Yes, I know that Passover was nearly
five months ago, but I’ve been too busy to blog, until now. And, yes, I know that I had already done an “E” meal, but
this meal was special. To make a long
story short, I had three seders this year – one in Reading, PA with Davida’s
family on the Saturday before
Passover started (so everyone could conveniently attend over the weekend); one
on the first night at the home of friends nearby in Maryland, (Alan and Erica, guests
at E is for Ecuador);
and one at our apartment on the second night with Noah, Emily, and Becky,
Emily’s mother. The seder itself was
fairly simple – lots of discussion and singing, and of course lots of eating,
featuring Israeli/Middle Eastern food.
Not much of a stretch this time, in terms of exotic food, but quite an
enjoyable meal. Also, we hadn’t brought
any of our Passover dishes to D.C., so we made do with paper plates and plastic
ware. Oh, and the “shank bone” is the wishbone
of the goose (see D is for Denmark)! Talk about making do with what you have!
Charoset:
There
are dozens of different recipes for charoset.
While I much prefer the apples/wine/walnut Ashkenazi version that I grew
up with, I have experimented over the years with various Sephardi recipes. These recipes tend to have more sweet fruits,
such as dates and raisins. This charoset
recipe seemed to be somewhat of a compromise – it has dates and raisins, like
many Sephardi recipes, but also walnuts and apples common to Ashkenazi
recipes. The ginger also gives it a bit
of a kick. Personally, I found it a bit
too sweet, but it was very good on matzah.
The Main Dish:
I was really
excited when I found this recipe for chicken shawarma! I
just love a good shawarma, and this recipe promised to taste very much like the
spit-roasted meat, but made in an oven.
The recipe insists on using some thigh meat, but all we had available
was boneless chicken breasts, so it may have been a bit drier than it could
have been, but it was definitely tasty.
I did take the recipe’s advice and sauteed the chicken after baking it,
which definitely improved the taste.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t enjoy the shawarma with a good pita or lafa,
but it’s now in my “keepers” folder, and I’ll be enjoying home-made shawarma
for years to come.
The Starches:
This is the first
year that I decided to follow the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly’s ruling on
kitniyot – much to Davida’s delight, since she could eat rice every day, for
every meal. I have tried to make Persian
rice before, where the rice forms a crunchy crust at the bottom of the pot, but
without much success. So I figured, why
not try again for my first rice-on-Passover meal. Fortunately, I found a fairly easy recipe for
saffron rice made in the Persian style using Basmati
rice, my favorite. The results were not
quite as pretty as the picture on the recipe page, and some of the rice was a
little burnt, but it was, nonetheless, very tasty with a wonderful crunchy
texture. In keeping with the
Sephardi/Ashkenazi theme of the meal (and being a bit nervous about the rice
coming out right), Davida made a traditional potato-zucchini kugel:
·
6 medium potatoes
·
1 medium onion
·
3 medium zucchini
·
6 eggs, beaten
·
2 Tbsp oil
·
1.5 tsp salt
·
1/8 tsp pepper
·
½ cup matzah meal
Peel potatoes and
place in a large bowl of cold water.
Peel onion and zucchini. Cut
vegetables in large chunks and grate in food processor. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees until
golden brown, about 1-1.5 hours.
The kugel was quite
tasty, and a nice complement to the rest of the meal.
The Vegetables:
Sticking with the Passover theme of roasting, I decided to make a roasted
vegetable. This roasted cauliflower recipe
looked good, although I eliminated the Parmesan cheese, of course. When shopping, we chose a head of cauliflower
that was way too small, which I didn’t realize until it was time to begin
cooking. I had to throw in some zucchini
that was left over from the kugel to make up for it. I think it would have been better had it just
been cauliflower, but it wasn’t too bad, all in all (although, in retrospect,
it doesn’t look very appetizing). To top
it off, Davida made an Israeli salad – chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red and
yellow peppers, and parsley, with a simple salt, pepper and lemon juice
dressing. It was very refreshing!
The Dessert:
Afikomen, of course! Love that matzah!!
Up next: Fiji!
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