Sandra Levine

My post of a couple of weeks ago is still wherever the missing posts are, but we went back last Thursday and thought it was even better the second time. It's just steps from the Vernon-Jackson stop on the #7. For those of us in the neighborhood -- a culinary wasteland since Stick to your Ribs decamped, the restaurant is a godsend. The contemporary bistro food is well prepared and presented, the service is knowledgable and friendly and the ambiance is warm. With a bottle of Cote du Rhone (don't remember the specifics), our meal came to $92, which represents a very good value. Alan started with a pureed carrot soup, while I had house-made duck liver pate, garnished with a little salad. Magret for Alan followed, cooked perfectly rare, fanned out properly on the plate over deliciously buttery mashed potatoes. I had grilled salmon with a buttery basil sauce. Alan's dessert was tarte tournesol, the pastry arranged on the plate to resemble the eponymous sunflower. I had a trio of sorbets, cassis, mango and lemon, tart and refreshing. Again, there were several tables of French speakers in the restaurant. There was no nonsense about bottled water. Has anyone else been here? Eric Asimov featured it in his under $25 column. see below: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/dining/27UNDE.html

That bakery is called, I believe, "Something Sweet," and their macaroons are wonderful -- comparable to those you can get in Paris. BUT...they are nothing like Passover macaroons.

Potatoes can be peeled and held, covered with water, for several hours prior to cooking. Salad can be assembled and held in the bowl in the refrigerator as long as it is not dressed. (It should be removed early enough to return to serving temperature. If there are onions oe avocados, though, I wait until just before serving to add them.)

I know just what you mean, but it also has a certain sweetness that seems appropriate.

M-mmmm. Do you make it with egg matzah or plain?

Matzah brie. Actually, when I was growing up, we called it fried matzah. For anyone looking at this board who doesn't know what it is, it's savory French toast made with matzah that has been softened in cold water before being borken into beaten eggs and sauteed in butter or oil. Usually, only salt and pepper are added at the table.

Do you cook at home on your day(s) off? If so, what do you like to prepare and eat at home?

Has anyone seen this book? I'm intrigued.

Sounds like the Levine family seder, which I compiled and re-wrote from a variety of sources many years ago. We go around the table and take turns reading. Over the years, certain passages have become associated with certain family members. Franklanguage -- be sure to use a two-part angel food cake pan with a removable bottom. I've edited the posted recipe accordingly. I have only 10" pans, but if I had a 12" pan, I would use that instead of the 10-incher plus the 8" or 9" layer. You will need to run a knife around the side to release the cake. Don't worry about the eggs. The cake is big -- it serves a lot of people.

I have many recipes for sponge cake, but none compare to Aunt Ida's for taste and texture. It's good enough to eat at other times of the year, something I've never been able to say about the typical Passover sponge cake. That being said, it's still spongecake, although lighter, higher and more flavorful than any other I've ever had. (I think it's the full cup of orange juice that makes the difference. I would be thrilled to know that that cake had been served at Judith Malina's seder! Let us know what you finally decide and how it was received.

Come on! At least, offer a translation.

Ice cream or sorbet in a "tropical" fruit flavor would be appropriate. So would oeufs a la neige, I realized tonight, when I had it for dessert at Tournesol, a new French bistro in Queens. (My husband said it reminded him of ras malai.) Not exactly. What is needed, I think, is something soothing and cool.

It's from the song, "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," in the musical Finian's Rainbow by "Yip" Harburg and Burton Lane.

Ruby, I agree with you that cioppino tastes different from zuppe di pesce. A few years ago, a friend served me cioppino that had that special taste and, responding to prodding, admitted that she had used Trader Joe's bottled cioppino sauce. I didn't read the ingredients. Could it be that the secret is using a pre-made sauce? Scandalous!

London Lennie's on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park, Queens

Similarly, because a deer is a ruminant (chews its cud) and has a cloven hoof, venison is kosher if the deer is slaughtered according to the laws of kashruth.

I have always felt that lamb would be the most appropriate meat to serve at a seder, but we have several family members who do not eat red meat, especially lamb -- the cuteness factor having taken hold. (The cuteness factor being, IMO, one of the most powerful reasons for making the choice to be vegetarian, even if it goes unrecognized by the vegetarian in question or disguised as the humane angle.)

For an evocative description of the complexities of something as simple as boiled beef, take a look at "Tafelspitz for the Hofrat," an essay in Blue Trout and Black Truffles. a compilation of articles and autobiographical essays by Joseph Wechsberg, first published in 1953 and still available in paperback. Wechsberg was born in 1907 in Moravia. His writing is a window on a long-lost world, where, in Vienna there was an elegant restaurant that served no fewer than twenty-four different kinds of boiled beef and patrons were known to the staff by their favorite cuts. Wechsberg conveys the atmosphere and attitude as well as the food of a time, place and era.

I'm guessing that Jinmyo is thin.

You may consider those at Sapphire unsatisfactory, but, admittedly, without a reliable benchmark, I thought they were the best I've ever had.

It wouldn't be Passover without it.

I also make a "Sephardic" haroses, based on chopped dates rather than apples. It is fennel bulbs in the soup and for the life of my I cannot figure out why anyone could construe this vegetable as chometz, but I thought I would pass on the information, in case it mattered to anyone. Some years I make a chocolate jelly roll, using a naturally flourless recipe.

The salmon rolls and the soup were from Epicurious. The salmon rolls are very labor intensive and I've thought of switching to quenelles, too. Aunt Ida's Sponge Cake also calls for 12 eggs: 12 eggs, separated 1 cup matzah cake meal 1/2 cup potato starch 1 tablespoon oil 2 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablesppoon vanilla extract 1 cup orange juice 1. Sift cake meal and potato starch together and set aside. 2. Add oil and vanilla to egg yolks. Add sugar and salt while beating. 3. Continuing to beat, add orange juice alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Beat some more until creamy. 4. Beat egg whiltes until stiff, and fold into egg yolk mixture. 5. Pour batter to about 1 1/2" from the top of an ungreased 10" tube pan (an angel-food cake pan, with removable sides.) Bake at 325 degrees F. for 50-60 minutes. (There will be anough batter left over for an additional 8" or 9" round cake.) 7. Invert to cool.

When my mother-in-law turned the Seder responsibility over to me, I decided to change the menu. We were used to having the usual Ashkenazi (middle and Eastern-European) fare: gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzah balls, roast chicken or turkey, etc. Passover is really hard on someone who doesn't get gefilte fish. Like Jason on another holiday thread, I find the Sephardic (Mediterranean) Jewish food more appealing. For the past couple of years, I've been serving this menu: Fennel, Leek and Spinach Soup Fennel is considered to be chometz (not kosher for Passover) by some Askenazi Jews, but not by my family Salmon Rolls with Dill Sauce (wrapped in thin zucchini slices, they look like maki -- we call them "Jew-shi") Chicken Marbella (from The Silver Palate Cookbook (using half the sugar) Asparagus Roasted Potatoes and Artichoke Bottoms Chocolate Almond Torte with Strawberry Sauce or Chocolate Cake Roll Aunt Ida's Sponge Cake (my husband's aunt's recipe -- the only Passover sponge cake worth eating) It's really a good meal -- you'd hardly know it's Passover. What do you make?

Not exactly an ingredient...but I store the cannister for my ice cream maker in the freezer, so it's ready to go at any time. Frozen raspberries and strawberries are good, especially for making dessert sauces.