Can't believe the holiday's already here. We had our own seder the first night, and it was with just Dad and I. I cooked almost everything and was the 'leader' of it, too. Seder lit. means 'order'. It's really a ritual dinner that goes in a specific order. You go over the symbols of the holiday, read the story, sing, eat, drink, and more. (There are 4 cups of wine. If you, like me, can't have wine, you can have grape juice instead.) One of the symbols is the roasted lamb shank, and some vegetarians use a roasted beet instead. I decided to do that since the lamb shank we had used for years had to be thrown out recently. Roasted beets are interesting...
I don't think I've used an actual beet before for anything. I've had beet salad or canned beets, but those aren't the same. They're already prepared. Apparently, beets get kind of leathery and soft on the inside. Their juice seeps out a bit, too. I probably was more fascinated by that than I should have been.
The roasted egg turned out the best out of the last few years I've been trying to do it myself.
It turned out speckled and had a long crack. I used lettuce from a salad container we already had for the lettuce part of the plate. Why not? Already had it that way. I didn't make as much of the charoset as I usually do. Don't really need to. It can go bad pretty quickly, so why make a lot and possibly throw a bunch out?
Especially, if you most likely will be the only one eating it after the seder. Our family version is just chopped up apples, crushed walnuts, grape juice (was wine, but again I can't have it), and some cinnamon. I used one apple this time instead of 2. Probably added a little too much cinnamon. Cinnamon can be healthy, though.
Still ended up tasting good. Generally, we have it chunky. Some families puree it into a paste. Some add dry fruit. Some add honey. (Although, it's pretty sweet the way we have it, as is.) There's like a million different recipes for it out there, but it's usually some form of fruit and nut mixture. I made the Passover granola, again. It's really good!
It seems to get better every year. This time I added slivered almonds to the mix. Made my 'famous' popovers, too. Did 3 batches. 1 for ours, and 2 for our friends' 2nd night seder. That's 36 in total. That's a lot of popovers!
I was worried we'd run out again at the 2nd night's seder. (It felt like they were really angry about it back then.
) Turned out we had some leftover from there. So, yay! More popovers for us! Made 'zesty garlic' chicken instead of getting a rotisserie chicken for the main part of the meal. Used the kosher of Passover Zesty Garlic dressing we got at QFC and cooked the chopped up chicken in it. Kind of like I would with a simmer sauce. Tasted and smelled awesome!
Made a kosher for Passover angel food cake with a chocolate glaze. The cake itself came from a boxed mix. Didn't have to add much. I think just water. The glaze was adapted a bit from a recipe on Epicurious. I made my own kosher for Passover confectioner's sugar. Regular ones use corn starch, this one uses potato starch. Corn is kitniyot, so since I follow Ashkenazic tradition, I can't eat it during Passover. And, to be honest, I've found that certain forms of corn don't agree with me now.
(Ever since my IBD symptoms started.) I like it, though...Even with Sephardim, they have to be careful with kitniyot. They can eat it, but it has to also be scrutinized to make sure nothing that would be considered chametz has gotten into it. I think they also have to find kosher for Passover kitniyot products. So, it's not so cut and dry like some make it out to be. Anyways, it was kind of fun making my own.
I didn't know it was so simple and easy to do. I also made a little less of the glaze than what the recipe would have made. I spooned it over the top of the cake. It looked pretty messy when I was done, but still tasty looking too. When we got to it the next night, it almost looked like a giant donut.
The glaze had hardened quite a bit, and there's a hole in the cake. It's very good. Still have a lot left. We also had macaroons, candied fruit slices, and chocolate covered candied orange peels for dessert. The orange peels are always interesting. Really tasty and they seem unique. They come from Israel, and the packaging is really interesting as well.There were 12 people at our friends' seder. They always have a lot of people for theirs. The hostess' nephew brought along 2 of his friends. So, there were 3 more people that were somewhat close in age to me. Much closer than usual. Kind of was more refreshing that way. Seemed like I had some things in common with them, too. Her nephew is so energetic and friendly. We've met a few times before. The rest I think were regulars. It was nice catching up with people, too. We were told to bring the popovers and wine. Funny how other people brought wine as well.
There was, luckily, sparkling grape juice. Interesting number of people that stuck with it, and didn't seem to have any wine. There was brisket, green beans (also kitniyot, so I couldn't have it), salad greens, matzo ball soup (theirs always comes out a bit weird, and everyone seems to add salt to the broth), a Sephardic-style charoset, hard boiled eggs, the popovers, fruit salad, kosher for Passover chocolate chip cookies (they're like drops of edible cookie dough. Really good), kosher for Passover peppermint patties, candied fruit slices, and macaroons. I was really stuffed by the end.
So many desserts, too. Some people say it's hard to make/find desserts for the holiday. I highly disagree. There are so many options...
Made another thing tonight. It was a fisherman's stew. The recipe was from an old Passover cookbook. Funny how it says 'the new' on there. I used salmon for the 'fish' part. They didn't specify what kind of fish. There were also tomatoes, potatoes, green bell peppers, onions, salt, and pepper. Seemed like a decent amount of vegetables, and healthy that way.
I was worried that it called for too much salt, but it seemed just enough. I'm not used to adding salt to things when I cook. A lot of the time I find other seasonings to be more than enough. The vegetables helped a great deal with the flavor, too. The 'broth' was just added water. Seemed fine that way. Would have been interesting with dashi, now that I think about it.
It seems pretty flexible. Found out through MyFitnessTracker's app that it's really low in calories, too. So, it's a win-win that way.
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