HaKol BeSeder
By: Sharon Lurie
Pesach, the creative cooking time of the year for some, possibly the simplest for others, but daunting for most. How often do we hear: “I’m not going meshuga for 8 days of the year”? Well, we still have to prepare for two Sedorim, Chol HaMoed, and Shabbos, and let’s not forget our families’ biggest memories in Jewish culture revolve around our festivals and how we share meals. Somehow, we always focus on our traditional Seder meals, so I thought this Pesach I’m giving you a few ideas for the days in between.
Picture of soup with white things floating around.
French onion soup and gnocchi (a little Italian, a little French, a lot Pesadik!)
Yes, I know kneidlach (matzah balls) are traditional Pesach fare, but this year we’re trying something different. A French onion soup with gnocchi (gnocchi are a type of potato dumpling – served as pasta – normally made with potatoes and flour but for Pesach, potato flour). So, for those who are gluten free, dairy free, meat free, or “happy to be”, here we go.
I made an onion soup last Shabbos that just went down so well, literally and figuratively! Just it’s look and hearty taste reminded me of a vegan version of chicken soup. “I think you should share this for Pesach, suggested my sister-in-law.” And so, here it is:
Ingredients:
8 large onions thinly sliced
Little oil for frying
1 cup dry white wine (optional)
½ tsp sugar
6 sticks celery, whole
1 tsp salt
4 litres water
6 Tbls chicken stock
In a large soup pot, fry onions in a little oil until soft and lightly browned. Add optional wine and bring to the boil. Allow to boil for 7 minutes, stirring all the time. Add sugar, salt, celery sticks, and water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and allow to simmer on low with the lid lying loosely on top for another hour. Remove the celery, add the chicken stock powder, one spoon at a time, whisking after each addition whilst bringing the soup to a boil again. At this point the gnocchi can be added, it will float to the top when ready. If you want to freeze the soup, I would freeze it separately from the gnocchi. The gnocchi can be made and frozen individually on a tray, and once the soup is boiling, the gnocchi can be added whilst still frozen.
Potato gnocchi
These can be made while the onion soup is cooking or frozen and then added when the soup is brought to a boil before serving.
500g potatoes – Don’t peel the potatoes before boiling or they will absorb too much water which will affect your gnocchi dough
1 cup potato flour
1 egg
Salt
Boil the potatoes until soft (test with a toothpick). Remove from water and allow to cool enough to peel skin off. Peel the potatoes, then either grate on the small hole of a box grater or push them through a ricer or sieve as you don’t want lumps. Mix the potato flour and salt, place on a flat surface, make a well in the middle, and add the potatoes and egg. Mix with your fingers to form a soft dough, it should not stick to your fingers. On a lightly floured surface, cut small amounts of dough to form ropes and cut into 2cm pieces. If you feel like making it like a Nona would, you can use a fork to create small lines in the Gnocchi for presentation. Sprinkle a little bit of flour and toss, so they don’t stick together. Let the gnocchi rest on a tray for 30 minutes in the fridge before cooking in the onion soup or freeze.
Horseradish encrusted fish fingers
Picture of three fish fingers on a plate with lettuce)
This recipe is for 1kg raw fish fingers/strips
Ingredients for the crust:
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbls white grated horseradish (bottled is also fine)
1 cup of cake meal
2 tsps paprika (gives it a lovely warm colour)
½ cup oil
1 Tbl dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 200°C. Combine the crust ingredients with a spoon until well incorporated. Place fish onto lightly oiled baking tray. Place a tablespoon of the crust mixture on top of the fish (maybe a bit more, enough to cover top of fish). Place onto the middle shelf and bake until golden brown and the fish is cooked through. It’s important to make sure that the crust is dark and crispy, and if the fish is cooked then you can raise the tray to the upper level and grill for a few minutes. Watch it as you don’t want it to burn.
Picture of matzah on white background with salmon and salad and avo etc
I’m starving! Matzah Stack
“I’m starving!” I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times over Pesach. Here’s a little snack that may help with that 4 o’clock sugar drop.
