When Holidays Collide

Many families now have two or even three religions being practiced in their households. This year, Easter and Passover are almost simultaneous , with Orthodox Easter occurring a week later. With all these come some sort of dietary restriction, Can a home chef cope with all of these? Surprisingly yes.It does take some thoughtful planning but it can be done.

The first night of Passover happens on the Christian Good Friday. This is normally a time to eschew any meat except fish. What happens when the two religions are observed? Serve fish. The most commonly made one is gefilte fish , a kind of croquette. You can use salmon, or red snapper for a more flavorful mix. Gefilte fish can also be baked into a loaf bound together with four eggs and matzoh meal. Celery and onions give it a nice Spring freshness. Another idea is the whole filet itself for a more substantial meal. Think of combining salmon with both lemon and orange juice, spiked with garlic and dill. It can also be cooked in a garlic and coriander sauce. What happens when some of the family observe Greek or Russian Orthodoxy? Their's is a strict Lenten diet. Unlike Catholics and Protestants, they can't even have fish with spines  along with other meats.Only vegetables are allowed and they can only be boiled, not sauteed or fried. Oil, butter, and even margarine are forbidden. Boiled vegetables such as the meatier sweet potatoes or potatoes are allowed. These can be mashed and combined with other veggies to create a substantial mash.

Easter is also the time of bread and cakes. So many holiday breakfasts start off with a slice of egg bread.Unfortnately this can be awkward for some in a household that don't celebrate the day.Mmatzoh brei can be made. This is a variation of French toast with the cracker being first soaked in water then in egg. Serve it with maple syrup or honey. Matzoh can also be turned into a fun, crispy snack with the addition of kosher for Passover margarine, chocolate and brown sugar. Named Matzo Crack because it's highly addictive and tasty, it's even perfect for an Easter party.One dessert that transcends the two holidays are macarons. These can even be made with aquafaba - bean water from chickpeas  - to satisfy Greek Orthodox Holy Week laws. Dye them (using Kosher for Passover dyes) in delicate Easter egg colors such as pale pink , robin's egg blue and lavender. These can even be dusted with cocoa powder or sanding sugar to look more festive.

A multifaith household can be problematic during the holidays. Yet there are ways to deal with this . It's just being creative and thoughtful, keeping in mind ancient traditions and dietary laws.

Passover Classics

Passover will be here within the next two weeks and home chefs are wondering to go with classic recipes or new spins. There are recipes that straddle both. They have the traditional holiday dishes ingredients but are mixed and cooked in new ways. This creates tasty holiday dishes that adhere to Kosher dietary laws.

Melissa Clark and Joan Nathan wrote about these in yesterday's New York Time's Food section..ms Clark decided to give the traditional Passover brisket a rest in her A Good Appetite column. She opts for another cut from the cow's rear - a more tender and lighter beef tenderloin. A  London Broil cut can also be used too.It only takes thirty minutes to cook up instead of the usual two hours.The sauce with it is a homemade garlic aioli but you can also used bought mayo too.The first is a fresher version made with one whole egg along with a yolk of a second one along with lemon juice for emulsion. . Horseradish is a must on the Passover table and once again Ms Clark changes it up.She replaces the traditional with beet horseradish, a vibrantly magenta topping for the beef. The root has a barely standable flavor as is so the beets add a much needed shot of sweetness.They are grated together and then chopped, pickled with white wine vinegar sugar and kosher salt.It can not only be served with the beef but also with Hillel sandwiches and gefilte fish, along with even tuna, turkey and roast beef sandwiches.

Gefilte fish is another Passover standard however it 's not always the top of the list. Contributor Joan Nathan knows this and offers a spin  on it. She created a very flavorful patty, a complete turnaround from how it 's usually made. The dish came from Eastern European Jews  and is usually made with lake carp., whitefish or pike. Traditional recipes call for the fish carcass to be stuffed with its' meat mixed with matzoh meal and onions. Eggs are used to bind everything together and then it's stuffed back into the fish. Ms. Nathan takes a modern approach to this. The usual white fish is mixed with other scaled and finned fish in accordance to Kosher law.Fatty fish such as salmon, striped bass even trout can be thrown into the stuffing, She eliminates the fish stock that they simmer in and replaced it with a vegetable court bouillon infused with colorful and fresh herbs such as tarragon, dill , parsley and chives. The court bouillon is made with the highly flavorful fennel, celery another onion and carrot. This will infuse the patties with a fresh garden flavor. Another plus of this recipe is that the patties only take twenty minutes to simmer up as opposed to the two long hours for traditional gefilte fish. The result is a firm yet tender patty that won;t fall apart while cooking.

