During the couple of days we had between guests at the beginning of April, Passover hit!
A seder was thus definitely in order. For those of you who don't know what a seder is, it's the traditional Jewish meal served during the holiday of Passover. Every family has its own rituals, but basically the meal is preceded by a retelling of the escape from Egypt led by Moses. With lots of singing. And drinking.
It takes a good bit of preparation to put together the Seder meal. There's a traditional plate that's used, which has to have certain ritual objects represented. We didn't have a true Seder plate, which is marked with what goes where. Oh well - we did have a pretty china plate!
What you see on there is a cup of salt water (to represent the tears of the slaves), a roasted egg (represents sacrifice and Spring), Italian parsley (bitter, like the bitterness of slavery - you dip in the salt water to eat), a roasted lamb shankbone (also represents sacrifice), haroset, and prepared horseradish, since we couldn't find fresh.
The haroset, on the bottom, looks like the mortar the Jews used while they were slaves. I'm the one who makes it around here. Here's the ingredients for this year's incarnation:
And then you chop and throw everything together. It's pretty simple, and gets better as the days go by. Of course, after a while it starts to ferment, but then hey, it's party time! There are lots of different ways to make haroset, depending on where your Jewish ancestors hailed from. My family always uses Eastern European variations. (I may have to try one of these out next year.)
The haroset gets put on a piece of matzah spread with horseradish to make my favorite Passover treat, the Hillel Sandwich.
Husbear went out the day Passover started to pick up some matzah, the traditional unleavened bread - an absolute must, since Jews can't eat regular leavened bread during the 8 days of Passover. Pickings were slim. He ended up with a kilo of matzah. I'm still working my way through it.
Husbear spent a good bit of time before our friend Anna arrived preparing things for the meal. I'm going to let him tell you what he did to this poor little lamb leg, still complete with its tuft of fur.
Ooh! Weee! I gets to writes. I'm on the internets and stuff! (Normally Mme. Pants beats me if I get near the computer.) However, lamb is important -so with special dispensation I can lamb it up (get lamby with it?).
Basically, this is a prepartation that I stole from the awesome resturant that I've been working at. First you trim up the overly fatty and grisly bits and then proceed to cut out the big bone in the middle. You stuff the center with rosemary and thyme (and thick slices of pancetta if this wasn't a pork-free jewstravaganza) and then give it a healthy salt and pepperering.
Then you tie it up real tight like (warning: do not make fun of my trussing skills. I was in a hurry, my hands were greasy, I went blind and was overcome with vertigo. Look I'm sure there's a good reason why this thing looks like a game of Cat's Cradle played by a poorly trained intoxicated monkey but it escapes me at the moment.)
Anyway, brown the whole thing on all sides in a really, really hot pan. When it's caramelly delicious looking, put the pan in the oven at 220°C until it's almost done. When that is will depend on lots of things so you should probably use a thermometer. Next, I let it cool a bit, took off the string and then put on a crust made of almonds, rasins, rosemary and anchovies. I browned the crust all nice and crispy and then that leg was bona fide table ready. Slice and eat.
Now back to the lady:
Our friend Anna arrived bearing side dishes and dessert and a little memory stick, on which she had downloaded several haggadot - that's the book you read during the meal to make sure you're doing everything correctly. We set the computer up on the table and started the ceremony. We're high-tech!
This is usually quite a meal. You don't eat until several hours after you sit down, after the story has been told, two glasses of wine have been drunk (seriously, it says so right there in the book), and various songs have been sung and prayers have been made. I remember when I was a child that I'd get so hungry while the parents were talking that I'd welcome the point in the seder when you eat the parsely dipped in salt water. It tasted SO GOOD.
During Passover, you have to have matzah ball soup. This is probably the most famous Jewish dish - dumplings made of matzah meal, served with vegtables in a chicken soup. I've heard a cute anecdote about matzah ball soup - Marilyn Monroe was on a publicity tour in New York City, and after being served matzoh ball soup for the third meal in a row, she asked her manager, "Isn't there any other part of the matzah you can eat?"
Heh.
Husbear made a true soup (I've usually just settled for the Manishevitz mix), with actual chicken stock and ground matzah for the matzah meal. He even added duck fat to the dumplings, in a bit of a departure from the traditional schmaltz (chicken fat.)
The perfect start to the meal. We wolfed it down and moved almost immediately on to the lamb, now roasted perfectly and served with the veggies Anna brought. She managed to make a delicious fennel and cauliflower roast in her little toaster oven, no easy feat. The perfect lamb side dish, and she hadn't even known we were having lamb!
The lamb was the tenderest meat I've ever eaten. It was pillowy, I swear - I wanted to take a nap right in the middle of it. The flavorful crust was just awesome with the soft meat, and the vegetables couldn't have been better - fennel and cauliflower actually makes a really good combination.
The lamb gravy was delicious overkill. Unlike so many roasted meats, this one had no need of moistening - but it sure was a tasty sauce.
One of the refrains from the Seder is "It would have been enough," or Dayenu, in Hebrew. It's part of a song that thanks G-d for delivering the Jews from slavery, bringing them through the desert, feeding them, giving them the land of Israel, et cetera.
So, this meal would have been enough, but Anna had a delicious dessert up her sleeve. (She's studying baking and pastry at Apicius and LOVES making desserts.)
A white chocolate souffle with whipped cream - and matzo brittle!
This was Husbear's first time trying matzo brittle, matzo covered in caramel and chocolate - and I'm pretty sure he liked it. A lot.
Fully sated, we pushed ourselves back from the table and sang a couple more Passover songs. Another Seder done.
The traditional line to end the Seder is "Next Year in Jerusalem." But for the two of us, who knows?
