Basic Passover

My family has come to love celebrating Passover as we work through this week building up to Easter. After a simplified Seder with a retelling of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, we eat a simple meal inspired by the traditional Seder plate, to remember Jesus' Last Supper and as a gesture of unity with those yearning for freedom everywhere.

And now that daughters are away during this time of year, they've asked that I post the  basic recipes our family has come to love so we can be united even from a distance.

(For more authentic Passover menus,
please look at Epicurious)

Seder Plate
sprigs of parsley
salt water
horseradish
radicchio pieces
charoset
lamb shank (which is not eaten by modern observant Jews, see more info)
3 matzah bread wrapped in a napkin

This year I think we'll try making chicken soup with matzoh balls (which is traditional) and griddled eggs (which are not) though salted hardboiled eggs are. But the following are the recipes that have lasted our several years of experimenting.

Barley and Lamb
(2 hours in oven)

Roasted lamb is not kosher for Passover
ever since the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed,
but would have been included in Jesus' historical meal.
Barley is not kosher for Passover, especially cooked wet like this,
but Passover was timed to coincide with the barley harvest.
Butter is dairy, so never kosher with meat.

We still like this.

It's nice that it can finish unattended in the oven
while we go through the lengthy
Passover festivities before the meal.

2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup barley, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound lamb stewing meat, boneless and trimmed of fat, cut into bite-sized pieces
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups chicken stock, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 ̊.
2. Brown barley in butter. Set aside in 2-quart casserole dish.
3. Saute garlic and onion mixture and add to barley.
4. Generously sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper.
5. Brown lamb in olive oil then place atop barley mixture.
6. Pour 3 cups chicken stock over the meat. Cover casserole dish and bake for approximately 1 hour.
7. Add the last 3 cups of chicken stock, recover, and bake for 1 more hour.
8. Dish is done when the lamb is tender with some chicken stock remaining. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Parsley, Radicchio, and Napa Cabbage Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

This was surprisingly tasty -- we loved the lemony dressing. 
Honey was my change from the original found in Gourmet 2003.

1½ Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
¼  teaspoon honey
¼  teaspoon salt
¼  teaspoon black pepper
⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (½ lb; from 1 head)
4½& cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (3 large bunches)
2 cups thinly sliced radicchio

1. Whisk together lemon juice, zest, sugar, salt, and pepper until sugar is dissolved, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.
2. Just before serving, toss cabbage, parsley, and radicchio in a large bowl with just enough dressing to coat, then season with salt and pepper.

Charoseth (spicy)

Also spelled haroseth, a dried fruit and nut paste 
that symbolizes the mortar Israelite slaves used 
when they labored in Egypt. 
Used as a condiment, rather like chutney, 
this very spicy version is from Yemen. 

⅔ cup dried Mission figs (6 oz)
⅔ cup dried apricots (6 oz)
⅓ cup pitted dates (4 oz)
1⅓ cups walnuts (4 oz), finely chopped, and cooled
¼ cup kosher grape juice (part can be balsamic vinegar for more zing) 
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cayenne
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger

1. Chop together figs, apricots, and dates. 
2. Mix with walnuts, juice, and vinegar.
3. Sprinkle spices evenly over mixture and stir until combined well. 
4. Can be made 3 days ahead and kept, covered, in the refrigerator.

 I'm very fond of this pan-Mediterranenan Sephardic version
based on a recipe by Adeena Sussman,
Epicurious March 2006.

Charoseth (banana)

20 pitted dates (preferrably Medjool) 
3 bananas
½ cup golden raisins, chopped 
¼ cup kosher grape juice (part can be balsamic vinegar for more zing) 
3 Tablespoons date syrup (silan) or honey  
½ cup walnuts, toasted
½ cup unsalted shelled pistachios, toasted
½ cup whole almonds, toasted
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves

1. In food processor, purée dates until smooth.
2. Add bananas, raisins, grape juice, and honey and process to combine.
3. Add walnuts, pistachios, almonds, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves and process until smooth.
4. Keep covered, in refrigerator, until ready to serve.

