<p>blackeyedsusan, see if you can get your hands on a copy of Jewish Cooking in America, by Joan Nathan. There’s a great recipe, “Chicken with Vinegar Sauce, Olives, Raisins and Garlic”. And it’s delicious!</p>
<p>Well, I suppose the house might have smelled fishy after I made the gefilte fish, but it is yummy. I have never gotten it together in time to get white fish bones and heads to make a stock and all I can get locally is Salmon heads, so it hasn’t gelled perfectly, but the taste----MMMMM! So much better than the stuff from the jar.</p>
<p>I just saw a recipe for matzoh buttercrunch/brittle on Chow.com which suggests adding some fleur de sel. Stir 3/4 tsp into the the caramel when cooking, sprinkle another 3/4 tsp on top of the melted chocolate with the nuts.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove- fleur de sel…SALT? I don’t think I will try this. I love the matzo brittle as is.</p>
<p>seiclan, yes, salt! The sweet/salt combo is a great one. Think fleur de sel caramels, or chocolate covered pretzels. </p>
<p>Clearly, more research is needed. It’s a tough job, but someone has to take one for the team. :)</p>
<p>IIII guess sooo. I never thought of that and I do like chocolate covered pretzels. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>PRJ, did you ever share this recipe with us? Also, I can’t seem to find the matzoh brittle recipe that everyone here is drooling over. Was it posted?</p>
<p>I posted it last year. Here is another copy:</p>
<p>Passover Matza Brittle (we serve it with dessert and it is always a big hit)</p>
<p>Ingredients: 3-4 sheets Matza, 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 12 oz pkg of chocolate chips, chopped walnuts (optional)</p>
<p>Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Lightly spray foil with nonstick spray (I use nonstick foil these days instead). Lay out sheets of matza in single layer to fit cookie sheet. Melt butter and brown sugar together over low heat until combined (stir constantly). Pour evenly over matza. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkly entire bag of chips (and crushed walnuts if using) over the matza. When chips melt (a minute or two later), spread chocolate evenly over matza to cover. Place cookie sheet into refridgerator for one hour to harden. Break into pieces and store in refridgerator (I put in tupperware). ENJOY!!</p>
<p>My matzah brittle recipe differs from seiclan’s only in that I boil the butter and brown sugar for about 5 minutes - it gets it almost to a caramel sauce stage - and instead of walnuts, I use toffee bits. NOT chocolate covered toffee like Heath bar, but plain toffee - I use Heath brand “Bits O’Brickle”. At first I was intrigued by the fleur de sel idea, but between using salted butter and the toffee bits which are a little salty, I’ve already got the sweet/salty taste which I love!</p>
<p>Oops - another difference. The matzah goes back in the oven with the chocolate chips for a minute or two. When it comes out I spread the chocolate and sprinkle the toffee bits on, but it doesn’t go back in the oven. The toffee bits stick to the melted chocolate as it hardens.</p>
<p>Running to dig out the kugel recipe…</p>
<p>OMG, how did I miss that one? Almost looking forward to Passover now. No seriously, I love the seders but by the morning of day #3, the thrill is gone. In addition to my usual dense chocolate torte, I’m going to try this coffee cake recipe this year (modifying it per the reviewers’ good suggestions): [Raisin</a> Streusel Cake Recipe at Epicurious.com](<a href=“http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Raisin-Streusel-Cake-1634?sisterSite=bonappetit.com]Raisin”>http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Raisin-Streusel-Cake-1634?sisterSite=bonappetit.com)</p>
<p>PRJ, my butter and sugar cook for at least 5 min or longer on the stove. The mixture really has to almost carmelize for the butter and sugar to combine.</p>
<p>Here you go. It’s not fancy - it’s almost comfort food, but it was delicious and a crowd pleaser, especially for my vegetarian Ds.</p>
<p>Mashed Potato Kugel Recipe With Parsnips For Passover<a href=“serves%208”>/u</a>
3 pounds potatoes, peeled, chunked
1 1/2 pounds parsnips, peeled, chunked
1/2 cup margarine
3 cups onions, coarsely chopped
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt, pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup matzo meal</p>
<pre><code>Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Boil potatoes with the parsnips until both are tender. Drain well.
