Passover (Pesach) starts this Wednesday, and for once I thought I'd get you a recipe ahead of time. And there is, of course, no recipe more central to Pesach than matzoh ball soup. I've been making matzoh ball soup since I moved away from home. I started with my mother's recipe, only changing it to make it vegetarian. After years of making it myself, though, I've made a few improvements on the recipe, inspired by Serious Eats and Katchka.

First, the matzoh balls. We love the recipe from my mother, who flavors the matzoh balls with parsley, cumin, and garlic, making them more like spiced meatballs or falafel than the bland Eastern European bread dumplings that matzoh balls descended from. But mom's balls tend to be sinkers, rather dense and chewy. I wanted something lighter and softer. Then Serious Eats published an article showing how to vary matzoh ball texture based on the amount of fat, baking powder, and seltzer in the recipe.

I wanted balls that were a "7" on a scale of rock-to-cloud. After trying a couple of variations, I found that the one thing I needed to change was the amount, and type, of fat in the recipe. To the existing 3 Tbs of vegetable oil, I added another 3 Tbs of butter. Not only does the additional fat make the balls more tender, the solid fat of the butter stays in them and moistens them better than just adding more oil would. I did try going all-butter, but it was too much. If you're non-vegetarian and/or making these to go with a meat meal, use schmaltz instead of butter.

The second improvement comes from Bonnie Morales' cookbook Katchka. In it, she gives her grandmother's recipe for a super-simple vegetarian stock: garlic broth. After using this for a couple other soups, I made it the base of my new stock for matzoh ball soup. So, read on for Improved Matzoh Ball Soup.

Because these things go full circle, though, Mom is now using my improved recipe for the matzoh balls. And, so that you don't need to look at my older article, I'm going to do the full step-by-step below, with an eye towards doing this for a multi-course Passover meal. This recipe enough for 4-6 people, but the photos were taken when making 1 and a half recipes.

If you already know the basics of making it, you can skip to the recipe at the very bottom.

Making the Stock

As a very simple soup, matzoh ball soup depends heavily on having a good, homemade stock base. Stock-in-a-box simply won't cut it here. The standard recipe uses homemade chicken stock, so for a vegetarian version we need to put some extra effort into it. We're going to make Morales' garlic broth, and then boost it with some of the same vegetables (and trimmings from those vegetables) that will go into the final soup, later.

Soup-making tip: you can save a lot of time making stock and soup if you preheat any water you add in a kettle.

Take the two heads of garlic and cut them in half sideways, trying to go about midway through each clove, so that both halves of each head hold together (if possible). Put a large stockpot on the stove, with enough vegetable oil to slick the bottom (around 2 Tbs) and heat over medium heat until hot. Place all four garlic head halves cut-side down in the oil. Fry until the exposed clove halves are dark brown (but not black), 5-8 minutes.

Pour in 2 quarts of hot water and bring to a simmer. Turn down, and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes. If you simply simmer this for 45 minutes it actually makes a good broth for varniki or pelmeni, but we're making vegetable stock instead.

Next we're going to add the stock vegetables. Importantly, this includes the skins of the brown onions, which you need to give the stock some color. Other veggies, most notably the celery and parsley, can be the trimmings and stems you're not using in the final soup, if you have enough of them. You're also going to add some salt and spices here. As usual, start with the smallest amount of salt recommended and taste after the stock has cooked for a while. The cinnamon stick may seem strange, but try it -- it gives the stock a bit of an "exotic" flavor.

Add another quart of hot water and simmer for another 30-40 minutes. Strain into another pot, or back into the same pot, for making the soup. While the stock simmers, make the matzoh balls.

Making the Balls

This matzoh ball dough is meant to be spicy and flavorful. I know there's folks out there who like theirs delicate and tasting only of the soup, but when going vegetarian, it's far better to have something robust since you don't have any chicken to compliment it. The flavor profile here is something that's a crossover between Middle Eastern flavors and Eastern European ones.

Dump the matzoh meal in a medium-large bowl. Add the baking powder, salt, spices, and minced parsley and mix. Grate the onions and grate or press the garlic into the bowl, follow with the beaten eggs and melted butter, and mix. Finally, add the seltzer water, starting with just 1/4 cup, and gently mix. The dough should have the texture of a thick cake or brownie batter at this point. If it's still stiff, then add the other 1/4 cup of seltzer to loosen it up. If it's soupy, add 2-3 Tbs additional matzoh meal. Make sure the dough is 100% mixed down to the bottom of the bowl.

Cover in plastic and let rest for at least 1/2 hour, ideally in the fridge. Do not skip this resting step, which you need for the dough to work. While it rests, it will transform from a loose, sticky batter to a workable but still sticky dough. You can leave it for several hours, or overnight in the fridge.

Once they are rested, it's time to shape the balls. The ideal way to do this is with a cookie scoop; I use one that's 1.5" in diameter. Since the dough is quite sticky, have a bowl of warm water for dipping the scoop and wetting your hands. Scoop all the dough into 13-18 balls onto a wax-paper or parchment-lined sheet pan or tray, and then roll each ball with damp hands in order to make it nice and smooth. These balls will look quite small, but don't worry, they expand a lot.

