Getting Ready For Passover
It is a busy time preparing special food & usually we would have +20 people for dinner at least once during the week. Not sure if we are this year but we will see!
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I love making food for this holiday that is different from the rest of the year. I am a real lover of food traditions. I make the same dishes for each of the major Jewish holidays that we celebrate. I like to add a couple new dishes each year but I always make the same basic ones. After eating several days of left-overs I usually think that I should have made a few more different dishes but then when it is time to cook, well, I like to make the same basics year after year!
I want to say that this newsletter will not go into any religious aspects of Passover. There are so many & I am no expert. So I am only going to talk about our family & the food we like to eat for this week. (Passover is 8 days long)
If you do not know the food restrictions some people follow on Passover, it is basically... (this info is from the Chabad web site) ‘avoid anything that contains grain that has risen or is fermented’… like bread, regular cakes & cookies etc. So I make foods without flour & some other ingredients. The list of foods not to be eaten is very long! I keep my food pretty simple.
I am sure some of you do not celebrate Passover. Many Passover recipes can be adapted to non-Passover food. Where there is matzo meal used in a recipe you can sub in bread crumbs. Some cakes use Cake Meal, you can sub cake flour. When a recipe has Potato Starch you can sub in corn starch. Some of the recipes are so delicious that it might be worth your while to go get the special ingredients!
Not only do we eat special food during the 8 days of Passover we always have special meals called Seders for the first 2 nights of Passover. ( many people have 1 seder, our family tradition is to have 2)
Here is my usual menu for those 2 Seder meals (I have links to some of the recipes that I use)
First : Chopped Beef Liver ( trust me it is delicious! & I do not have a written recipe published anywhere) Gefilte Fish (also delish/no recipe) & salad
Second : Chicken Soup & Matzo Balls
Main Course: I usually make a turkey, Shredded Potato Kugel, a delicious Vegetable Farfel Dish, My Mom’s Passover Fruit Pudding Then I roast potatoes for people who don’t want to eat the potato kugel. I roast some vegetables & or make some honeyed carrots. My sister makes Sweet & Sour Meatballs which everyone loves. When I have a full table of people I make other side dishes & you can find recipes on the blog. Just do a search for Passover or go to the Passover section listed at the top of the page.You will see so many Passover recipes) Marilyndishes.com
Here is a picture of the Shredded Potato Kugel
Vegetable Farfel
My Mom’s Passover Fruit Pudding
Desserts: I always make a sponge cake & we snack on it for days! Lemon Sponge Cake for Passover
Here is a picture of that cake
This Chocolate Marshmallow Roll is fab!
There are so many dessert recipes for Passover on the blog my suggestion would be to check them out Marilyndishes.com
That’s all for this week about Passover! If you celebrate I hope you have a meaningful Passover.
On the blog this week
I had a bit of a week… so I only posted once & it is a repost of a Passover Dessert
Matzo Caramel Crunch In that post there are links to two recipes that are similar but not for Passover so click on the link to find them! One is made with saltines as the base & the other has Graham Wafers at the base! All three of thieve recipes are amazing.
That’s all for this week!
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