Passover Seder 2011: A Pictorial(ish)

Oh my goodness, has it been a year already? Yes, yes it has!

Just one year ago I was invited to spend the evening with friends and hosts Nancy (from Fun Playing With Food) and her husband Bob as they shared their home, their traditions, and their food during last year's Passover holiday. I was tickled once again to receive an invitation this year to their Passover festivities. Because Passover wasn't on time again this year (because according to Nancy, the holidays are always early or late, they are never on time), the meal fell closer to the end of April this year instead of last year when it was in March.

As with last year's entry, I didn't want to belabor the dishes I had already described so thoroughly the first year I blogged about them (Part 1 Part 2), so today's post will be mostly a pictorial of the meal from beginning to end, with notes interjected from time to time to bring up any interesting facets of the meal. This past Tuesday night, we all gathered in Nancy's kitchen around 6:30 PM to put the final preparations together for the Seder. Some of us chopped, some of us washed, and some of us opened bottles of wine to let them breathe and photographed others' activities (that'd be me).

Diane prepping a delicious fennel, lemon, and pistachio salad.

Bob and Edsel prepping the parsley leaves for the Seder ceremony.

In addition to traditional Kosher for Passover wine, we had lots of regular wine on hand, too.

It is important to begin the Seder ceremony before sundown. Here, Nancy was lighting the candles and singing the first prayer from the Haggadah.

The traditional Seder plate with roasted egg, roasted shank bone, charosis/charoset, two bitter herbs (onion and horseradish), and fresh parsley. Each played a symbolic role in the Seder.

This was a special matzoh flown in from Israel, Shmurah Matzoh. In accordance with tradition, each unleavened wafer was cooked precisely eighteen seconds, not a second more or less.

Nancy's homemade charosis and Bob's homemade horseradish from his garden. I think these two flavors alone are what make me yearn to return year after year.

As part of the Seder tradition, Hillel's Sandwich (Korech/Koreich) was made from two pieces of broken matzoh that had been stuffed with charosis and one of the bitter herbs, either raw onion or horseradish.

Steamed eggs from Aaron Miller's farm.

At the end of the first half of the ceremony, after we've eaten the parsley dipped in salted water, the matzoh, the bitter herbs, and Hillel's Sandwich, we finished by eating one of the steamed eggs that has been drizzled with some of the salted water.

Nancy's homemade gefilte fish made with whitefish, pike, and carp; a special grind that she gets from Mr. Brisket in Cleveland Heights. As odd as it seems, pairing this with the spicy horseradish makes the perfect complement.

Shaved fennel salad with lemon zest and pistachios and dressed in a simple olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette. So simple and so delicious!

Here was my first course plate. You have to be careful not to fill up too early because there are three more courses coming! And trust me, it's hard because everything was so delicious.

This was our second course: Nancy's homemade matzoh ball soup. If I were sick, this would be exactly what the doctor would order to make me feel better. After the soup, we took a breather to clear the plates and make more room in our stomachs.

Sweet farfel kugel with apricots and Vietnamese cinnamon from Heather's Heat and Flavor. While I always love this dish, everyone agreed that this year's version was simply outstanding. I was even fortunate enough to bring a square home with me for breakfast the next day.

This was a carrot and prune tzimmes with shredded shortribs (also known as flanken). While this was the first time I had eaten a tzimmes for Passover, I remember eating Linda Griffith's amazing version at the last Rosh Hashanah meal I attended. It was amazing to me to see the range of this one dish.

Along with the sweet farfel kugel, Nancy and Bob always serve up a slightly spicy potato kugel as well. While the farfel kugel reminds me of a bread pudding, the potato kugel is a wholly different beast and really was its own thing in term of texture. Absolutely delicious though.

Of course, having a Seder meal at Nancy's house meant that the final savory course of the meal would contain brisket, this particular one from Aaron Miller's farm from grass-fed cows. She also served up a contrasting brisket that had been finished on corn from a different purveyor. It was a treat to get to try and contrast the two styles to see which we liked better. It really fell 50/50 among the guests. Both, however, were tender, juicy, and quite flavorful.

Here was a shot of the third course of tonight's Seder meal, all the usual suspects: brisket with onions, sweet farfel kugel, spicy potato kugel, and carrot and prune tzimmes.

After cleaning off the plates from the savory courses, desserts began making their way to the table. This was a mint cordial, unwrapped. Also available were my major weakness, cherry cordials. I had one of each.

