Don't PASS it OVER

When thinking about Passover and Jewish holidays in general, food seems to be a major theme. Maybe it's because Jews love to eat or maybe because food is a way of coping with hardship. The story of Passover is told with food. The Seder is the retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. Eating certain dishes represents the hardships that the Jewish people went through. Parsley is dipped in salt water to represent the tears. Haroset is eaten to represent the cement used to the lay the bricks that the Jews used to build pyramids. Unleavened bread or matzah is eaten because the Jews had no time to let their bread rise.

There are many more foods and dishes that are served throughout the dinner that are traditional to eat in many Jewish households. It has become a tradition in my family that my mother and I prepare all the dishes together and my father organizes and leads the Seder.

We have been having a Seder at our home for as long as I remember. It has only been in the recent years that I have taken over cooking some of the dishes on my own. The two main dishes that I prepared were the brisket and the chicken. I have changed the recipes slightly so they are not exactly how my grandmother used to prepare them. I slow cooked the brisket with onions, carrots, celery, and tomato juice and it came out very tender. My uncle Alan, who has been in charge of slicing the brisket for many years, said it was the easiest brisket to slice. He even let me try slicing some with his very special knife that seemed longer than I am tall (an exaggeration, but it is the longest knife I have ever used).

The chicken I made was a new recipe that I had never tried before, and I was very pleased with its outcome. So pleased in fact that I am making it again tonight, and that is where the photos came from. There was not much time for photography on Passover, with the chaos of cooking and entertaining 28 people.

The chicken recipe is as follows (for one chicken):

I chicken cut into 10 pieces

6 cloves of garlic

½ Jar of apricot preserves (6 oz.)

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

¼ cup of olive oil plus a little extra

10 sage leaves

a few pinches of salt

10 grinds of black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and let the chicken marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Lay the chicken in a pan skin side up and pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the chicken for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

For dessert I made coconut macaroons. I used Ina Garten’s recipe. She is my all time favorite, and I am slowly trying to make it through her French cookbook. The macaroons were so easy to make and people seemed to really enjoy them.

Ina’s Macaroons

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 325. Then mix together the shredded coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Then in an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and the salt until they form very stiff peaks. Gently fold in the egg whites so they are dispersed into the coconut and condensed milk mixture. It is very important to not over stir, unless you want hard smushed cookies. I use an ice cream scoop to form the cookies and then dropped them on a sheet pan that was covered with parchment paper. Bake the macaroons for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown. This should make 15 to 20 cookies depending on how large of a scoop is being used.

The other dish that I made for dessert was poached pears. I poached them in a sweet wine called Moscato. I mixed the wine with a vanilla bean, honey, cinnamon sticks, and ginger. When the pears were done poaching I reduced the liquid to make a syrup that was poured over the pears. They were also really easy to make and I made them a day ahead of serving, which saved some time.

Passover was a great success and many people helped my mother and me prepare. I would like to thank Karen my aunt for slicing many potatoes so early in the morning and keeping up with the dirty dishes that my mother and I were creating at a steady pace. Also, we couldn’t have done it without the help of my best friend Emily. She had the longest list of tasks and completed all of them even though the matzah might have almost gone out too early. Hope you’re all ready for next year!