Passover 2006–

[Pam R]

As I grew older, I realized that that was because of evaporation.

That's gotta be one of my favorite eGullet lines. Thanks Michael!

[debbiemoose]

My husband is Jewish; I'm not. His family has never kept kosher, until his sister married someone a bit more serious whose children have gotten more into it. My husband is always in charge of the dessert: the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte from "The Cake Bible," which contains no flour, just eggs, butter and chocolate. The kids (now in college) will delay eating it because of the meat-milk thing, but they always want a piece held by for them. There will be 15 people this year, and I'm thinking we may need another dessert, although that cake's so rich you just need a small piece (my husband won't have time to make two cakes). I may try those Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies I found on the other thread. Or fruit sorbet sounds good, too.

After 24 years, I've gotten used to everything on the table, except...that gefilte fish...

BTW, my husband has used Callebaut chocolate in the past for the cake but is considering trying Scharffen Berger or Valhrona this year.

Oh, one funny Seder story - one year, when we opened the door for Elijah, the neighbor's cat walked in.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Oh, one funny Seder story - one year, when we opened the door for Elijah, the neighbor's cat walked in.

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Something very much like that happened to me and my dog went totally crazy and took off out the door after the cat. We finally grabbed him a block away .. so much for the sanctity of the seder ... Or, when I first was married and kept the house kosher for Passover with nothing made of flour ... a guest brought his little son who promptly strewed Apple Jacks all over my kitchen carpet ..

The dessert thing, Debbie, I do an Apple Charlotte which is sweet and cinnamony and it has been considered a success ...

[Swisskaese]

Oh, one funny Seder story - one year, when we opened the door for Elijah, the neighbor's cat walked in.

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Something very much like that happened to me and my dog went totally crazy and took off out the door after the cat. We finally grabbed him a block away .. so much for the sanctity of the seder ... Or, when I first was married and kept the house kosher for Passover with nothing made of flour ... a guest brought his little son who promptly strewed Apple Jacks all over my kitchen carpet ..

The dessert thing, Debbie, I do an Apple Charlotte which is sweet and cinnamony and it has been considered a success ...

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One year a deer came to the door and another year a possom.

My parent's house is surrounded by a forest.

I think I am going to make Gâteau à l'Orange et au Gingembre for my second dessert.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Swisskaese (log)

[Pam R]

One year a deer came to the door

If you had a shoichet in the family could you imagine the shank you could have had for the seder plate?

[Swisskaese]

One year a deer came to the door

If you had a shoichet in the family could you imagine the shank you could have had for the seder plate?

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Now that is funny!! I will have to tell my parents when I speak to them on Friday.

[KatieLoeb]

Oh, one funny Seder story - one year, when we opened the door for Elijah, the neighbor's cat walked in.

I knew someone this happened to, only it was a stray kitten.

Needless to say, Elijah lived a long happy life with their family.

If you had a shoichet in the family could you imagine the shank you could have had for the seder plate?

Would deer even be kosher if they were slaughtered appropriately? I thought they didn't chew cud or have the right type of hooves, but I seriously don't know since I don't keep kosher. Interesting question though. The idea of kosher venison for the seder dinner is appealing.

[Pam R]

Would deer even be kosher if they were slaughtered appropriately?

Yep. They're both ruminant and have split hooves. (as is giraffe by the way... I always wondered how soup made from giraffe neck would taste... )

Now, if I could get my hands on some Bison I'd like that for Passover... but I think I'm going to stick to the more traditional (because I can get it) poutry and beef. I am thinking about serving a recipe I tried the other night - roasted duck with a sour cherry sauce.

Or I'll sleep right through!

[Swisskaese]

Here is a source for Kosher bison and venison.

[Pam R]

Here is a source for Kosher bison and venison.

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it's a little harder to get bison here... I have a company in South Dakota who will try to get all the paperwork done after Pesach so that hopefully the Canadian Government will let it in.

and.... no giraffe sources?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Gedempte deer ..oy, Bambi, we have to have such rachmonis (mercy) on you ..