Just like last year, David Leibowitz's chocolate flourless cake, also known as the Idiot-Proof cake, made an appearance.

My final taste of the evening was a slice of the ultra-dense flourless chocolate cake with some of Nancy's homemade creme anglaise. Talk about a rich and decadent way to end an amazing meal!

What had begun as a group of very hungry diners at 6:30 PM had morphed over the next four hours of ceremony, conversation, laughing, and eating into ten very satisfied, tired, and full eaters. With the meal at its conclusion, Nancy finished the Seder by reading the last of the incantations and blessings from the Haggadah. We gathered our coats and leftovers and headed out into the stormy, wet evening. I, for one, never get tired of spending so much time on a single meal. Coming from a non-Jewish household, and even though I'm not particularly religious as an adult, I love being able to see this wonderful culture that seemed so foreign to my childhood.

Even more importantly, I know that whatever Nancy and Bob prepare will be at its peak of flavor. I am so grateful to them both for exposing me to this wonderful alternative to the Christian holiday of Easter (with which I am much more intimately acquainted). While I do admit that at the first Seder I ever attended, there were some items about which I was fairly skeptical (gefilte fish downright scared the crap out of me ... have you ever seen those jars in the Jewish section of the supermarket?), I learned to step outside of my comfort zone and discover a world of new flavors that I now find quite delicious and look forward to every year.

For those celebrating Passover (it is actually a week long holiday), I wish you a very happy and healthy celebration. For those of my gentle readers out there celebrating the Christian holiday of Easter, I wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday, too. As for everybody else, have a great weekend and enjoy it with family and friends sharing good food and great conversation. It's really what makes life so enjoyable.

Passover Seder 2010: A Pictorial

I had the honor and privilege of spending yet another evening at Nancy and Bob's house celebrating this year's Passover Seder with my wonderful friends. Since I wrote at length about my Passover experience last year in a two-part entry, I thought I would pay homage to Nancy and Bob's incredible commitment to providing their guests with an amazing and delicious meal without letting too many words get in the way. If you want to read in-depth descriptions of the food, I encourage you to check out last year's entries. This year, I'm feeling that simpler may be better; there just isn't a need to rehash. Once Nancy has a chance to recover and post a blog entry about her experience, I'll post a link here so that you can get multiple perspectives on this one incredible meal.

Nancy and Bob's Passover Seder table.

Hot peppers from Bob's garden.

Steamed eggs. Creamy and delicious.

Gefilte fish with carrots, flat leaf parsley and Bob's homemade horseradish.

Nancy's homemade Gefilte fish. Words simply fail.

Matzah, Elijah's Cup, Miriam's Cup.

Charosis: Local apples, local honey, Vietnamese cinnamon ... need I say more?

Ceremonial Seder plate.

Haggadah.

Ceremony is starting. Lighting the candles.

Matzah ball soup made with a double stock. Amazing as always.

Light and fluffy even without any leavening.

Roasted cauliflower with garlic.

Sweet apricot matzah farfel with more Vietnamese cinnamon.

Spicy potato kugel made by Bob.

Braised beef brisket with caramelized onions.

My dinner plate. Tremendous flavors!

Homemade flourless chocolate galette and coconut macaroons.

Creme Anglaise.

Final bite of the meal ... dessert.

Rosh Hashanah Part II

In my previous entry on Rosh Hashanah, I spent a considerable amount of time talking about the pre-dinner festivities at Nancy and Bob's house. Arriving about ten minutes early with my aunt, I was able to take numerous photographs of the gorgeous table setting and some of the foods that had already been placed out for the first of many courses. While I enjoyed talking about the foods and symbolism regarding certain dishes, celebrating Rosh Hashanah by eating our way through it was ultimately more satisfying.

Going into tonight's dinner, what was really piquing my curiosity was the amount of ceremony involved with celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Having been to several of Nancy and Bob's Passover Seders in the past, I knew that there was a lengthier ceremony involved in celebrating that holiday. For Rosh Hashanah, however, it turned out that there was considerably less ceremony. After having lit the candles,


Nancy gave three blessings. The first was a blessing over the candles:

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who has commanded us to light the festival lights."

The second, a blessing over the bread:

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who brings forth bread from the Earth."

The third, a blessing over the wine (also known as Kiddush):

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who gives us the fruit of the vine."