Saut
</code></pre>
<p>Got it seiclan and you’re right - it really does take the full 5 minutes for them to combine. My MIL loves this stuff and asks me to bring a batch whenever we visit, Passover or not :)</p>
<p>Back to the gefilte fish from scratch. My MIL always makes hers from scratch - she buys whole fish and has the fishmonger (does anyone still use that word?) fillet and grind it; she also takes home what she calls the “fish frames” - the bones and heads - to make the stock. She never thinks the fish is ground finely enough so we have to chop for what seems like hours, until it’s just right. I can’t tell - it always looks the same to me pre- and post- extra chopping! </p>
<p>And the house never smelled fishy - I guess because the fish was so fresh…?</p>
<p>Yum PRJ - I am going to make your kugel for our second seder!!</p>
<p>I’m puzzling over a new Seder Side Dish challenge right now. I offered to take over my MIL’s “sweet potato tzimmes” as she passed last November at 89 and was our beloved family matriarch, the seder Queen. We love her and miss her dearly. </p>
<p>I got her recipe and it sounds so HEAVY to me. Also I’m now told it was very fussy because she baked it horizontally (not to crush the ingredients) then everyone worked overtime to be sure it got to everyone’s plate (50 are seated tightly in one living room) uncrushed. People hand-delivered portions all over the room. </p>
<p>I think if baked vertically (in a souppot) it’d just be mashed sweet-potatoes on the bottom. </p>
<p>I don’t have MIL’s gravitas nor do I want to create such commotion over serving one side-dish.</p>
<p>I told my cousins I might “vary” her recipe somewhat and they’re okay with that. Truth is if I could find something that would stand up in a DEEP SOUP POT, I’d rather (and not use up precious oven space which everyone competes for last-minute to reheat their potluck offerings). Also we drive 2 hours with it in the car. I can definitely make-ahead; would prefer to.</p>
<p>It could be something with yams, carrots, fresh or dried fruit (I think prunes are kinda gross myself). I saw one with gingerale and cranberry juice, which sounded a little lighter. </p>
<p>If anyone can tell me what to do, please tell me. My cousins asked me to bring 4-6 quarts total. (I also bring a TON of 3 types of Sephardi Charoset serving all 50, which their Ashkenazi palates think is amazing).</p>
<p>Here’s her tried-and-true recipe; I need to either vary it, figure out how to do it in a soup-pot (not horizontal casserole), or replace it with something related:</p>
<p>(serves 8)</p>
<p>6 sweet potatoes, peeled
l bunch carrot
1/2 cup prunes
1/4 to 1/2 cup honey (I know my MIL would have used AT LEAST 1/2 cup honey)
1/8 to 1/4 cup margerine (my MIL never bought margerine; her stuff dripped with
butter; she was the daughter of a bakery-owner)
1/4 -1/2 cup Orange Juice
1/4 CUP Cinammon (don’t you feel like you know my MIL by now…)</p>
<p>Variations or replacements to the above, WELCOME. If someone knows a room-temperature serve (rather than hot), that too would be helpful given the staging of this large seder.</p>
<p>Oooh, it’s the l00th year anniversary of the immigration crossing of the great-grandparents. My FIL, widowed and bereft, will be there. I see him weeping into every old dish she ever made. I hope we all get through. Tell me this isn’t pressure.</p>
<p>P3T - What are the rest of the cooking instructions? Do you just combine the ingredients in a large casserole and bake it? Covered or uncovered and for how long and at what temp?</p>
<p>
LOL, Good catch. I’ll try here:
YES, basically.</p>
<p>I was given no other cooking instructions. As I recall, she just laid out all the vegetables, stirred around first in all the liquids/or maybe she poured liquids over all. I know she baked it Covered in alum foil. I’d guess anywhere from 350-420 degrees for 45-60 minutes, in her home; then had it driven over to the younger person’s home where the seder meal occurs in more recent years as she aged. </p>
<p>Always a commotion over the reheating time, at 200 degrees she didn’t want it to “dry out” during the seder service. But it had to be served “hot.” I have no idea how she did that, really, but maybe that’s where all the “runners” came in at the end.</p>
<p>LOL, I also think I’m doing, in cyber form, what she did at the table…making everyone stop and deal with her recipe!</p>
<p>So let me throw out a few strands so the thread doesn’t stop in its tracks. Meanwhile, I am looking up alternatives on the Internet, just wondered if anyone had actually tried a sweet potato tzimmes in soup-pot that worked.</p>
<p>OK, other strands to discuss</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How is everyone doing introducing healthier cooking modes into traditional seder recipes? Do people accept the change or plead for the old schmaltz-filled standards?</p></li>
<li><p>Does everyone manage to keep their little kids from starving by serving up other foods early in the meal?</p></li>
<li><p>What about those 13-year-old kids who get sick-drunk on Manishevitz and ruin their seders. I feel sorry for them. </p></li>
<li><p>For people whose college kids can’t get home this year, what items do you like to mail to them? (said differently, which brickle withstands USPS…)?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Best to all…</p>
<p>I send my college girls a tupperware full of chocolate matza brittle each. I UPS it on Thursday and they will get it on Friday (since we are in the same state). They love it. My 16 year old son will not touch the Manechevitz (his choice)…he goes for the grape juice with all the kiddies. The kidlettes at our seders are allowed to nibble on matza crackers before we sit down to the service. I am afraid that we don’t bother to worry about healthier alternatives. We all are careful what we eat yearround so we tend to allow the holidays for splurging.</p>
<p>Thanks for the kugel recipe, PRJ. It does sound tasty. Think I’ll make it for dinner during the week since one of my seder guests is bringing a potato kugel. I’m going to have to try shipping matza brittle to DS this year. He was just home for spring break last week so won’t be able to join us. I’m prodding him to attend our seder by Skype if he doesn’t get an invite to the home of an in-state friend.</p>