At this point, you could cover the balls in plastic and keep them in the fridge up to a day. Don't freeze them, simply because they're hard to defrost. Once you start cooking them, though, you're committed to finishing the soup within hours.

The balls cannot be cooked in the soup itself, because they need to be cooked at a boil, or like other dumplings they will fall apart. However, to avoid flavor loss to the water, it's a good idea to cook them in stock. Since you don't want to waste the nice garlic broth on this, your options are to use some stock-in-a-box, water with bouillon cubes, or to use lightly salted water with bay leaf and a couple whole garlic cloves. Put this liquid in the largest, widest deep pot you have that has a well-fitting lid, ideally a 12" to 14" diameter soup pot or Dutch oven. Bring it to a boil.

Then, drop in the balls. With a 12" or greater pot, you should be able to fit all 13-18 of them, but with a narrower pot you'll need to do batches. You do not want to crowd them since they will all be doubling in size. The balls will sink to the bottom at first, but should start bobbing to the surface as the pot comes back to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down, and keep it at a gentle simmer for 35-45 minutes, until they are doubled in size and tender.

Contrary to some folk wisdom, you can periodically peek at the cooking matzoh balls. However, you don't want to lift the lid too often (more than, say, 2-4 times during cooking) lest they lose heat and fail to expand properly.

When the balls are done, keep them in the hot stock until ready to use. If that's going to be a while, put some very low heat on under the stock so that it doesn't cool off.

Putting It All Together

For final assembly, you're going to make a basic soup of well-cooked vegetables and then add the matzoh balls to it at serving time. Add the vegetables except for the parsley and green onions to the strained stock. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 25-30 minutes, until both the potatoes and carrots are quite tender, but not falling apart. At this point, the soup can be held, off-heat, for up to a couple of hours. If holding, re-heat it just before serving.

Grab several wide, deep bowls of at least 20oz capacity. Add two matzoh balls to each bowl. Fill the rest of the way with hot vegetable soup. Put some parsley sprigs and the sliced green onions or chives in each bowl. Serve.

Recipe

short version

Equipment

Large stock pot, at least 6qt, preferably with lid
Deep, wide soup pot, preferably 12" or more in diameter, but at least 4" deep, with tight-fitting lid
1.5" cookie scoop (optional, but really helpful)
Large tray or cookie sheet
Large mixing bowl
Fine-holed grater
Garlic press (optional)
The usual knives, peeler, and cutting board

Garlic Broth With Vegetables

2 Tbs Vegetable oil
2 large heads garlic
3qt water
Salt
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3/4 cup parsley stems, or just parsley
1 brown onion, with skin, cut into 4-8 large pieces
2-3 brown onion skins from the onions for the soup
2 waxy potatoes
3 stalks celery
2 bay leaves
Large sprig/branch thyme (optional)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
6-10 peppercorns

Cut the garlic heads across their equators. Heat a large pot coated with oil at the bottom. Add the garlic, cut side down, and fry for 3 minutes, stirring occasionaly, until the garlic has browned and is very aromatic. Pour in the water and a little salt. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add all of the vegetables above and simmer them for 40 min. Strain and reserve.

Improved Matzoh Balls

1 cup matzoh meal (plus 0-3 Tbs)
4 eggs
1/4 cup seltzer water
2 tbs melted butter (or schmaltz)
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground pepper
2 large garlic cloves, pressed or grated
1/2 large onion, grated fine, about 1/2 cup
2 Tbs finely minced parsley
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika (or other mild-medium chili powder)
2-4 quarts cheap stock for cooking (see above).

Mix all ingredients. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour (to overnight in fridge). Make 13-18 matzoh balls. Put them in the pot with the boiling cheap stock, and simmer, covered, for 35-45 minutes. Keep warm in the stock until ready to combine with the soup.

Soup

1 recipe garlic stock (above)
3-4 stalks celery, with leaves if possible, cut into 1" segments
1.5 to 2 lbs waxy potatoes, such as new potatoes, cut into 1-2" pieces
3-4 large carrots, around 3/4 lbs, peeled and cut into 1/2" slices
2 medium-large brown onions, cut into large pieces, like 8-10 per onion
Small bunch parsley, separated into bite-sized sprigs
3-4 green onions or a handful of chives, green parts sliced thin (optional)

Simmer the celery, potatoes, and carrots in the stock for 25-30 minutes, until tender. Add a little parsley and green onion to each bowl when serving.

A man and his servants came to see Rabban Gamliel and his court. The man had his servants bring forth an enormous platter of the famous sausages of the great shochet Nathan, each resting in a half-split bun with mustard. The court salivated in anticipation.

"I have a question about the law," demanded the man. "I must know: 'what is the difference between a sandwich and a taco'? These nakniks (hot dogs) in buns: are they sandwiches or tacos? I must know so that I may properly observe the mitzvah of Taco Tuesday."

