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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
MARCH | APRIL 2015
W
hen my husband and I were newly married we took
on the challenge of making traditional foods for our
family holidays, beginning with Passover. We started
with chicken soup and matzo balls (matzo ball soup is a standard
part of the Seder meal). It took a few years to find the right recipe
— there are a LOT of chicken soup variations out there. Eventually,
we settled on a simple broth with carrots. As far as the matzo balls
themselves go, the recipe on the back of the Manischewitz matzo
meal works just fine.
Charoset was next on our list. It’s one of the symbolic foods eaten
during the Passover Seder dinner, and while charoset represents
something bitter — the bricks Jews were forced to build while
enslaved in Egypt — it tastes sweet to show that there can be
sweetness even in bitter experiences. With charoset, there is a lot
of room for variation and little room for error. It is always some
combination of fruits and nuts, but which fruits and nuts you use is
totally up to you. My kids like to help with preparing this dish and
love to help with eating it. (After Passover, the leftover charoset is
great mixed into Greek yogurt for breakfast, too.)
Making charoset helped build my confidence, and I soon attempted
more complicated dishes, including tzimmes, a traditional Passover
dinner dish using sweet potatoes that my father remembered eating
as a child. I had never even heard of tzimmes, much less tried to
make it, but I started experimenting and quickly found that there are
a lot of ways to make tzimmes, not all of them good. The staples of
tzimmes are sweet potatoes and prunes, but beyond that, there are a
plenty of options. On my first effort, the recipe called for brisket in
the tzimmes. Let’s just say,MASSIVE FAIL.The whole thing ended
up in the garbage. Eventually I found just the right mix of sweet and
soft deliciousness (no meat!) that now is a Passover standard.
Passover Seder
by
Courtney Singer
the
Food & Music
issue