Possibly this puts me in the cheater column, but I like the whitefish salad from Acme sold at Costco.

Regards,
Cathy2

To help you with what you can and can't serve, here's a musical reminder:
Rasta in Pasta
"Catch the matzah high!"

who has a good cocktail concept to go with seder? something with concord grape juice, maybe gin and champagne?

annak wrote:who has a good cocktail concept to go with seder? something with concord grape juice, maybe gin and champagne?

http://www.sippingseder.com/

Does anyone have a great recipe for a farfel kugel?

I'll be doing brisket w cola (a la Cooks country)
matzah ball soup
homemade horseradish
gefilte fish (ungars is fine by me)
I already made and froze my chocolate farfel clusters
veg tbd

Yesterday I made 116 mini potato kugels (kugelettes) that are now in the freezer. Wilton makes a giant mini-muffin pan that makes 48, available at Target. Looks like I will have 22 for Seder.

OMG EvA...
that's a lot of work
I did the horseradish and chicken soup this weekend
still have MB , haroses, brisket, gefilte, etc to go
but we're doing seder early on Sat since son is coming home from school for the weekend. (pretty sure I will NOT be at work on Fri)
E

Sounds as if you have just as much to do, irisarbor! I "only" have to do the fish, chicken marbella, 2 hazelnut tortes, asparagus, seder plate stuff, and generally prep the house and set the tables (with help from my husband and kids). My brother is making the soup & matzo balls, others are bringing more desserts and hard-boiled eggs. Also I have until Monday.

Pretty similar menu for several years:
Salmon-Halibut Gefilte Terrine (from Epicurious)
Aleppo-style (cherry) Chicken Meatballs
Ginger-leek Matzoh Balls in Asian Chicken Broth (riffed off a couple of Epicurious recipes; made and froze 10 quarts of soup this weekend)
Brisket
Potatoes tbd (I generally love potatoes of all kinds, but my Passover spuds are consistently disappointing, the kugel tends to get dry when re-heated, and roasting fingerlings a la minute kills my timing and oven space)
Green veggie tbd, probably grilled asparagus, but again, a timing concern
Homemade Matzoh
Homemade (home-prepared?) Horseradish, one with beet, one without
Ashkenazi Charoset. I always consider getting creative, but actually love the apple, Mogen David, honey, cinnamon, walnut version.
Matzoh Toffee Crunch
Green Salad and Desserts to be brought by others. Probably another side, too, maybe quinoa since there is one vegan guest, although he sometimes makes an exception for brisket.
Bought 30 bottles of kosher for Passover wine for our group of 12-14, for variety, plus the Mogen David because psychologically I can't dip plagues in a good Cab

Finally got my lazy butt in gear and figured out a menu:

Sweet and Sour Brisket
Vegetable Kugel
Potato Kugel
Baked Terrine in lieu of individual gefilte fish.
Pureed Carrots with Orange & Ginger
Matzah Crack
Chocolate Mousse
Sponge Cake
Fresh Fruit
Medjool Date & Apple Charoset

So I got word from a friend that there have been significant changes permitting non-wheat grains, Kitniyot
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-an ... r-passover

I wonder if anyone here is making substantial changes to their menu based on these changes.

pairs4life wrote:So I got word from a friend that there have been significant changes permitting non-wheat grains, Kitniyot
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-an ... r-passover

I wonder if anyone here is making substantial changes to their menu based on these changes.

I might try some new options during the week. I wonder what my mom and grandmothers would of thought of the new changes.

Dave148 wrote:Finally got my lazy butt in gear and figured out a menu:

Sweet and Sour Brisket
Vegetable Kugel
Potato Kugel
Baked Terrine in lieu of individual gefilte fish.
Pureed Carrots with Orange & Ginger
Matzah Crack
Chocolate Mousse
Sponge Cake
Fresh Fruit
Medjool Date & Apple Charoset

The problems with hosting.

