My version of Passover

Happy Passover to everyone observing Passover traditions with Seders over the next couple of nights.

Last year I celebrated Passover by inviting 3 of my friends over for dinner.  Not my original idea, but one of my friends wanted to do something for Passover.  At the end of it all I spent about 3 days preparing everything,  the food was delicious but my bar cart was a casualty at the end of the night and I spent the next couple of days cleaning up.  In total I spent about $200 on food for 4 people.

Well this year I just don't have that kind of money to spend on one meal, although my friend kept trying to justify it by saying I would have all the leftovers.  He was also supposed to chip in to cover a bit of the cost but that never happened.

So this year it's me alone but I will do my own version of Passover.   Although I have cousins who have their own busy lives I don't have my own family to spend Passover with but I am ok with this and if you knew my family you would understand why.

So this year I am going to do a combination of things I make and things I buy.  I know lots of people just cater their whole Passover dinners these days but there are some things that I just like to make myself that are better but some things are just not as cost effective to buy for 1 person.

For example,  I went to a Thornhill deli and picked up a small container of chopped liver.  Although mine is much better I always make too much and I can never finish it.  I also bought some sweet Gefilte Fish.  I never make this,  my mother would make it once every couple of years, it was never a regular thing and it wasn't something I was ever interested in making.  It's a bit of a long process and you have to search out special white fish.   For one person this is just a whole lot of time for a couple of pieces of Gefilte fish.  I also picked up 1 potato latke to try and realized that I like my latkes a whole lot better so I made a batch of them from scratch this morning.  You can see the difference in the photo of the 4 dishes all of those things were purchased at the Deli or other stores.  The latke photo on the top of the page are my own.  The one that I purchased was dense and greasy and it wasn't that flavourful either.  I add parsley flakes to mine and pepper and grated onion.  This time I also tried a trick I picked up from the Foodshare cookbook where they separate the eggs and whip the egg whites and then add them to the whole mixture.  This makes them a lot lighter than the usual latkes.   Most of the time I just make a Rostii style potato pancake that's crispy with no onions or eggs.  Just potatoes.

The other things I always make myself is Chicken Soup because it's really easy, it just takes a bit of time but I can control the amount of salt and flavour and I know there are no additives to it.  I use a package of Matzo balls though when I want matzo balls because it's just easier and it always turns out that way.  We always had a debate in our family,  my cousins preferred hard matzo balls while I like them light and fluffy.

I also make the Charoset which is a mixture of fruits and nuts.  I like to add Brandy and figs to the dates with walnuts and apples and cinnamon.  It's kind of like a chunky sweet spread that makes plain matzo's taste a whole lot better.  It's actually a great thing to have any time of day because of the ingredients, well you can skip the Brandy but it does infuse the flavour of it.  It would be a great thing to have with cheese even after Passover.  If you skip the apples and use only dried fruits you can keep it a lot longer.

I never buy Macaroons but I bought some to try and I think I prefer the ones I made myself last year.  I just didn't bother to make them this year.  A case of too much time and not worth making a batch just for myself.

One thing that occurred to me was that most of the foods seem to be either beige or brown.  I am not sure why that is exactly but I do know that my mother the color loving person that she was always made a special dish of roasted peppers with tomatoes that my cousins loved.  Yes it's not traditional but it tasted good on matzo's.

I am skipping the all day brisket making and will just make a piece of roasted chicken breast which is a whole lot healthier and more traditional for my immediate family.  My aunt would make a really dry brisket but my mother would make a roast chicken instead.  I don't think she knew how to make Brisket.  Probably better that she made chicken well instead of dried out brisket I suppose.

Well I am skipping any family drama and all the boring prayer books and other things that go along with the Passover traditions and I am just going to stick to eating some of my favourite Passover foods and honouring some of the things I learned from my mother and my aunts Passover dinners.

Enjoy your Passover dinners may they be tasty and stress free.

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.