The Rabban gestured his rabbis forward, and declaimed, "On this matter there are many truths. Some hold it that, to be a sandwich, a dish must have two separate starchy objects with a filling between them. In the views of those, the nakniks are therefore tacos. What say you, Rabbi Yehoshua?"

Rabbi Yehoshua came forward, gestured at the hot dogs, and said, "I have never held with the view that a single bread makes a taco. For not only would the naknik be a a taco, but so would a lobster roll, as well as a felafel. Instead, I hold with those who say that what defines a sandwich is the bread. Sandwiches have leavened bread, whether it is in two slices, split, or folded. Tacos are made from unleavened flatbread. Therefore the nakniks are sandwiches, for they rest on leavened bread."

Rabbi Dosa ben Hyrcanus objected, "But would that not then make Passover the holiday of no sandwiches, because all breads are unleavened? Even the famous sandwich of Rabban Hillel?"

Rabbi Yehoshua replied, "The Almightly makes the exception, because only on Passover is unleavend matzah considered bread. 'This is the bread of our affliction', says the Seder."

"Neither of these tests are in accordance with my reading of The Book of Noshing," said Rabbi Dosa. "Does not the verse say 'You shall SPLIT the loaf of rye, and fill it with pastrami, but never with mayonnaise'? It is not the bread, or whether there are one or two pieces, that make a sandwich, but the act of splitting, slicing, or tearing the bread. Nakniks are therefore sandwiches, but only because the bread is cut, just as the matzoh for a Hillel sandwich is torn."

"But what of the felafel? Then a felafel where the pita was folded would be a taco, but one where the pocket is torn open would be a sandwich, which would be ridiculous," objected Rabbi Yehoshua, who then turned. "What say you, Rabbi Akiva?"

But Rabbi Akiva only belched loudly as an ox, for he had spent the entire argument eating all the hot dogs.

As a Jew from an observant family (although I'm not), I noticed that there don't seem to be any other Portland area potters making Judaica for sale. So I figured I'd fix that. Having borrowed some designs from my mother, I now have a few things on offer for fellow members of the Tribe, starting with the sale at Leikam Brewing this Sunday.

On the left are travel shabbos candleholders. These are to bring with you any time you're visiting somewhere over the sabbath or other holidays, and need to light candles. I made some of these for my parents, and they've been useful enough that I made some for sale.

In the center is a hand-washing pitcher, which seems super-appropriate given the times. During the handwashing ritual preceding meals, you're supposed to pour water from one hand to the other while saying the prayer. This double-handled pitcher makes it natural to smoothly rinse your hands while saying your "al nitilat yadaim".

I also have mezzuzah covers, both with and without banana slugs. These are ready for you to insert a scroll from your chosen synagogue or yeshiva, and screw securely to your doorframe.

All of these will be available this Sunday:

Sunday, December 12th
1pm to 5pm
Leikam Brewing
5812 East Burnside
Portland, Oregon

After Sunday, I'll put them up in my online store. Shabbat shalom!

Since we were having Rosh Hashana on the road, I wanted to cook a themed dinner in our rental cottage. And since we were on Orcas Island, it was gonna involve fish: king salmon, given the season. It helps that fish is a traditional Rosh Hashana food, although you're supposed to have the head on, which would have been a very large meal, so we skipped that part. The king salmon coming in at the market weighed 10lbs or more.

The other thing that was in season -- in fact, growing directly outside the cottage -- was blackberries. So those supply the "seasonal fruit" part of the Yom Tov menu, plus we have apples in the form of cider. I added some rosemary (also growing outside the cottage), and the required new year's honey.

The salmon can be cooked any way you like for this. I broiled it (detailed below), but you could just as easily use it grilled or pan-seared. I probably wouldn't use a different fish, though, as the blackberry sauce is strong-flavored and needs a robust fish to match. Also, no poaching.

salmon with blackberry-honey compote

Compote:

• 1 to 1.5 pints blackberries
• 5-6 tbs salted butter
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped fine, around 3/4 cup
• 1/2 cup hard cider
• 2 tbs good honey
• salt to taste

Salmon:

• 1 to 1.5lbs skin-on salmon filet, portioned
• salt & pepper
• olive oil

Heat a small pot (1-2 qt) on the stovetop. Melt 2 tbs of the butter in the bottom, followed by the chopped onion. Saute over medium heat until the onion is completely transparent and soft. Add the rosemary leaves and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Add the blackberries, turn the heat down to low, and allow to cook for 5-10 minutes, until the blackberries just start to fall apart.

While the berries are cooking, heat the oven to 250F and place a baking rack 4" from the flame/element if you're planning on broiling the salmon.

When the blackberries are just starting to disintegrate, pour in the cider and the honey, turn up the heat a bit, and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and put a lid on to hold while you prepare the salmon.

