On Friday at sundown, Jews will begin the first seder of this Passover-a holiday feast that ”most Jews say is their favorite Jewish holiday,” says Rabbi Herbert Bronstein of Glencoe`s North Shore Congregation Israel.
”Passover is a celebration-an eight-day holiday commemorating the exodus from Egyptian bondage and freedom to be Jews and serve God,” he says.
”Passover is also a 2,000-year-old tradition, a gathering of friends and family. At a seder, every Jew is made to feel as if he or she had experienced the degradation of bondage and the transformation to freedom.”
Bronstein says that another reason the holiday is so beloved is because everybody-the youngest to the oldest-participates.
”The Passover service isn`t just a narrative,” he says. ”It`s also like a seminar or symposium where everybody makes an individual contribution. My father, for example, used to tell the same, slightly off-color joke at the same place in the re-telling of the exodus each year. And whenever he told it, my mother would try to stop him, saying `Morris. . .the children! Until I grew up, I thought it was part of the liturgy.”
The word Passover describes the story of the exodus. God sent plagues, so the story goes, afflicting the Egyptians in an attempt to get them to free their Jewish slaves. But Pharaoh did not listen until God sent a final plague- the most terrible of all-asking the Angel of Death to slay the firstborn son of each Egyptian family. The Jews were instructed to slaughter a lamb and mark their door posts with lamb`s blood, so that the Angel could identify the slave`s houses and ”pass over” them. You know the ending-Pharoah let the Jews go free.
SYMBOLS OF PASSOVER
A special Passover plate with five indentations-each holding one of five ceremonial symbols-is very much a part of this holiday. One indentation holds the bitter herbs, standing for two centuries of slavery under the Egyptians. A second holds a mixture called haroset, a paste of apples, cinnamon, raisins and wine, thick in texture, symbolizing the material used by the Jewish slaves to make bricks for the pharaoh`s buildings. A third holds a fresh vegetable, indicative of spring, life and rebirth. Another holds a roasted egg, reflecting the changing fortune of the Jews. A fifth indentation holds a lamb shank bone-a symbol of the Passover offering in the ancient temple.
One particularly beloved part of the Passover seder occurs when the front door is opened for the invisible prophet Elijah to come in and share some of the family`s wine.
”Elijah is associated with a better world-with justice, peace and no violence,” Bronstein says. ”I used to love it when it was time to open the door for him. Each year my father would tell me if I watched the cup very carefully, the level of the wine would go down. `Only a tiny bit though,` he`d add, `because Elijah has to go to so many seders.` I`d watch it very carefully each year. And I`d always see the wine level go down. It would happen again every year.”
The menu of the communal meal shared after the ceremony differs from country to country and even from household to household, but some foods are traditional at an American Passover. To re-create a traditional menu, we asked three local cooks for some of their prized Passover recipes and with them put together an eight-dish meal.
Darwin and Carol Apel of Chicago cook their annual seder feasts together. They gave us their recipes for chopped liver and carrot tzimmes (tzimmes means everything stirred up together like a stew), with the following suggestions.
”Use a bake-and-serve casserole when making the tzimmes; it`s convenient,” they say. ”And try to use fresh sweet potatoes instead of canned; the fresh make a better tasting tzimmes. But don`t worry about using frozen peas,” Darwin adds. ”The tzimmes will taste just as good with frozen as with fresh.”
When making Apel-style chopped liver, cooks should ”make sure no juices run pink when the livers have finished cooking. Prick them with a fork to be sure. And be sure that all the veins have been removed,” Darwin says. The Apels also suggest that cooks take care to scrape everything from the frying pan into the blender because all the liver seasonings already have been added to this pan.
Rabbi Bronstein`s wife, Tamar, doesn`t own a food processor because she enjoys making traditional foods in the traditional manner. But when Mrs. Bronstein gave us her family recipes for gefilte fish and chocolate Passover sponge cake, she added that ”although it`s traditional to make gefilte fish in a wooden bowl with a hand-held chopper, it will also work if the fish monger grinds the fish. Just make sure you end up with 4 pounds of ground fish plus a package of bones,” she says. ”And wet your hands frequently when forming the fish mixture into balls, so that it does not stick to your hands.”
Bronstein also suggests substituting kosher margarine for the chicken fat in matzo ball recipes to cut down on cholesterol. ”When serving the matzo balls, don`t bother to heat them beforehand,” she says. ”If they are room temperature, the hot soup will heat them sufficiently.” When making the chocolate Passover sponge cake, Bronstein says to ”beat the egg whites first, then transfer them to another bowl. That way you won`t have to wash the beaters.”