Or if you want something more tame, try this traditional
Ashkenazi version based on a recipe by Adeena Sussman,
Epicurious March 2006. 

A pinch of salt is sometimes desirable.  

Charoseth (traditional)

3 medium Honeycrisp, Gala, or Jonathan apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced 
1½ cups walnut halves, lightly toasted, cooled,and coarsely chopped
½ cup kosher grape juice ((part can be balsamic vinegar)
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ cup raisins, chopped (or more)
zest from one orange (optional but sensational)&nbsp

1. Mix everything together.  
2. Keep covered, in refrigerator, until ready to serve. 

In addition, we usually serve honey or vanilla yogurt 

with pomegranate mixed in, if available. 

Otherwise,  just the yogurt with chopped mint. 

And then, of course, dessert . . .
which we have decided over the years simply must be
  Almond Pomegranate Thumbprint Cookies.

Lemon Cakes with Basil Lemon Syrup

These little cakes are ineffably good.  We like them with the King's Feast
to celebrate the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday 
the week before Easter.  It's a wonderful start to Resurrection Week.  
I bake them as mini muffins so they are tiny, 
perfectly so. The lemon-basil sauce, though, 

is the secret key.

The original recipe in Gourmet, April 2005, 
adds a dollop whipped cream,

which seems gilding the lily to me, 
but you could add it if that appeals.  

I always have sauce leftover and it is delicious poured over,

for example, apricot & golden raisin bread pudding.

Cakes

½ cup unsalted butter, softened, plus 1 ½ Tablespoons, melted (or olive oil)
¾ cup matzo cake flour plus additional for dusting

⅔  cup plus ¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature for 30 minutes
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest 

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly brush mini-muffin cups with some of melted butter and chill 2 minutes, then butter again and chill 1 minute more. Dust cups with matzo cake flour, knocking out excess. 
2. Beat together softened butter, ⅔ cup sugar, and ⅛ teaspoon salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, then add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating until well blended.  
3. Beat in lemon juice and 2 teaspoons zest until combined. 
4. Add flour and mix at low speed until just combined. 
5. Beat whites with remaining ⅛ teaspoon salt in another bowl with cleaned beaters until they hold soft peaks. 
6. Add 2 tablespoons sugar, a little at a time, beating, then beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. 
7. Stir ¼ of egg whites into yolk mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly. 
8. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. 
9. Blend remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon zest with your fingertips and sprinkle over batter, then bake until cakes are puffed, edges are golden, and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. 
10. Cool cakes in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then lift out cakes carefully (tops will break easily) and cool completely on rack.

Syrup
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ½ cups water
1 (4 x 1-inch) strip fresh lemon zest
½  cup fresh lemon juice
8 large fresh basil sprigs 

1. Bring all syrup ingredients to a boil, covered, in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove lid and boil 10 minutes. 
2. Pour syrup through a sieve into a bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids.  
3. Cool to room temperature.

Serve

Cakes are delicious served simply on a plate with sauce drizzled generously over them.  Garnish with tiny basil leaves, if desired.  A dish fit for a King!

Full Moon Soup : Portuguese Kale, Bean and Linguica Sausage

Portugese kale soup from the best cookbook for children and their adults:  Blue Moon Soup, by Gary Goss. We tend to like more vegetables and more spices than his recipes call for, so here are our tweaks played upon his general theme.  The original recipe calls for canned kidney beans which you can certainly use, but we think it looks especially full moony with lima beans soaked overnight. 

A quicker always-on-hand version uses frozen kale and canned beans

Rinse

1 cup dried beans 

and soak overnight in

3 cups of water 

Crockpot HIGH for 4 hours.

[or substitute 1 can of  beans]

Heat skillet over medium heat, then add

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 - 2 onions
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 - 3 carrots, chopped
half of 2 - 3 cups kale, chopped
1 - 2 teaspoon dried basil
(or 1 - 2 cubes frozen basil)
1 - 2 teaspoon dried oregano
(or 1 - 2 Tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add

2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
2 pieces linguica sausage, sliced into rounds 

Sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the other half of the kale, the beans with their broth and more water if desired. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, covered, 20 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and garnish if you wish with

minced kale, optional
grated parmesan cheese, optional

Though it's very good just as it is and even better served with Cornbread.