If you're broiling the salmon, line a baking sheet with foil. Lightly oil the center of the foil with olive oil. Pat the salmon dry on both sides with paper towels, then lightly salt and pepper it, and place it skin-side-down in the middle of the foil. If this is a lean salmon like coho, also rub some olive oil or melted butter into the flesh. Turn on the oven broiler and place the salmon under the broiler. Cook for 6 to 12 minutes, depending on the heat of your broiler and the thickness of the salmon. If the salmon begins to brown on top before the skin side is done, move it to the center of the oven and drop the temperature to 300F (or just turn off the broiler, depending on your oven).

If you're cooking the salmon another way, well, that's up to you.

Now, just before serving the salmon, finish your sauce. Reheat it slightly if it's gone lukewarm, but do not boil it. Turn off the heat and mix in 3-4 tbs of butter, stirring until it's melted, to thicken the sauce. Taste and add salt if necessary; the sauce should be sweet-savory.

Plate a portion for each diner and ladle some sauce on top. Serve with challah to mop up the excess sauce.

After I made latkes for Christmas, some of my non-Jewish relatives wanted this recipe, so here it is.

Latkes are potato pancakes, or fritters, not much different from kartofelpuffer or rosti. Since the story of Hanukkah features olive oil, though, we shallow-fry ours in plenty of oily goodness. Plus that means maximizing the crispy bits.

This recipe is based on one from the Bette's Diner Pancake Handbook, which I recommend you acquire.

latkes

2 large russet potatoes, or 4-5 small ones, around 2lbs
1 small sweet potato, about 8-10oz (or just use more russet potatoes)
1 small-medium yellow onion, around 8oz
2 oz melty but mild cheese, like dry mozzarella or monterrey jack
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup of flour, plus more
1/2 tsp baking powder
up to 1 cup olive oil, depending on pan size
applesauce
sour cream (optional)

Peel the potatoes, sweet potato, and onion. Grate them on a box grater or in a food processor into a large bowl. Grate in the cheese. Add the salt and pepper and mix.

Mix in the eggs, then the flour, and then the baking powder. See if you need to add more flour; this is gonna depend on how "wet" your potatoes are. If they're especially dry, you might even need to add a couple of tablespoons of water. If there's a big pool of starchy water in the bottom of the bowl, add more flour until the liquid reaches a batter-like consistency and coats the potato shreds.

Fill a large, steep-sided pan about 1/4" deep in olive oil. Heat it until a shred of potato dropped in sizzles right away, around 350F. Drop in spoonfulls of potato batter, around 3 Tbs at a time; you're looking for little round latkes here, not big flat ones, because smaller latkes means more crispy bits. Depending on the size of your pan, you can fit 3 to 6 in one pan. Fry them until the edge potato shreds turn brown, 3-4 minutes, and then flip each one. Brown the on the other side, around 3 more minutes.

As the latkes come out of the pan, drain them of oil and put them on a rack or heavy paper towels to cool and crisp up; they're actually a little better if you hold them in a 200F oven for around 20 minutes, enough time to make the whole bowl.

Serve with applesauce, and optionally sour cream. Serves 4-5 people.

Blintzes vie with bagels for "best Jewish breakfast food", but in our household they've already won. The problem is that they can be enough of a process to make that they are a special occasion food, which is sad. So I'm gonna give you a few shortcuts to help you make blintzes, in less than an hour the day you want to eat them, using what you can find in a big-city supermarket.

The first shortcut is the blini. Proper blintzes start with an egg-flour batter crepe, cooked only on one side, as your blintz wrapper. For a dozen blintzes, this is already an hour down and the cheese is still in the fridge. Fortunately, more and more supermarkets are now carrying premade crepes of one kind or another. The Melissa's brand, for example, is carried by Albertsons and Safeway. While not as good as making your own, these save you a ton of time, and the blintzes you make are always better than the ones you don't.

The trick with packaged crepes is to learn the foibles of the particular brand. For example, Melissa's are stored at room temperature, and used that way; either chilling them or heating them will cause them to become stiff and crumbly and unworkable. But other brands need to be heated in a pan before folding. Buy an extra package and experiment with yours.

The second bit is the cheese. Properly, blintzes are made with Russian farmer's cheese, a soft, pasty relative of ricotta. If you live near an Eastern European community you can find this, and soft farmer's cheese is common in places like Wisconsin and Amish country. Belfiore and Gina Marie brands offer it in some places. Otherwise, you need to substitute.

One of your best choices is Galbani ricotta. This standard supermarket brand is too dry and chalky to be good ricotta ... which makes it a pretty good farmer cheese. Another option is getting small-curd cottage cheese and draining it in a cheesecloth or paper towels; expect to lose about 1/4 of the weight in this process. If you can get "cultured" cottage cheese, it's nice. You can easily make your own farmer cheese, but then we're back to taking 3 hours to make breakfast, so we'll skip that.

