Greek Easter Recipe: Yiayia Nota's Perfect Tsoureki
Easter in Corfu and a special Greek brioche recipe to beat all other Tsourekia
Kalimera!
I am writing to you from a chaotic room - every inch of floor space covered with suitcases and laundry ready to be packed for two glorious weeks in the Ionian. Orthodox Easter week is almost upon us and Athens is prepping itself for a mass exodus. In one week, the city will empty out Zombie apocalypse style and our official Greek summer will be well underway.
Easter in Corfu 2024
Easter in Corfu is perhaps the most special in all of the Greek islands. At this time of year, the island is in full bloom with wild flowers dotted across lush green meadows. Plus, my island has a long-standing love-affair with music, boasting the highest number of orchestras (17 ‘officially’) of all of the Greek islands. That means our annual Easter procession always features the Philharmonic orchestra, kicking off the Easter festivities on Good Friday.
This is followed by the island’s infamous ‘Botides’ throwing event, in which enormous terracotta pots filled with water are simultaneously flung from balconies in the Venetian old town’s main square once the clock strikes 11am on Saturday morning. Some say it’s to ward off evil spirits, others link the smashing sounds to the thunderous stone on Christ’s tomb being rolled away. Either way, it’s a sight to be seen and I’ll be there next weekend, watching my head.
What we’re eating
Along with the ubiquitous roast lamb and goat on the spit (my godfather Yiannis always insists on sacrificing a lamb for me and making me watch…this has been happening since I was 7 years old), Tsoureki is another Easter staple that we cannot live without here in Greece. Spiced with aromatic mahleb, our plaited Easter bread is something between a brioche and a Challah - only chewier, tastier, sexier. Easter wouldn’t be easter without it and in Corfu, we add a boiled egg (dyed red of course) to our Tsourekia.
It felt right this week then, to share the ultimate Tsoureki recipe with you that comes from my good friend Ianthi, owner of my favourite bakery in Athens, Kora. This was Ianthi’s Yiayia Nota’s recipe. Scroll down to get straight to it but if you can, spare a minute for Ianthi’s words on her Yiayia…
YIAYIA NOTA
Born 1924, Arcadia
Together with her brother and father, Yiayia Nota fled from Arcadia to Athens during the war, where she found work in a clothing factory. That’s where she met my Pappou. He was a manager at the factory and Yiayia would proudly tell us how jealous all of her friends were when he picked her. I remember them being happy together despite their very different personalities.
Yiayia was a firm and dynamic woman who ran a tight ship around the home. Sometimes, I think how great she’d be at running a professional kitchen. Out of all of my family, she was the only one who got excited when I dropped out of med school to become a chef. We’ve always shared a passion for cooking and love for good food and I believe it made her very happy that someone in the family would finally carry on in her footsteps.
Growing up with a mother who thought boiled potatoes made for a sufficient lunch, Yiayia’s visits were a bright light in my “milk and cereal” filled life. We would all spend summers together in Agios Stefanos in Corfu, where I have some of my most precious memories of Yiayia.
A table full of all the best meze, skordalia, zucchini fritters, fries, tomato salad and roasted eggplants waited for us after a day at the beach. Loukoumades and “tiganoposoma” (fried dough often filled with cheese) in the afternoons, when all the children played in our backyard. There isn’t a single person in my family who doesn’t have nostalgia for Yiayia’s cooking.
Yiayia passed the year I went to culinary school. She would ask me curiously over the phone for tips and recipes and tried to write it down so she could give it a go. After years of training and experience, I still can’t make her orange pie and melomakarona as well as she did. I take great comfort and joy knowing how happy she’d be to see the bakery I have set up and how I’ve managed to build a career around food, the thing she loved so much.
Around the holidays I always get emotional making her Tsourekia at the bakery. Yiayia’s cooking shaped my perception of food and it’s through her that I connect with all the culinary traditions of my country.
I know everyone has a great Yiayia but mine was truly the best.
RECIPE: YIAYIA NOTA’S TSOUREKI (EASTER BREAD)
Ingredients
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