Passover demands traditional dishes. However the tradition can be changed up to create tasty dishes that will highlight the holiday. Try these to create new traditions and new favorites.

Nouvelle Jewish Cuisine

Can traditional dishes and ingredients be turned into haute cuisine?Yes,.and it's happening with the richly historical Jewish cuisine.Foods that great grandparents brought from Eastern Europe are now being reconstructed into artesenal dishes .They may be all fancied up but their core remains the same : homey ingredients being made into earthy, flavorful main meals and desserts. It was explored in today's New York Times Dining section.Dining regular ,Julia Moskin, wrote about this as she also visited some famous New York Jewish delis.Many young cooks are embracing schmaltz and liver ,turning them into hipsters must haves.Gefilte fish restaurants along with bagel shops ,are becoming on trend again. Yet these are not your great granddad's white fish and bagels.The fish is being made into chowder while the bagel makers are employing traditional baking methods to produce artesenal products.The results are delicious foods that embrace past centuries of Jewish cuisines.Smoked whitefish ,a staple in many homes ,is now being paired with creme fraiche and capers in a salad.Trout is also added to it ,to giving the variation of a chill. Salade Nicoise more oomph.Bagels are being and rolled and boiled before baking, giving us a crunchier, much more flavorful bagel.Onion ones have chopped onions as well as scallions put into the dough as opposed to having them sprinkled on the roll's surface. This renewed interest in Kosher cuisine is actually saving some dishes such as babka and borscht from extinction first.Babka, a sweet chocolate laced bread , is being reconfigured into bread pudding.A new generation is starting to appreciate it's, rich cocoa flavor and density.All beef hot-dogs and pastrami are also getting a revival as well.With this, comes a renewed interest in famed family owned eateries.The very well known Russ And Daughters is popular again .The restaurant is now owned by the fourth generation of the family.Where Joel Russ first had his pushcart of smoked herring, his great grandkids, John Russ Tepper and Niki Russ Federmanare running the deli he built there in 1904. Homemade soda, a hallmark of any Jewish restaurant, is remade into a ginger soda with hints of lemon and lime.Matzoh is roasted with butter and salt for a crackly yet creamy treat.Jewish bakeries are also cropping up again and with them comes sinful butter cookies and strudel,yeast raised coffee cakes and sour breads.Pumpernickel bread is being baked in the traditional method , first wrapped in a thin layer of dough before hitting the oven. The cuisine of the Eastern European Jews has always been a rich and flavorful one. Thanks to some clever modern twists it's also trendy too. Foods once long forgotten or simply ignored are finding their way back to tables. they represent both the past and future of Kosher cooking and baking.

New York's Fall Foodie Fest

New York is amazing in the fall. There's the start of the opera and theater season. Bryant Park is awash with fashion shows and designers. The air is crisp and redolent with with aromas of new restaurants. The Big Apple is baking - with interesting ideas and foods for Autumn 2011.

This was the main piece in yesterday's New York Times Dining section. Every year this section features a preview of new eateries opening up. Like the papers' movie and theater previews it always features the most interesting along with opinions on what will be the most successful. There are several restaurants that are predicted to succeed. Korean is big and there are a number of Korean places opening up. This is due in part to a historical TV show running in the country that features a 15th Century chef. There is intrigue and traditional recipes both are appealing to the country's young people. What this translates into is a wave of fresh new chefs opening up new places in the metro area. It also means a new spin on Seoul food. Other restaurants such as Alison 18 is a reinvention of the great romantic restaurant owned by Alison Price Becker . A plus for it is that it will feature also breakfast, something many city eateries do not offer

Others include the unusual Danish restaurant called Aamanns/Copenhagen. This will bring in all sorts of people from foodies to trendsetters to try this rare slice of Scandinavia. A new French restaurant,La Promenade des Anglais is joining New York's long list of French bistros. The chef, Alain Allegretti is bringing the food of his native Nice here. Kutschers, that longtime Catskill fave is starting a second restaurant in Tribeca. Here people can enjoy Borscht Belt classics such as matzoh ball soup and Romanian tenderloin. There is also an updated version of gefilte fish that will look more like a French quenelle than just fish on a dish .It will also be made with pike or whitefish instead of the traditional carp.

Manhattan is agog with different tastes this season.This is the perfect time to not only see the city but also experience some of the great chefs and new eateries . Try them for to celebrate autumn in New York.