The final part of this is perfecting your burrito roll technique. Like just about any other stuffed tube, blintzes are made as little burrito rolls, where you fold, fold, fold, and roll. It's worth getting the hang of this technique, because you'll find it's useful across any number of stuffed food recipes.

shortcut blintzes

10-14 premade crepes
1 lbs farmer cheese, or substitute
2 eggs
zest of one medium lemon, about 1 Tbs
1/2 tsp fresh-ground nutmeg
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
At least 1/3 cup butter and 3 Tbs vegetable oil for frying
Assorted fruit jams or sliced fresh fruit

Make the cheese mixture: add the cheese, eggs, zest, nutmeg, sugar, and vanilla into a bowl. Mix until homogenous.

Now, time to make the blintzes. Add around 2 heaping tablespoons of cheese about 1/5 of the way from the bottom edge of a crepe. Fold the bottom edge over, then the sides, in classic burrito roll technique. Roll the cheese crepe up into a tube, and place on a plate or board, seam side down. Do this with the other 9 to 13 crepes. Put them on your plate in a single layer; do not stack.

Heat a large nonstick pan or griddle over medium-low heat. Melt around 3 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs vegetable oil in it (the oil helps keep the butter from burning). The bottom of the pan should have a good coating of butter all over. Place 4-7 blintzes in the pan, seam sides down, as many as you can without crowding them (the are hard to flip, so you'll need room).

Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until the bottoms start to brown. Carefully flip each blintz; I use two spatulas, one in each hand. They can be tricky to flip without breaking them, so use patience, and be prepared for a few "ugly" blintzes. I do not recommend tongs.

Cook for 2-3 minutes on the other side. At this point, the bottom of each blintz should be browned, and the cheese filling should have firmed somewhat.

Continue cooking batches until all the blintzes are done. You can hold your first batches in a warm (180F) oven to serve them all at once.

Serve with a choice of two or three different fruit jams, or with sliced fresh fruit. Diners cut off a piece of blintz and dip it in jam or scoop up some fruit from their plate. Feeds two to three people for brunch, particularly if you serve them with vegetarian Kosher sausage.

Cooked blintzes keep well in the fridge for a week, but do not freeze well.

Now, I did mention that one of my favorite foods of Passover is matzoh brei, Passover's eggy answer to migas or French toast, depending on how you make it. It's your brunch go-to for the holiday, and if you don't get a chance by Thursday, then make it this weekend with all that matzoh you have left over!

This version is made kind of like a Spanish tortilla. It's loosely based on a recipe by Golda Meir (former PM of Israel), as detailed in the Bette's Diner Pancake Handbook. Her version is rather unseasoned, though, and meant to be eaten with jam. I wanted a version that was more savory and required no condiments.

Like other tortilla and frittata recipes, the tricky part about this matzoh brei is making sure the top is done. The difficult, cheffy way is to flip it, using a pot lid, baking sheet, or your sheer grace and dexterity to flip it in mid-air. The easy way is to put it under the broiler for 4-7 minutes. Guess which one I usually do?

savory matzoh brei

8-10 squares of matzoh
1 medium red onion (or 1/2 large one)
8 large eggs
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
2 tbs minced parsley
1 quart water
2 tbs butter or oil
Equipment: large (12" to 14") nonstick pan, large heatproof bowl (at least 3 qt), strainer, smaller bowl, whisk, knife, kettle, spatula

Break the matzoh into 2" to 3" squares and put it in the large bowl. Peel, and slice the onion very thin (1/8"), and put the slices in a heap on top of the matzoh. Put the water in the kettle to boil.

In the meantime, beat the eggs with the salt and spices.

Pour the boiling water over the onion and matzoh. Dump it in the strainer, drain, and then put the wet matzoh and onion back in the bowl. Mix with the seasoned eggs.

Put the butter or oil in the pan and heat over medium-high until a drop of egg in it sizzles. Pour in the matzoh/egg mixture, and mix for about one minute, stirring from the bottom so that cooked egg is mixed in. Press the mixture into a flat cake and turn the heat down to medium or medium-low. Cook for 6-9 minutes, by which time the edges should be browning, and the whole matzoh brei should be starting to firm, although still undercooked in the center.

Now, you need to decide how to finish cooking the top. There's a couple of methods:

Oven Method: put the pan under a medium broiler for 3-6 minutes. If the handle isn't safe with high heat, put it in a 400F convection oven for 10-12 minutes instead. Either way, when the top starts to brown slightly, you're done.

Flip Method: using a large platter, a large, flat pot lid, or a cookie sheet, flip out the brei. Slide it back into the pan, top-side-down.

Let the brei rest for 5 minutes off-heat. Then flip it out onto a platter or cutting board, and slice into wedges. Serve.

Works as a main course for brunch for four people. Could easily be cut in half to serve brunch for two.

Hag Pesach sameach! Passover is my favorite Jewish holiday, because it has the most and the best foods. I adore matzoh ball soup, I love the horseradish and the beets and the parsley, matzoh brie is delicious, I even like gefilte fish (but seldom eat it because nobody else does). However, I don't like traditonal Ashkenaz haroset, at all. There's something about out-of-season apples and walnuts cooked in sweet red wine that's unappealing, even more so if the cook adds raisins.

