Passover : A Marriage of Two Seders

The Passover Seder, which begins Saturday evening, commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, an event that is still being celebrated in much the same way it was more than 2,000 years ago. Jews today still eat the unleavened bread (matzo), taste the bitter herbs, ask the four ritual questions, drink four cups of wine and open the door for Elijah the prophet to come in and take part.

Yet there are significant differences in contemporary observances of Passover. Indeed, the way each family observes the Seder reflects its particular background, family history, preservation of traditions and adaptation to change. But not until I attended the Seder of my husband’s family more than 20 years ago did I fully realize how different those observances could be.

Our Seder in Providence, R.I., included the immediate family, invited students from nearby Brown University and, often, Christian friends. My parents’ Seder never began with the meal itself. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres came first--a startling aberration, I learned later, from Jewish tradition.

Then came matzo with pickled herring, chopped liver and gefilte fish balls. I preferred the herring; the only good thing about the gefilte fish seemed to be the horseradish around it. (Years later, when I tasted my mother-in-law’s homemade gefilte fish, I realized it could be delicious.)

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Finally, the Seder began. Our mahogany dining table was set with symbolic foods placed on a flat cut-glass plate in the center, my father’s silver bar mitzvah cup from his native Germany alongside it for the Kiddush (the blessing over the wine) and a copy of the Haggadah, the narration of the exodus, on each plate. Our Haggadah was invariably a children’s version--short, slightly food-stained from Seders past and, most important, in English.

Sitting next to my father also had its disadvantages. Even though Dad had been leading a Seder for 40 years, he was never comfortable with that role and took on an exaggerated seriousness that often provoked my laughter. It seemed to me that at least every other Seder I was temporarily excused from the table, overwhelmed by giggles.

My late father did not grow up with a Seder. His mother, Grandmother Lina, would explain, “My religion is in my heart.” Grandpa Rudolph refused even to participate in the ritual. But my American-born mother, a woman of Hungarian and Polish origin who has always maintained she brought fresh ideas into her husband’s German family, insisted upon starting married life with a family Seder.

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A deal was made. If Dad would lead an annual Seder, she would learn how to make chremselach , a deep-fried fritter filled with raisins and almonds served during Passover at his grandmother’s home in Germany. Dad carefully planned the service--straight out of the children’s Haggadah, his only model.

For a child, not only the flavors but the rituals make the Seder different from every other meal. One tradition was the beautiful Seder plate my mother prepared. The roasted egg and the shank bone recall the sacrifices performed in the temple in Jerusalem. The chopped apple and nut haroset symbolize the bricks and mortar used by the Jewish slaves for Pharaoh’s buildings.

To me, the most poignant part of the Passover food ritual was the lifting of the parsley, symbol of spring, and then dipping it into salted water in recollection of the tears shed by the Israelites during their Egyptian exile.

After drinking the second of the four cups of wine required by ritual, we were ready to eat. Our meal was always an abbreviated version of a menu from “The Settlement Cook Book.”

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The meal began with clear chicken broth in which two light matzo balls and a sprig of parsley floated.

“How delicately light the matzo balls are,” Dad would exclaim after his first bite. Mom would beam with a sigh of relief. For my mother, an otherwise eclectic cook, the lightness of her matzo balls indicated her success as a Jewish mother, cook and wife. Thank goodness my husband, Allan, approved of light matzo balls as well. Some Jews prefer matzo balls that plummet like cannonballs, and marriages have been shattered over less.

Our main course was a crusty leg of lamb with new potatoes, fresh asparagus and green salad.

“How shocking,” a conservative friend once burst out when I described this menu.

“But it’s in the Bible,” I insisted. “ ‘And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.’ ”

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“Meat may not be roasted for Passover until the Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem,” she replied, “since roasted meat symbolizes the sacrifices performed in the Temple.” Moreover, she added, leg of lamb is not a kosher cut. And anyway, a proper Passover meal requires three kinds of meat: a brisket, baked chicken and a chicken-veal-beef meat loaf.

My mother’s response to such quibbling was firm. If leg of lamb was good enough for “The Settlement Cookbook,” it was good enough for her.

Dessert was chremselach and a kiss torte, a meringue shell with strawberries and topped with whipped cream. As far as Mom was concerned, the meringue met the Passover requirement that no flour be used. She was not concerned about the whipped cream, as we did not observe the separation of milk and meat.

We rarely finished drinking the third and fourth cups of wine, but Elijah the prophet was ceremoniously welcomed each year. The Seder ended when we began singing Passover songs, mostly off-key.

My husband was, however, taken aback by other features of my family’s Seder. Traditionally and--perhaps equally important--according to his mother’s way, the matzo ball soup should have been preceded by hard-cooked eggs in salted water and by gefilte fish. For my part, I was shocked when I learned that my in-laws did not consider the kosher Israeli dry Cabernet Sauvignon a suitable substitute for Manischewitz sweet. (To the Gersons, wine was not wine if it was not sweet.)

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The Gerson family Seder, when I first encountered it, was profoundly different with the one I’d grown up with. The story was the same and the matzos were still square, but that about sums up the similarities.

