Vasilika is swirled by tradition, with Greek flavors playing the leading role in Easter culinary customs and combining a wealth of emotions.
Our excess culinary wealth enables us to disperse it around the world. In addition to my Pontic origin and specialization in Pontic gastronomy, after 22 years I sense that I also have the identity of the “local” since my entire life I have resided with my husband and 2 daughters in Vasilika, Thessaloniki.
This enchanting and historic village (the battle of Vasilika took place in 1821) based on archaeological findings, traces its origins to ancient times and in accordance with testimonies, Vasilika was called Anthemousia Politia or Anthemousia Ili as the region was the seat of elite battalions and stables of Alexander the Great. The name ‘Vasilika’ was given by Queen Theofano when she built the monastery of Agia Anastasia in 868 AD as there were royal estates in the area.
Thanks to the river Anthemounda, the inhabitants of Vasilika cultivated their land with reverence and neatness and turned it into a fertile plain. I would characterize Vasilika as a blessed land with the primary sector of development (agriculture, greenhouse crops, livestock farming) being the main occupation of many residents, supplying Greece with fresh local products.
Their gastronomy leans on the Mediterranean diet and the composition of their recipes is aligned with the production.
In Vasilika, there are many Easter culinary customs with the most widespread recipe being that of Vouloto. Vouloto was named because after the baking technique and that because it was sealed in a built oven.
The recipe originally included lamb and at a later stage lamb, rice, green onions, mint and red pepper. The custom has its roots in the Turkish occupation as the residents of Vasilika not wishing to be noticeable by the Turks, on the night of the Resurrection before the Μass burned the oven with kermes. The whole preparation was undergone in the evening so that the smoke would not be visible from the Turks and also because kermes were odorless. Another reason was that the taste of the food was not degraded by the use of kermes. The food was prepared throughout the evening and after the end of the service, the oven was sealed consuming the fine Passover meal.
As an enthusiast of tradition, I will always do my very best to promote Greek gastronomy from whatever part of Greece derives from. I consider tradition to be our basis, the strong foundations of the edifice of our gastronomy.
The Easter culinary custom of Vouloto is revived to this day with the main difference that the ovens are lit at dawn at 06.00am and burn kermes for 2 hours whilst after removing them, trays are placed with the meat and water.
A tile is placed on top of each tray in order to prevent meat from getting burned due to the heat of the oven. The oven door is sealed with wet mud and bake for three hours. After 3 hours, oven door is unsealed, tiles are removed from the trays and the filling prepared by the housewives is placed, i.e. rice with giblets, fresh herbs with mint, salt, pepper and sealed once more for 2 hours. Finally, it is unsealed and served at the Easter Sunday table.
The following recipe can also be prepared with goat meat in a conventional oven as a modern house does not acquire a built-in oven.
Ingredients
For the meat
- 2.5 kg lamp leg sirloin or goat meat
- Salt
- Black and red pepper
- 200 gr. butter
For the rice
- 1 pluck
- 500 gr. Carolina rice (washed)
- 1200 ml of water
- 10 spring onions (chopped)
- 1 bunch fresh mint (leaves only)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 150ml olive oil
Cooking instructions
For the meat
Wash and clean the lamb leg sirloin from hair. Place the meat in a pot and add salt, red and black pepper, cubed butter and water. Bake in the oven for 2.5 hours at 180 degrees.
For the rice
Rinse the pluck and blanch it in boiling water. After scalding it, rinse it in cold water and cut it into small pieces. Wash and cut the spring onions into slices.
Place the olive oil in a plastic pot and add the green onions, cooking them on medium heat until they are softened. Then, add the pluck and saute it.
Add mint, salt, red and black pepper, rice and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove from heat. Remove the shell from the oven after 2.5 hours, place the rice filling and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
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