Sephardic harosets, however, are made with a more appetizing selection of dried fruits and nuts. So I was thinking about making one when we went to our local middle eastern market (La Bouffe) and found that they had green almonds in stock. (tip: your local tiny ethnic market is probably safer than the supermarket right now)

Green almonds are the immature fruit that will become almonds in the fall, an when you look at their fuzzy green flesh you can see how almonds are related to peaches and nectarines. Depending on how mature they are, you either eat the whole fruit, or the kernel in the center, which is the part that will become the almond nut. The flesh is tart and firm, and the kernel tastes mildly almondy with no bitterness.

I realize that green almonds are not an ingredient everyone can get, but if you can grab some from your local farmer's market or middle eastern grocery, Passover-time is exactly when they'll be in season. And then you can make this delicious haroset.

Green Almond & Date Haroset

1 lbs green almonds
12-16 dates, around 1/2 lbs
2 mandarin oranges
2/3 cup mild red wine
2 cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves

Pit the dates and dice them fine. Put the date pieces, cinnamon sticks, and cloves in a small saucepan. Pour over the red wine, and press down so that all date pieces are wet.

Put on the stove and simmer over low heat until almost all the wine is either absorbed or boiled off, 5-10 min. Set aside to cool.

While the dates are cooking, prep the almonds and oranges. Separate the almonds into two equal piles, one having the smaller/younger almonds, the other having the older/bigger almonds. Stem the smaller almonds, and chop them fine, both green fruit and inner nut. Split the bigger almonds, extract just the kernel (nut), and roughly chop.

Peel the mandarin oranges, separate them into sections, and cut each section into 4-5 pieces.

Remove the cinnamon sticks from the dates. Put everything in a bowl and mix together. Set aside for at least 30 minutes for flavors to meld (or overnight in the fridge).

There aren't a lot of foods specific to Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), but one of the critical ones is a big round challah bread. Of course, I planned to bake. Between one thing and another, though, we ended up getting home on erev Rosh Hashana at 4pm. Could I get a challah on the table for a 6:30 dinner starting at 4:15?

My first thought was to run out and buy, but as you can imagine by 4pm everyone was sold out. So baking it is. But our family challah recipe takes 1 1/2 hours just for the first rising. We were looking at a challahless Yom Tov.

Then I remembered a recipe which my sweetie had made, for lagniappe rolls which due to editing errors had much too much yeast (2 Tbs instead of 2 tsp). Those rolls rose really fast, in like 20 minutes, and actually still tasted OK. Could I do something similar, maybe more controlled, with the challah recipe?

My first step was to double the usual amount of yeast, from 2 tsp to 4 tsp. I use high-quality active dry yeast, refrigerated, from Red Star, so it's more potent than supermarket yeast in any case; if you're using Fleishmann's, you may need to triple it. I then dissolved 3 1/2 Tbs honey in a cup of 95F water, and then proofed the yeast in it while I mixed the dry ingredients, really getting it going.

Once the dough was together, I put it in a plastic dough bucket (for some reason, dough rises faster in plastic than metal). I heated the oven, turning it off when it reached 120F and put the dough bucket inside. This cut the initial rising to 25 minutes.

With the shorter rises, I was able to make the 6:30 dinnertime with five minutes to spare. 20 minutes mixing, 25 for first rise, 10 minutes braiding, 15 for second rise, 30 minutes baking, and 15 to cool. Surprisingly, the challah didn't even taste yeasty. Rosh Hashana dinner was saved!

Berkus Family Challah (fast rise version)

• 1 cup water at 90F to 100F
• 3 ½ tablespoons honey
• 4 generous teaspoons active dry yeast (2+ packets)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt (1 if using salted butter)
• ¼ cup melted butter (or margarine)
• 2 large eggs + 1 yolk, beaten
• Oil sprayer
• 1 egg white beaten with 2 tbs water or milk for an egg wash
• Large bowl, dough rising bucket, dough scraper, bread board, cookie sheet, baking parchment, plastic wrap pastry brush.

Mix the honey into the warm water. Add the yeast.

While the yeast proofs, mix the salt and flour in a large bowl. Melt the butter, and beat the eggs plus yolk, reserving the white.

Turn your oven on to its lowest temperature setting. You're going to turn it off when it reaches between 100F and 120F, so if you can't set that, keep an eye on it.

Pour first the yeast mixture, then the butter, then the eggs, into the flour bowl. Mix until everything is incorporated into a sticky mass. Knead briefly (maybe 3 minutes); kneading in the bowl is fine. Shape into a large ball.

Spray the sides and bottom of the dough bucket with oil. Put the dough in, spray it, and then put the lid on the bucket. Put the bucket in the oven and close the door. Let rise until more than doubled in size, 20 to 30 minutes.

