Passover was different for me as a kid than it is for me as an adult. With the best of intentions and tradition at heart, my mom set out to make sure we celebrated and observed Passover as best she could. There was no looking for chametz and certainly no mysterious final search complete with feathers and a candle (Do me a favor and try to explain that tradition to someone who isn’t Jewish. “Oh, we go around the house with a feather, a candle and a paper bag looking for pieces of bread that we’ve intentionally laid to be found. It’s totally normal.” Trust me. We don’t. seem. normal).
But anyway, I digress. My point is we didn’t grow up with a lot of observance but we definitely grew up with a lot of tradition. For example, as a young kiddo, my beloved grandpa would say, in a clear, booming voice, “LO! This is the bread of affliction!” He was so loud that I’m positive our Christian fundamentalist neighbors heard us (and loved it!). But, as we got older and our grandparents couldn’t travel, that job fell to my brother. The Seder meal food was always the same. Every year, every attendant received an elegant dish full of the saltiest water and one hardboiled egg, which at no other time in life seems good but during an incredibly long Seder seems akin to eating a bagel and lox. It’s that good (and Seder is that long).
My beloved brother and my girls
But now that I’m an adult and living a bit more of an observant life and my oldest is finally old enough to actually have memories and like, keep them and stuff, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Passover memories she’ll take with her as an adult. Maybe it’ll be that time last Passover when we drove from Asheville, NC to Atlanta to visit family and had to stop at a local mountain gas station so that I could make us a Kosher for Passover meal of egg salad and matzah (the locals thought we were craaaaaaaaaay). Or maybe it’ll be this year as she sits through her first Seder (or at least some of her first Seder). Who knows? Whatever those memories are though, I hope they bring her happiness as mine do for me.
My little loves. What memories will they take with them?
So, the recipe! One glorious thing that the health food world has given us is quinoa and though the Rabbis TRIED to take it away from us by deeming only certain kinds of quinoa Kosher for Passover, I have clung to it like white on Sephardic rice. The recipe for this post can be eaten with or without the matzah crunch. I just LOVE sushi with tempura crunch so thought, why not matzah!? Fry it up in some butter and let those bad boys sing! Also, Kosher for Passover nori DOES exist so before you write me telling me it doesn’t, know that I’ve done my research.
1/2 matzah broken up into tiny bits (I suggest putting it into a sandwich bag and then breaking it up).
2 kosher for Passover Nori sushi sheet (Natural Earth sells them KFP)
Instructions
FOR QUINOA - Place quinoa into a saucepan, add 2 cups of vegetable stock and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, or until tender. Place cooked quinoa in a bowl and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, separate out 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa into a bowl. Add the honey and mix to combine.
FOR OMELETTE - Heat a tsp of oil in a small pan over medium heat. Whisk together the eggs and cold water. Pour egg mixture into the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add garlic and salt to the omelette and cover pan with a lid. Cook for another 2 minutes or until the eggs are set. Remove from pan and cut into 1/2 strips. Clean out pan.
TO MAKE MATZAH CRUNCH - Using your clean omlette pan, add the tbsp of butter to pan and place it over medium heat. Once melted, add the broken bits of matzah to the pan. Stir continuously until golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool.
TO MAKE SUSHI - Place a nori sheet on a bench (or a bamboo sushi mat, if using). Spread quarter of the quinoa mix on half of the nori sheet, working from the edge closest to you and right to the sides. Layer avocado, omelette, asparagus and cilantro across the middle of the quinoa and lighting the edge closest to you, begin to tightly wrap the rolls all the way to the end. Run a wet finger over the edges of the nori paper to seal the roll. Trim ends with a sharp knife, then cut into 1/2 rounds and top with matzah crunch. Serve with the ever so delicious kosher for passover soy sauce.
Today I bring you one of my most favorite recipes of all time. I don’t want to oversell anything buuuuuuuut, this is so good it’ll make you wanna slap your mama (that’s a real expression, by the way). I only made this casserole this past Sunday but I subsequently ate it the following 2 days, which brings us to today. Today is Wednesday and we are officially out of challah breakfast casserole leftovers. I’m really not sure how I’m supposed to go about my days without this beautiful new friend in my life. Seriously. Help!