As we entered Allan’s parents’ apartment in the Bronx, we were welcomed by the aroma of chicken soup and a barrage of introductions to his entire family. The tiny living room was crammed with borrowed tables and chairs to seat about 40.

Allan’s mother, Peshka, secretly delighted, moaned over the number of relatives attending, all from the same small town in Poland. For weeks she had been preparing the gefilte fish (although aunts Ruchsa and Chuma insisted behind her back that Peshka’s lacked the right amount of almonds and salt). No one would think of missing the Seder, even aunts and uncles who had not spoken to each other for years. Seating was therefore arranged accordingly.

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Allan’s late father, Mottel, conducted the Seder in perfect Hebrew and Yiddish and halting English. The men listened, the women hovered.

Mottel had learned how to conduct a Seder from his father, and Allan learned by watching and listening to Mottel. Mottel, a Holocaust survivor, always made his annual heartfelt speech in hesitant English, reminding us of the World War II Warsaw ghetto uprising as an analogy to the flight for freedom long ago in Egypt. He wanted his children to remember their Jewish roots and the horrors that befell his family before the Gersons migrated to the United States.

For years, Allan and I alternated between attending Seders at his parents’ and my parents’ homes until we had our own children. His father has passed away. My father has passed away. Now we create our own traditions, a combination of both the cultural and culinary backgrounds of two similar yet very different families.

Our three children look forward to our annual Passover celebration the way Allan and I did when we were young, although I tend toward a more traditional Seder than that of my childhood. The service is left up to Allan, while I focus on choosing and preparing special foods. With the help of my mother-in-law, I make the light matzo balls and her gefilte fish. Each year, I try different kinds of harosets and make sure there are asparagus and strawberries, symbolic of spring, as well as my mother’s chremselach , as delectable as I remember it from my own childhood.

And each year, Allan searches for just the right words, the special message, to make his Seder as meaningful to his children as his father did for him.

MY FAVORITE BRISKET 1 (5-pound) brisket of beef, shoulder roast of beef, chuck roast or end of steak 2 teaspoons salt Freshly ground pepper 1 clove garlic, cut in half 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 onions, diced 1 (10-ounce) can tomatoes with juice 2 cups red wine 2 stalks celery with leaves, chopped 1 bay leaf 1 sprig thyme 1 sprig rosemary 1/4 cup chopped parsley 6 to 8 carrots, sliced on diagonal

Season brisket to taste with salt and pepper. Rub brisket with garlic. Heat oil in pan and sear brisket. Place brisket, fat-side-up, on top of onions in large oven-proof casserole. Cover with tomatoes and juice, wine, celery, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary. Bake, covered, at 325 degrees about 3 hours, basting often with pan juices.

Add parsley and carrots. Bake, uncovered, until carrots are cooked, about 30 minutes longer. To test for doneness, pierce flat of brisket (thinner or leaner end) with fork. When there is light pull on fork as it is removed from meat, it is fork-tender. Remove bay leaf, thyme and rosemary sprigs.

This dish is best prepared in advance and refrigerated so that fat can be easily skimmed from surface of “gravy” or cooking juices. Trim off all visible fat from cold brisket. Then place brisket, on what was fat side, down on cutting board. Look for grain (muscle lines of brisket) and with sharp knife, cut across grain.

When ready to serve, reheat gravy either in oven or on stove top. Place sliced brisket in roasting pan. Pour hot gravy over meat, cover and reheat at 350 degrees 45 minutes, adding carrots during last 15 minutes. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Each serving contains about: 440 calories; 839 mg sodium; 125 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 47 grams protein; 1.19 grams fiber.

PASSOVER CHREMSELACH 3 matzos, soaked and squeezed very dry 2 tablespoons currants 2 tablespoons chopped almonds 2 tablespoons chopped dried apricots 3 large eggs, separated Matzo meal 1/3 cup sugar Grated zest 1 lemon 1 tablespoon lemon juice Vegetable oil

In bowl mix together matzos, currants, almonds, apricots, egg yolks, 1/4 cup matzo meal, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice.

In bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into matzo mixture, adding additional matzo meal as needed to make mixture hold together.

Heat about 2 inches oil for frying in electric skillet or deep-fryer to 375 degrees. Drop mixture by tablespoons, 3 at time, and cook few minutes until brown and crisp on each side. Drain well on paper towels. Serve at room temperature or crisp up in oven. Makes about 2 dozen.

Each serving contains about: 55 calories; 16 mg sodium; 27 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 12.08 grams fiber.

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This was adapted from a recipe from Janos Wilder, chef-owner of Janos Restaurant in Tucson.

JANOS WILDER’S NEW AMERICAN HAROSET 2 Granny Smith apples Juice 1/2 lemon 1/2 cup peeled and diced fresh mango 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon honey 1 tablespoon sweet wine

Peel and dice apples and sprinkle with lemon juice. Place apples, mango, pecans, cinnamon, honey and wine in food processor. Pulse once or twice just to break up. Transfer mixture to bowl. Let stand several hours in refrigerator for flavors to meld. Makes about 2 cups.

