Passover For Mostly Non-Jews: Part 2

Part 2: The Passover Meal

The very first thing I did was start chopping vegetables for my paprikash, because it's a stew and it needs time to do its thing. The second was send Brian to my room to grab a pen and a piece of card stock so I could plan out what dishes I was making, which pot(s) I was using for each one, how I was going to organize my burners, and how much time each item needed. While this probably would have been better accomplished with an excel spreadsheet on my computer (and should have been done in advance!), I preferred using the thick paper because then I could plop it next to me while I was cooking without having to worry too much about it getting wet/dripped on/thrown under a hot pan/chopped by an errant knife. Thankfully, it all lined up perfectly, although there was going to have to be some fancy juggling in the middle when I switched 3 out of the 4 burners. I highly recommend making a list like this before you try juggling a big meal, it makes you less likely to forget to cook a side dish (and before you ask, yes, that has happened to me before).

Back to the paprikash. This recipe is courtesy of my Great Aunt Lenke, who was like a third grandmother to me when I was a kid. Unfortunately she passed away when I was in middle school, but her delicious family recipes still live on. It doesn't feel like a holiday unless we have one of her iconic dishes. Here is a recipe as well as a picture of the finished product. Although this can come together in as quickly as an hour and a half, it tastes a lot better if you let it simmer on the stove for at least three to four hours because then the sauce has time to reduce and thicken and the chicken literally falls off the bone and shreds itself. The end consistency should be halfway between a soup and a stew, and it is usually better the second day when everything has time to meld together even more.

Aunt Lenke's Chicken Paprikash (makes 10-15 servings)

You'll need:

1 large stockpot (with lid)

1 family pack of chicken thighs (or 1 whole chicken, cut into parts)

1 small (4oz) can of tomato sauce

1 medium onion 

1 green pepper (I prefer red because it has a sweeter flavor, but Aunt Lenke used green)

1 bag peeled baby carrots (optional)

3 tablespoons paprika (at least, feel free to add more if you like)

1 tablespoon minced garlic (if you're using fresh, use at least 3-5 cloves, if not more.)

2 tablespoons olive oil (or enough to coat the bottom of the pot)

Salt to taste

1. Put the stockpot on medium heat and add olive oil.
2. Roughly chop the onion and the pepper. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, onion and pepper. Cover the pot.
3. Once the onion is translucent, add the paprika. It should look pasty. 
4. Trim the chicken thighs and add them to the mixture.
5. Add enough water to cover the chicken (I usually just bring the pot to the sink).
6. Add tomato sauce and salt.
7. About 15 minutes later, add carrots if desired. 
8. Let simmer on low-medium heat for at least 1 hour, preferably 3-4, stirring occasionally. Turn down heat if the pot begins to boil over.

Great Aunt Lenke's Famous Chicken Paprikash!

The next dish I had to get going was my Matzoh ball soup. Most people use chicken broth for their base, but I prefer onion soup because it's the way my cousin makes hers. She makes her own stock, but I cheat and buy mine from the store. My broth of choice is Pacific Organic Onion Soup because it has a rich hearty flavor. It's always been a big hit at dinner parties, and last week was no different. In addition to my broth (I used two 32 oz containers' worth), I added 2 onions, 3 small parsnips, a bag of baby carrots, a generous helping of minced garlic, and some parsley. I cooked all that down for about an hour before I even started my matzoh balls. Since I'm writing this post in the same order I cooked each dish, you'll have to scroll down to read about the matzoh balls and see how it all turned out! 

Next on the list was the green beans, but first I had to run downstairs for a quick wardrobe change. Roberta and Al came back while I was doing my thing, and I re-emerged to the sound of them furiously snapping 3lbs of green beans. Man, that's a lot of green beans. I decided to triple the Food Yenta's recipe (I've posted it here and made it several times in the last few weeks because it's just that good), but I think I went a little overboard. We definitely had a lot of leftovers.

I used my new Pyrex as serving bowls. They were perfect!

While they snapped away, I started my caramelized peppers. I posted the recipe for them in my Passover's Coming Early! post and, as usual, they didn't disappoint. I used three peppers (one each red, orange, and yellow) and had no leftovers, so it was just enough. Next time I will definitely make more, but I have a feeling that those will disappear as well. Here's what it looked like:

Roberta lent me her serving dish - doesn't it look lovely?

Then it was time for the barley. So, paprikash can have a few different side dishes. Either you can throw in some quartered potatoes when you add the carrots and boil them for a while, or you can make a side of egg noodles, or even some flour dumplings. Or you can make barley. My mom's a big fan of the barley version, so I made it in her honor. Since I'd never cooked it by myself before, though, I wasn't sure of the cook time or the precise time I needed. Here's some advice for next time: Never cook an unknown dish at a dinner party. It took a half hour longer than I'd bargained for and I still wasn't sure it was done. I also had a huge amount of leftovers that I'm still trying to find ways to utilize. It tasted great with the main dish, though.

And there was even more in the pot....