Sunday has become THE day for cooking now that I’m back at work full-time. After 3 months of maternity leave and 2 months of being back at work I think we’re finally into some sort of schedule and rhythm at home. And since we have a baby and a toddler, my experience tells me that now that we’ve found a rhythm to our days, it’ll all blow up in our faces momentarily. That’s how these things work, right? I think the hardest lesson I learned as a new parent when I had my first was that every. single. moment. is a transition. Once I accepted that the only constant in my life as a parent of a small child is that there is no constant, I found a bit of peace. I think it was already having been through that that allowed me to wholly and easily fall in love with my second. But that’s what experience does, right? It teaches us that the things we freaked out about and that caused us ample amounts of stress and anxiety didn’t really need the ‘panic’ stage. And if we’re reflective and mindful enough of our processes, we can use those tough lessons to navigate the next potential panic in a more positive way.
As it’s late February on this high school campus I work at, my seniors are heavy in the waiting period for college acceptance. Their anxieties are so palpable and so valid and yet, no matter how much my co-counselor and I try to explain to them that this period of anxiety and “living in the gray” will eventually pass, they’re just not buying it. They are just SO in ‘it’ right now. So instead, we help them lean into the process and try our best to help guide them through it with empathy. Man, as much as it’s hard to be a parent of two small kids, I am SO glad to be out of high school. Yikes.
Lately, on the Jewhungry Instagram page . . . (TOP L – R: A GIANT bowl of vegetarian spaghetti carbonara, my sweet Eden on a hike. Bottom L – R: Me and a few AMAZING bloggers – Gaby Dalkin, Aida Mollenkamp, and Catherine McCord; my lunch in a jar!).
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Peel and cut the sweet potato into 1/4-inch cubes. Toss them with the onion, olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet or roasting pan, and roast until the sweet potatoes are tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Add chopped broccoli about 10 minutes into cooking so they get a bit of the roast.
Once done, place the broccoli, sweet potatoes and onions in a bowl. Next, add the cubed challah to the bowl, along with 4 ounces of cheese and chives. Toss the mixture until well combined.
Lightly grease a 9x9-inch (or 2 1/2 quart) baking dish. Scoop the bread mixture into the pan, evenly distributing the broccoli and sweet potatoes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy whipping cream, nutmeg, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pour over the bread mixture, pressing down on the bread to submerge it completely in the egg mixture. Cover with foil and let sit for at least 20 minutes so that bread can have time to absorb the eggs, milk and cream.
Change oven temperature to 350˚F. Bake the covered casserole for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle with remaining 2 ounces of cheese, and continue to bake uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes until the casserole has puffed and the cheese is browning. Top with an extra sprinkle of chives before serving.
Hey all! How are you? How was your holiday? Did you eat carbs and cheese and sugar with abandonment like I did? Are you now suffering through the withdrawal of aforementioned carbs and cheese and sugar like I am? I have officially gone back to work after a wonderful 3 months of maternity leave (read about this experience in a recent essay I wrote for the Huffington Post HERE) and now begins yet another transition — figuring out how to work full-time and take care of kids/household full-time. Fun times! This results in a lot of sleeping and down time. I’m finding myself with SO MUCH time on my hands. It’s amazing.
Ha!
Just kidding. It’s currently day four of being back at work as a high school counselor after three months of maternity leave and I am FEELING it. And by “it”, I mean just how much time there ‘isn’t’ in the day. Time and sleep (and coffee) are the hottest commodities in my world right now. I get home at around 4pm every day so the husband and I get roughly 3.5 hours to spend time with the kids, cook dinner, clean dinner and the apartment, bathe kids, read to kids and then put them to bed. The oldest goes to bed at 8pm (on a good day) so this leaves us about 22 minutes of ‘free time’ before I pass out on whatever flat surface is closest. One of the best parts of maternity leave was having time in the day to cook dinner and enjoy it with the family. Now? Not so much. That said, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve for the dinner time rush. One of which is what we’ve loving dubbed “Mediterranean Night”. This includes sides of hard-boiled eggs, an Israeli salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, some herby basmati rice, humus, tahini and the star? Veggie burekas. The BEST part of burekas, aside being doughy little pockets of heaven, is that I use them as a way to clean my fridge of the veggies and/or herbs that are nearing the end of their freshness. I’ve included my favorite veggie/cheese combination for this recipe but truly, the choice is yours! Simply chop, saute (if you so choose), pair with your favorite cheese (or don’t but why wouldn’t you?), fold them into some puffed pastry dough and within 15 minutes, you’ve got dinner.
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