I have been tasked as usual to make gifilte fish and horseradish sauce. Pretty simple - though very expensive. Picking up my ground fish, bones, carrots and onions from Sunset on Monday afternoon and making Monday night.

Dirks has great smoked fish

ok! we did:
mezze platter w castel vetrano olives, grilled artichokes, excellent dolmades, and our best house tzatziki
smoked whitefish salad
grilled carrots with cinnamon and lemon
cucumber, melon, grapefruit salad with shallot mint vin
cauliflower leek kugel
deviled eggs with chives
toasted coconut macaroons
matzoh crack
"the dayenu" cocktail - rosemary infused organic concord grape juice, gin, +prosecco
and a whole roasted goat with garlic, mint, oregano

Can I come to your Sedar?

Very disappointed with braising a Costco prime brisket for the seder last night.

After trimming about 3-4 pounds of fat off the 16-pound brisket, carving the point off to be used in later dishes, I had about 10 pounds left. It still was so fatty there was a 3/4" oil slick in the pan, and the meat had a funny texture (perhaps it could have used another half hour to hour to finish breaking down the collagen, perhaps it was too long). Next year I'm going back to the choice flat, even though it cost as much as the bigger prime packer. I'll definitely use it for smoking, because it's nearly foolproof (assuming the fool has 10-14 hours to kill), but just too much fat for the braise.

Other dishes included panang salmon (actually steelhead) which came out quite nice except for a bit of a grease fire on the grill (I wanted some grill flavor but not as much as I got), riced cauliflower (which helped soak up the curry), kishke, potato kugel, roasted beets, salad, matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish. Dessert was (packaged) macaroons and a flourless chocolate cake, and chocolate coated maztoh.

JoelF wrote:After trimming about 3-4 pounds of fat off the 16-pound brisket, carving the point off to be used in later dishes, I had about 10 pounds left. It still was so fatty there was a 3/4" oil slick in the pan, and the meat had a funny texture (perhaps it could have used another half hour to hour to finish breaking down the collagen, perhaps it was too long).

Funny, I had the exact opposite situation. I was provided a 15 lb. kosher packer to smoke for the festivities. This brisket had a surprisingly small fat cap and was relatively lean throughout, as briskets go. If the choice was up to me, I would have passed on this brisket and sought out another with a more substantial fat cap, but my Mother picked it out, and who am I to argue with her? I was afraid that the brisket would cook up dry, but it came out OK. Certainly not the best brisket I ever cooked, but everyone seemed to like it just fine. There were no leftovers, and the deckle was fatty enough for me to pass on the flat.

Celebrated Passover with the family in Florida this year. Mom made the traditional half (brisket, chopped liver, potato kugel, matzo ball soup, boxed chocolate and marble Passover cakes) and I prepared the "modern" (vegetarian chopped "liver"; smoked salmon and whitefish Gefilte with lemon dill sauce; homemade everything matzo; apple, walnut & honey Charoset; roasted spring vegetables (asparagus, shiitake, shallot & radish) with mustard vinaigrette).

And I made my second EVER successful baked dessert, a blood orange, almond and ricotta cake. Delicious! Will be making it for Easter as well https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/01/blood-orange-almond-and-ricotta-cake/

stevez wrote:Funny, I had the exact opposite situation. I was provided a 15 lb. kosher packer to smoke for the festivities. This brisket had a surprisingly small fat cap and was relatively lean throughout, as briskets go.

Next time we'll trade. It wasn't that was a packer, it was the fat of the Prime

Jen, that cake is gorgeous. I will definitely be giving that a try at some point.

I had small family gathering. The menu:

Charoset - apples, dates, toasted walnuts, Manischevitz wine, honey, cinnamon, salt
Chopped liver
Horseradish
Halibut with a lemon-dill beurre blanc
Asparagus
Potato kugel
Triple crème goat Brie cheesecake with an almond macaroon crust


This has been my go to potato kugel recipe for some time now. I actually prepare it in a cast iron pan. It's really not that far off from a Tortilla Española.

