How to dye Easter eggs – Come colorare le uova di Pasqua – Farbanje Uskršnjih pisanica

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to prepare beautiful coloured Easter eggs. This is another traditional Croatian recipe (or folk custom). She learned this art from her mother. I remember my grandmother also painted eggs with the beeswax and special writing tool, but unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to learn it from her. Modern times brought us to very fast way of living and some long makings didn’t survive, even some products disappeared, because old fashioned. But we continued to maintain the tradition at any cost and every year the eggs we made were more beautiful! I always keep few most beautiful eggs in the coffee cups until next year Easter as souvenirs (warning: it might happen that the egg explodes after few months, so handle it carefully).
Another amazing thing is that the colour I’m using is fully natural. I use onion skin to dye Easter eggs. I collect it all year long, because you will need a large quantity of it to get the beautiful dark brown colour. The decoration is made with plants and herbs, you can choose whatever you like, from clover to parsley. I found the print of darnel very charming. No problems if eggs get cracked during cooking and some coloure dye the egg white. You can eat your eggs anyway, as you have not used artificial products!
Take all time you need, handle your eggs gently and decorate them patiently.
Let’s create the art!

YOU WILL NEED:

one pair of old panty hose

thread

red onion skin

plants and herbs

uncooked eggs

1 teaspoon of salt

Cut the panties into 5 cm large patches and cut each patch lengthwise. Place the leaf of the plant on the egg, cover it with the panty and arrange it in the best possible way under the panty and allow to the plant to stick to the egg shell. Enlarge and throw well the panty to the opposite site of the egg and tie the edges with the thread. Cut the remains of the panty. Cover the bottom of the casserole with the onion skins, place over the eggs and cover them with other onion skins. Pour cold water in the casserole, add the salt and cook on very slow heath for about 30 minute. Leave the eggs in the water until it cool down. Cut  the panty and clean the egg with the paper towel.

L’OCCORRENTE:

vecchi collant

filo da cucire

buccia di cipolle rosse

erbe e piante

uova crude

1 cucchiaino di sale grosso

Tagliare i collant prima in pezze lunghe 5 cm e poi tagliare ogni pezza longitudinalmente. Mettere la foglia della pianta sul guscio dell’uovo, coprirla con il collant e sistemarla bene sotto lo stesso. Allargare il collant e tirarlo bene sopra la foglia per far si che la foglia aderisca bene al guscio. Tirare tutti i lati della pezza fino a raggiungere la parte opposta dell’uovo. Legare con il filo e tagliare il collant in eccesso. Coprire il fondo della casseruola con le bucce delle cipolle, sistemare le uova sopra le bucce e coprirle con altre bucce. Aggiungere nella casseruola l’acqua fredda e sale e cuocere a fuoco bassissimo per circa 30 minuti. Lasciare raffreddare le uova nell’acqua colorata. Tagliare e togliere i collant dalle uova e pulirle con un tovagliolo di carta.

POTREBNO JE:

stare najlonke

konac

ljuske crvenog luka

bilje e trave

sirova jaja

1 žličica krupne kuhinjske soli

Izrezati najlonke na krpe velike 5 cm te rezati krpe po dužini. Staviti list biljke na ljusku jajeta, prekriti najlonkom i lijepo urediti list ispod najlonke. Dobro nategnuti najlonku preko lista da se list pripije uz ljusku jajeta. Povući rubove najlonke do suprotne strane jajeta i zavezati koncem. Odrezati višak krpe. Prekriti dno posude za kuhanje ljuskama luka, staviti jaja u posudu i prkriti ih preostalim ljuskama. Uliti u posudu hlandu vodu, dodati sol i kuhati na jako slaboj vatri oko 30 minuta. Osatviti jaja da se ohlade u obojenoj vodi. Odstraniti najlonke te obrisati jaja papirnim ubrusom.