Asparagus Basil Risotto

Ah! This dish is pure spring to me. Elegant and refined and utterly delicious. We make it to celebrate Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, when Jesus entered Jerusalem and was hailed as King.  Asparagus Basil Risotto is the ideal choice, firstly because I love asparagus. It reminds me of my grandma who grew it out along the ditch bank. And secondly, because what says spring so well as this sweet green sprouting grass? And thirdly, asparagus looks so much like a king's scepter and in Greek basileus = king, so asparagus-basil anything seems almost divinely designed for our feast to welcome in Easter's King. 

 I love especially the responsiveness and delicacy of this recipe, the required admiring of its colors and scents,  not to mention the "Keep tasting" section. We began making this with a recipe from Healthy Mediterranean Cooking by Rena Salaman and have made a few adjustments to satisfy our own palates.

Cut the tips from

14 oz. asparagus, trimmed of hard stems

and set aside the tips.  Cut each stalk in two and cook in plenty of lightly salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. Drop asparagus tips in boiling water, 30 seconds only.  Remove with slotted spoon. Turn the boiling asparagus cooking water down to simmer. Place just over half of the asparagus stalk pieces in blender with

3 Tablespoons cream a few basil leaves with their stems

and 2-3 Tablespoons of asparagus cooking liquid.  Blend into a light green velvety sauce and set aside. Chop the remaining stalk pieces into thin rounds and set aside. Heat a heavy skillet and add

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Sauté

1 medium onion, finely chopped4-5 green onions, coarsely chopped

until just wilted. Add gradually

14 oz. risotto rice (a short-grained type like arborio)

stirring over a gentle heat until well coated in oil. Add

½ cup white cooking wine

once absorbed, start adding by ladleful

8 cups hot chicken stock

and ½ cup of the asparagus cooking liquid.  Keep stirring to prevent rice from sticking.

After about 25 minutes -- when rice has doubled in volume, is losing its chalky color and is becoming soft -- season to taste and add the blended asparagus sauce.  Stir the sauce gently into the risotto, which will turn a lovely pale green color.  Simmer for 10 minutes more.  Keep tasting the rice at this step in order to catch it at the desired moment.  It should be soft outside but firm in the middle, with a very creamy appearance.  Add more liquid if necessary. 

Once risotto is ready, add

salt and freshly ground pepper

to taste and gently stir in

a couple handsful of basil leaves, roughly torn - reserving a few pretty leaves for garnishand 2 oz. grated parmesan

plus the asparagus rounds and half the tips.  Mix gently, cover and remove from heat.  It can now wait for 5 minutes but no more. Empty onto a warm platter, scatter the remaining asparagus tips over the top, garnish with a few more basil leaves and serve with a bowl of

1 - 2 oz. of grated parmesan

And for dessert . . .

Lemon Cakes with Basil Lemon Syrup 

is simply divine and very Kingly.

Late Summer Succotash

The glory of a good succotash is great ingredients - so beautifully available this time of year.  I keep experimenting with recipes but I think this is the winner so far . . . though a close runner up is the recipe in Rick Rodgers Thanksgiving 101.

What makes this recipe especially fine is the unexpected splash of vinegar to brighten the flavors.    That and generous fresh basil - because why would you use any other herb in late summer? 

I like to add steamed flat Italian green beans and I adore the sweet tenderness of fresh shell beans - I prefer to shell the adorable red & white cranberry beans instead of the more usual fresh limas.  With bacon that was our neighbor's hog, basil I grew myself, and peak-of-ripeness local vegetables this, for me, is late summer in a dish. 

adapted from Epicurious: Gourmet August 1999

Late Summer Succotash

Over moderate heat cook until crisp

• ¼ lb bacon (~ 4 slices)

Drain grease and blot, setting aside 2 Tablespoons of bacon grease.  Crumble bacon into nice-sized bits.