The cheesecake was my own creation using several other recipes as rough guides. Unlike with a lot of baking, cheesecake recipes offer some flexibility and exact measurements are less critical. So I chose a ratio of a little over 50% triple crème goat Brie to just under 50% cream cheese, 4 eggs, and about 3/4 cup sugar and just a little vanilla extract. Before adding the eggs, I tasted the cheese mixture to see if it was where I wanted it to be, ultimately adding a little more cream cheese to get to the ratio I mention above. The goat Brie flavor came through beautifully.

I was rushing to get things served so I only have some pics from dinner, but here you go:


Charoset, horseradish, chopped liver and matzoh



Matzoh ball soup - I actually had some soup before taking the picture . . . but who doesn't love matzoh balls?!?





Triple Crème goat Brie cheesecake with almond macaroon crust



Chag Sameach LTH!

Thanks for the kugel recipe, BR. It looks excellent. Your cheesecake and Jen's orange cake both look terrific. I made two hazelnut tortes for our Seder; the Haggadah says God brought us out of Egypt with a mighty arm, and those cakes need my mighty arm for folding in egg whites into an extremely stiff batter. Of course the meal wouldn't be complete without my brother reminding me that when my mother made the cake, we kids had to grind the nuts by hand in one of those old hand-held circular nut grinders.

When in Rome ... Yes, You Can Have Rice on Passover

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/insi ... mesinsider®ion=c-column-bottom-span-region&_r=0

Seder is in two days, people! Any great menu ideas or recipes to share? I'm cutting the smoked brisket this year and doing the old Silver Palate Navarin of lamb (stew) instead. I used to make it years ago and thought it would work well for seder. Even though there is a lot of food, I'm a bit nervous because two welcome but unexpected additional cousins are coming who bring our group up to 23--may have to suspend some guests from the ceiling .

Sweet and sour brisket is in the oven as I'm typing this.
Matzah lasagne with spinach is next on the list followed by a potato gratin with horseradish.

I've got room at my table for a couple of your freeloaders. We can negotiate a rate.

Dave148 wrote:I've got room at my table for a couple of your freeloaders. We can negotiate a rate.

Probably couldn't afford your rates! Thanks for the laugh.

8:20 AM 12-lb (after trimming) Costco prime brisket on the WSM

Hopefully everything will be fine: every mustard bottle in the house is at the dregs, I ended up smearing some yellow, some dusseldorf and some czech sweet mustard on the beast. Then, when I'm filling the water pan, it slipped and put out one corner of the fire. I know there's got to be water on the bottom of the coal pan, I'm hoping it's not very much. The coals are mostly still burning, I'm going with it.

JoelF wrote:8:20 AM 12-lb (after trimming) Costco prime brisket on the WSM

Hopefully everything will be fine: every mustard bottle in the house is at the dregs, I ended up smearing some yellow, some dusseldorf and some czech sweet mustard on the beast. Then, when I'm filling the water pan, it slipped and put out one corner of the fire. I know there's got to be water on the bottom of the coal pan, I'm hoping it's not very much. The coals are mostly still burning, I'm going with it.

I'm smoking a 15lb. Kosher brisket. I started it at 4am. Kosher is a requirement of one person in the family, so I paid approx. 4 times the cost of a Costco prime brisket for one with much less marbeling. It should still be excellent, though.

Joel, you may be pleasantly surprised to find most, if not all, of the spilled water will evaporate during the cook.

stevez wrote:Joel, you may be pleasantly surprised to find most, if not all, of the spilled water will evaporate during the cook.

Indeed, it's just slowed things down, it was running more like 200 than 250 for the first couple hours.

My daughter-in-law (mother of my new granddaughter) is staying with us, and keeps kosher, but has resigned to having fish on holidays.

Gefilte fish made.
Hazelnut cake made.
Matzah Caramel Chocolate Crunch made.
Tablecloths and napkins ironed, thanks to our daughter.
Next up: navarin of lamb.