1 sheet matzah (I like to paint mine with a little olive oil, garlic, and dried herbs for that extra burst of flavour, then crisp them up in the oven for 1 minute in the microwave – yes a microwave will crisp them up as they cool.)
Ideas for toppings:
Smoked salmon
Egg plant
Boiled eggs
Avocado
A little chrain
Feta cheese
Basil and small herb selection
This goes with picture of meat in bowl
Pesach paprika beef
1,5 kg beef cut stroganoff style
½ cup potato flour/starch
Little oil for frying
2 onions sliced into eighths and peeled into separate leaves
2 red paprika peppers finely sliced
3 to 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup DRY red wine (not sweet)
½ cup tomato PASTE
1 heaped tablespoon paprika powder
2 cups chicken or beef stock. 2 cubes dissolved in 2 cups boiling water ensuring there’s just enough liquid to cover the meat. If you need to add another cup of water, dissolve another cube in the water.
Toss the meat in the potato flour. In a medium sized pot, fry the meat in portions in a little oil until lightly brown. Remove meat and set aside. In the same pot (unwashed) fry the onions, paprika peppers, garlic, and parsley. When vegetables are soft, add the red wine and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and add tomato paste and paprika powder. Give it a good stir, then return the meat to the pot. Finally add the beef/chicken stock liquid. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until soft for about 45 minutes ensuring liquid doesn’t dry out but does reduce and thicken up.
This goes with pic of beef ribs
Double Dunked Sticky Beef Ribs
3 racks of steakhouse ribs (there are usually +/- 7 ribs per rack) either in a rack or cut up individually.
OVERNIGHT MARINADE
1 litre cola
Juice of 1 lemon (1/3 of a cup)
3 Tbls onion stock powder
BASTING SAUCE
1 cup Glen’s chutney
½ a cup tomato paste
½ a cup sweet chilli sauce
1 hot chilli finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Marinate meat overnight in “overnight” marinade. The next day place the ribs into a large pot and cover with the marinade they were marinating in overnight. Cook them over medium to high heat COVERED on the stove for about 25 to 30 minutes. Most of the ribs won’t be covered with liquid but the steam will cook them if the lid is on. After 30 minutes, remove the racks or individually cut ribs from overnight marinade. DO NOT wash them. Place them straight into an ovenproof dish or aluminium roasting dish and coat them with basting sauce. Use all the sauce. Roast at 180°C uncovered for an hour then cover and reduce heat to 160°C and allow them to cook low and slow for another 1,5hrs. These should have a dark sticky finish to them.
Picture of lemon and herb chicken on braai
Flame grilled Lemon and herb chicken
It’s really all about getting those extra special flavours into your food over Pesach. With sauces and condiments being so limited, it’s the fresh herbs and spices and the added taste of flame grilled meat that adds flavour to what could be rather bland. For those who don’t feel like kashering their braai for Pesach, I would suggest one of those disposable braais. Two chicken braai packs fit should fit and it really does the flame licked trick. The chicken doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through as it still has to go in the oven, as long as it’s golden brown on the outside, the oven will do the rest. I make up a jar of blended lemon and herb which I use in salad dressings, on fish, lamb, and scotch fillet which I love to braai (bbq) first, then oven roast.
2 chicken braai packs (2 chickens cut into 10 portions)
Herb marinade/ basting source
Juice of three lemons (½ a cup)
1 cup oil
6 to 8 cloves of garlic
2 Tbls honey
1 tsp salt
½ a tsp pepper
20-30g fresh Origanum
20-30g fresh parsley
20-30g fresh rosemary (remove needles off stems)
20-30g fresh mint
2 hot chillies (optional but nice!)
