Passover Feast.......There is no slim way to do it.

The Passover Seders are now over.  And thank goodness.  Yes,I know. What the hell am I whining about.  Two days of some incredible Jewish Soul food.   It's exhausting.  There is so much stuff that you want to have that you end up eating yourself silly.

I remember when we would have those marathon Seders at my Grandparents, we would all sit and rest after the soup just to make some space.  

So I'll start by letting you know how the Pastrami Salmon turned out.  It was bad.  But bad in a weird way.  You see after the siting in the salt/sugar/cilantro/parsley/shallot wet rub for two days, it has in essence cooked.  So you take all that stuff off and give it a rinse.  Then you dry it off and pour on a mixture of molasses, cayenne ( lots), and coriander.  It then goes back in the fridge overnight.  This is what it looks like:

Then you take it out and slice it.  I put it out on a nice plate and it looked real pretty, see:

Even the flesh looked good:

But the topping was weird tasting.  And Spicy.  I didn't mind the heat but it had a strong molasses flavor.  Maybe with less molasses it would have been better but it still wasn't pastrami tasting.  I have to find the recipe that I used many years ago and make it again.  

So I served that along side Egg Salad with mushrooms.  Just some good stuff to nibble on while everyone arrives and gets settled.  

We then took to the table to do the ceremony and story telling of the holiday.  I like to really breeze through this and enjoy the wine along the way.  The traditional Seder has you drinking 4 glasses of wine throughout the meal.  Some of us did that before the meal started.  We were all laughing a lot.  It was a great night.

I suggested to Anita, my wife, that we use the soup we had in the freezer for the night.  I'm all for fresh soup but this was a time saving tactic.  We had three gallons frozen that we really needed to move and it was one less thing we had to make.  Fresh Chicken soup is wonderful and Anita makes it really great.  But it takes almost a whole day to really get it right.  So we went with the Frozen stuff that tasted just as good as it was made that day.  

Our main meal was next.  I originally wanted to make two chickens on the rotisserie but Anita said we would need three for our crowd.  My rotisserie will only hold two chickens so I needed another plan.  How can I cook three whole chickens on the grill at the same time without having to constantly watch it and flip it.  I already had the oven doing something so the Grill was it.  

Did I hear someone say Beer Butt Chicken?  that is right sir.  Beer Butt chicken is the way I went.  Now before any of you hardcore Heebs out there start in on me about not being able to drink beer during Passover, I'll have you know, I drank the beer the night before and only used the cans.  

For those of you who don't know Beer Butt chicken, listen up.  This is such an easy and fun way to cook a chicken on the grill.  You just need a grill, a can of beer (or any beverage in the average 12 oz can) and a chicken.  The idea is you open a beer, drink 1/2 of it and set it aside.  Then you make a rub for the bird and rub it all over the chicken.  Take any leftover rub and put it in the can.  Then you place the chicken's cavity over the can of beer so that the chicken looks like it's sitting on a tri-pod.   Can of beer and it's two legs keep it from falling over.  I made a mixture of Olive oil, lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice and lime juice, ginger powder, garlic powder and rubbed sage.  I think mixed it all up in a bowl and took a turkey baster and filled up the cans 1/2 way.  I then took the birds and dipped them in mixture coating all the sides and placed them on each can.  

when you put it on the grill, you need to cook it indirectly.  That means there is no flame under it.  I used the two outside burners and preheated the grill to 325 degrees.  I then placed the birds in the middle of the grill and it looked like this:

Don't they look awesome!!!!!

After about 1 hour, then come out like this:

Now if you want, you can put a drip pan under the bird or birds to catch the drippings so that you can make a gravy from it.  I forgot to do that but in the end, I didn't need any gravy.  It was even juicy today for leftover lunch.  The idea of the can is used for two reasons.  One is that it provides a good sturdy base to hold the bird.  Second is that when the mixture gets up to a steaming point, that steam provides moisture for the bird.  the moistness and the flavor is worth it.  I highly recommend cooking it this way.

The other item we made was brisket.  I don't know why we don't make this dish more often.  We have three great recipes but we have found the one we made this night is our favorite.  You sear the meat on both sides for 5-7 min. to get a good outside to the meat.  then you cover the meat in a mixture of ketchup, onions, dark brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper.  The mixture looks like this on top of the brisket:

 

After covering it up, it goes in the oven for 2 hours.  After two hours to you take out the meat and when it's cool enough to handle, you slice it into 1/4" slices.  Then back into the pot for another 2 hours.  You cut it 1/2 way because if you wait till it is all the way cooked, the meat just shreds apart.  After cooking, it looks like this:

 

'The sauce was sweet from the ketchup and the meat was so tender, a knife would be there just for show.  

The Main dishes were accompanied by a potato dish called potato Kugel.  It is made from a mixture of potatoes, matzo meal (like corn meal) eggs, and salt.  You put it all into a food processor till it get to the consistency of a potato pancake batter.  It is placed into a casserole dish and cooked for about an hour.

