Posts from the Passover Category at Slashfood

Feast Your Eyes: Prepared gefilte fish

Posted Apr 21st 2008 10:02AM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Fish, Feast Your Eyes, Passover

Saturday afternoon, Scott and I picked up my great-aunt Belle and drove out to my cousin's house for my family's Seder dinner. It was Scott's first Seder and Belle's 90th, so she gave him a quick rundown of what expect on the way out there. The Seder dinner was moderately traditional, starting out with a shortened Haggadah gefilte fish and matzo ball soup (the addition of fresh dill made the matzo balls particularly delicious) and then ending with roasted lamb, string beans and matzo kugel.

It was the first time that Scott tasted gefilte fish, and when the verdict was that it wasn't too bad at all. Our gefilte fish was nice looking, but not quite as lovely as the stuff you see above. Thanks for the picture, C(h)ristine!

Shortage of kosher-for-Passover margarine

Posted Apr 18th 2008 1:03PM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Newspapers, Passover

Earlier today, I came across this recipe for Mandelbread that uses matzo meal and is kosher for Passover. I thought about throwing it together after work today for a potluck I'm heading to later tonight. One of the things that makes this recipe appropriate for this time of year is that is uses kosher-for-Passover margarine (admittedly, I would probably cheat and use regular old butter since I'm not worried about staying kosher).

However, there are lots of Jews out there for whom keeping kosher for Passover is deeply important and this year it's a little bit harder, because there's currently a shortage of that kosher-for-Passover margarine that the recipe calls for. This margarine is essential for Passover baking, because it can go with either milk or dairy meals, making the resulting baked goods far more flexible than they would be if they are baked with butter (made from dairy, you cannot serve anything with butter if it's a meat meal).

Part of the shortage has to do with the fact that this margarine can only be made with cottonseed or palm oil. Currently, there is a shortage of cottonseed oil, driving the price to an all-time high. Also, several kosher-for-Passover margarine manufacturers have recently gotten out of the business, increasing the scarcity.

So, if you planned on baking with kosher-for-Passover margarine this holiday season, you may well in be in for something of a challenge.

[via WSJ]

Feast Your Eyes: Matzo for Passover

Posted Apr 18th 2008 8:01AM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Feast Your Eyes, Bread, Passover

Passover starts Saturday night, the holiday during which Jews give up all leavened products for a period of 7 or 8 days. Instead, we eat matzo. Stacks and stacks of matzo. However, until I saw this picture, I never really thought about how beautiful such a basic food item could be. Thanks Ohad*, for the lovely image!

Charoset, the best-tasting mortar around

Posted Apr 17th 2008 3:01PM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Recipes, Fruit, Holidays, Passover

Yesterday, I asked you guys for some help with a savory matzo kugel (thanks to all who commented and pointed me in the direction of recipes, I do appreciate the help). I want to return the favor by offering one of my very favorite Passover recipes, for charoset. Charoset appears on the Passover menu in order to represent the mortar that the Jews used to build structures during their enslavement.

However dark and unappealing the inspirational source, the resulting dish is delicious. It is a combination of chopped apples, almonds, walnuts, honey, spices and a little wine (or grape juice). You can make a little or a lot, and the leftovers are wonderful with some greek yogurt for breakfast or over a bed of baby greens for lunch. Check out my recipe after the jump, but know that you can adapt it to your own tastes (tossing a handful of raisins in is never a bad idea).

Continue reading Charoset, the best-tasting mortar around

Last minute kosher for Passover dessert idea

Posted Apr 17th 2008 1:00PM by Stefani Pollack
Filed under: Chocolate, Sugar, Passover

Whatever dessert you end up having for Passover, please avoid those macaroons in the can. At the Passover Seder, we traditionally ask 4 questions. I propose adding a 5th question: Why on all other nights do we eat baked goods that come in bags, boxes, or direct from the oven and on this night we eat baked goods from a can?

Even moving past canned macaroons, I'm not typically a big fan of Passover desserts. These kosher for Passover chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting, however, are so tasty that I could eat them year round. One of my friends even told me it was the best cupcake she had ever had!

They are extremely rich - almost like fudge - so if you have mini cupcake wrappers, you might consider using those instead of normal-sized ones. You could also make the cupcake recipe in cake format.

The recipe can be found on Cupcake Project.

I need some Passover help

Posted Apr 16th 2008 2:58PM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Bread, Passover

Passover, the holiday that lasts for a week and requires that observant Jews give up any leavened bread/grain product for the duration, starts this Saturday. My extended family isn't particularly observant, so while we're having a Seder dinner (the traditional Passover meal that includes a lengthy service called the Haggadah) we're cutting the Haggadah section of the meal down to a manageable five minutes.

The one place where we aren't breaking from tradition is that the actual meal will be Kosher, with no leavened dishes on the table. For the first time ever, I've been assigned a dish to bring (I guess my cousins figure that since I'm nearly 29, I can handle it). They asked me to bring a savory matzo kugel (pudding). I've made noodles kugels and sweet matzo kugels in the past, but I've never made exactly the thing that I've been asked to create.

So Slashfood readers, I need your help. Point me in the direction of your favorite savory matzo kugel recipes! If you have a family recipe that you are willing to share, pop it into the comments section. My family and I thank you!

The New York Times Dining & Wine Section in 60 seconds: politics, Passover, pecan muffins

Posted Apr 16th 2008 8:00AM by Emily Matchar
Filed under: East Coast, Business, Recipes, Newspapers, America, Celebrities, Passover

cartoon of donky and elephant eating together

Pollsters are now looking at how consumer behavior, including eating, affects voter choice. Dr. Pepper is for Republicans, Sprite is for Democrats. Clinton supporters snack on Fig Newtons, McCain fans on stuffed-crust pizza. While some results are weird, others are predictable - Whole Foods is a dead giveaway of liberal orientation.

Cookbook author Susie Fishbein is providing observant Jews with gourmet Passover recipes, including turmeric, tomato and spinach matzoh balls.

**#!*@! souffle! *$*#*!* emulsification! Chefs like to curse in the kitchen. Really.

Eric Asimov talks kosher wine - you don't have to be Jewish to like them.

The Minimalist does Hangtown Fry - eggs, bacon and...oysters.

Cakes masquerading as muffins make breakfast less guilty. Includes a recipe for spicy ginger muffins with currants and toasted pecans.

Food, or lack thereof, in Holocaust concentrations camps is still a taboo subject for survivors, writes Jewish cooking maven Joan Nathan.

Cindy McCain shares her favorite family recipes. Except they were ripped off from the Food Network. A rogue intern is apparently to blame.

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Marisa McClellan	89	5
2	Shayna Glick	51	0
3	Monika Bartyzel	48	0
4	Max Shrem	31	0
5	Bruce Watson	19	17
6	Kat Kinsman	10	4
7	Mike Pomranz	9	12
8	Stefani Pollack	8	0
9	Emily Matchar	8	0
10	Jonathan M. Forester	7	0
11	Kristyn Pomranz	5	0
12	AOL Food Editor	3	0
13	Neil Goldstein	3	3
14	Brandice Schnabel	3	0
15	Keith Waldbauer	2	0
16	Rachel Been	2	0
17	Wendy Buckley	1	0
18	Alanna Kaufman	1	0

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Feast Your Eyes: Prepared gefilte fish

Shortage of kosher-for-Passover margarine

Feast Your Eyes: Matzo for Passover

Charoset, the best-tasting mortar around

Last minute kosher for Passover dessert idea

I need some Passover help

The New York Times Dining & Wine Section in 60 seconds: politics, Passover, pecan muffins

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