Sophie Berger of Chicago, who has been cooking Passover seder meals for 10 to 12 people for many years, gave us her recipes for roast beef brisket and kugel, meanwhile suggesting the following: If you wish, bake the kugel, then cool and freeze it,” she says. ”Or bake it the day before, refrigerate it overnight and re-warm it when needed.” Berger has even mixed it the day before, refrigerated the uncooked mixture overnight and baked it before serving. ”It works well any way you do it,” she says.
TAMAR BRONSTEIN`S PASSOVER GEFILTE FISH
10 servings
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
2 pounds coarsely ground whitefish (weighed after skin and bones have been removed), bones reserved
1 pound each: coarsely ground pike and trout (weighed after skin and bones have been removed), bones reserved
2 large onions
4 carrots, peeled
2 eggs
1/4 cup matzo meal, about
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
3/4 teaspoon pepper or more to taste
Water
Small handful celery leaves, coarsely diced
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
16 lettuce leaves
1 jar each: prepared red horseradish, prepared white horseradish
1. Place fish bones in a small bowl and cover with water to help clean the bones. Let sit while fish mixture is being prepared.
2. Place ground fish in large wooden bowl. Using a coarse grater, grate 1 carrot and 1 onion into fish mixture. Mix onion and carrot into fish mixture with a hand held chopper-the kind with a curved blade.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well with chopper. Then add matzo meal, 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper and use chopper to mix again. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons cold water and mix well, to make a light, soft mixture. 4. Cut remaining onion in thin slices and place in bottom of large, wide soup kettle, 6 to 8 quarts. Drain bones and add to pot. If large or stiff, bend bones to fit the pot and to lie flat over the onions.
5. Add celery leaves to pot. Then add water to cover bones. Add white pepper. Heat to boil and reduce heat to simmer.
6. Meanwhile, while water heats, form fish into balls: With wet hands, scoop out a handful of fish mixture, slightly larger than a golf ball. Form into rounded ovals.
7. Put fish balls gently into the pot of simmering water. Arrange balls in a single layer over bones, if possible. If you must, arrange a second layer of fish balls carefully over the bottom layer. But do not make a third layer. If you have additional fish balls, cook them after the first batch is ready. When all fish balls have been added to pot, add sufficient water carefully, just enough to cover tops of fish balls. Cover pot, heat again to boil and turn heat down sufficiently so pot liquid simmers.
8. Simmer fish balls 1 hour. Cut remaining 3 carrots in 1/2-inch thick slices and place on top of fish. Continue cooking another 30 to 60 minutes or until balls are solid and cooked through and carrot is cooked. Do not add additional water. Even though much of the water covering the fish balls may have evaporated, the fish balls will still cook from the steam.
9. Remove pot from heat and allow fish balls to cool slightly in covered pot, about 15 minutes. Then remove fish balls from pot, carefully, arranging them in a single layer on platter. Allow to cool, then cover platter with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
10. Transfer carrot slices to a separate bowl, cover, refrigerate and reserve for later use as garnish. Strain broth, discarding bones and onions. Pour broth into a large jar or bowl with a lid and refrigerate.
11. At serving time, remove fish, carrot slices and broth from refrigerator. Arrange a lettuce leaf on each of 10 plates. Carefully place 1 fish ball on lettuce leaf. Garnish with carrot slices. Spoon a little of the jellied broth onto the plate, if desired. Pass horseradishes.
Note: If desired, have fishmonger grind fish for you. You should end up with 4 pounds ground fish and a package of bones. It`s traditional to make gefilte fish in a wooden bowl because this is best for chopping the ground fish by hand. Traditionally, people used to put their own fish through the grinder.
TAMAR BRONSTEIN`S PASSOVER CHOCOLATE SPONGE CAKE
Eight to ten servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
7 eggs, separated
1/4 teapoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 talespoons Passover sweet, red wine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup Passover cake meal
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Beat egg whites with salt until they hold soft peaks. Continue beating, gradually adding sugar until meringue is formed and mixture is stiff. Transfer meringue to separate bowl.
2. Without washing beaters or bowl, beat egg yolks and 2 tablespoons wine for 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Gently fold meringue into yolk mixture. Mix cake meal and cocoa together, then sift into separate bowl and mix with nuts. Fold cake meal mixture into batter, a little at a time.
