Mhays wrote:I couldn't resist one purchase at the Kosher Jewel this year: kosher-for-passover mix-in-the-pan microwave chocolate cake (pan included!) It really wasn't too bad, considering - but it isn't going to supplant my homemade microwave mug cake anytime soon - since I don't have to eat it, I kind of liked the torte-like texture the matzoh meal provided.

If you go to the Jewel today or tomorrow, they may be selling those off cheap now that the holiday is about over. Years ago, at the end of Passover my mother used to buy up some boxes of the Manischevitz brownie mix-and-bake-in-the-pan that one baked in the oven because they were surprisingly tasty. They are a nice emergency, gotta have chocolate standby.

They are a nice emergency, gotta have chocolate standby.

As far as emergencies go, the only non-Passover use I'd recommend this for is air-raid shelters. I need 51 weeks just to get the taste out of my mouth.

Hi,

My cousin's husband was over for dinner yesterday. He was raised Jewish and once considered being a rabbi. He never dines with us, because he is very cautious of any food he eats.

Yesterday, he commented on some "sugar dessert thing" served at Passover. I have a sense it may have been fried. He said if he had one in his hand, he would eat one. Knowing how careful he is, this was a big statement.

He could not remember the name, but if I had any to jar his memory this would be great. Any guesses what this may be? (I realize this is a pretty wide open statement)

Regards,

How about - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loukoumades
Recipe - http://www.grouprecipes.com/91294/passo ... mades.html
Why don't you bring a batch over for lunch tomorrow?

Mhays wrote:LAZ - is fish sauce kosher, or could it be? I couldn't find a straight answer by googling, though I suppose you could use my trick of making some with anchovies to flavor Asian dishes.

I can't think of any reason it couldn't be, as long as it wasn't made from shellfish or catfish -- but don't they mostly use anchovies? Of course, to be strictly kosher or kosher for Passover, it would have to be made under rabbinical supervision; I don't know whether anyone's doing that, but I don't know that they aren't, either.


Cathy2, just guessing, but your friend might have been referring to meringues, a very common Passover dessert.

I can't think of any reason it couldn't be, as long as it wasn't made from shellfish or catfish -- but don't they mostly use anchovies?

Fish sauce can be made from anchovies, cuttlefish (squid-ish) or shrimp or a combination of those.
Garum, on the other hand is all-anchovy:

http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-COL

HI,

I related Dave148's information to my cousin, who did not recognize it. He refined his information to advise it was a pancake with sugar on it. I suggested it may be blini, but he did not recognize the name.

He suggested I look at packaged mixes in the Jewish section, because I might recognize what he is talking about.

Thanks LAZ for your thoughts, though clearly we are now moving in another direction.

Regards,

Cathy said:

"Yesterday, he commented on some "sugar dessert thing" served at Passover. I have a sense it may have been fried. He said if he had one in his hand, he would eat one."

"I related Dave148's information to my cousin, who did not recognize it. He refined his information to advise it was a pancake with sugar on it. I suggested it may be blini, but he did not recognize the name."


Cathy,

My mother often made matzo meal latkes as a treat during the Passover holiday, and we always had them with sugar sprinkled (okay, poured!) on top. I have a feeling that this could be what your cousin's husband referred to.

To this day, even when I make potato latkes, I enjoy them most with sugar rather than applesauce/sour cream. Something about the combination of crisp oily potato, onion, and sugar is crazy good to me! I have previously posted on this combination here on LTH.

Evil Ronnie wrote:My mother often made matzo meal latkes as a treat during the Passover holiday, and we always had them with sugar sprinkled (okay, poured!) on top. I have a feeling that this could be what your cousin's husband referred to.

To this day, even when I make potato latkes, I enjoy them most with sugar rather than applesauce/sour cream. Something about the combination of crisp oily potato, onion, and sugar is crazy good to me!

That would be a typical Galitzianer tradition. Galitzianers put sugar on and in everything, even gefilte fish!

In my family those Matzah meal pancakes are called bubblah - served with cinnamon and sugar on top -

Can NOT believe it is this time again-
I am so uninspired- I am going to try Ronnies Brisket recipe,
I am completely cook-blocked for side dishes (I will have to get out my cookbooks tonight)
of course there will be MB soup, and Gefilte fish.
seder for 12.
ug

(I know this says beyond the seder but...ug)

I'm in the same rut as Iris - not a clue what to make. I'm doing two seders.

