Passover 2006–

[chamekke]

I also got lazy and decided to put a small handful of parsley in the Magic Bullet along with the egg whites to save myself chopping it up by hand.  Unfortunately, the egg whites and chopped parsley turned the matzoh ball batter entirely GREEN!!

Here's what the final result looked like:

Doesn't look quite as green in the photo, but it is indeed, a pretty shade of light and speckled green.

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Just wanted to say that I love your green matzoh ball! Very spring-like - and quite pretty

[Pierogi]

Will paper towels work instead of cheese cloth?  Any other possible substitute?  I have cheese cloth garni bags - but not too many potatoes will fit in those  .  And I don't want to send my husband out to Williams Sonoma at 10 tomorrow morning to pick up a square yard of cheese cloth (I need him to help me peel potatoes!).  Robyn

P.S.  Coarse or fine shredder blade?

A clean (non-terry cloth) kitchen towel will work just fine as well. As will the previously suggested colander. I sort of prefer the towel route, it seems to remove more liquid.

[Mikels]

Robyn:

Definitely use the shredder blade.  Then squeeze everything through cheesecloth or it'll be too watery.  The start up makings for either latkes OR potato kugel.  Your choice...

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Will paper towels work instead of cheese cloth? Any other possible substitute? I have cheese cloth garni bags - but not too many potatoes will fit in those . And I don't want to send my husband out to Williams Sonoma at 10 tomorrow morning to pick up a square yard of cheese cloth (I need him to help me peel potatoes!). Robyn

P.S. Coarse or fine shredder blade?

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I use the fine blade. You can put the shredded potatoes in cold water with a bit of lemon juice to remove the surface starch and keep them white, then squeeze them out by hand.

[KatieLoeb]

Aw shucks! Thanks Chamekke! I'll let you all know how the green matzoh balls went over with the guests after dinner this evening...

[robyn]

Well - necessity is the mother of invention. Lacking some of the items mentioned here - what we did with the potatoes was as follows. I shredded them in the food processor using a coarse shredding disk. Note that I have a Kitchenaid food processor that only came with 2 shredding disks - fine and medium/coarse. I used the latter. Then I put the shreds (there were multiple batches) in a colander - and gave them a quick rinse. Then my husband put them in a chinois and pressed the heck out of them. Then he gave them a final drying in a lint free towel. The shreds came out very dry - they looked pretty good - and the final product is now in the oven. I'll take a picture and let you know how it tastes after tonight.

FWIW - this is really a 2 person job IMO if you want to get the potatoes done quickly.

BTW - HERE is the recipe I used (from recipe gullet). Thanks for your help. Robyn

[Lior]

A bit late-been soooo busy...

Yemenite charoset a la my MIL:

500 g pitted dates, best Madjoul type

300 g nuts-she uses only walnuts but pecans can also be used in addition to walnuts

In a meat grinder alternate between putting the nuts and dates in. At the end add about 100g or so ground almonds and at least 1 and 1/2 cups of sweet kiddush wine. You may need a bit more. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and powdered ginger.

This is a charoset the young adults in our family are literally addicted to.

[robyn]

Well here is my potato kugel. Looked very nice - had a good texture. But it was a little bland. Probably didn't use enough salt (original recipe called for 2 tsp and I put in perhaps half of that). I suspect that is the nature of the beast unless you use a heavy hand with the salt shaker. Robyn

[nibor]

My roasted-veggie matzoh ball soup turned out super this year. Last year the broth was bland, the balls were like rocks.

This time I ended up making three different batches of broth. The first was too bitter, so I made another. It was too sweet. A third was too mushroomy. So I mixed to taste. Yum.

Fixing the balls was easy - I hardly compressed them at all; some fell apart, a bit, but enough were ok to get by.

Laugh for the day: I was googling around looking for hints on light matzoh balls, and found a Wolfgang Puck recipe that included baking powder.

[robyn]

Is baking powder not ok for Passover? The kugel recipe I found here (and followed) was written by someone who I think is Jewish - and it uses baking powder. I am not very religious - so I won't slit my wrists if baking powder is a no-no. Robyn

[KatieLoeb]

Isn't baking powder, by definition, a leavening agent?? I'm pretty sure that's not kosher for Passover...

[nibor]

Isn't baking powder, by definition, a leavening agent??  I'm pretty sure that's not kosher for Passover...

