Corfu Recipes - Red Easter Eggs

This page gives you the opportunity to re-create some of your favourite Corfiot recipes at home. This time, Red Easter Eggs. It is a Greek custom to use red eggs as part of the Easter celebration. You can use food colouring or commercial dyes but this old-fashioned natural method creates eggs with a deep rich colour.

Ingredients - Fresh uncooked eggs at room temperature. Skins from yellow (Spanish) onions. White vinegar. Olive (or other edible) oil for polishing.

Instructions - Start with 12 medium-to-small eggs. Carefully remove any material clinging to the surface of the eggs. Make the dye with the onion skins; in a stainless steel saucepan, place the skins of 15 yellow (Spanish) onions and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar in four and a half cups of water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Strain the dye into a glass bowl and let it cool to room temperature. In a stainless steel saucepan (about 20 cm in diameter) add the cooled, strained dye and the eggs. The eggs should be in one layer and covered by the dye. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer. Dyeing time will be affected by the colour of the eggs. Start checking for colour at 12-15 minutes. (If the eggs are not a red enough colour after 20 minutes, leave in the pot and remove from the heat. When the pot has cooled enough, place it in the fridge until the desired colour is reached.) Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and cool on racks. When they can be handled, coat lightly with oil and polish with a paper towel. Refrigerate until time to use.

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