Your Passover Seder Menu: Shulchan Orech

[Gifted Gourmet]

We do have a number of threads here on Passover, the soups, matzo brei, and the main one is some 15 pages long! ... this is a great help to us and a guide for the bewildered on how to prepare the consummate Seder meal .. for some, there are two nights of celebration at the beginning of the holiday ... some only observe one such night.

So, because Passover for 2005 is only one week away now, my question is simply "Have you made your Passover Menu yet?" and "Will you share it?"

Mine (currently) looks like this:

Appetizers:

Gravlax platter garnished with grape tomatoes, black olives, red onions

Spring salad of escarole, radicchio, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives served with a garlicky, parslied wine vinaigrette

Classic golden chicken soup with parslied fluffy matzo balls

Veal breast stuffed with farfel, onion, celery, red pepper, sage and thyme, diced Polish sausage

Potato Kugel, golden and custardy

Roasted asparagus Mimosa

Baby Carrots with Port & orange marmalade glaze

Chocolate and fresh raspberry Mousse Cake and/or

Caramel Butter Matzo Crunch (a la Marcy Goldman)

Fresh sliced fruit plate: navel oranges, strawberries, green grapes

Wine

Chocolate truffles and candied fruit slices

What will your menu look like?

[bloviatrix]

I just hope the food at the hotel is edible. Otherwise, I'll be miserable. I'm bringing lots of wine, just in case.

[coughy]

Gifted Gourmet - you make your menu sound so delicious. This year I am serving to an audience of 26:

Chicken Soup with Matza Balls - hold the parsley

Gefilite fish terrine

chopped liver

meatballs - sweet and sour

roast turkey

brisket

salmon - haven't decided how I will make it yet - either grilled or baked

grilled asparagus

cucumber and red onion salad

matzah apple kugel

vegetable kugel

sweet potato kugel

potato kugel - that I made and froze yesterday and it is delicious!

fresh fruit

assorted cakes and cookies

I wish you all a happy and healthy Passover.

[Pam R]

I'm almost shocked to tell you that I'm not cooking for my own seder! One night my extended family is off to a hotel (oy), the other we'll be at a cousins.

Having said that, I am cooking for about 100 family' seders

[bloviatrix]

I guess that's the caterer's version of the shoemaker's kids going barefoot.

[Lucylu]

Moderator Note: I deleted the duplicate posts. Rachel

oops. I think I pushed the wrong button to reply. I'm fairly new here...

Just asking about your potato kugel, golden and custardy. I've tried several recipes and they are always leaden, major disappointments. Bleech. Would you kindly share your recipe?

Edited April 21, 2005 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Just asking about your potato kugel, golden and custardy.

Would you kindly share your recipe?

←

Absolutely!

5 large peeled potatoes

1 medium-sized onion (or even a large onion if I want a stronger flavor)

1/3 cup matza meal

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper (or even white pepper)

2-3 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp oil (or schmaltz)

(optional: carrot and parsley can be chopped with the onion .. gives it some color)

Wash and shred (in a food processor) the potatoes and chop the onion. Mix dry ingredients with eggs, potatoes, and onion. Mix everything together, and pour into a *2 qt oiled baking dish. Dot the top with oil. Bake with 375 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, until top is crusty brown.

I work fast after shredding the potatoes lest they turn foul grey ...

* now I line the baking dish with Reynolds Release foil for easy removal!!

[Rachel Perlow]

Melissa, I'm thinking of making your potato kugel, but I have some questions:

• 1) What kind of potatoes? Are russets OK? The ones I have don't seem that large, how much by weight is 5 large? (could you weigh yours?)
  2) Salt level: I generally don't like things too salty (like commercial mix potato kugel is too salty), but you definitely don't want to undersalt potato kugel, is that 1 tsp enough, alot, or just right? (inquired Goldy Lox. )
  

Thanks!

[Gifted Gourmet]

1) What kind of potatoes? Are russets OK? The ones I have don't seem that large, how much by weight is 5 large? (could you weigh yours?)

Russets are fine ... I don't weigh anything really, just 'eyeball' it ... if they don't seem large enough, add one or two more ...

2) Salt level: I generally don't like things too salty (like commercial mix potato kugel is too salty), but you definitely don't want to undersalt potato kugel, is that 1 tsp enough, alot, or just right? (inquired Goldy Lox. )

I know that potatoes absorb salt and, because I like things more salty, use a tsp ... sometimes adding more as I taste the raw mixture ... I know, not really a good idea ... One teaspoon won't be a problem I think ...

Grandma just threw things together and measured very few things but for her baked goods .... she also never wrote a recipe down but could tell me orally ...

←

[Rachel Perlow]

Seriousy, a large potato could be anywhere from 8-16 oz. Do you buy the potatoes by the bag or loose? The ones in the bags are smaller. I have a 5 lb bag of russets which has 15 potatoes in it, some small (~2") a couple large (~5") the rest in between. If I just knew what size your large was, I could figure out how many of mine to use.

Thanks, sorry to be a PITA.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Hardly a PITA, Rachel, I would just pull out the largest in the bag and use them .. and, if that doesn't seem enough potato, use perhaps a couple of the smaller ones ... like I said, I rarely measure and do buy potatoes in the 5 or 10 pound bags.

[knews9]

here's my menu (serving 13):

chopped liver

sephardic haroset

***

hard boiled egg (may omit)

matzo ball soup

***

brisket (i use martha stewart's recipe)

whole salmon stuffed with fennel

cauliflower & leek kugel

roasted asparagus

***

carmel crunch matzo

chocolate dipped coconut macaroons

[Gifted Gourmet]

cauliflower & leek kugel

←

Lovely menu, knews9! Care to share more information on that cauliflower & leek kugel?