Place all the marinade/basting ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth. Preheat oven to 180°C. Wash chicken well and paper dry. Place onto braai when flames have died down and coals have an orange glow. Braai chicken until golden brown, remove from braai, and place into a roasting dish or tin foil container as it still must cook further. Only then do I paint each piece generously with the herbed lemon juice and further salt roast for 1 hour or a little longer until done. I like to put the basting sauce on the chicken only after I’ve braaied it as I find the fresh herbs tend to burn too quickly from the flames of the braai. Check the meat is cooked all the way through by cutting a small slit with a sharp knife as close to the bone as possible on either a thigh or drumstick. (When I cook lamb shanks the same way, I brown it on the braai then baste and cook it low and slow for about 3 hours on 160°C. It’s so easy even a child can help you!)
Anytime Beef Shnitzel
pic of crumbed schnitzel with knife stabbing into them with mash
This keeps the forever hungry satisfied. I have them available 24/7. Hot or cold they take care of those hunger pains!
12-minute steaks (ask your butcher to tenderise them as this helps keep the crumbs on the meat)
Overnight Marinade
½ of cup lemon juice
½ of cup oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
CRUMB MIX – mix together the following:
1½ cups cake meal
Salt and pepper
1 Tbl dried parsley
1 heaped Tbl chicken stock powder
3 eggs for dipping
Marinate meat for minimum 6 hours, preferably overnight. Remove meat from marinade. Dip meat in egg then in crumb mixture. Fry in oil over high heat until brown. The reason I fry it on high is because the steaks are thin, and the cake meal takes a while to brown. However, don’t allow the crumbs in the frying pan to burn. If they do, remove them with a slotted spoon before frying the next piece.
Pic of mushrooms on potato
A mound of mushrooms on latke
A lunchtime meal or a side vegetable dish – simple, quick, and so delicious.
500g assorted mushrooms
2 Tbls fresh Italian parsley finely chopped
1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
2 Tbls lemon juice
Salt and crushed black pepper
Fry the mushrooms in a little olive oil and when they start to brown and release liquid add the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
Latke
500g potatoes, finely grated
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup potato flour
Salt and pepper
Place grated potato into a strainer set on top of a bowl. Squeeze out all the juice through the strainer and discard the juice. Add lightly beaten eggs, flour, salt, and pepper. Mix it well. Fry in oil until golden brown and crispy. You can make one or two big latkes or small individual ones. Pour mushrooms over latkes and serve with a salad or as a side dish. I poured a little onion soup (recipe above) over my mushrooms whilst frying, you can also add a tablespoon or onion soup powder to dissolved in ¾ cup boiling water to the mushrooms, whilst frying.
Carrot Kugel (Photo looks like a round Bundt cake)
This carrot kugel is delicious with meat. Soaked in a savoury meat gravy is when it really outshines the rest of the vegetable dishes on the plate. However, if there’s a potato kugel it may be a toss-up for first place!
Ingredients
6 large carrots peeled and chunked
2 cups boiling water
3 Tbls oil
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
1 cup oil
½ cup potato flour.
1½ cups cake meal
1 tsp salt
1 Tbl onion/chicken stock powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
Preheat oven to 170°C. Place carrots into a saucepan and cover with boiling water and 3 tablespoons oil. I Like to put oil into the carrots simply because I often forget the carrots are steaming, but if there’s oil in the saucepan the crackle of the oil when the water has evaporated alerts me to switch the carrots off. Bring the carrots to the boil with the lid lying loosely on top and cook until soft. Remove from heat and mash/blend the carrots until soft. You can use a hand blender for a smoother texture. While the carrots are cooling, beat the eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Reduce speed of beater and slowly add oil. Add potato flour and cake meal, stock powder, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon. Finally, fold in the carrot mixture and pour into a well-greased Bundt tin or suitable ovenproof dish. Bake in a preheated oven for 50 minutes to an hour.
Pic of 3 vegetables leeks, carrots, and broccoli
We can just write underneath
“A few vegetable ideas for Pesach”
Picture of two salads and dressing
Thai Salad
When most people think of Pesach, our minds automatically wonder over into beige colours, cement textures, and dry matzah. We can abide by the rules of Pesach and share our cultural recipes, but we can also showcase some of the rich and colourful flavours of the modern world. When I think about adding flavour and colour to dishes on Pesach, it usually has to come in the form of spices and fresh produce and what better cultures showcase this combination than Thailand and Italy!
