Passover Celebration

Passover offers many special food delights. Celebration at home, unlike grandparents’ big family affair, tend to be quite simple. Nonetheless, since the lockdown in 2020, I have been making my own versions of the standard fare. Best to record them for next year. In particular, our favorite matzo ball soup is inspired by NYT’s spicy twist and I now make them with whole wheat matzo. Our heroset this year have 4 ingredients: apples, toasted pecans, 1 tbsp of red Manischewitz, and lots of ground cinnamon. One could have it for breakfast everyday!

Matzo Ball Soup a la Mexicana:

• Ingredients

  • 4 pieces of Manischewitz whole wheat matzo, ground up in food processor or Vitamix dry grinder. Different brands have different weight, my yield is 136g. I found an interesting website that provides food volume to weight conversion when a recipe calls for a volume measurement.

  • 2 tsp kosher salt

  • ½ tap baking powder

  • ½ tsp baking soda

  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

  • 5 large eggs, 3 of them separated

  • ⅓ cup grated white onion, chopped fine in food processor

  • ¼ cup (rendered chicken or duck fat + canola oil)

  • 3 tbsp finely minced herbs, such as dill, flatleaf parsley or chives, or a combination + hot chili pepper or chopped fresh chilies

• Instructions:

  • In a large bowl, combine matzo meal, salt, baking powder, baking soda and black pepper

  • Mix in chopped onion

  • In a medium bowl, whisk the 2 whole eggs with the 3 yolks, fat, minced herbs and chili

  • Beat the 3 egg whites by hand or with an electric hand mixer until stiff peaks form

  • Stir the egg-yolk mixture into the dry ingredients, then add one-third of the beaten egg whites and mix until incorporated. Gently fold in the remaining whites until no streaks remain.

  • Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the batter and refrigerate until firm, 20 to 30 minutes

  • Bring chicken soup to boil and season with salt (not too salty as Matzo Balls are salted).

  • Keep a bowel of water next to matzo ball mix. Use a medium ice cream scooper, dipped in water first, to scoop out lumps of matzo ball mix, then use wetted hands to shape them into balls, one at a time, and drop gently into boiling soup.

  • Cook over moderate heat, turning them a few times, until they are plump and cooked through, about 25 to 30 minutes

• Heroset

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint (don’t skip)

• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Other Dishes:

• Heroset: Add 4 apples (cored and cut into large chunks), 1/2 to 2/3 cup of roasted pecans, 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, and 1 tbsp Manischewitz to food processor and use a number of short pulses to get to the desired texture.

• Pan-Fried Lamb Chop: Butcher at Shoprite was off early so I couldn’t get the shank bone for the seder plate. Bought a pack of 4 lollipop free-range lamb chops from Australia instead, and made delicious pan-fried lamb chop to the delight of Daddy and CC#2. Salt and pepper lamb chops, cook in hot carbon steel (de Buyer) or cast iron pan for 2 minutes on each side (medium rare), and use tongs to stand up lamp chops to sear all sides.

• Fresh horseradish: I buy a fresh horseradish root every Passover and use them first on the sedar plate, then turn it into a fresh ground horseradish as a condiment, and finally plant the root top in the garden so I can get fresh roots from my garden later. Peel and cut fresh root in large chunks (save the root top for planting), and blitz to a pulp in food processor with 2-4 tbsp water, 2-4 tbsp white vinegar, and 1 tsp of kosher salt. Very pungent so avoid sniffing at all costs!

• Gefilte Fish: I tried recreate Grandma’s gefilte fish specially ordered from Brooklyn. Roasting was not a good idea. I am only able to get my hands on A&B White Fish Gefilte Fish (frozen from ShopRite) and followed their recipe (cook in a tub of water seasoned with 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 carrots and 2 onions, and cook (frozen) for 1 1/2 hours. Refrigerate and serve cold with fresh ground horseradish. I can’t tell the difference between this version and Grandma’s.

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