I am doing the Stuffed Breast of Veal, heaven help me ... it was a sensation last year so I am doing an encore ...

[JFLinLA]

My husband is Jewish; I'm not. His family has never kept kosher, until his sister married someone a bit more serious whose children have gotten more into it. My husband is always in charge of the dessert: the Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte from "The Cake Bible," which contains no flour, just eggs, butter and chocolate. The kids (now in college) will delay eating it because of the meat-milk thing, but they always want a piece held by for them. There will be 15 people this year, and I'm thinking we may need another dessert, although that cake's so rich you just need a small piece (my husband won't have time to make two cakes). I may try those Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies I found on the other thread. Or fruit sorbet sounds good, too.

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In addition to something chocolate, I always make almond macaroons (I don't like coconut). They are so easy -- almonds, egg whites, sugar, almond extract all in the food processor, that's it! And they taste great. You'll never buy that crap in the cans again. It's another dessert alternative that isn't chocolate and isn't fruit. Nick Malgieri also has a brown sugar-pecan macaroon that my kids really like.

[bloviatrix]

Meringues are another good option for dessert.

[KatieLoeb]

Would deer even be kosher if they were slaughtered appropriately?

Yep. They're both ruminant and have split hooves. (as is giraffe by the way... I always wondered how soup made from giraffe neck would taste... )

Now, if I could get my hands on some Bison I'd like that for Passover... but I think I'm going to stick to the more traditional (because I can get it) poutry and beef. I am thinking about serving a recipe I tried the other night - roasted duck with a sour cherry sauce.

Or I'll sleep right through!

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Well - I learn something new at eGullet every day! I had no idea that deer were ruminant or potentially kosher.

And the idea of kosher giraffe is just more than I can handle...

Here is a source for Kosher bison and venison.

Thanks for this. Im passing that along to some friends that like to cook and keep a kosher kitchen at home.

[sgschef]

I am getting my menu together for our Seder. Would you kindly share the stuffed breast of veal recipe and the almond macaroons. I have tried the macaroons with a number of recipes-but have had trouble with them spreading.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I am getting my menu together for our Seder.  Would you kindly share the stuffed breast of veal recipe

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Yes! on the veal ... momentarily .. and I do not make Macaroons.... ever!

[cakewalk]

Yesterday, after some diligent web-surfing, I compiled a four-page list of different haroset recipes. Moroccan haroset, Yemenite, Turkish, Egyptian, Surinamese!! Much of it is variations on a theme -- dried fruits and spices -- but the variations are fascinating ones. (I have it as a Word file, I wonder if there's any way I can get it on eGullet?) There is one Moroccan recipe that is rolled into balls and then rolled in chocolate, sort of a dessert haroset, which I am dying to try. There are an incredible number of variations on this stuff.

As for funny stuff happening at Seders, the weirdest for me was when I was about 14 or so. There was a fire in one of the buildings attached to ours -- nothing major, just a little fire that was extinguished quickly -- but one family went up to the roof, crossed over, and came down the fire escape. We were on the third floor of a six-story building. So they went down the fire escape knocking on people's windows to be let in. No one was home, of course, it being Pesach in a Jewish neighborhood, so it was only when they got to our window that they had some luck. I remember we were in the middle of the seder and we heard this knocking on the living room window. My father went over and opened it, and in marched, one at a time, Mrs. Neighbor, her daughter, her other daughter, a policeman, and then their dog! One after the other. My father invited them to stay, but they all declined.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The complete Veal Breast with Farfel Stuffing is now on Recipe Gullet .. will add photos when I make and before I serve it! Forgot to do so last year in all the Passover chaos ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

This just in from the Epicurious website today:

more charoset than the Israelites could ever imagine!