Dump the dough out on a bread board. Cut into 3 to 6 portions depending on what kind of challah you're making. Braid. Place on parchment on the cookie sheet, and cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap. Put in a warm, draft-free place for a 2nd rise, 15-20 minutes. While it's rising, heat the oven to 375F.

Remove the plastic wrap. Whisk the reserved egg white with water and paint the egg wash on the top of the challah with a pastry brush. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. You'll know it's done when the tops of the braids are dark brown, the bottom is light brown, and the cracks between braids are no longer "doughy".

Cool 10-15 minutes, then serve. With apples and honey, of course!

Makes a 2lbs loaf.

L'shana Tovah!

Of course, one can't have Passover without the one dish which expresses the true meaning of the holiday: matzoh ball soup!

Mind you, Kris would like it if I made matzoh ball soup more often, but it's quite a time-consuming dish (and requires 3 pots), so she only gets it on Passover. And, of course, I prefer not to have the traditional chicken stock, so I make my own veggie stock. That's why this recipe is "parve", which means neither dairy nor meat. Yes, this is a vegetarian matzoh ball soup, although it is not vegan.

Stock

Skins/ends from all the other onions in the recipe (see below)
½ bunch parsley, plus any leftover stems from rest of recipe
1 large onion, cut into 8 pieces
3 carrots, cut in to 1-inch pieces
5 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, smashed but not peeled
4 small-medium white or red potatoes, quartered
2 bay leaves
1 shallot, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp whole peppercorns
2 tsp salt
Large stockpot, strainer

This is my "no chicken stock", which takes advantage of the fact that home-made veggie stock tastes better than canned chicken stock any day. I've had people refuse to believe that no barn fowl died for this stock. The onion skins are added for color.

Put all the ingredients in the 8-qt pot and cover with water. Heat to boiling, then simmer gently for one hour, then strain. This stock can be made ahead.

Matzoh Balls

1 ½ cups matzoh meal
½ cup finely minced curly parsley
½ large onion, grated or pureed
2 cloves garlic, pressed or pureed
4 whole eggs (no fake eggs, you need the yolks), beaten
3 tbs vegetable oil
½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ to ½ cup seltzer water
2 qt. canned stock (optional)
Large bowl, large pot, cookie scoop (optional)

Make the matzoh ball dough: combine all ingredients, adding the seltzer water last after everything else is incorporated. It should have the texture of thick porridge; if not, add more seltzer. Set aside somewhere cool for at least ½ hour.

Make the matzoh balls: Boil lightly salted water and/or or canned stock, in the wide pot (unless the pot is at least 13" in diameter, it's better to do two batches). Roll the dough between both hands into balls about 1 ½ inch in diameter (should be 18-24 balls); use a cookie scoop to make them uniform size if you have one.

Drop the balls gently into the boiling water. They should sink to the bottom, then come back up in two to five minutes.

Simmer, covered, until the balls have about doubled in size and are getting soft, about 45 minutes. Do not check them more often than once every ten minutes or so; if they don't stay covered, they won't puff up well. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon or strainer, and set aside.

Soup

1 large onion, cut into wedges or eighths
3 carrots, peeled & cut into 2-inch lengths
4 white or red potatoes, cut into wedges or eighths
3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch lengths
12 small sprigs parsley
Large pot, ladle

Add the soup vegetables to the pot, except for the parsley. Simmer for ½ hour, or until the carrots & potatoes are tender. Add the parsley and matzoh balls, and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve, making sure each diner has a couple matzoh balls, some soup, and vegetables.

For leftovers, it's better to refrigerate the matzoh balls and the soup separately, otherwise the balls are liable to become waterlogged and fall apart. The balls will shrink in the fridge; this is normal (ask any guy). Then, put the balls in the soup and reheat them gently. Can also be frozen.

Options for a more "gourmet" soup: replace the onions or celery in the soup with sliced fennel root. Or: garnish the soup with aioli or pistou. Or: add hot paprika and oregano to the matzoh balls, and make the soup with a light tomato broth. Or: add white fish or salt cod to the soup. If you're really cutting corners, you can replace the veggie stock with a mixture of 1qt stock-in-a-box and 6 cups of the water you cooked the matzoh balls in.

It's Passover time! The best Jewish holiday, as far as I'm concerned, because it's all about food. Yes, a lot of that food consists of matzoh, but The Tribe gets pretty inventive with it. Such as, for example, the classic Pesach bruch food: matzoh brei.

Usually, matzoh brei is sort of Jewish migas, but the version below is more of a matzoh frittata. I based the recipe on Golda Meir's Matzoh Brie from the Betty's Diner Pancake Handbook (you need this book), but wanted to make it more complex and savory. I also have some variations on it below.

cheddar and green onion matzoh brei

• 5 sheets plain unsalted matzoh (or whole wheat matzoh)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 5 eggs, beaten (or 2 whole eggs and 6 egg whites)
• 1 bunch green onions or spring onions
• 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper
• 2-3 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1-2 tbs vegetable oil or butter
• Two bowls, strainer, large oven-proof nonstick pan, silicone spatula, large platter.

