Pas'cha

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 2 ½ kg quark (low-fat quark)
• 5 egg yolks
• 500 g sugar
• 500 g butter, soft
• 2 vanilla pods, including the pulp
• 200 g almond(s), chopped
• 50 g almonds, peeled, whole

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours 45 minutes

Wrap low-fat quark in a tea towel or diaper. Place it in a large sieve and let it drain over a bowl overnight (in Russia, the dish’s country of origin, there are specially made wooden molds for this purpose). It is very important that the quark mixture contains as little water as possible; this helps the dish firm up later. Whisk the sugar and egg yolks, then add the butter. Then add the quark, vanilla seeds, and chopped almonds. Mix everything thoroughly. It should form a viscous mixture, which can be shaped into a small pyramid (approx. 20 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm) using a smooth knife or spatula. Serve on a flat plate. The pyramid can now be garnished with some whole, peeled almonds. It is best to refrigerate the Pascha for a few hours to allow the consistency to firm up further. Serve in small portions, as the dish is very high in calories. Pascha is a Russian Easter dish. In Russia, this traditional dish is carried to the Russian Orthodox church on Easter Sunday morning, blessed by the priest, and ceremoniously eaten at home. Variation on draining the quark: Draining the quark as described above (and the resulting subsequent stability of the pyramid) is usually not enough for me. I either press the quark, wrapped tightly in tea towels, several times over a colander using muscle power. This is sometimes quite strenuous. Or I wrap the quark in two layers of tea towels, which I knot very tightly. Really, very tightly. Then this whole ball goes into the washing machine and is carefully spun for a few minutes (5-10 minutes should be sufficient) on the normal spin cycle while being observed. Really carefully, because the knots in the towels must not come undone (if they do, there’s a risk that all the quark will scatter inside the drum, and we want to avoid that)! Plus, this heavy ball means a lot of work for the washing machine. If you do the whole thing carefully and under observation, nothing should happen. Any well-damped washing machine should be able to handle the stress caused by the resulting imbalance without any problems. It’s best to add a few more towels or similar items to the machine right at the beginning to reduce the resulting imbalance and prevent the quark/towel ball from “dancing” in the drum. If the imbalance is still too great, please stop, as the strain on the machine could be too great. Final note: I’ve been draining the quark this way for years, and so far, there’s never been an accident.