Each serving contains about: 18 calories; 0 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams protein; 0.09 grams fiber.

More Seder Ideas

The following recipes, from Nathan’s just-released “Jewish Cooking in America” (Knopf, 1994; 466 pp.; $30) show that Passover foods vary not only from family to family, but from culture to culture. Nathan’s book demonstrates that Jewish cuisine can come from Turkey, Italy, or even from the sophisticated world of contemporary American restaurants.

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The dessert fritters called bunuelos are a medieval Spanish heritage of Sephardic Jews. “In New Mexico today,” she writes, “(bunuelos) are sometimes made with a rosette iron, fried and later dipped in a sugar-cinnamon combination. In Istanbul, a Jewish recipe that came to Turkey with the Inquisition is a matzo bunuelo, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.”

PASSOVER BUNUELOS 1 cup matzo meal Dash salt 1 1/2 cups water 2 large eggs Vegetable oil Hard-boiled eggs Sugar Cinnamon Maple syrup

Mix matzo meal, salt, water and eggs in bowl. Beat well.

Place about 2 inches of oil for deep-frying in large skillet. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons into oil. Fry over medium-low heat few minutes on each side.

Drain. Serve with hard-boiled eggs or sugar and cinnamon or maple syrup to taste. Makes about 12 bumuelos.

Each serving contains about: 63 calories; 30 mg sodium; 35 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 15 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.04 grams fiber.

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Nathan writes, “This matzo salad, created at the now defunct Quilted Giraffe Restaurant in New York, is the Passover equivalent of the Middle Eastern fattoush salad with toasted pita bread. It is delicious, a great accompaniment to pot roast.”

BARRY WINE’S MATZO SALAD 10 squares matzo 4 tablespoons chicken fat or margarine 1 sweet red pepper, finely diced 1 cucumber, finely diced 2 to 3 teaspoons capers, optional 1 bunch chives, finely chopped Salt, pepper

Run rolling pin over matzo to break up into small pieces no larger than 1/4 inch. Then cook in dry saute pan or slightly toast in 300-degree oven 10 minutes. Set aside.

Heat chicken fat in saucepan. Add sweet red pepper and cucumber. Cook 1 minute over medium heat. Turn off heat. Add capers and chives.

Combine caper mixture and toasted matzo in bowl. Mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature or slightly warm surrounding brisket. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 262 calories; 241 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 42 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 160.40 grams fiber.

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Nathan got this recipe from cookbook writer Carol Field. “Field’s description of the food served at a Roman Seder meal,” Nathan writes, “which the Italians call Pasqua Ebraica (Jewish Easter), is mouth-watering. The Roman feast itself includes such dishes as bresaola (air-dried beef served with hard-boiled eggs) and carciofi alla giudea (artichokes cooked the Jewish way), and risotto containing asparagus, artichokes or fresh peas. Scacchi, a Sephardic layered dish like lasagna, called mina in Turkey, with layers of meat and sauteed vegetables alternating with matzo, takes the place of pasta and is served at the Seder Field attends in Berkeley (Field comes from a fifth-generation San Francisco family that arrived with the Gold Rush). Try this dish with or without the meat. For garlic lovers who like a lemony taste to their vegetables, this is a real winner. “

SCACCHI (Roman Layered Vegetable Dish) 2 pounds spinach, rinsed and stemmed 4 artichoke hearts, cleaned, chokes and fibrous leaves removed Juice 1 lemon 12 standard matzos 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 pound chopped ground beef, optional Salt Freshly ground pepper 1 1/2 pounds onions, thinly sliced 6 cloves garlic, minced 3/4 teaspoon minced rosemary 3/4 teaspoon minced sage 1 peperoncino (dried red chile), seeded and minced 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1 pound mushrooms, sliced 6 large eggs 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 cup beef broth or water

Cook artichokes about 20 minutes in pot with water and juice of 1 lemon. Set aside.

Cook spinach 4 to 5 minutes in pot with only water left on leaves. Squeeze dry. Set aside.

Cover matzos with water in bowl and let sit until wet and almost crumbling.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in skillet if using beef. Saute ground beef, stirring until no longer red. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Drain. Set aside.

Saute onions in large skillet with 1/4 cup olive oil. Drain. Set aside.

Saute artichokes in medium skillet with 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, rosemary and sage. Season to taste with salt. Drain. Set aside. (If using canned hearts, cut in half.)

Saute spinach in skillet with 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, peperoncino, nutmeg and salt to taste. Drain. Set aside.

Saute mushrooms in skillet with 1/4 cup olive oil and remaining 2 cloves garlic, 3 to 4 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Grease 13x9-inch baking dish. Add sauteed ground meat. Cover with 1 layer of 3 matzos. Matzos may fall apart. Cover with layer of onions. Layer 3 more matzos on top, alternating with artichokes, spinach and mushrooms.

Beat eggs together in bowl and add remaining 1/2 cup lemon juice. Pour over top of dish. Add enough broth to moisten well.

Bake at 400 degrees about 30 minutes or until mixture is set and cooked through. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Each of 10 servings, without beef, contains about: 434 calories; 231 mg sodium; 128 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein.