It’s almost Easter time and in our home that means Polish Easter traditions. The tradition of a Polish Easter comes from my husband’s side of the family. His 91 year old grandfather, Gene, who is still living, celebrates his family legacy through our Easter meal. His parents both immigrated from Poland and brought with them their traditions and hope. It is through the Easter meal that we remember his family and more importantly celebrate that Polish lineage in our children.
Part of this celebration includes Pierogies from Millie’s Pierogies (Massachusetts), a ham, beets and sauerkraut, Polish Sausages & poppyseed bread from Stanley’s Home Made Sausage Co. (Phoenix) and hard boiled eggs. One delicious food coma, coming right up! The hard boiled eggs also provide us with a competition between family members via an egg war. There are similar practices carried out through Greek households as well. Each family member gets a hard boiled egg to compete with to ‘whack’ someone else’s egg. If your egg breaks, you are out of the competition. If you egg sustains such violence, you can continue on ‘whacking’ other eggs until the last egg is left standing. The strongest egg symbolizes strength and prosperity (good luck) for the year ahead.
But I digress…this past year, in COVID lockdown, as an addition to this meal I decided to make pickled beet eggs. If you are looking for a way to spruce up your Easter meal or create a great happy hour hors d’oeuvre, these are a hit. They are equally as sweet as they are tangy and bring a fresh taste to the plate. Not to mention, they are beautifully fuscia in color and super easy to make. The biggest part of this recipe involves time to pickle the eggs.
Pickled Beet Eggs Recipe
- 6-12 eggs
- 1 (15 ounce) can sliced beets with liquid
- ½ cup white vinegar
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Place your eggs in a kettle with cold water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the heat and cover for exactly 10 minutes. At this point, remove the eggs and submerge them in an ice water bath to stop them from cooking for 2-3 minutes. Drain the eggs and remove the peels. Place the eggs in a glass or plastic container. Next, drain the beets, reserving the pink liquid and mix the beet liquid, vinegar, sugar, water, salt and cinnamon together in a kettle. Bring the mixture to a boil on the stove and stir until sugar is dissolved. Have the mixture cool slightly and pour over shelled eggs in the container. Eggs may be ready after 4 hours in the refrigerator but I prefer to let them pickle for at least 2 days. Just remember not to place them in a metal container as they may become slimy. Enjoy with bites of ham or on rye bread toast points.