Ingredients
1 small head of Chinese cabbage
250g finely shredded red cabbage
1 large carrot cut julienne style
1 English cucumber cut julienne style
1 bell pepper cut julienne style
Roasted slivered almonds
THAI SALAD DRESSING
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup orange juice
1 cup oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
¼ cup soy sauce (kosher for Passover)
1 stick lemon grass chopped
2 Tbls chopped spring onion
1 heaped tsp ginger
1 Tbl freshly chopped coriander (optional)
1 heaped Tbl peanut butter
Salt and pepper
Blend all of the above with a hand blender until smooth and well combined.
ITALIAN SALAD
Ingredients
Lettuce
35g rocket (+/-)
250g baby tomatoes
1 sliced red onion
Handful of olives
Parmesan cheese (optional)
MY PESACH TAKE ON ITALIAN SALAD DRESSING
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1 Tbl sugar
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 Tbl vegetable soup powder
Shake all of the above salad ingredients in a jar. Allow to settle and re-shake when ready to use.
GINGER CAKE
Picture with pink fork
My younger brother Michael is a “Ginger”, and he loves this cake, which happens to be ginger, but that’s not why he likes it! It’s delicious and allows us to forget that it is Pesach, even if it’s just for a moment.
1 tea bag
1 cup of boiling water
6 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of oil
1 cup of golden syrup
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1¾ cups cake meal
1 cup of potato starch
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 170°C. Place the tea bag into the boiling water and allow to steep for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cream the eggs and sugar until light in colour. Beating continuously, but lowering the speed, add the oil, followed by the syrup. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the tea, then add this to the egg mixture and continue to beat. Add the cake meal, potato starch, ginger, and cinnamon, and mix well. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and bake at 170°C for 1 hour. When done, switch off the oven and leave the cake in for a further 10 minutes.
NOTE: This versatile recipe can also be used to make a date pudding by adding 200g finely chopped dates to the batter.
Triple decker chocolate treat (pic chocolate brownies with chocolate ice cream)
These chocolate treats, all made with real chocolate, are the perfect ending to your Seder or Shabbos. Although fruit and sorbet are a great option for desserts after a big meal, my family still want the decadent brownies and ice cream, “just to complete the meal!”
2 boxes chocolate parev powdered pudding (I like Osem) (optional)
2 cups water or 1 cup non-dairy creamer and 1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
5 ex large eggs
1 cup sugar
400g dark chocolate
Whisk chocolate pudding with water or if using non-dairy creamer use 2 cups non-dairy creamer with one cup water. Set aside and leave to firm up a little. Meanwhile, beat 5 whole eggs and sugar with an electric beater for at least 7 minutes, until light in colour and fluffy. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave at 1 minute increments. Turn down the speed of your Mixmaster to low and spoon the melted chocolate, slowly, with the assistance of a spatula, into the egg and sugar mixture. Carry on beating until well incorporated, then slowly add the chocolate pudding which should by now be thicker in texture. Increase speed of mixture and blend well. Place into freezer safe container and freeze until ready to serve.
NUTTY, CHOCOLATE BROWNIES
4 extra large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut oil or canola oil
1 cup syrup
250g dark chocolate (melted)
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup peanut butter (optional)
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp salt
¾ cup potato flour
¾ cup ground almond flour
Beat eggs and sugar very well until light and creamy. Slowly add oil in a steady stream. Add syrup, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, peanut butter, vanilla essence, salt, and both flours. Bake on 170°C in an ovenproof dish (about 25x20cm ensuring the raw mixture comes halfway up the dish) for 45 to 50 mins. They are moist brownies, so a needle inserted won’t come out clean. If you want them a little dryer switch the oven off and leave them in for another 10 minutes.
CHOCOLATE TOPPING
200g dark chocolate
½ cup syrup
½ cup water
Melt in a double boiler and pour over ice cream and brownies as per pic.
