JewliciousEats: Passover Recipes 2015 – from Kaifeng to Milwaukee to Barcelona

In Kaifeng China, about four dozen Chinese of Jewish heritage and their guests gathered in a hotel for a seder on Friday evening. They dined on haroset of red jujube paste and a salad of bitter, local, Henan-style Zhengzhou “maror” greens.

But elsewhere, there were some other unique holiday foods for the seder and intermediate days:

Florence Steinberger in The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel shared three desserts for Passover, ones that are easy for phobic bakers. One is a Viennese based matza layer cake. Although her mother fled Austria at the age of 19 in 1940, she recalled her family’s baking heritage. The layer cakes uses 8 layers of matza, kosher wine, and melted kosher for Passover chocolate.

Yakir Levy and kosher cookbook author Faye Levy shared some of their nut based recipes for Passover in The Los Angeles Times. One of their favorite French almond cookies is the country macaroon, often called a macaron rustique. The passover recipe for it is HERE.

The Washington Post thought local. It pondered organic greens and the Springtime holiday and visited local DC area Jewish growers and showers and shared a recipe for green onions and radishes It also invited Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, to share his advice of how to debate and argue about the Middle East at your seder table. Just like the haggadah rabbis in Bnei Brak, you can debate Iran, Israel, Congress, Obama, Democrats and Republicans, immigration, poverty, hunger, police brutality, reproductive freedom, Labor, Likud, AIPAC, J Street, and the murderous attacks on Jews in a French kosher market and a Danish synagogue. Or even the Religious Freedom FRRA Act (via Rabbi Brad)

The WaPo also gave a shout-out to chocolate covered matza ice cream a new flavor from a local scoop shop: Jubilees. Also in Northhampton Mass, home area of the Yiddish Book Center and Smith College, Herrell’s ice cream make a date almond halvah flavor and a charoset batch of ice cream.

The Boston Globe explores Andy Goldfarb’s Chinese Charoset which uses soy sauce (if you find Kocher for Passover soy sauce) as well as half a dozen other recipes, including ones for Passover walnut torte with mocha cream and Passover triple-chocolate biscotti.

Parade Magazine highlighted a matza candy recipe by Susan Feniger care of from Dr. Nancy Berk

And Esther Mobley, writing for The Wine Spectator, fused French cuisine with Passover for for Flanken Pot au Feu from California’s Covenant Kitchen Jeff and Jodie Morgan, owners of Berkeley, Calif.-based winery Covenant, whose 100-percent kosher lineup includes Napa Valley Cabernet and Sonoma Chardonnay, included the recipe in their new cookbook, The Covenant Kitchen: Food and Wine for the New Jewish Table (Schocken, 2015).

Laura Reiley of the Tampa Bay Times took out her slow cooker and made a Passover meal of beef brisket. Unfortunately, it uses flour and anchovies.. not as Passover-ish as one would expect. Ooops.

AMNY, a free morning newspaper in New York City surprised me with recipes from top NYC chefs and foodies Melissa Kravitz shared Eli Zabar’s balls, Gorbal’s ribs, Rosa Mexicano’s tropical haroset, Blue Ribbon’s brisket, and more.

The New York Times’s Joan Nathan and Melissa Clark shared recipes of Baghdadi Jews and others. Ms. Nathan focused on macaroons from Ms. Khalastchy, 86, who left Baghdad for London in 1974, but the spices of her Middle Eastern homeland (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and turmeric) still perfume her kitchen. Melissa Clark did Gremolata on her beef brisket HERE. And Tara Parker-Pope recommended Spring vegetables using Martha Rose Shulman’s recipes.

Also in The New York Times, Michael Gonchar writes on The Learning Network, and asks what Passover traditions the current generation plans to pass down to their children through the seder, while Jennifer Weiner, the author of “Good In Bed” and other classic Jewish novels, writes an Op-Ed essay on All Grown Up and In Charge of the Seder. She asks why her brother, growing up, always ended up reading a section of the haggadah that mentions bare breasts. What??

PBS celebrates with a showing of Gefilte Fish Chronicles:

Sachi Fujimoro, writing for New Jersey’s top newspaper tracked down the Gurkov family and others in Wayne NJ. The Gurkov’s follow the teachings of the Chabad movement and shared a recipe for Russian Vinaigrette Beet and Potato Salad. Tiffany Kaplan shared her recipe for Charoset using dates.

I especially enjoyed a story in the Ventura (CA) County Star. It went to the Baron Herzog Winery and shared wine infused Passover recipes. The executive chef at Tierra Sur, the restaurant inside Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, Gabe Garcia made a beef brisket in honey and wine, and a Lemon Almond Flourless Cake with Sabayon.

The Detroit Free Press had one story for both Passover and Easter. It was for a Lemon Cheesecake, but they remind readers that some Jewish people choose not to mix cheesecake with a meat-based seder meal

The Orlando Sentinel track’s down Amira Cohen and her family’s secret recipe for Passover Mendel Bread Her family eatery closed a few years ago, but now the recipe survives.

The San Francisco Chronicle asks the owner of a bagel store what he eats during Passover. Blake Joffe makes SHAKSHUKA He co-owns Beauty’s Bagel shop in Oakland, CA.

The Seattle Times along with a Chicago daily goes for Jalapeño-Shallot Matzo Balls or Moroccan Spiced Short Ribs

Haaretz asked Michal Ansky to make a sirloin video, and Ontario’s Globe and Mail FREAKS ME OUT by FRYING its Gefilte Fish – a la Scotland style Actually Lucy Waverman was surprised that people BOIL their fish when she came to Toronto. Lucy Lucy Lucy.

But by far, my favorite piece of Passover food writing this Spring was from the Sephardic Food Project. Janet Amateau of the SephardicFoodProject visits a Barcelona Museum in Spain (housed in the old Inquisition Hall) for an exhibit of Catalan Haggadahs. She is in search of the MINA, a matza and beef pie served by Spanish and Ladino-speaking Jews for centuries. It was outlawed by the Inquisition and was eaten as a sign of rebellion. Truly an inspired essay on food, history, symbolism, rebellion, and how one could be punished based on their food choices.

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The Daily Texan at UT-Austin explains some rules of Passover and provides a vegan recipe for a chocolate mousse. And the Springfield Illinois State Register shared Beryl Feldman’s mother’s kosher of Passover sponge cake

Once again, I was disappointed by The Miami herald. I gues their readers already have as many recipes as they need. This year they write about a Spring zucchini kugel vegan style. At least the Ft Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, up the highway a few miles, got Moosewood chef and cookbook star author, Mollie Katzen, to share some passover recipes: Green Salsa, Rhubarb Crisp for Passover, Slow-Roasted Roma (Plum) Tomatoes, Eggplant Cutlets, and Asparagus-Feta Frittata

The Tech Times, based on lower Manhattan, shares low tech recipes for Horseradish Matzo Ball Soup, Cheddar And Chutney On Matzo, and Joy of Kosher’s Pizza Matzo Brei. Time Magazine says that there are six matzo sandwiches that will make you forget that bread existed. They include a Brisket Banh Mi Lettuce Wrap; Portobello sandwich; and Baked Brie stuffed with vegetables.

Josie Sexton, in Fort Collins at The Coloradoan, writes that she remembers that as a child, her family drove seven hours from Ohio to the DC area for a seder. She will attend Temple Or Hadash at the Fort Collins Senior Center. No recipes.