[Cleo]

cauliflower & leek kugel

←

Lovely menu, knews9! Care to share more information on that cauliflower & leek kugel?

←

I'm also making the cauliflower leek kugel from Bon Appetit's April issue.

[NancyH]

I am so jealous of all of you! April 3, my hubby stepped off of the staircase prematurely and landed on the hard tile floor, rupturing both patella tendons. Our Passover trip to NY has been cancelled, and I am too tired and frazzled to even consider a traditional holiday.

I did luck into 3 dozen "Blue Eggs" - fresh farmed in Columbia Station Ohio - so I'm going to make my usual brisket, potato kugel (to make it truly pudding-like - use the smallest grating wheel on the Cuisinart, the one for hard cheese that has no holes, to grate the potato and onion), a sweet farfel pudding (lots of eggs and margerine and a touch of apricot), and maybe Matzoh balls if I can find a pre-made soup worthy of putting them in.

Thank you for the link to the Cauliflower-leek kugel - I just might try that, too!

Chag Samaich to you all, and better luck next year, I guess.

[Rachel Perlow]

Just asking about your potato kugel, golden and custardy.

Would you kindly share your recipe?

←

Absolutely!

5 large peeled potatoes

1 medium-sized onion (or even a large onion if I want a stronger flavor)

1/3 cup matza meal

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper (or even white pepper)

2-3 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp oil (or schmaltz)

(optional: carrot and parsley can be chopped with the onion .. gives it some color)

Wash and shred (in a food processor) the potatoes and chop the onion. Mix dry ingredients with eggs, potatoes, and onion. Mix everything together, and pour into a *2 qt oiled baking dish. Dot the top with oil. Bake with 375 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, until top is crusty brown.

I work fast after shredding the potatoes lest they turn foul grey ...

* now I line the baking dish with Reynolds Release foil for easy removal!!

←

Figuring 5 large potatoes was about 3.5 lbs, I used about 2/3 of the bag of potatoes, one large onion, one carrot. It was too much for the 2.5 quart casserole I had planned on baking in, so I figured I used too much potato. So when mixing in the rest of the ingredients, I upped the matzo meal to 1/2 cup and used 4 eggs. Tasting the batter, it needed more salt, so I added another 1/2 tsp. I oiled the pan and dotted the top with schmaltz (shh, don't tell my mother, she freaks out about schmaltz, let alone my fat-phobic sister-in-law ). It's in the oven now. Since it's going to be reheated tomorrow, I'm baking it at 350 for only an hour. Actually, I just covered the top with foil, as I don't want it to overbrown today.

As I said, I made too much for the pan I planned to use, so there's an extra loaf pan of the mix in the fridge. I'm using the toaster oven to bake the large one, so there's no room for the small one too. The large one went into the oven with the potatoes nice and white (I grated the potato last and made sure to mix it up with everything else very quickly), I'm interested to see if the potato will remain white sitting in the fridge for while before baking. Alternatively, I was thinking of just freezing the smaller one for later baking -- Do you think I could freeze it raw?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Alternatively, I was thinking of just freezing the smaller one for later baking -- Do you think I could freeze it raw?

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Doubtful in the extreme!! ... bake it and then freeze is what I have always heard and done .. frozen raw potatoes give off water and will mess up the kugel's texture ... Just finished my potato kugel and put it in to bake ..

and the farfel-onion-bell pepper stuffing is tucked into the veal breast ... hasn't begun to "perfume" the air yet but soon ... extra stuffing that didn't fit the veal pocket went into a casserole dish ...

[Rachel Perlow]

Jason overrulled freezing the small one anyway. The large one just came out of the oven, and the smell is so intoxicating, I had to bake the smaller one so we can get a taste preview!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Jason overrulled freezing the small one anyway. The large one just came out of the oven, and the smell is so intoxicating, I had to bake the smaller one so we can get a taste preview!

←

Deja vu, Rachel! When it first comes out of the oven, I often dig out a tiny section of one of the corners .. it is, as you put it so well, intoxicating!

[Rachel Perlow]

I think the solution (so that there's no evidence of picking!) if you only have enough for the one pan and don't make a huge overage, is to bake a scoop of it in a little ramiken. That way you can get a taste about halfway into the baking and sooth the aroma induced cravings!

[Rachel Perlow]

Melissa, thanks again for the potato kugel recipe. It was universally loved by everyone. I have a new yearly assignment (in addition the the charoses).

[Gifted Gourmet]

Melissa, thanks again for the potato kugel recipe. It was universally loved by everyone. I have a new yearly assignment (in addition the the charoses).

←

Predictable! Glad it was a success! I have made it for many years and it is always well received and I always nosh on it before anyone arrives .. there is actually a way to do this without leaving any "telltale" footprints

Along with my pepper-confettied stuffed veal breast, I wound up making an apple (GS), currant, yam, carrot tzimmes for the "starch" at my second seder .. my sister-in-law asked me for 2 potato kugels to serve to her guests at both seders ... quel chutzpah!!

[Jesikka]

Anyone know what they're making this year?

[Cleo]

I'm making a pretty simple dinner for 11 (including 4 kids):

Chicken soup

Matzo balls

Haroset

Brisket

Chicken with 40 Cloves of garlic

Potato kugelettes

A spinach something or broccoli something

Any suggestions on what to do with the spinach or broccoli? Maybe some type of souffle?

My sister is in charge of desserts.

[Jesikka]

I'm making:

Sole wrapped asparagus with tangerine beurre blanc sauce

French onion soup with mini matzoh balls and crispy duck skin (adding crackery crunch)

Pomegranate braised lamb

Horseradish mashed potatoes

Sweet and sour carrots

(Green thing TBD)

For dessert:

Torta de carote with cream cheese ice cream

Chocolate sherry cake

Strawberry rhubarb compote