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I had always assumed it was not ok. Now, googling around, I see this is a matter of debate among some people; not among others.

[Mano]

Finished up the last of the brisket on Sunday with Orin Swift The Prisoner. YUM!

Warning for 2010 Passover!

Whatever you do, DO NOT EAT CHOPPED LIVER WITH CHAROSES.

You could get Charosis of the Liver.

[jaynesb]

Isn't baking powder, by definition, a leavening agent??  I'm pretty sure that's not kosher for Passover...

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I had always assumed it was not ok. Now, googling around, I see this is a matter of debate among some people; not among others.

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Baking powder is a chemical leavener as opposed to something that would result in leavening due to a fermentation process.

jayne

[Pam R]

Isn't baking powder, by definition, a leavening agent??  I'm pretty sure that's not kosher for Passover...

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I had always assumed it was not ok. Now, googling around, I see this is a matter of debate among some people; not among others.

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Baking powder is a chemical leavener as opposed to something that would result in leavening due to a fermentation process.

jayne

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I'll just add that looking at my Passover products lists, at least four companies make kosher for Passover baking powder - and I sold a lot of it this year.

[Lior]

2nd holiday!! I am tired of cooking!!!!

[KatieLoeb]

Isn't baking powder, by definition, a leavening agent??  I'm pretty sure that's not kosher for Passover...

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I had always assumed it was not ok. Now, googling around, I see this is a matter of debate among some people; not among others.

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Baking powder is a chemical leavener as opposed to something that would result in leavening due to a fermentation process.

jayne

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I'll just add that looking at my Passover products lists, at least four companies make kosher for Passover baking powder - and I sold a lot of it this year.

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Well then. I stand both corrected and better educated.

[Pam R]

Does everybody stick with traditional foods for the whole holiday or do you mix things up?

This was not exciting, but one of my favourite meals this year was some chicken thighs done "Greek" style (lemon, garlic, oregano, olive oil, s&p) served with a big cheeseless/Greekish salad.

After the seders and all of the cooking I do for the holiday, I think simple and light is great for the rest of the week.

If I never have to see another potato . . .

[jmolinari]

I was so desparate for pasta i made it using matzot i ground to a flour, added eggs, some water, and a touch of oil and salt. Treated like egg pasta but had to be very delicate with the rolling as it has no gluten so it tends to fall apart.

Boil for about 1 minute, and tossed with pesto it was actually much better than edible...it was almost good

[sh_kayam]

I was so desparate for pasta i made it using matzot i ground to a flour, added eggs, some water, and a touch of oil and salt. Treated like egg pasta but had to be very delicate with the rolling as it has no gluten so it tends to fall apart.

Boil for about 1 minute, and tossed with pesto it was actually much better than edible...it was almost good

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I've made gnocchi for passover before (not this year), and it's been very convincing, almost makes me feel like I'm cheating. Various recipes... using mashed potato, potato starch, matzah meal, and egg... sometimes butternut squash instead of potato.

Tonight I'm going to make hot-pot for some friends, and planning throw konnyaku "noodles" into the broth.

[avibenshi]

My family is split half ashkenazi, half sefaradi. Every year there is a battle between one aunt's Gefiltefish and another one's spicy fish balls. Spicy allways wins

[Pam R]

Avi, can you tell us more about the spicy fish balls?

[erqwerty]

Hi from Australia

Until this year we always had a traditional Ashkenazi passover - gefilte fish, chicken soup with lneidl, the whole megilla but after studi\ying the development of Jewish foodways from biblical times it all changed this year.

We had what w imagine would be a typical Sephardi seder - fish with peppers, Jerusalem artichoke soup, a chicken cumquot tagine and a beef an date tagine with cous cous. It all worked rally well.

[JFLinLA]

Just thought I'd pop this to the top of the list as it's just about 2 weeks to go. What are you thinking about for the holiday?

[KatieLoeb]

Sharing a predominantly vegetarian Passover feast (there will be some fish for those that want it) with my friend and her family that I always share Passover with. Am making the usual horseradish, haroset and will help with the vegetarian matzoh balls and a walnut torte for dessert the night before.

[TarteTatin]

Sam has an amazing flourless chocolate cake if you'd like the recipe.

It's something like a pound of butter, a pound of chocolate and 8 eggs.

Decadent.