RECIPES

Traditional Apple-Walnut Charoset

Candied Walnut Charoset

Sephardic Charoset

Fig and Port Wine Charoset

Apricot-Pistachio Charoset

Orange-Ginger Charoset

and a wonderful article as well:

Recipes for charoset are as far-flung as the Jewish people. Across the Middle East, dried fruit is the primary ingredient, but some communities cook it, some soak it in water and then purée, and some simply chop all the ingredients finely. Yemenite Jews add pepper and coriander, resulting in a mixture characteristic of their spicy cooking. Persians, fond of sweet-and-sour flavors, use tangy pomegranate or vinegar. Iraqis (and Indian Jews, who originated in Iraq) boil dates down to a sweet syrup called halek and combine it with walnuts.

Italian varieties vary from family to family, including everything from almonds, apples, and pears to chestnuts, oranges, and even hard-boiled eggs. In Greece,

[racheld]

Through following a link to last year's "Asparagus" thread, I read a Passover menu that said the asparagus recipe they were using originally called for green beans, but since you couldn't cook those for Passover, they substituted asparagus.

Why no green beans?

[Pam R]

Why no green beans?

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Ha! We've been having the great green-bean debate at work this week.

For most - green beans are considered kitniyot (this dear rabbi guy explains it a bit..). Kitniyot being items that aren't exactly prohibited but are traditionally not eaten - unless you're a Sephardic Jew.

here's more on Kitniyot

[Rebecca263]

I'm Sephardic, but my daughter isn't, so no rice, no green beans here. I don't rub it in, that's mean!My ex husband wanted to eat rice, he thought that marrying me made it OK for him. Ha! No way, #0 boy. Besides, there is so much great food to cook during Passover, and my daughter LOVES matzoh, no matter what you do to it.

[JFLinLA]

My husband loves to tell the story of Uncle who is very frum and Ashkenazi. The first Passover he was married, he was appalled to find that his equally frum but Sephardic wife kept rice in the house. On consultation with the Rabbi they were told, it's OK to keep the rice in the house, she can eat it, you can't.

[Pan]

Just a side point on Indian Jews: I understand that the Calcutta community did indeed have Iraqi origins, and I wouldn't doubt that many of the Bombay Jews could also have Iraqi ancestry, but I do not believe this was true of the Cochin community.

[Miriam Kresh]

A little behind on this thread, for I fell sick right after my first post and just now am able to sit in front of the computer for a while. Change of weather in Israel, propitious to all kinds of respiratory tsuris!

Melissa, those Epicurious recipes are very intriguing. I'm going for the Candied Walnut Charoset; a little different, but not too daring a departure from the traditional walnut-apple recipe we've always used.

Cakewalk, that little story raised a chuckle. Reminds me of when we lived in Safed. In that small community, most doors are open to guests on Shabbat and Yom Tov, even - better said, especially - unexpected guests. We've had our share, and enjoyed them every time.

We lived in a house about 120 years old, maybe older, and many were the stories attached to the original owners. The grandmother, I've heard, would prepare an immense pot of cholent every Friday and come Shabbat morning, would stand on the porch dispensing bowls full of the hot, savory food to the needy. Then there was the Nadvorner Rebbe, ah"s, who, together with his wife, re-created a Romanian shteibel like the one they left behind during the Holocaust, right there in the dry, Mediterranean hills of Safed. His wife and daughters would also prepare an immense Kiddush every week, always the same, home-baked challa and a rich, old-fashioned cholent with everything in it. Anyone was welcome to enter and eat. You would see great rabbis in their brocade Shabbat clothes sitting down at the same table with an American tourist in his sunglasses, passing the plate to an elderly and indigent hippy, or in earnest conversation with a modest working man. You never knew who you might meet at the Nadvorner Rebbe's. That rebbe and his wife are gone now, but their son, the present rebbe, continues their tradition.

And I guess these memories are timely in this thread, for one of the first things we say during the Seder is, "This is the bread of poverty that our ancestors ate in Egypt. All who are hungry, come and partake of our feast...." All holidays are good for entertaining guests, but on Passover, I think, hospitality is sweetest.

Miriam