Passover food: Our editor's favorite dishes, recipes and more
Esther Davidowitz
NorthJersey.com
No doubt, somewhere in the back of my pantry sits a box of stale matzos. I can assure you that those sheets of unleavened flatbreads have been sitting there since a Passover many, many years ago, when either my husband or I bought it for the eight-day Jewish holiday. This year it begins on the evening of April 5. The holiday celebrates our forebears' exodus, as the story goes, from slavery in Egypt.
My husband and I, both secular Jews, do not observe the holiday, though we are ardent fans of the festive, joyous, multi-course meal, called the Seder, that kicks it off. But forget any leavened foods bread, pasta, cookies, cakes at the feast; they're prohibited. Why? Matzo is what Moses and his fellow Jews, too rushed to wait for their bread to rise, lived on while fleeing the pharaoh's reign.
Matzo has not passed my husband's or my lips since last year's Seders. And it's not because we don't like matzos, it's just that we like bread a whole lot more.
Still, there are some Passover dishes, dishes made with matzo or matzo meal or vegetables, that are so darn good, it's a shonda (a disgrace in Yiddish) we don't have them any other time of the year.
The following are my favorite Passover dishes dishes that I am ashamed to admit I myself have never made. My mom, a Holocaust survivor who died five years ago at age 92, cooked them all for our Seders. (Today my niece and my husband's cousin, who host Seders at their homes, do most of the cooking). I, my late mother's Americanized, non-kosher-keeping, secular daughter, never thought to ask her for the recipes. But that doesn't stop me from remembering how delicious they were nor sharing those memories with you here.
Seven-layer chocolate matzo cake
Can't have a cake that requires the verboten flour during the holiday? No problem. My mom used matzos instead. Yes, there are a slew of kosher-for-Passover cakes and cookies you can buy that are made with matzo meal and almond flour. But my mom's Seven-lcayer matzo chocolate cake was homemade and divine.
This heavenly kosher-for-Passover dessert is described perfectly by its name: a seven-layer cake made with matzos instead of yellow sponge cake and filled with homemade chocolate buttercream. To make the buttercream pareve, which is prepared without dairy or meat products, my mom used margarine. Lots and lots of margarine, my sister Itta Fryman recently told me.
"Once I thought that I should make it," Itta said. "Boy, did I change my mind. It has so much margarine in it. It's probably what made it so good."
That along with the cocoa and sugar that my mom would whip into a sublime cream that she'd spread generously between each matzo layer and then atop the whole shebang. The tall, admittedly simple, no-bake cake would spend a few hours in the refrigerator before abracadabra it would disappear. No one refused a slice.
Matzo Brei
Call it the French toast of Passover: small pieces of matzos, soaked in warm water, mixed with whipped eggs (one or two eggs per matzo) and a bit of salt and then fried in oil.
Simple? You bet. Delicious? No question about it.
It usually is eaten for breakfast during the holiday or, if you're a late sleeper, brunch. A nice dish to wake up to. Better even than French toast, according to my son, Noah.
"French toast can be soggy or dry," Noah said. "Matzo brei for some reason always works out."
Noah liked his drenched in maple syrup.
"I"m no fool," he said.
But it also can be eaten as is or topped with powdered sugar or jam. Add onions, chives or other vegetables or herbs to the mixture and you've got yourself a special savory dish. It's a treat no matter how it's prepared.
Matzo milk
Just two ingredients: matzo and milk.
As for cooking instructions?
Break up some matzos and toss into a bowl filled with warmed milk. That's it. Oh, add salt, if you like.
Breakfast is served. A darn tasty breakfast, to boot.
My near-4-year-old great nephew, Harrison (my sister's grandson), can tell you that.
"My kids never ate it," my sister said. "But Harrison does. Whenever he sees me eating it, and I eat it for breakfast often, he wants a bowl as well. He loves it."
Me and my dad, who died 10 years ago, loved it too. We couldn't get enough of those soggy, milk-drenched matzos showered with salt. I remember us sitting at the kitchen table, silently enjoying our matzo milk. We didn't have to say a word. Our smiles said it all.
Charoset
It doesn't matter how many guests are around your Seder table, you can never have too much charoset, a heady, sweet fruit, nut and wine relish. Everyone always wants more.
Different fruits and different nuts are used depending on the country the family is from and their preference. My family's version is made with apples, walnuts, wine and cinnamon. My niece, Ariela, uses grape juice in deference to the very youngest members of the family. Some families use figs, pomegranate, pears or even grapes. Spices vary too with Italian Jews using pine nuts, Yemenites cloves and pepper and Sephardic Jews adding raisins.
It is eaten at the Seder with bitter herbs (usually horseradish) and soon after in a matzo sandwich with the bitter herbs. The rest is devoured with more matzo or, what the heck, just gobbled up with a fork.
It is sublime.
"A whole article should be written about charoset," Noah said. "It is way better than it should be, yet we only eat it at Passover and then spend the whole year talking about how we should make it during the year."
More:
Laughter, drinking, singing and food: I miss my parents' Seder
Hmmm, maybe, just maybe, this year, I'll make it on some random night. Ariela can teach me. She learned how to make it from my mom (her grandmother) so, she said, "it means that it is made with love and it is made with taste. It also means that measurements are non-existent."
Here is the recipe, courtesy of Ariela, who admits she has "never actually measured anything for charoset; you can add more or use less of anything, according to your liking."
Ingredients:
8 apples, cored and chopped ("I used to use a food chopper but now I cheat and use a Cuisinart," but don't overprocess)
1 cups walnuts "made fine" ("Traditionally grandma would put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a hammer. I use a food processor")
2 cups of Kedem grape juice, more if needed
Cinnamon to taste
Preparation:
Mix together all three ingredients in a bowl (make sure there's enough liquid to cover it) and refrigerate overnight.
Sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve.
Monday, April 3, 2023 at 4:20 am