Affordable Easter Recipes for the Family

Easter holidays are fast approaching and we’re all excited to spend it with family and friends! Aside from the egg hunt, one of the main events for this occasion is the feast! Everyone looks forward to what will be served on the dining table. We’re talking about ham, roast chicken, cakes, tarts, and anything else that may tickle your fancy.

Now, you don’t have to spend a lot to prepare mouth-watering recipes. Whether you’re hosting at home or bringing a dish to a party, here are affordable Easter recipes for everyone to enjoy.

Easter Epic Egg Salad

Jamie Oliver’s take on this old-school egg salad is truly epic! When properly done, it will be “out of this world.” This very nice and delicious recipe is super easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 4 quality anchovies in oil
• ½ a lemon
• ½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• ½ a bunch of fresh chives
• 1 dried red chilli
• 4 large free-range eggs
• 2 round lettuces
• 1 red chicory
• 1 white chicory
• 1 x 20g punnet cress

DIY Salad cream:

• ½ a clove of garlic
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 6 tablespoons rapeseed oil
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk

Method:

1. Halve the anchovies lengthways, then place in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of the anchovy oil, the lemon zest and juice.
2. Pick the parsley leaves, then finely chop along with the chives. Add a little to the bowl.
3. In another bowl, peel and crush the garlic, then whisk together with the remaining salad cream ingredients. Season to taste and set aside.
4. Make a chilli salt by bashing the chilli and 3 tablespoons of sea salt in a pestle and mortar. Set aside.
5. Boil the eggs in salted water for about 6 minutes, refresh in cold water until cool enough to handle, then peel each egg and set aside.
6. Pick the inner leaves of the round lettuces. Finely slice the chicory bases, and separate the leaves. Arrange on a serving platter.
7. Scatter over the remaining chopped parsley and chives, snip over the cress, then halve the eggs and place on top.
8. Sprinkle over some chilli salt and divide the anchovies between the eggs, drizzling over a little of the anchovy marinade too. Serve with the salad cream on the side – so simple, so delicious.
   
   

5-Ingredient Honey Baked Ham

This crowd-pleaser should not be missed on the table. It can actually feed a crowd and it’s so easy to prepare. The outcome tastes like it’s been cured much more than it really has. Rich with savory sweetness of ham mixed with honey, watch it quickly disappear!

Ingredients:

• Fully cooked, spiral-sliced ham (4-5 lbs)
• 1 cup good apple cider
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup whole grain mustard (prepared mustard jar with whole mustard seeds)
• 1/4 cup honey

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees with rack on lower position.
2. Mix together apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, and honey in a bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate basting sauce.
3. Place ham in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Coat ham with a generous amount of sauce. Bake for 60-70 minutes, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes.
4. To serve pre-cut slices, arrange slices neatly on a serving dish and brush leftover sauce all over ham slices and serve. If serving ham whole, be sure to have leftover sauce available for drizzling. The sauce is what makes this ham so great!

If you prefer your sauce thicker, simply thicken it by bringing leftover sauce to a low boil. Dissolve a bit of cornstarch (start with 1-2 tsp) in a little bit of water (about 1-2 tsp) and add dissolved cornstarch to the boiling sauce. Add more dissolved cornstarch as needed. Stir constantly until sauce is thickened to your liking. (Never add undissolved cornstarch directly to any boiling sauce, or it will become clumpy.)

Sausage Vegetable Frittata

It’s so flavourful, you’d want to eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Ingredients:

• ½ pound bulk hot Italian sausage
• 1 medium potato, thinly sliced
• ½ onion, chopped
• 3 mushrooms, sliced
• fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup broccoli florets, steamed until tender
• 1 roma tomato, chopped or ⅓ cup julienned, sundried tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional
• 9 eggs
• 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup sliced black olives

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Using cooking spray is a great way to go through your oil more slowly.
2. In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the sausage until no longer pink. With a slotted spoon, remove the sausage to the prepared pan and spread it evenly in the pan.
3. Add the potato, onion, and mushrooms to the skillet and cook until the onion is clear, the potato is tender, and the mushrooms have browned. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Distribute these vegetables over the sausage in the pan. Strew the broccoli and tomatoes evenly throughout the pan. Top with the cheese, if using.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and whisk in the Dijon mustard. Pour this mixture over the vegetables and meat in the pan.
5. Sprinkle the olives atop the eggs, and bake for 25 minutes or until set. Serve hot or warm.
   
   

Lemon Meringue Cake

This cake came to be as Nigella Lawson couldn’t make a go of lemon meringue pie. Talk about happy accidents! The layers of sponge, with their crisp-carapaced squashy-bellied meringue topping, are sandwiched with tart lemon curd and softly whipped cream. Yum! Just decorate it with raspberries and it will be gorgeous!

Ingredients:

• 125 grams very soft unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs (separated)
• 300 grams caster sugar (plus 1 teaspoon)
• 100 grams plain flour
• 25 grams cornflour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• zest of 1 lemon
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons milk
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 150 millilitres double cream (or whipping cream)
• 150 grams good quality lemon curd

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200°C/180°C Fan/400ºF. Line and butter two 21cm / 8 inch sandwich tins.
2. Mix the egg yolks, 100g / ½ cup of the sugar, the butter, flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarb, and lemon zest in a processor. Add the lemon juice and milk and process again.
3. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins. You will think you don’t even have enough to cover the bottom of the tins, but don’t panic. Spread calmly with a rubber spatula until smooth.
4. Whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks form and then slowly whisk in 200g / 1 cup of sugar. Divide the whisked whites between the two sponge-filled tins, pouring or, more accurately, spreading the meringue straight on top of the cake batter.
5. Smooth one flat with a metal spatula, and with the back of a spoon, peak the other and sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over the peaks. Put the tins into the oven for 20-25 minutes.
6. With a cake-tester, pierce the cake that has the flat meringue topping to check it’s cooked all through. (It will have risen now but will fall back flattish later.) No sponge mixture should stick to the tester. Remove both cakes to a wire rack and let cool completely in the tins.
7. Unmould the flat-topped one on to a cake stand or plate, meringue side down.
8. Whisk the double cream until thick but not stiff and set aside. Spread the flat sponge surface of the first, waiting, cake with the lemon curd and then spatula over the cream and top with the remaining cake, bronze-peaked meringue uppermost.
   
   

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