Perhaps a seder-que = http://www.realurbanbbq.com/RUB.Passover2011.pdf

irisarbor wrote:Can NOT believe it is this time again-
I am so uninspired- I am going to try Ronnies Brisket recipe,
I am completely cook-blocked for side dishes (I will have to get out my cookbooks tonight)
of course there will be MB soup, and Gefilte fish.
seder for 12.
ug

(I know this says beyond the seder but...ug)

From a keep-it-simple perspective, roasted root vegetables are an excellent complement to brisket (my first night menu as well) (e.g., fingerling potatoes, parsnips, beets, carrots). You can add roasted onions, as well (cut sweet onions into 1/8ths wedges). Otherwise a nice quinoa side dish (I've done it in a tabbouleh prep, with finely chopped tomatoes, peppers, scallions, parsley and lemon juice/olive oil to dress).

I would also add asparagras/brussel sprouts to the list of vegetables to roast -

weinstein5 wrote:I would also add asparagras/brussel sprouts to the list of vegetables to roast -

Brussel sprouts?? Not in my house.

spinynorman99 wrote:

weinstein5 wrote:I would also add asparagras/brussel sprouts to the list of vegetables to roast -

Brussel sprouts?? Not in my house.

Bleh!

the beets would not fly in my house....

full up of beet-haters.

irisarbor wrote:the beets would not fly in my house....

full up of beet-haters.

Time to find a new house.

Vegetable, potato and/or matzo-meal kugels are always popular.

Greens? I have had good results with typical soul-food style preps substituting smoked chicken or turkey for the usual ham.

Simply steamed or sauteed spinach with a dash of lemon juice or vinegar and some hard-cooked egg grated over the top seems suitably springlike and festive. Or ramps, if you can afford them.

There is of course always tzimmes, which can be made from any combination of carrots, sweet potatoes and white potatoes, as sweet or savory as you like.

* * *

To get back to the original idea of this thread, I'm intrigued by this matzo-meal version of corn dogs.

I like asparagus for Seder because you can steam the spears while getting everything else on the table. I'm thinking boiled new potatoes for the other side. We're going to do a smoked brisket this year since we have all weekend to get it done before the Monday holiday.

Passover chigae

Gefilte fish-kimchi stew. (It has kitniot, so it's not suitable for Ashkenazim who avoid them, but you could perhaps substitute omelet or hard-cooked eggs for the tofu and use some other kind of hot sauce for the spicy miso).

We did some Passover shopping yesterday at Hungarian and the Evanston Kosher Jewel. In the freezer case at the latter, I spotted KfP bagels and hot dog and hamburger buns that looked surprisingly like the real thing. I didn't buy any (they were pricey), but I'm curious as to what they'd be like.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make KfP rolls that were essentially popovers made with matzo meal. The frozen products looked much more like real bread than those.

i have been helped by so many of you for a scary number of years, without having much to contribute in return, but you finally have a question right up my obsessively (for pesach) frum alley.

for me, the key to eating decent food over pesach is not to think of food as having to be made especially for pesach. (ok, well, that, and having enough leftovers from seder.) forget eating the often-disgusting prepared food that is made just for pesach because nobody with functional taste buds would eat it the rest of the year. you have not lived -- or had a good enough reason to die -- until you have eaten kosher-for-passover cheerios. or mayonnaise. not to mention blintzes, or -- not kidding -- tacos.

so: eat food. fresh vegetables, roasted, steamed, sauteed, in terrines, with olive oil, fresh or dried herbs, garlic, lemon, lime juice or orange juice. vegetable soup, made without beans or impermissible grains (i.e., barley,) either chunky or pureed with a little cream. latkes (not just potato, but carrot, sweet potato, zucchini,) topped with yoghurt.

fish, roasted/baked/braised with wine, orange juice, olive oil, garlic, herbs, mirepoix. i love sardine butter (sardines mashed with butter, smeared on matzo,) but i love this the rest of the year, too.

eggs: scrambled, omelet, poached, stirred into piperade. especially stirred into piperade. frittata with just about anything (we like goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and asparagus, but then we like goat cheese, roasted red peppers and asparagus when they are not in frittata, too.)

