The Savory And Sweet Side Of Passover

 Like any holiday Passover has a savory and sweet side. The recipes can be classic but there's always room for new ones. They can be for the main course or for dessert afterwards.

Both Melissa Clark and Joan Nathan had interesting dishes for celebrating in yesterday's New York Times Food section. The holiday starts April 15th,next Friday and ends Saturday April 23rd. These dishes can be made any of the days and even taken to Passover pot luck dinner. Ms. Clark gives the recipe of a pomegranate baked rice and onion casserole in her Good Appetite column. This is huge in the Ashkenazi sector because they were forbidden to eat rice , along with chickpeas, corn, beans and spices.This is the first change in the Passover diet in over 800 hundred years The Sephardic Jewry has always allowed it , with their holiday recipes featuring rice stuffed vegetables. This  casserole comes from Shimi Aaron, an Israeli chef and owner of  EliaMIa, He is more known for his gold dusted babka but this recipe has the same amount of oomph. It's candied onions that have been roasted in a bath of pomegranate juice, laced with honey ,olive oil and dill.It's served on a bed of pine nut speckled rice. The onions are a mix of yeloow, purple and white ones fanned out over the layer of rice. Greek yogurt can be served with it.

Joan Nathan has a sweet Pass over recipe based on the famed Easy Toffee Bars that were reimagined into a Passover treat by Marcy Goldman. The original recipe called for Saltines but as Ms. Goldman found out matzoh also works just as well. It also called for using chocolate .Ms. Nathan subs in kosher for Passover peanut butter for a different spin. These too have been okayed by the Ashkenazi however have been used by the Sephardic for decades.It's first cooking butter and molasses into a syrup and then pouring over a layer of matzohs. This is then baked in a325 degree Farenheit oven for twenty minutes. Warmed  for twenty seconds in the microwave peanut butter is then poured over this,A layer of chopped peanuts and a good sprinkling of flaky sea salt is added. Brittle is best chilled so pop in the fridge right away.It should be there for about thirty minutes or until the peanut butter firms up. This makes for a nice gift if you're invited to someone's house.

Passover has room for both savory and sweet. Make these recipes for the celebration. They are tasty and a new spin on classic dishes that are sure to be favorites.

An Afro Jewish Passover

 The story of the enslaved ancient Israelites means much to African= Americans and more so to African-American Jews. It's no wonder that their Passovers are filled with rich traditions and deep empathy. This shows in their choices for  a meaningful seder that respects one tradition with food from another one.

Regular contributor and columnist to The Bittman Project , Kayla Stewart wrote about them and their traditions. Most face prejudice from Jews of European ancestry according to the Jews of Color Initiative which supports and empowers the African American ones. The number is growing although there have been Black Jews throughout American history There are parallels to both stories and the food reflects both.It is a tale of struggle and liberation. The Jews were enslaved for four hundred years and then finally released after God inflicted ten plagues to persuade Pharaoh to free the Jewish people He also instructed Moses to sacrifice a lamb and mark the door with its' blood so that the Angel of Death "passes over their homes. Moses parts the Red Sea for their escape and  the Jews wander the desert for forty years. There are strong similarities to the African American freeing and struggle. To many the story rings true as they celebrate with African influenced foods. 

Ms. Stewart includes recipes, from chef and historian Michael M. Twitty's  soon to be published Koshersoul  (Harper Collins Amstead 2022). This is  kachumbari an onion and tomato salad with roots in Kenya. There is also a brisket in the West African style spiked with spices as turmeric and ginger. It's cooked with tomatoes , white and yellow onions and bell peppers.  A traditional Passover  food horseradish is added to this. Chef Twitty, who is Afro-Jewish himself also has an interesting fried chicken recipe made with ground matzo meal. The chicken is  dipped in a mix of poultry seasoning blended with a  host of spices from ground ginger and cinnamon to ground allspice and cloves.The chicken parts are left to absorb these for an hour or two in the fridge. Afterwards it's then dipping the chicken in beaten egg and then the matzoh meal , much in the way of any fried chicken recipe. The oil does have to be Kosher  and if following Sephardic Kosher, then use corm or peanut oil.

African American Jews can celebrate Passover with a co mingling of traditional Black and Jewish foods. It all ties in with enslavement and liberation. Both have suffered and shared that suffering with symbolic foods.