While all that was cooking, my friend and I started the matzoh balls. I had to take the paprikash off the stove so that I had room to boil the water, but it kept just fine because by that point, it had already been cooking for over two hours. We used the recipe on the canister of matzoh meal, with the only departure being that we added some more matzoh meal when it came out a little runny. The recipe says that one batch makes 8 servings, but in my experience, it's more like 4-6, so we decided to quadruple it to make sure we'd have enough for everyone. We ended up with 24 matzoh balls, which was exactly the amount we needed for 12 people. Once the dough was chilled, even more people got in on the action by helping to form the fluffy balls of goodness. This was always my favorite part of holiday cooking because Dad usually had things handled in the kitchen, but I was always called upon to help roll the matzoh balls and drop them into the water. It's a fun way to get people involved in the kitchen, and since almost all of my guests had arrived at that point, I wanted as many people as possible to feel included in the cooking. Once formed, I let them soak up the boiling water for about 15 minutes and then drained them into my new wire mesh sink-sized strainer and tossed them into the soup. You want to make sure that they're fully cooked before you throw them into the soup because if not, they'll soak up all your liquid while you're not looking. Matzoh balls are like edible sponges; they quickly absorb flavors, but they can deplete soup pots just as quickly.

Here's the finished product:

I enjoyed it so much, I made myself some more for breakfast the next day!

The last main dish I made was tilapia fillets poached in butter, rosemary, and garlic. Not only was it as easy as it sounds (all I did was melt the butter and roast the garlic and rosemary in it before pouring it over the fish), but it took all of 15 minutes to make - 2 minutes to put the sauce together and 13 minutes in the oven baking at 400. I used two sticks of butter, two sticks of rosemary, and the rest of my minced garlic. And it tasted delightful.

Again, beautiful serving dish courtesy of Roberta.

Speaking of things that were delightful, I have to take a minute to talk about my garlic. I was brought up on the jars of minced garlic that you buy at the grocery store, but after a month of using the fresh stuff, I'll never go back. This is great in theory, and perfectly fine in practice when we're talking about one or two dishes, but there was no way I was taking time out of my cooking schedule to chop multiple cloves of garlic every time I wanted to start something new. So, I gave myself a present and spent the night before my adventure sitting at my kitchen table with a cutting board, a ton of garlic, a sharp(ish) knife, and Psych on Netflix. I don't even want to know what my roommates thought. It took me a long time (mostly because the best knife I had was woefully dull and pretty sucky), but also because once you get to the 20th clove of garlic, peeling the skin off stings your fingers. It was totally worth it though, because all day (and throughout the whole next week) I was able to quickly scoop out my desired amount of garlic and add it to any and all of my dishes. Next time, though, I'm going to try my cousin's tip and grate it with my brand new micro plane. I'm rather excited about this, mostly because I spent the entire time in fear of losing a finger tip.

They look huge here, but they're actually little baby containers. Aren't they cute?

For dessert, I tried my hand at the apple spice cake I wrote about in Passover's Coming Early! I accidentally used less matzoh meal than I was supposed to, but I honestly don't think it would have been dough enough to make a thick, fluffy cake even if I had (and that's with cutting the number of apples in half). Instead, I drained some of the excess oil and pressed all of the dough into the bottom of the pan to form a crust and then topped it with the apples so that it resembled a cobbler. I'm happy to report that it came out delicious and the crust came doesn't taste like matzoh meal at all. It was a big hit, especially with the Honey Vanilla frozen yogurt that Roberta and Al picked up to go with it.

As you know, I have a thing for close-ups.

Brian and I also made more chocolate covered matzoh, but this time we made both dark and milk chocolate varieties. To be honest, we ate more than our fair share, but could you blame us?

This was all that was left of dessert - and we made a sheet pan each of the matzohs!

And now on to the fun part - pictures of my dinner party! It took me a lot longer to get here then I thought I would...I guess I made more food than I realized. The first picture is of most of my guests at the table (I was the one taking it):

I can't tell you how happy this picture makes me :)

More table pics (in order from left to right - someone with better photoshop skills could probably make this a panorama):

I'm the one on the end!

Next up is a close-up of my friend's plate. There's a little bit of everything on there:

Nice and colorful

I was feeling a bit artistic, so I took this picture when I was done with my first course:

I'm a bit in love with my new place settings

And finally, because it had to happen sometime, here's a picture of my kitchen back to normal:

Well, almost normal. Even though Roberta's table and my roommate's chairs were gone, some of the party decorations still remain. And they're going to stay, because I think they look snazzy and my guy roommates are nice enough to let me decorate. I'm really happy with how the flowers on the wall turned out - I wasn't planning to put them up (they'd previously been in my bedroom), but the walls looked so bare that I had to do something. Luckily, I had just switched rooms a couple of days before, so all of the flowers were down and within reach. I handed some packing tape and a handful of flowers to one of my guests and had her enlist everyone's help to put them up. I think it came out awesome and I love that they were a group effort. And speaking of group efforts, once the meal was over, the whole dinner party turned into a clean-up army and worked together to put my kitchen back together. It was amazing, and I'm truly grateful.

Overall, I'd say that my dinner party was a huge success. Everything came together in wonderful--sometimes surprising--ways and none of my guests left hungry. I had a lot of great moments throughout the day, but probably my favorite was right at the beginning when I told the story of Passover to 11 people happily slurping their soup. There's something truly satisfying about seeing people you care about enjoying your food and helping to celebrate your culture.