Kosher Gourmet
The taste of tradition
By: Sharon Lurie
With my Pesach kitchen up and running on the patio and my two-plate gas stove working overtime, I’ve been able to freshly freeze my soups, ice creams, and meat dishes right on schedule. My goal? To have a relaxed Seder with my family, who are arriving from near and far. Pesach is built on repetition – reading the Haggadah, setting the Seder plate, and following the same traditions year after year. But that doesn’t mean the Seder meal has to be predictable with gefilte fish and tasteless jelly! While we cherish the recipes passed down through generations, there’s always room to embrace new flavors and creative twists on tradition.
Sticky BBQ beef ribs
These ribs, roasted or braaid, are delicious over Pesach with your favourite potato salad. They need to boiled first to tenderise them. Place them into a large pot over medium to high heat and cover them with KLP cola. Bring them to the boil, then reduce heat and allow them to simmer (covered) for 40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180C. Remove the ribs from the pot, drain them well, place them into a roasting dish and pour the BBQ sauce over the ribs. Roast covered for 1 hour then remove lid, baste and continue cooking for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Or, cover ribs with BBQ sauce and braai until perfectly brown. Keep basting them with marinade whilst braaing.
BBQ Sauce
This all-purpose BBQ sauce can be used on roasts, lamb and beef ribs, burgers, and chicken. An all-week (and year round) sauce that you can throw over just about anything. It’s a versatile sauce and should be made a few days before cooking the ribs, to ensure depth of flavour. Refrigerate in glass bottle. I normally double up and know that this sauce will make any meat meal delicious.
1 heaped cup finely chopped onions
Little oil for frying
1 heaped tsp freshly crushed garlic
1 cup chopped very ripe tomatoes
(One can is also fine!)
1 cup grated green apples
½ cup tomato purée
2 TBLs brown/white vinegar
1 cup chutney (store bought or use recipe included in this article)
½ cup red wine (optional)
¾ cup syrup or sugar substitute
Salt and pepper to taste
Fry the onions in a little oil until golden brown. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and grated apple. Fry until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes. It can start to bubble and spit up a bit, so keeping it covered and stirring it every so often is important. After frying the onions and adding the rest of the ingredients, you can place it into a crockpot and cook it on high for about 4 hours. The longer you cook it the better and darker it goes. Blend with a hand blender or in a food processor.
Mock Crayfish
For me, Pesach is a very nostalgic time of the year for me. There are so many special dishes that remind me of my late mother’s Seder table. One that always comes to mind is her mock crayfish in avocado pears. We used to get such magnificent avocado pears off our tree in Durban and to this day my children beg me for “pink fish’’ in avocado pears.
4 avocado pears halved (sprinkled with lemon juice to prevent them going black)
1kg fish of your choice (I like to use hake steaks as it’s firmer and thicker and they flake better, nothing worse than a mush of gefilte fish in your avo!)
Juice of 1 lemon
3 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
SAUCE
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup tomato sauce
1 heaped teaspoon horseradish (drained)
3 pickled cucumbers grated (place into strainer to get as much liquid out of the cucumbers as possible)
Pour lemon juice, bay leaves, and salt over the fish and steam in a colander until cooked through. While the fish is cooling, make up sauce by mixing mayonnaise, tomato sauce, horseradish, and grated cucumber in a bowl. When fish is cold, flake it up gently, and cover with sauce. Mix together carefully ensuring that all the fish is coated. Place into avocado pear halves and refrigerate. The platter can be decorated with lettuce, cucumbers, watercress, boiled eggs, and fried fish. Should you wish to make the platter larger you can add a bowl of chopped herring, Danish herring, pickled herring, and smoked salmon.
Pickled cabbage and a bit more
Somehow a pickled salad always works well over Pesach. It great with cold meats and fish.
4 carrots sliced into thin discs or grated on the large hole of your box grater
500g white cabbage, shredded
1 English cucumber
250g cauliflower, chunked
6 large cloves of garlic crushed
1 x 750 ml white vinegar
2½ vinegar bottles of water (just under 2 litres)
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 TBLs peppercorns
6 dry bay leaves (fresh is always better if you have a friend with a bay leaf tree!)
