of egg yolk all around it and leave in the cookie cutter. Don't use a plastic one, because it will melt and burn.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
• Now, remove the cross slowly so that you do not tear the golden top of the cheesecake. Cut and serve with dinner.