Passover the Seder

Last night.. friday was the 1st night of Passover, when Jewish families have a Seder usually over the first 2 nights of Passover.

In case you don't know what passover is this is how Chabad.org explains it:

The eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. And, by following the rituals of Passover, we have the ability to relive and experience the true freedom that our ancestors gained. ( chabad.org)

I have a very small family with only one immediate family member alive still so I only have cousins left so the Holidays aren't a big deal for me generally. I am not religious at all and my family members aren't very religious either.

We had what I call a #SpeedSeder which means we skipped the religious traditions and just had dinner with most of the usual foods that are eaten at Passover. My cousin's wife cooked a beautiful meal this year.

We enjoyed Brisket which is cooked low and slow in the oven and accompanying it was roast potatoes, asparagus and zucchini. We started the meal with traditional chopped liver, gefilte fish, beets and matzoh ball soup. It's a pretty filling meal but it was all very tasty. We finished it off with some fruit and a chocolate cake for dessert.

For me I don't think you have to perform all the traditional lengthy prayers and rituals to acknowledge what has come before to allow you to be who you are now. I think just having a meal having the traditional foods keeps the memory alive. I never understood all the prayers and what they were for and all about anyway so I think a lot of it gets lost on the current generation anyway.

I think you should be free to keep or exclude any traditions that work or don't work for you.

The traditional Seder plate and foods include the following:


1) "Zeroa" - a roasted chicken bone with most of the meat removed. This will represent the Passover offering. It will not be eaten.
2) "Beitzah" - a hard-boiled egg, representing the festival offering.
3) "Maror" - grated horseradish (just the horseradish -- not the red stuff that has vinegar and beets added) and/or romaine lettuce, for use as the "bitter herbs".
4) "Charoset" - a paste made of apples, pears, nuts and wine. We'll be dipping the bitter herbs in this
5) "Karpas" - a bit of vegetable, such an onion or potato.
6) "Chazeret" -- more bitter herbs, for use in the matzah-maror sandwich.
We'll also need a wine cup or goblet for each participant, and plenty of wine (four cups each).

And a dish of salt water (in which to dip the Karpas).

I made the CHAROSET at home which was something my mother made once in a while which has wine in it but my mother never had the wine on hand so she used Brandy instead which I think makes it taste a whole lot more elevated and with a french feel. My mother was raised in Belgium, hence the Brandy/Cognac liberties.

In the Charoset I put a peeled apple, some walnuts, dates, the brandy and a tablespoon of honey. I also put in a few figs to give it some extra flavour. It's the easiest thing to make because all you do is food process the whole thing until it's a chunky paste. I suppose you would have fine chopped it making it the original way. It's really tasty when spread on a piece of matzoh. I will post the picture here............ once I pick up some matzoh's. I never realized how healthy it actually was but I think I will be eating some of it for breakfast this week.

Even if you don't celebrate Passover I encourage you to try some of the traditional Passover foods and get inspired to make them your own.

Jewish Food 2.0.1.2.

I go through food phases for some reason. One month I crave Southern Food, another month I crave French Food, this month I seem to be craving Jewish Food. I used to have good to bad jewish food when I was a kid depending on who made it. Most jewish food is fairly simple peasant style food but it's amazing how many people make it badly.

This week I attempted to make Chopped Liver and Brisket with current 2012 cooking techniques and trends. One was successful and one not so much.

My first attempt was the Chopped Liver. When I was a kid my mother would make it about once a year if that. Sometimes it was good...sometimes not so much. My dad would buy it at jewish deli stores when he wanted to have some. Also sometimes good ...sometimes average. I think I may have made it once in my life with my mom around but pretty much on my own. This time I made it on my own with my food network knowledge into improving it slightly. If it's not broke don't fix it but if it could use a boost...boost away.

I picked up a kosher package of chicken livers from No Frills, I would classify this as peasant food for sure since the package cost just about $2.00 so I would say this is a great thing to make for a group of people if you are on a budget.

I began by dredging the chicken livers in flour and setting aside for the flour to soak into the chicken livers.

I chopped 3 medium onions into rings and sauteed them in oil and salt and pepper until they were caramelized.

I took the onions out of the pan and then tossed in the chicken livers cooking them on medium until they were fully cooked. I added a good pinch of paprika and cayenne pepper to give it a slight kick of flavour and added salt and pepper to season.

Once the livers were cooked I added the onions back to the pan and a nob of butter and then added about a 1/4 cup of Brandy and let the alcohol cook down until the juices reduced.

I cooked 3 hard boiled eggs at the same time and peeled them.

I then put the chicken liver mixture into a food processor with the hard boiled eggs and on the chop function processed until smooth but still a little chunky. I toasted some slices of baguette to eat with the Chopped Liver. I also added a dash of olive oil on top of the chopped liver. Here's what it looked like:

This one was successful.

The Brisket not as much.

With the Brisket I started with searing the brisket in a pan and then setting it aside in a dutch oven.
I then added sliced onions, carrots, garlic, shallots, celery, parsnips, a bay leaf, tomato paste and salt and pepper into the pan to cook until tender. I then added about 2 cups of water and added the whole mixture into the dutch oven with the meat and then added Pomegranate syrup. That was one of the big mistakes. I added too much... as it reduces the sugar content increases so it's tough to judge how the end result will be. So I would recommend only adding about 2 tablespoons of pomegranate syrup just to add sweetness. I also added some worsteshire sauce and some soya sauce for color. I didn't have any beef stock but if I did I would have added that. You could also add some red wine but I didn't this time.

I then put it into the oven and cooked it for a few hours. A little too long.. I wanted to break down the meat to make it tender but it just dried it out a bit. It probably would have been better if I had put the whole thing in a crockpot and let it go slowly while checking it along the way for tenderness.

So those are my tips if you try and attempt to make this. It tasted ok but this one falls into it still needs tweaking area.

So why am I craving these Jewish Foods? I am not sure exactly but maybe it's because I don't have the relatives alive that used to make these things at family dinners. These are things I didn't grow up making. I would make things like Italian food or mexican foods.. things that my mother didn't make or didn't make well. My mother never mastered spaghetti so I had to learn how to do it right if I wanted to be able to eat it.

I guess I learned how to cook by trying to improve on whatever my mother couldn't master. If she mastered it I didn't attempt to make it. Every now and then now I miss some of those foods and have been trying to re create some of them. I will master my own recipes eventually.

Jewish Food 2.0 in 2012.