1 red chilli sliced into rings (optional) for those who, like my family, like it hot!
Heat vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, and bay leaves until sugar dissolves. Allow to cool. Meanwhile, place vegetables into a jar, pour the pickle liquid over the vegetables, and seal with a tight fitting lid. The pickles will only be ready after three days.
Briskalicious
This brisket is one of my favourite Pesach dishes. It loves a low and slow uninterrupted roast in the oven or a lazy day soak in a crockpot. Whichever way you prefer to cook it, you’re going to get a brisket so soft and tasty from all those onions which have melted and infused into the sauce.
3kg fresh brisket
2 TBLs potato starch
Little oil for frying
5 large onions cut in half and sliced
4 bay leaves
1 tsp crushed fresh garlic
2 tsps finely grated fresh ginger
½ cup dry red wine
1 beef stock cube and 1 tsp coffee powder dissolved in 1 cup hot water
3 TBLs tomato paste
3 TBLs syrup
Salt and pepper to taste
8 medium sized potatoes peeled
Preheat oven to 160C. Pat the brisket dry and sprinkle the potato starch over the brisket, rubbing it into the whole piece of meat with the palm of your hand. Fry the brisket in a large pot or frying pan in a little oil until brown. Meanwhile, place the onions and bay leaves into the bottom of a roasting dish. Mix together the garlic, ginger, red wine, beef and coffee stock, tomato paste, and syrup in a bowl. Place the brisket on top of the onions and bay leaves and pour the rest of the ingredients over the meat. Place the potatoes on either side of the meat – you can add more potatoes if there is enough space. Cook for 6 hours in the oven, checking to see if there is enough liquid after 4 hours. You don’t want the brisket swimming in liquid, it should be a thick glaze. However, I do find the liquid evaporates quicker in the oven. Should you need to add a little more liquid, add a little red wine or water. If you’re cooking it in a crockpot you can cook it for 3 hours on high and another 6 hours on low. The brisket should be fork tender with no resistance.
Pesach chutney
This must be one of my most versatile sauces on Pesach. I use it on Beef, chicken, and lamb. Whether it’s on ribs, roasts, or hassleback salami, it just takes Pesach meals to another level. In fact, an all-year-round home-made treat!
Little oil for frying
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 heaped tsp crushed fresh garlic (optional)
8 large tomatoes (not too red) chopped
2 mangoes (not too ripe) peeled and chopped
5cm thick piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 cinnamon stick
3 green apples, peeled, cored and grated
200g dried apricots, chopped
1 red hot chilli (chopped)
2 cups red wine
2 cups sugar
Salt and pepper to taste.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onions and garlic until the onions just start to turn brown around the edges. Add the rest of the ingredients. Ring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 – 3 hours with the lid lying loosely on top. Stir intermittently, especially during the last hour of cooking, but be careful as the sauce could bubble up and spit up at you. Because of the high sugar content, the chutney can catch quite easily towards the end. When it starts to darken, remove from the heat. It’s difficult to give an exact cooking time, as liquids evaporate quicker or slower depending of the size of the pot used. However, make it on a day when you’re going to be in the kitchen for a few hours. This can also be made in a crockpot. I would leave it on low overnight and turn it up to high the next day if it’s not dark enough. When cool place into 500ml glass jars with screw on lids.
Stuffed chicken
1 large raw chicken
Spice rub
¼ cup oil
2 TBLs KLP bbq spice
1 tsp paprika
Couple of stems of rosemary
Stuffing
1 large onion finely chopped
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
½ tsp freshly chopped garlic
1½ cups matzah meal
2 chicken cubes dissolved in 1½ cups hot water
Fry the onions in oil until caramelised (lightly brown). Add salt, pepper, Italian herbs, garlic, matzah meal, and chicken stock water. Mix it well and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Clean chicken, rub it with spice and pack the cavity with stuffing. Roast for at least 2 hours, loosely covered with tin foil, in a roasting dish in which the chicken fits securely. In other words, the roasting dish should not be too big as you don’t want the moisture to evaporate out the pan too quickly. Remove foil to crisp the chicken up and keep basting. Stuffed chickens and meat take longer to cook as you have to cook through the stuffing as well.
