table talk / By Stephanie Silvia

The Seder Crusader

This year, augment your Manischewitz with homemade goodness

(April 9, 2009)  The first December I lived in Trinidad, I went into the local post office to buy stamps. The postmaster informed me that he had run out of the Hanukkah stamps displayed in the case. Now, if there had never been Hanukkah stamps offered in this distant outpost, I would have understood … but to run out? Who was buying them, I wondered aloud to the man behind the counter. “Maybe you should introduce us so we could light candles on Friday night.”

Having experienced similar shortages when shopping for Passover foods during the six years since I’d left New York City, I ventured into the local Co-op and Safeway last year with a list of much needed products and a plea for abundance. In 2007 Safeway was wiped out of matzoh by the second day of Passover. I wanted to make sure the managers knew that this holiday lasted eight days and we, most definitely, did not fast.

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My cajoling had done no good. The local markets, including Safeway, never received their full orders. Newspapers around the country reported on the shortage of Passover food products ranging from east to west. The scant supplies were a nationwide issue. Those of us living in the American Northwest Diaspora weren’t so alone, after all.

Like Jews are historically known to do, I made the best of the situation. Armed with The New York Times Passover Cookbook (edited by Linda Amster), I cooked up a storm all week with the supplies at hand. For the first Seder I bought a hormone-free Rosiechicken at the Co-op … not Kosher, but close enough. Re-reading Andre Balog’s recipe for“Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic” — remember how long the Israelites wandered in the desert? — I found that I wasn’t suppose to peel the 40 cloves, but leave the skin on, which made the task much easier for my 9-year-old. Rather than buy bunches of all the herbs listed, I used a pre-bundled trio of rosemary, thyme and oregano and it came out beautifully.

Mimi Sheraton’s “Ashkenazic Horoseth” was so delicious our guests made two Hillel sandwiches each. I used Kedem grape juice instead of wine. A boxed organic chicken broth was a yummy base for matzoh balls made from the Manishevitzmix, and I followed my Aunt Linda’s sage advice of adding a drop of seltzer to make them fluffy. For breakfast we sliced the leftover dumplings and fried them in Smart Balance buttery spread in a cast iron pan. Mouth-watering.

Later in the week I roasted the leftover chicken carcass in its pan with diced carrots, onion, celery, brandy and olive oil and then boiled it into a broth to house Carol Wolk’s “Prize Winning Matzoh Balls.” I couldn’t understand why the balls were brown until I realized I had unwittingly bought whole grain matzoh meal. They were so good my son ate them four days in a row. The last soup I set them in was Miso Matzoh Ball Soup, first served to me at a Seder in Berkeley over two decades ago, when I was a vegetarian, by Brenda Lederman, who has since become a great chef — the proprietor of Earth Angel Cateringof Santa Rosa. Along with the usual soup vegetables, parsnips are a key ingredient, along with the mantra, “Don’t let the broth boil once the miso is added.” The main difference I found in using the whole grain meal is the dumplings need to cook longer, even when reheating.

For the community Seder put on by Temple Beth El in Eureka, my name, beginning with an S, ordained our family to bring desserts. I finally got to use the much coveted matzoh cake meal to bake “Ted’s Sponge Cake,” a recipe from the 1950s. Yummy! Separating and beating the eight eggs was nerve-racking, yet the consistency proved light and spongy, although a bit bland tasting. When I made another later in the week using my neighbor’s farm fresh eggs, the yellow color was luminous, and the juice and zest of two Meyer lemons made for a more flavorful end result. My advice: Use two lemons. Lonnie melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and smeared the gooey mass onto sheets of matzoh. After hardening in the refrigerator he broke the matzoh into pieces, making a matzoh bark. Both dessert plates were left with nary a crumb.

Most Jewish baby boomers’ first taste of alcohol was Concord grape at a Seder … for example, at Aunt Tessie’s in Queens. We’ve come a long way, baby. I buy kosher bottles from Jerichoof Mendocino and non-kosher from a local vinter, Robert Goodman. His Pinot Noir not only tastes delicious but bears my mother Muriel’s maiden name.

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