Passover is one of my favorite holidays. First, I love all the food involved: chicken soup with my mother’s matzo ball recipe, brisket and roasted veggies, charoses, and even gefilte fish with lots and lots of horseradish. The food tastes comforting to me and it’s always fresh and delicious.
But I also love what the seder, the Passover meal, represents: family coming together, even if it’s not your own family but just people that you consider family (the family you choose, someone once I told me); the representation of spring and rebirth – the eggs, the bright green parsley; and the symbolism of what’s on the seder plate – such as charoses for mortar.
Here are some tried and true recipes for a Passover meal. Of course, you can make them even if you aren’t Jewish or having a seder. We eat the chicken soup all the time – it’s the perfect comfort food!
Charoses:
One thing to keep in mind about recipes handed down and also ones that have been improvised over time is that there aren’t really any exact measurements. My charoses recipe is loosely based on one from my mother-in-law, but that recipe didn’t really have measurements in it, either. So, just kind of wing it. Taste as you go.
– Apples – I use Fuji or Gala; my mother-in-law uses red delicious. Use at least four. I think I used six or seven, but I was feeding a crowd and wanted leftovers.
– Dried fruit – I have used apricots, raisins, prunes, cherries, and cranberries (not all together). Choose two or three you like and go with it. This time, I used apricots, raisins, and a few prunes.
– about 1/4 cup grape wine, like Mogen David or Manischewitz
– a splash to about 1/4 cup of apple juice – start with a little and add more if needed
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– about 1/8 cup cinnamon (to taste)
– about a tablespoon of honey
– squirt of juice from half a lemon
– Optional: chopped pecans (about a handful) (I don’t use nuts in mine because my kids and I don’t like them.)
Chop the apples into small pieces. Most charoses recipes say to peel the apples, but I will confess to you that I never do. Peel them, don’t peel them…totally up to you.
Squeeze the lemon juice on the apples (so they don’t turn brown – ick).
Then chop the dried fruit if it’s in larger pieces and add to the apples. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and add it to the fruit, then add the wine and apple juice. Stir together. Taste to make sure it doesn’t need anything. Cover and refrigerate to let the flavors marry. Serve cold.
We eat this as a side dish or for breakfast, or on matzo with a little horseradish. Mmmm.
Chicken soup (for matzo ball soup):
Cut up (or have cut by your meat dept. or butcher) two or three whole chickens. Add the pieces to a large soup pot. Season with some Lowry’s Seasoning Salt (less of this than the other spices), black pepper, thyme (fresh or dried works), and garlic powder. Add chunks of cut up carrots (I use three or four carrots, depending on size); celery, including its leafy tops; two smashed cloves of garlic; a couple of cut-up onions; and any other leftover veggies (parsnips, parsley, etc.) you want/may have and need to get rid of. Cover all with water and, as my recipe says, “cook til it’s soup,” which is about two hours. Keep the heat on high until it reaches a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer for the rest of the cooking time.
Once done, fish out all of the “stuff” (chicken, veggies, herbs) from the soup. I do this with another, smaller pot next to the big pot, with a big colander or mesh sieve over the smaller pot. I use tongs to take out the big pieces from the soup, and I put the big pieces in the colander to drain out the broth. Once the big pieces are out, I empty the colander (see next paragraph) and then put the smaller pot with the colander in the sink. I then pour the rest of the broth through that colander into the smaller pot. Doing this in the sink ensures I don’t make a huge mess (which I almost always do).
Discard all the vegetables and herbs, unless you like cooked carrots or celery in your soup (then keep them, slice them, and add them back to the broth). For the chicken, discard all bones and skin. Add the cooked meat back to the broth if you want to make more of a hearty soup or stew, or you can use the chicken for anything else – chicken salad, enchiladas, quesadillas, salads, etc.
Once the soup has cooled a bit, refrigerate it. After the broth has totally cooled in the fridge, skim the fat from the top of the soup. Save the fat to use for cooking (the fat is called “schmaltz” in Yiddush, FYI).
Add matzo balls, noodles, whatever strikes your fancy.
Matzo Crackle:
This dessert is always a favorite. It’s addictive.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Take a cookie sheet and line it with foil. Then cover it with matzo, breaking the pieces to fit. The pieces don’t need to be perfect, because you’re going to break them up later anyway.
Then, in a double-boiler, melt together two sticks of salted butter and a cup of dark brown sugar:
Stir until combined and butter is no longer separated from sugar.
Then pour over matzo and spread to cover.
Sprinkle one package of semi-sweet chocolate chips over the matzo.
Bake for 8 minutes or until everything is all melted. You can smooth out the chocolate, spreading it into the caramel, or just leave it (as pictured below).
Let it cool for a little bit, then stick the whole pan in the freezer until completely cool and hard.
Once hard, take it out of the freezer and break into bite-sized pieces.
Then try not to eat the whole thing! It’s so good!
Happy Passover or Easter or Spring to you!