Shell

• 2 lbs fresh cranberry beans in pod  (a delight in itself.  Now I just need to find me a rocking chair and a big wraparound porch and a little early morning birdsong)  - about 2 cups of beans

Add shelled beans to

• a small saucepan of boiling salted water

and cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until just tender - about 7 minutes.  Ladle beans out of water with a slotted spoon.

Using bean water steam

• 1- 2 lbs flat Italian green beans

about 5 minutes until color is vivid.  Then lift from boiling water and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking.

Cut kernels from

• 8 ears of corn

taking care to catch the juices in a bowl or on cutting board.

Clean

• 1 - 2 lbs cherry tomatoes

cutting the larger tomatoes in half, then chop or mince

• 2 Vidalia onions
• 2 - 3 garlic cloves

Add the saved 2 tablespoons of bacon grease to skillet and cook onion over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Add garlic and cook or 1 minute, stirring.  Add tomatoes, corn and

• 2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

Cook, stirring, until tomatoes just begin to lose their shape. 

Remove skillet from heat and gently stir in both kinds of beans and the bacon.  When a little cooled, gently stir in

• ½ cup or more of generously packed basil leaves, gently torn

Pepper to taste.  Family to table.  Enjoy to the last bite.

Wholegrain Spaghetti with Indescribably Good Sauce

The last of summer, first of fall here in Oregon, is tomato season and hours are spent saving the luscious round globes in paste balls and roasted tomatoes.  But it all pays off when the first day of Februrary rolls around and after a day of digging up bushes in the rain you can sit down to this powerful sauce after a quick half-hour in the kitchen.

I am not usually over-fond of whole-wheat pasta which can be too heavy for weak sauces.  But well-cooked (a little past al dente), well-salted, well-oiled, and then combined with a powerfully zestful sauce like this one they are marvelous.  Topped with  mozzarella, this dish is a little taste of heaven. 

PREREQUISITE RECIPES:

Tomato Paste Balls: (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Roasted & Frozen Summer Tomatoes

Indescribably Good Sauce

Combine in a large sauce pan and begin to simmer

• 1 Tomato Paste Ball
• 1 qt. Roasted & Frozen Tomatoes
• a generous amount of fresh mushrooms, sliced.

Saute

• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper

in

• 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

and add to the tomatoes and mushrooms along with

• 28 - 32 oz. diced canned tomatoes.

Simmer until the roasted tomatoes are completely thawed and the sauce begins to thicken.

Add

• 3 - 4 Tablespoons honey
• salt
• pepper.

Serve over whole wheat spaghetti noodles that have been cooked just beyond al dente in plenty of salted water, drained and then oiled with olive oil.  Top with a bit of mozzarella which will melt beautifully if the sauce and noodles are served nice and hot.

Italian Tomato Paste Balls

adapted from The Joy of Cooking: "This flavorful paste is diluted in a little boiling water or stock and added to sauces and soups. Fine in spaghetti and noodle dishes, as a dressing for cooked vegetables or salads, and as an addition to salad dressings."

Haven't tried it in salad dressings . . . but these tomato paste balls pay back every bit of effort for the delicious & savory depth they add to tomato sauces.

Wash and cut into slices:

• 1 & 1/2 pecks ripe Italian tomatoes (6 quarts)

Add:

• 1 large celery rib, cut up with some leaves
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 Tablespoons fresh herbs: basil, thyme, sweet marjoram, or oregano
• 3/4 teaspoon peppercorns
• 12 cloves
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 two-inch stick cinnamon
• 1 minced clove of garlic

Simmer these ingredients until the tomatoes are soft.

Stir frequently. Put the vegetables through a fine sieve.

Simmer the sieved pulp in an uncovered slow cooker. Stir frequently.

 When the pulp is thick and reduced by half, spread the paste to a depth of 1/2 inch on moist plates.

Cut into the paste to let air penetrate. Place the paste in a 200 degree oven to dry.

When the paste is dry enough, roll it into balls and dip in olive oil. Store refrigerated in airtight sterile jars--taking care to remove one at a time with a clean utensil as needed.