The other side dish was baby organic veggies roasted with honey and cumin.  The veggies were Patty Pan Squash, baby multi colored carrots, baby Vidalia onion, baby zucchini, and fennel.  It was really tasty and so simple.

 

After a short break, the final portion of the meal is served.  Anita makes some of the greatest desserts.  She made her staple cheese cake that was so good this time.  Where she really excels are her cookies.  She made Pecan  meringue's and coconut macaroons.  The meringues are so light and fluffy and sweet.   They are the crowd favorite.

 

the platter of cookies is always so impressive.  take a look:

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing how we celebrated the Passover holiday.  The crazy part is that we did it all over again the second night.  Its truly an exhausting few days but there is no better way to make yourself tired.

I'd be more than happy to share the recipes that you see here with anyone.  if you would like the recipe, send me a comment and I'll be sure to send it to you.  Or you can send me a message to alanharitonblog@gmail.com

thanks for reading and enjoy every meal you can.

Passover is here........Bring on the Soul Food Part 1

Now for those of you who don't know me, I'm the farthest thing from a religious person.  But what I really enjoy about the holiday, any holiday, is that it brings family and friends together.  Usually around a meal when it comes to me.  Now the time has come for the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Small History Lesson:

 Passover is the holiday where Jews around the world celebrate the exodus for the evil Pharaoh who kept the Jews enslaved to build the pyramids.  During this time of escape, the Jews had no time to wait for their dough to rise for their bread.  So the bread that they had to eat resembled what we have today as Matzo.  So for 8 days we eat nothing (or try to eat nothing) that is made of flour or rises.  That list includes: bread of any sort, crackers, rice, pasta.  The first two nights are called the Seders.  These nights are meals that are served around a ceremony that really tells the story about how the slaves escaped Egypt.   Growing up and going to my grandparents who are Orthodox Jews, our ceremonies there would last sometimes up to 5 hours.  The ceremony at my house lasts about 15 minutes then onto the eats.

History lesson Over.

For me, this is a time when I have an excuse to entertain.  So this is what I have planned.

As a good entertainer does, I will have nibbles out for people to nosh on while we wait to start the dinner.  I have decided to make my egg salad with mushroom and a Pastrami Salmon.  I had made the Pastrami Salmon once a while ago and it was a huge hit.  So making it again I thought would be great.  I searched high and low for the recipe and couldn't find it.  So I found another one from the chef David Burke and thought I'd give it a try.  It calls for taking a 2 to 2 1/2 lbs piece of salmon with no skin on it and curing it with salt and herbs to sort of cook it.  So I have a 2 lb. piece here.

I kind of mauled it a little when I was taking the skin off.  My original goal was to go to Costco and get their Salmon because it is perfect for this.  Boneless and skinless.

So the recipe calls for 1 cup of salt and 1/2 a cup of sugar to be covering the entire piece of fish.  Then in a food processor puree 1/2 lb. of shallots, 2 bunches of Cilantro and 1 bunch of Parsley. Coat the entire fish in the puree and let it sit for two to three days.

My fish will sit for two days.  Then I'll mix a mustard, molasses, coriander seed, cayenne, and bay leaves and let it sit for one more night before serving it sliced.  With my new low salt diet, i'll be having very little of this but it's very dramatic when served right.  I hope it turns out ok.  You'll see the results either Monday or Tuesday.

For the rest of the meal, we'll be serving traditional Matzo ball soup which Anita makes the best I've had.  I'll be making for the main dish, Brisket, and three chickens done on the grill beer butt style.  our sides will be Broccoli, roasted red potatoes with rosemary and a vegetable medley consisting of Patty Pan Squash, baby organic carrots that are all sorts of beautiful colors, baby Vidalia onions, and baby zucchini.  If it turns out right it will be both beautiful and tasty.  I'm going to season it with honey and cumin.   We will also make a potato dish called kugel which takes almost the same batter as a potato pancake and makes it in a casserole dish.

As usual, Anita will out do herself in the dessert category.  She's got one Chocolate cheesecake made and is currently cooking a regular cheesecake.  we'll have coconut macaroons, and meringue cookies.

it will be a great feast that I'm looking forward to sharing with all of you.  I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I have enjoyed both writing about it and preparing it.

I'm Back

I took a small break and I'm now back.  I have some exciting things to share especially with the Jewish Holiday's coming up, i'll be sharing some good Soul food.

Plus I just got back from Las Vegas so I have one new place to mention.

All in all I'm happy to say that since I got rid of salt in my cooking, my ticker has been much better.  I've also dropped a little weight and hope to drop more.

I want to mention that I got rid of the salt I used to use.  I still have it in somethings but I don't use it anywhere near where I used to use it.  I don't go so far as getting low sodium everything.  I get low sodium soy sauce and low sodium chicken stock but I don't go beyond that.

I'll be in touch again shortly with some past places I have eaten and some things I've made to try to help my diet.

In the meantime, enjoy what you eat and try something new all the time.