meat: my go-to chicken recipe -- i think it’s marcella hazan’s -- is pan-roasted chicken with rosemary, white wine and garlic. it tastes just as good during pesach. (use all olive oil, or olive oil and margarine instead of butter.) (i brown the chicken more than she says to before adding the wine.) and there’s the standard french roasted chicken with wine, potatoes and shallots, again with margarine instead of butter. (truthfully, i don’t make often make these during the holiday, because i have leftover brisket/turkey/salmon. i probably will this year, because i am going to be a guest instead of host.)

sauces: pesto, aoili, tomato sauces, hollandaise, bearnaise (it’s probably been 20 years since i made bearnaise, but you could.) just nothing with flour or mustard.

not being able to use mustard is, for me, the hardest part. it is kitniot, which screws any salad dressing i want to make. so i do buy bottled salad dressing, not really for salad, but for canned tuna. when my kids were in school, we would dress tuna with a little pseudo-italian balsamic dressing and stuff it into raw peppers to take to school for lunch during the holiday.

you can buy kosher-for-passover balsamic vinegar to use on salads, as well as on vegetables.

for dessert: there are a lot of kosher-for-passover cakes, some of which i think are not bad. (the chocolate rolls, for example.) we binge on the chocolate bonbons with chocolate [pseudo]cream, eaten about five minutes out of the freezer. (this is our one exception to the “real food” rule.) other than chocolate, we eat fruit. lots of fresh fruit. or poached in syrup, but mostly i don’t bother.

hope this is helpful.

i love this holiday.

ann's friend wendy wrote:inot being able to use mustard is, for me, the hardest part. it is kitniot, which screws any salad dressing i want to make.

Yeah. Salami with horseradish just isn't the same.

mustard? who knew?

we are mainly "no bread, fred" for passover...
no bread, no cake, no cookies, no pizza to the extreme horror of the kids...LOL
but we are not kosher in the first place, so it would be the height of hypocrisy for me to be extremely strict at pesach.
Still having been raised in a fairly kosher home, I do know most of the rules, but I definitely missed the one about mustard.
You learn something every day.

irisarbor wrote:we are mainly "no bread, fred" for passover...
no bread, no cake, no cookies, no pizza to the extreme horror of the kids...LOL
but we are not kosher in the first place, so it would be the height of hypocrisy for me to be extremely strict at pesach.
Still having been raised in a fairly kosher home, I do know most of the rules, but I definitely missed the one about mustard.

Mustard is kitniot, so it's not allowed for Ashenazim, along with rice, legumes, sesame and poppy seeds, soy and other things like that. Sephardim have different rules. Things also vary depending on your particular rabbinical authority's views; for example, some Ashkenazim think peanut oil is OK, while others ban both the peanuts and their derivatives. For a weird reason, quinoa is permitted by most.

The one that startled me is the ultra-Orthodox practice of avoiding gebrokts (wetted matzo) -- which puts much of the repertoire of matzo-based recipes, including matzo balls, off limits.

I don't keep kosher, but I try to avoid chametz and kitniot during Passover.

But "no cake, no cookies"??? There's a huge selection even of non-gebrokts Pesach cakes and cookies available at every kosher store, and hundreds of recipes for them.

LAZ wrote:But "no cake, no cookies"??? There's a huge selection even of non-gebrokts Pesach cakes and cookies available at every kosher store, and hundreds of recipes for them.

Yeah, I'm with LAZ on this one. My birthday often falls during Passover, and I'm not skipping a cake. My very favorite cookie was one I never knew existed outside of Passover until a few years ago (Venetians - they are Italian cookies? really? ) I don't worry about the "gebrokts" issue, so I have no problem with matzoh meal in cakes (usually matzoh cake meal). But generally I'll do cakes that are mostly not flour, so the substitution calculations aren't a big deal. Or just find a really nice recipe:
http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=1852

Six more days of Passover to go, and I'm already running out of ideas. This year we have a houseguest who isn't Jewish -- last night I served him his very first matzo balls! -- so typical makeshift meals like gefilte fish with salad and matzo won't do.

Last night I sauteed some cod fillets with Kalamata olives, capers, and chopped tomatoes and served them over quinoa; we also had salad and the last of my Seder hazelnut cake for dessert. Pretty good Passover meal, if I sez so myself. Now I need to figure out tonight's meal....

Last of the leftover brisket and charoset tonight for me....