3. Spoon mixture into ungreased 9-inch tube pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
4. Invert tube pan and arrange on a large bottle of cola so that pan is lifted in the air while cooling. Let cool at least 1 hour or until completely cool. Then loosen sides of cake with knife blade and invert onto serving platter.
5. Cut in wedges to serve.
CAROL AND DARWIN APEL`S CARROT TZIMMES
Eight servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut in 1/2-inch thick slices
3 raw sweet potatoes, peeled (or substitute canned in natural juice)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 pound fresh peas (or substitute frozen)
1 cup cooked brisket (optional)
1 tablespoon each: chicken fat, flour
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1. Cook carrots and sweet potatoes in water to cover until partly, but not completely soft. (If using canned sweet potatoes, do not add them to carrots; merely drain them and reserve for adding to pot later in the cooking.)
2. Add granulated sugar, salt, pepper and peas to pot. (If using frozen peas, reserve for adding to pot later in the cooking.) Cook 2 to 3 minutes, then strain, reserving liquid and vegetables separately.
3. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole. Put vegetables in casserole. If using canned sweet potatoes and frozen peas, add now, stirring gently to combine. Cut brisket into long, shred-like strips and add to vegetables, tossing lightly to combine.
4. Melt fat in a small saucepan. Add flour, stirring until blended with wire whisk. Add brown sugar and cook until dissolved. Stir 1/2-cup of the reserved vegetable liquid into flour mixture and mix well to combine. Simmer 1 minute.
5. Pour sauce over vegetables and meat in casserole. Cover and bake 30 minutes. (Note: if you like a drier tzimmes, do not use a cover. Serve directly from casserole.
Tips: Fresh sweet potatoes make a better tasting tzimmes. The peas, however, can be used either frozen or fresh. They taste just as good. But do not use canned.
SOPHIE BERGER`S BEEF BRISKET
10 to 12 servings
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 4 hours
5 pounds first cut brisket (do not include end portion, which is too fatty)
Gravy darkener such as Kitchen Bouquet
Salt, pepper
Garlic powder
3 medium cloves garlic
3 large onions, diced
1/2 cup catsup
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove all visible fat from brisket. Brush brisket lightly on both sides with Kitchen Bouquet. Then season both sides lightly with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
2. Place brisket in heavy metal roating pan or Dutch oven with cover. Put garlic cloves through press and spread garlic on top of beef. Sprinkle diced onions over beef. Add 2 tablepoons water to pot, then cover and place in oven. 3. Roast brisket 2 hours, which will allow juices and liquids from beef and onions to develop. Uncover, add 2 tablespoons of the catsup plus 2 to 3 additional tablespoons water and several drops of Kitchen Bouquet. Tilt cover slightly, so that it still covers most of brisket, but one end is open. This will allow roast to brown but not dry out.
4. Continue cooking brisket another 1 1/2 to 2 hours, for a total of 3 1/ 2 to 4 hours or until beef is tender. While brisket cooks, small amounts of water can be added to pot if needed. At the end of cooking time, there should be enough gravy to submerge lower half of beef. But at no time, should brisket be completely submerged in liquid.
5. Allow to cool slightly. Then cut brisket in very thin slices at an angle against the grain. Slices will be long, thin and lean.
6. For gravy, scrape the browned spots and sediment which have adhered to the sides of the roasting pan. Mix these scrapings in with the gravy. If necessary, add additional water to extend gravy. Add remaining catsup to thicken, along with a few additional drops of Kitchen Bouquet so that finished gravy has a red/brown cast. Taste, adjust seasoning, adding additional garlic powder if needed.
7. Pour gravy into small, clean roasting pan. Carefully arrange brisket slices in gravy, taking care that slices are moistened with gravy completely. Cover roaster and refrigerate brisket. Re-warm before serving.
Note: Brisket can be frozen in gravy and then defrosted and rewarmed.
SOPHIE BERGER`S MATZO APPLESAUCE KUGEL
Eight to ten servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
3 matzos
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons melted margarine
1 jar (36 ounces) unsweetened applesauce
1 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1. Crumble matzos in water and squeeze dry; discard water and set matzo aside for a moment.
2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Stir in sugar, melted margarine, applesauce, raisins, cinnamon and grated lemon rind. Mix well, then combine with matzo.
3. Spoon into a 11- by 7- rectangular dish. Bake until firm and golden, 60 to 75 minutes. Remove from oven and serve, cutting into squares. Or serve in scoops, using a large serving spoon.