Heat the oven to 375F. Put the kettle on to boil the water. Break up the matzoh in a large bowl; you want pieces which are 1" to 2" square.

Beat the eggs with the salt and set aside. Slice the onions; for this recipe we want just the green and tender green parts, not the white parts which you can reserve for other dishes. You want about one cup of thinly-sliced green onion tops.

When the water boils, pour it over the matzoh and swirl it around a bit, for around 15 seconds. Then use the strainer to pour out the water, shaking it to get most of the drips out. Mix the onions, cheese, eggs, and some fresh-ground pepper into this.

Heat the vegetable oil in the pan over high heat, until it's hot enough that an onion piece dropped in sizzles instantly. Dump in the matzoh mixture, let it cook for 30 seconds or so, then stir it, turning bits over using the spatula. Then press it into a firm cake, and turn the heat down to medium. Cook on the stovetop for 5-7 minutes, or until the edges start to brown slightly.

Put the pan in the oven. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until the center is firm and shows no sign of raw egg. Loosen the brei with the spatula, then put the platter over the top of the pan and flip it out. Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves three people as a main course, or five with several other brunch items.

feta and organo matzoh brei

Make the cheddar and onion matzoh brei, as above, only swap out the cheddar cheese for 4oz crumbled feta, and the green onions for 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano leaves.

Tuscan brei

Replace the cheddar cheese with grated dry mozzarella, plus 2 tbs grated parmigiano. Replace the green onions with 1/2 cup shredded fresh basil. Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. When the brei is done and turned out onto the platter, paint the top of it with around 1 Tbs of balsamic vinegar.

matzoh migas

As the recipe above. Add one additional egg. Take the cheddar out of the recipe and replace with Mexican cheese, such as asadero, "queso quesadilla", or monterrey jack. Reduce sliced green onions to 1/2 cup. Add 1 cup diced hot peppers, depending on how hot you like things:

• medium: 1 poblano pepper and 1 anaheim pepper
• hot: 1 poblano pepper, 1 jalapeño and 1 serrano peppers
• chipotle: 3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo (or rehydrated), minced.

Also add: 2 seeded and diced roma tomatoes, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, and 1 tsp dried oregano.

(this is a reprint of a recipe post from 2 years ago)

For Christmas Eve dinner this year I decided on a "Russian Jewish" theme.  Partly this was out of a desire to have all of he food ready and waiting well before our guests were due, as some of them were coming from Christmas Eve services and wouldn't arrive until nearly 9pm.   I settled on a menu of borsht, cabbage salad, and perogi with carmelized onions, and Kris did trifle for dessert (which I failed to get a picture of, dammit).  Originally, I thought I would make some dark rye bread, but then it occurred to me ... it's Friday night!  We should have challah!

After all, the little guy was Jewish, wasn't he?

So that morning, at 9am, I started on a triple-batch of challah.  Click more for full recipe and instructions.

Challah Berkus

• 1 cup warm water
• 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (or one packet)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 generous tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt (1 if using salted butter)
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 2 large eggs + 1 yolk, beaten
• Oil sprayer
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tbs water or milk for an egg wash
• Large bowl, dough rising bowl or bucket, dough scraper, bread board, cookie sheet, baking parchment, pastry brush.

Proof the yeast in the warm water for 5-10 minutes.

In the large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.  Dump in the warm water, the melted butter, and then the beaten eggs.  Mix until it forms a cohesive and slightly sticky mass; knead for 5-10 minutes until silky but still tacky. 

Spray the dough bucket or rising bowl lightly with oil, drop in the dough ball, seal the lid, and leave in a warm place until more than doubled in size (1½ to 3 hours depending on temperature and yeast).  Can rise in the fridge overnight.  Punch down if necessary, and dump on the bread board.

The Dough Which Ate Cleveland Heights: a triple-batch of challah rises.  

Split the dough into 3 to 6 pieces, depending on how you want to braid it. You have three options with this quantity of dough:

• 1 ginormous 3-strand challah
• 2 smaller 3-strand challot
• 1 ginormous 6-strand challah

Because I needed to make a triple batch, I opted for making 3 giant three-strand loaves.  The 6-strand challah is very impressive but a 6-strand braid is hard to get right.  I recommend practicing with string.

Roll the pieces into long ropes (about 18 inches long). 

Cover the cookie sheet with parchment, and braid the ropes into a loaf on it.  For the above loaf, I rolled the strands extra-long and evenly.  You can also make a more traditional shape by rolling somewhat shorter strands which taper towards the ends, as shown below.

Spray a sheet of plastic wrap with oil, and cover the loaf loosely.  Preheat the oven to 375F.

Make the egg wash.  After 20-30 minutes, the loaf should have grown significantly in size.  Remove plastic, brush it with the egg wash all over the top, and put it in the oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating halfway through.  At the end of baking, the loaf should be very brown except in the crevices, and should sound hollow when thumped in the middle.   Remove from oven, put on a rack, and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy your challah!  And Merry Christmas!