Neopolitana gnocchi
I double up on this recipe and make it up a day or two in advance so as to always have in the fridge over Pesach. It can be used in a minestrone soup, added to mince, served with boerewors over mashed potato, or even in a stew. It is probably one of your most versatile sauces for Pesach.
4 large potatoes
3 eggs
3 heaped TBLs potato flour
1 heaped tsp (KLP) baking powder
1½ tsp salt
Water for boiling
Boil or microwave the potatoes (whole in their skins) until soft. Allow potatoes to cool the peel them. Finely grate into a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and add them to the potatoes and potato flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well to form a soft, but not too sticky, dough. Sprinkle some potato flour onto a board and start rolling pieces of the dough into long thin sausages – about 1cm in diameter. Slice these into 2cm pieces. Heat a pot of salted water and bring it to the boil. Add the gnocchi in batches and boil till they float to the top and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove them and add them to your pot of tomato sauce.
Sauce
1 large onion (chopped)
3 TBLs oil
12 jam tomatoes (cut on half)
1 large carrot
1 TBL syrup/honey
2 chicken cubes dissolved in two cups of boiling water
35g fresh basil leaves
20g fresh oregano
Fry onions until golden brown. Add tomatoes, carrot, syrup and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 1 hour with the lid on. Checking it every so often to see that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Blend until smooth, Strain, bottle, and refrigerate.
Carrot and walnut cake
Although this carrot and walnut cake is KLP, it’s a wonderful gluten-free cake for those with a gluten intolerance
1 cup almond flour
½ cup potato flour
½ cup Tapioca flour/desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup sugar
½ cup syrup
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated carrots
100g roughly chopped walnuts
Icing
2 cups icing sugar
2 TBLs parev margarine
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 TBL lemon juice
If you find the icing a little too firm, add 1 teaspoon of boiling water at a time.
Preheat your oven to 170 C. Grease the sides and line the base of a 20cm baking tin with baking paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until well incorporated. Fold in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread it evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it carefully to a wire rack by clearing the sides of the cake, whilst still in the tin, with a knife. Remember there is baking paper underneath the cake, so it should come out easily. Sift icing sugar, add the margarine, vanilla essence, and lemon juice, and mix well. It may need a little water for a smoother spreadable icing.
Meringue and strawberry mousse
5 eggs separated (keep the egg yolks for lemon curd option)
¼ cups sugar
3 TBLs strawberry jam
With an electric beater, beat the egg whites until firm slowly add a quarter cup sugar and continue to beat for 1 minute, continue this process until you’ve used all the sugar. Spoon the meringue mixture in a circle onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Make a dip in the middle of the meringue making sure the edges are taller than the centre of the meringue. Warm the jam (not too hot otherwise the meringue will melt), just warm enough to make it easier to zigzag through the meringue. Do not fold it into the meringue… it should just be dripped very lightly onto the meringue. The jam just adds a crispness to the meringue when baked together.
Filling
500g fresh strawberries
1 cup cold water
1 pkt strawberry jelly
1 vanilla pudding
In a food processor of liquidiser blend the strawberries, with 1 cup water, until smooth. While still blending, add the vanilla pudding powder (just the powder) and continue to process in food processor for two minutes. Finally add one packet strawberry jelly powder and continue to blend. There should be enough liquid from the strawberries to make this a smooth pudding. Refrigerate this mixture overnight to set slightly. Spoon into meringue just before serving and decorate with strawberries and mint. An immersion blender can be used. Using a deep jug to blend the ingredients will make blending easier and smoother.
Lemon curd
1 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 tsp potato starch (dissolved in lemon juice below)
½ cup FRESH lemon juice
125g cold margarine
Beat sugar and yolks until cream in colour. Add potato starch dissolved in fresh lemon juice and beat well. Place into a small pot and place over low to medium heat. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add cold margarine whilst whisking. Place a piece of cling wrap over the curd to prevent a ‘carpet’ forming. Serve in meringue shell.
