Jewish Holidays | Passover (Pesach [pay-sach])
Published April 11, 2019
Published April 11, 2019
Whenever I do a Pesach cooking demonstration, I hear a lot of whining about the heavy workload and terrible food.
My response:
Yes, it’s a lot of work, but don’t make extra work for yourself.
And if the food is terrible, well…let’s fix that now.
There’s no getting around it.
Cleaning your kitchen from top to bottom, switching dishes, shopping, and cooking adds up to quite a bit of work.
Let’s tackle it one job at a time.
My response:
Yes, it’s a lot of work, but don’t make extra work for yourself.
And if the food is terrible, well…let’s fix that now.
There’s no getting around it.
Cleaning your kitchen from top to bottom, switching dishes, shopping, and cooking adds up to quite a bit of work.
Let’s tackle it one job at a time.
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On Cleaning You can leave everyday dishes and utensils in your kitchen; move things from one key cabinet and drawer to others and tape or tie them shut for the week. Instead of emptying all your cabinets, bring in something to hold your Pesach stuff – a folding shelf or baker’s rack, a couple of plastic storage bins…even a little red wagon will do. The point is, move as little as possible out. And please – you don’t have to power clean the whole house to meet the requirements of Pesach. Going through your kid’s toy box can wait until later; there shouldn’t be any food there anyway. All rabbis will symbolically sell your chametz (chah-maytz), which includes anything you don’t know about, like a pack of gum in last year’s camp backpack or a cough drop in a suitcase. Let it go. On Switching Dishes Over the years, I have collected Pesach versions of my most necessary utensils, which frankly aren’t that many. Keep gadgets to a minimum. In the kitchen, you only need room to store what you need for your family. Put service for 20 away after the seders; you don’t need them all week. I’m lucky to have enough room for a storage cabinet of Pesach things, so I don’t use disposables. If you must, look for sturdy paper or even bamboo dishes instead of plastic. If you must use plastic, look for items that can be recycled or reused. On Shopping Pesach is the perfect opportunity to get back to eating real food. You don’t need packaged, processed facsimiles of chametz. Most of your shopping list should be fresh fish, chicken and beef; lots and lots of fresh produce, including fresh herbs; eggs, oil, nuts, and sugar; some dairy for during the week; and of course, matzo and matzo meal. One of the names for Pesach is Chag ha’Aviv – Holiday of Spring - so your menus should celebrate new spring produce represented by parsley on the seder plate – asparagus, greens, artichokes, beets, and leeks. Leave the brussels sprouts and squash for fall. On Cooking Don’t go overboard for the seders. You don’t need chicken AND brisket. You don’t need kugel AND potatoes. If you make too much, your family ends ups eating leftovers, which grow increasingly browner, the entire week. No wonder they whine. On the third day, get together with other families to share seder leftovers and finish them. Chol ha mo’ed meals (the in-between days) should be simple, easy, and fresh. A beautiful piece of pan-seared fish, asparagus, and a piece of matzo. Steak, baked potato, sliced tomato. Salad with lemon juice and olive oil. Baked egg frittata loaded with veggies. Plain yogurt with fresh fruit and a little honey. Cheese plate with sliced apples and grapes. Keep it Simple Make a plan and a schedule. Keep your menus and shopping lists from year to year, noting what worked and what didn’t. Plan your menus, not just for seders, but for the whole week. Then go over your menus and simplify. For every one thing that is time consuming and complicated, make sure two other things are quick and easy. For dessert, I serve sponge cake, which takes time, and Meyer lemon sorbet with fruit, which don’t. And notice, only one cake. My family adapts the seders to tell the story in a way that’s meaningful for us and our guests of all ages and backgrounds. Using the Haggadah as an example of HOW to teach – with drama, stories, song, and symbols – we select a theme on which to focus. This year, because of the many changes in our own lives – one child is off to graduate school, the other to his first co-op, and us back to Cincinnati – we will focus on transitions. How did the Israelites handle the transition from slavery to freedom? How did our leaders help us manage the transition? What did God do for us to complete the transition? What lessons can we learn from our past to help us now? We like to take our time at seder, so I offer plentiful snacks to keep everyone happy during the telling. We do not eat matzo until we say motzi to begin the meal, but small matzo meal rolls, fresh veggies, salsas, dips, and schmears travel around the table, letting everyone stay engaged without being too hungry. In fact, some years we are so full of snacks, that after the egg, fish and soup, we go straight to dessert. |