Passover Recipes from EtsyChai Members

Need more Passover recipes? Here are some great ideas.

Here’s a couple of recipes from Nelle at Oy Clay! Pottery
Matzoh Lasagna
Substitute the noodles in you favorite Lasagna recipe with strips of matzoh and voila! Well this one sounded real good so I told my friend about it. She added this cool twist substituting ground pecans for meat (she used to be a vegetarian). I tried it and it was good. The secret to using the nut meal is to mix it with cheese (ricotta or cottage cheese works very well) and an egg, then add it to the lasagna or whatever else you are cooking. So, when making the lasagna, use sliced yellow squash or zucchini in your layers, the nut mixture, cheese, and the matzoh. Not too shabby, in fact, pretty darned good.

Savory Matzoh Bake
Onions, mushrooms, peppers with any other veggies you like, seasoned however you like (think Garlic, salt, pepper, a touch of oregano, a little rosemary…fresh if you got it). A little chicken or veggie broth to soften the matzo and bake until the veggies are fork tender……if you’re using vegetable broth you can add a little cheese, maybe cheddar, swiss, parmesan, or jack….if you’re using chicken broth, you can add chunks of cooked chicken.

Matzoh Quiche/Frittata
You’ll need about 2 cups of veggies, 4 eggs, maybe 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, and 2 matzos crumbled up. Put the matzoh in a pie pan and add the vegetables. Break the eggs in a bowl, scramble and add salt, pepper, and paprika (herbs are good, too) then add the cheese to the eggs and mix. Pour the egg-cheese mixture over the matzoh and veggies. Cook at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown, about 40-45 minutes.

Mark Kaplan makes a Matzoh Pizza that sounds absolutely divine!

Make a relish mixture with sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, kalamata olives, and spices (garlic and oregano for me) and spread the mixture over matzoh. Add parmesan flakes on top and bake the pizzas until the cheese is golden. Yum! I’m going to try it with the ground nut mixture….just for fun. Maybe a few sautéed onions and mushrooms, too.

Dessert recipes:

Matzoh S’mores! Matzah, chocolate, and marshmallows in the oven until melted.
Sweet Matzoh Kugel 
Apples, cinnamon sugar, raisins and matzoh, with butter or margarine. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Make sure you sprinkle cinnamon/sugar on top. too.

Passover Apple Crisp (this one’s from me, GoofingOff)

6 large apples (Granny Smith or Jonathon) 1/2 cup of sugar 1/4 cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup matzoh meal 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel, core, and slice the apples. Place the apples in a baking dish sprayed with PAM (you can butter it, too…you have my permission). Mix the sugar, matzoh meal, and cinnamon, then cut in the butter or margarine. You want it chunky, not smooth and creamy. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples and bake at 350 degrees until the apples are bubbly and the topping is lightly browned. You can add chopped walnuts or pecan, too, for a little bit of fun. If there’s Passover ice cream, now’s the time to use it.


Matzoh Apple and Raisin Pudding from Meredith Laskow
Make this pudding like you would a bread pudding, with eggs and milk but use matzoh instead of bread. Season with nutmeg and cinnamon. She also makes the pudding with bananas instead of apples and raisins.

From April Greenspun of Agru Ceramic Arts comes a matzoh coffee crunch for breakfast. Her hubby takes coffee, adds milk, breaks up the matzoh into it (like large pieces of cereal) and adds sugar to taste. Fast and easy. I guess if you added chocolate syrup you would have a mocha crunch. Take that, Starbucks!

I know, this was supposed to be all about matzoh and, for the most part, it is, but not everyone shared matzoh recipes. Some team members shared wonderful recipes that work for Pesach and the rest of the year, like this incredible COCONUT MACAROON recipe that I have to share (yes, I know all caps is shouting but a coconut macaroon recipe should be shouted about).

From Greg Sager of Greg’s Creative Outlet 
Chocolate Chip Coconut Macaroons
Ingredients
1 14-oz. Bag sweetened shredded coconut
2 cups chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk


Mix ingredients together. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees until slightly browned. Store in an airtight container.

That’s the ones I found. I hope I didn’t lose too many of the originals. I think I will drown my sorrows in chicken soup and matzoh balls if I did (don’t want a hangover, I’d rather run my tush off instead). I found other recipes on the net but don’t want to share if I don’t try them out first.

Till next time, I’m GoofingOff!

Catfish Is Not Kosher for Passover

Passover is about freedom, how the Jews became free of the Egyptians. There are songs, stories, and lots of food. For me, it always comes down to the food. Our food laws go back a way, a long way. The dos and don't are written in the Holy Scriptures [in the Torah portion Shemini, which is read this week]. Meat comes from the animal who has a cloven hoof and chews the cud (no pig, no camel. No horse either). The animal has to be slaughtered just right and the meat butchered in a specific way. Fish have to have fins and scales* (No shrimp, lobster, or clams. No catfish,either). Which reminds me....

Years ago I saw a t-shirt that said “Ask your teen ager anything while he knows everything.” My daughter, a teen at the time, thought it was hilarious and had a good laugh. She had no idea how on the money that t-shirt was.

As a Navy brat I moved around a bit growing up. When my father was in Viet Nam my mother, sisters, and I stayed in New York near my grandparents. We lived in a Jewish neighborhood. Within one mile there was a kosher butcher, baker, bagel bakery (my first job), and a mah jong game once a week. The shul was just down the block. Easy living for a girl who thought there was three kinds of food, kosher, Chinese, and pizza.

My dad came back from Nam and was sent to Gulfport, Mississippi. I was 16 and in the middle of the school year so I got to stay with my grandma until school was out, then move. I remember getting there and being in total shock. I got through most of the year but when Passover came I started getting nervous. “Where do we go to get kosher anything?” I asked. New Orleans or Mobile. New Orleans was 50 miles away. “The meats frozen and expensive” I was told. “How do we keep kosher for Passover?” I asked almost in a panic. My father said “No problem, think about it and I will help you.”

Not bad. He’d help but I had to show everyone I could do it myself. Don’t ask me why. I could eat vegetables, fish, and milk products. I’m good. I went shopping and made dinner. I was so proud of myself, that is until my father smiled and said there was something wrong with the fish. “What’s wrong with it? It’s fish” I said.

“What kind of fish is it?”

“Catfish.”

“It’s not kosher. No scales, just fins,” he said with the biggest smile I ever saw.

I about choked on that fish. I still can’t eat catfish to this day.

I learned then that I didn’t know everything, and sometimes my dad did know what he was talking about. I think I ate some crow that night. I don't think crow's kosher either.

Shemini in the book of Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Torah Reading for Week of March 20-26, 2011 - Adar II 14-20 5771

*9. Among all [creatures] that are in the water, you may eat these: Any [of the creatures] in the water that has fins and scales, those you may eat, whether [it lives] in the waters, in the seas or in the rivers.
10. But any [creatures] that do not have fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, among all the creeping creatures in the water and among all living creatures that [live] in the water, are an abomination for you.
11. And they shall be an abomination for you. You shall not eat of their flesh, and their dead bodies you shall hold in abomination.
12. Any [creature] that does not have fins and scales in the water is an abomination for you.

Post by Eileen Patterson of GoofingOff.etsy

Edited by Linda Blatchford or Linda Bs Jewelry