With blessings pronounced, we were told to start our meal by dipping Honey Crisp apples into the ramekins of honey before eating them:


Apples and honey are both used symbolically to indicate the wish for a sweet year. While the apple was already sweet on its own, it also had just a bit of acidity to it that balanced very well with the honey. After we finished our apple slices, everything on the table was open for consumption.

This year Linda bought two loaves of challah, one plain and one golden raisin, from On The Rise Bakery. Here was a shot of the golden raisin version:


The bread was a wonderful pale yellow color from all of the egg yolks it contained and the golden raisin version had a lovely mild sweetness to it. I ate the golden raisin challah by itself, but decided to smear a bit of Linda's chopped liver pate onto the plain challah:


This wonderful chicken liver pate was unctuous and fatty and at the same time had a lightness to the taste. Linda told us that she had used both chicken fat and butter to give the pate a wonderful mouthfeel. If you don't like the mineral taste of liver, I don't know that this would've changed your mind, but it was an excellent version, nonetheless. The cherry tomatoes, Sugar Snaps, were from Bob's garden and were absolutely sublime. The combination of tomato flavor and natural sugars exploded in your mouth when you bit into one of these gems.

Next up was one of my all-time favorites, Nancy's gefilte fish with Bob's homemade prepared horseradish:


Nancy's gefilte fish is unusual because she uses a three fish blend, whitefish, pike, and carp, that she gets specially ground for her at Mr. Brisket. These three are ground up with some onion to form the ground fish that she then seasons and shapes into the oblong fish balls that she then gently poaches in fish stock. The fish balls on their own have a very clean, fresh fish flavor. It's only after you pair a bite of fish with some of the horseradish, however, that this dish really comes alive. The heat and the zip from the prepared horseradish surprisingly doesn't overpower the delicate flavor of the fish, but actually compliments it.

One of the nice treats about Nancy's holiday meals is that often times, simply prepared fruits or vegetables are laid out on platters and each person can customize the dish how he or she wants. I took some of the marvelous homegrown heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from the platter and placed it on my plate:


At this point, I could have dressed it with some of the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar available on the table to make a quick and easy vinaigrette or use one of two varieties of salts that were sitting on the table. I opted to use a simple sprinkling of volcanic black salt on my tomatoes. Besides the dramatic black color they added to the top of the tomatoes, it also added a certain mineral quality that regular sea salt didn't have. The tomatoes were at their peak of ripeness and it was all I could do just to close my eyes while I ate these to try and remember this taste until tomato season comes next year.

Our first course now complete, we had a ten minute respite during which time dirty plates were cleared from the table and the next course prepared. At the end of our break, everyone received a wonderful bowl of Nancy's chicken soup with a lone matzoh ball:


Before we sat down to dinner, Nancy had explained to us that because we were celebrating Rosh Hashanah and not Passover, leavening (in the form of baking power) had been used in the matzoh balls. While the end result looked the same as what I had experienced before, it wasn't until I took my spoon and cut into the ball that I realized the amazing difference that the leavening made in the final product. While I never considered Nancy's Passover matzoh balls to be that dense, the ones she prepared for Rosh Hashanah were ethereal and light. Even before I put the first bite into my mouth, I knew that I was in for a real treat. The chicken soup was also wonderfully rich and had a slight vegetal undercurrent to it. Lovingly referred to as "Jewish penicillin," this soup would've definitely warmed me on a cold day.

Our first two courses now underneath our belts, we took another small breather to get the most substantial course ready to serve. First on the table were some fantastic garden beets that had been roasted, sliced, and served cold with toasted almond slivers:


Growing up as a child, the only version of roasted beets I ever knew were the kind that came out of a can. As you can imagine, gentle reader, I absolutely abhorred the not only the taste of, but even the very thought of, roasted beets. It wasn't until several years ago that I tasted locally raised and roasted beets that I have learned to absolutely fall in love with them. When treated properly, the delicate beet flavor and the amazingly intense sweetness of a well-roasted beet is truly something to savor. Tonight's version ranked up there with the best that I have ever had.

Next onto the table was Linda's sweet potato and carrot tzimmes:


This dish was truly a revelation to me. Made with sweet potatoes, three kinds of organic carrots, locally grown Ohio honey from Lucy and topped with a spice blend containing ginger, coriander, Vietnamese cinnamon, and nutmeg, this immediately took me to Thanksgiving dinner. But this version was immensely better than my family's rather tired and dated candied yam casserole. This one exploded with flavor and the balance between the sweetness of the honey and the vibrance of the spices was spot on. I was so impressed with this dish, in fact, that I decided to have seconds and ask Linda for her recipe. I've already re-invented the dreaded Green Bean Casserole for my family's Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps it's time to give the Candied Yam Casserole a makeover as well.

The third item onto the table was a perennial favorite of mine, the potato kugel:


Made with grated potatoes, matzoh meal, eggs, oil, salt and pepper, this dish could be most closely associated with a bread pudding. Not that it was creamy, mind you, but the final product had a similar consistency to a bread-like product. While the previous samplings of this dish had some of Bob's chilies sprinkled through the kugel, this time it was sprinkled only on the top of the dish. While the texture of this version was identical to previous ones, I think my preference would be to have the chilies scattered through the kugel instead of just on top. But, that is just my preference, and certainly not meant to indicate that I didn't enjoy tonight's kugel just as much.

The fourth, and final, component to our third course was Linda's beef brisket in gravy:


This was a grass-fed brisket from Miller Farm that had been generously seasoned and then braised for many hours with an assortment of root vegetables in liquid. Once the brisket was completely cooked, the braised liquid and vegetables were run through Linda's Vita-Mix blender and fortified with some beef stock to make the wonderful gravy you see in the picture above. The beef was exceedingly tender and literally melted in your mouth. I did end up using my knife to eat the brisket; it wasn't to cut the meat, but to corral bits of beef, gravy, and potato kugel onto my fork before placing the morsel of savory goodness into my eagerly awaiting mouth.

When I finally managed to get a sampling of everything, my dinner plate runneth over with what Nancy described as "Jewish soul food":


I won't bother rehashing all of the fantastic flavors on that plate since I've already done so. I will say that even with two previous courses already in my stomach, I was surprised at how quickly and completely I cleaned my plate. I even had room for more of Linda's delicious tzimmes.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we had some really fantastic wines with our dinner tonight. I didn't get a picture of all of them, but here are two that were rather well-liked, an Australian shiraz from Jacob's Creek and a cabernet sauvignon from Simi:


With the main meal out of the way now, we took a little bit longer break to completely clear off the table before serving the desserts. While I was feeling a bit full at that time, I decided to eat through the discomfort in order to enjoy the two wonderful desserts I had seen on the printed menu earlier in the evening. Our first dessert was made by Linda and consisted of a honey cake baked in a bundt pan:


She also made homemade apple sauce and her husband, Fred, whipped up some slightly sweetened heavy cream to be served alongside the cake:


I then managed to assemble all of the components onto my plate:


The honey cake was dense and moist. It tasted of honey and spices, but wasn't overpowering in either category. Mixed with a bit of the apple sauce and the freshly whipped cream, this was an excellent way to start off the dessert course. Honestly, had the other dessert not been so small, I would've happily ended my entire meal with the dressed-up honey cake.

Our final taste of the evening would be something that Nancy happened to come across while shopping at one of her favorite Cleveland locations, Casa Dolce (she has even written about having lunch at Casa Dolce). Some time ago she almost accidentally noticed that Casa Dolce was selling a traditional Jewish delicacy called Rainbow Cookies:


Made from marzipan, these cookies were something that Nancy remembered from her childhood but had never seen in Cleveland until now. She tried some back then and vowed to come back during Rosh Hashanah and place an order for her guests. I'm certainly glad she did. I could've walked by the case in Casa Dolce hundreds of times and never have guessed what these actually were.

Here was a shot of a single cookie, accentuating the many colorful layers:


I've had marzipan paste before (the principal ingredient being ground almonds) and know the flavor well. The surprising thing about this cookie, however, was how cake-like the texture felt. Had I not been told this was a cookie, I would've just assuming it was a multi-layer cake. The almond flavor was intense and clean and the combination of almond with the chocolate frosting on top was a nice way to finish the meal.

At this point, everyone was too full to move, so we sat at the table and lazily conversed about current events and politics for another forty-five minutes. Realizing that my aunt and I had a fairly lengthy drive ahead of us, I suggested that it might be time to depart. Still fairly full from the momentous meal, everyone arose from their chairs, thank you's and good-bye's were exchanged between guests and our gracious hosts, and we quickly found ourselves back outside in the cool, moon-lit air. On the way back to my grandmother's condominium, I asked my aunt if the meal had lived up to the hype of my previous post on Nancy and Bob's Passover Seder meal. She answered emphatically, "And then some!"

Shanah tovah.