My Second Seder

[Lulav]

I think I'm recuperated enough to share my Seder with you. I apologize to those I said I would post before, but time just got away from me and there were some troubles on Shabbat, so.........

We had a private Seder after Havdallah on Saturday night and then I got to preparing the nexts nights Seder.

Here was the menu I originally posted

My Menu

This is the first of the final version I cook as I'm lead so things change, but for now this is how it stands.

First I want to say I have Celiac and so I lean towards my Sephardi heritage. I have also tried to incorporate the six things our ancestors pined for after leaving Egypt, to get an authentic feel for that night. I will highlight them below so you can see where I've used them.

Before we start, for noshing and mingling some Crudite' of fresh carrots and green beans in a dip made with sour cream, green onions, red onions and garlic. And some cheese cubes

FIRST COURSE

Potato Leek Soup
Salmon Pate with fresh dill on unleavened crackers
Cream and goat Cheese with fig spread on same crackers


SECOND COURSE

Pan fried Talapia with Lemon Dill Butter ( this is an Egyptian as well as Israeli fish)
Quinoa Tabulleh with tomatoes, parsley, green onions mint and lemon and a touch of hyssop

THIRD COURSE

Braised Lamb with olives and garlic, and rosemary
Minted Peas
Roasted Rosemary Potatoes
Corn Cassarole
Cucumber, Red Onion, parsley and feta salad
Roasted breast of Turkey with Orange-Cherry sauce
Melon Duo compote with fresh mint (Cantaloupe and Honeydew)

DESSERT

Apricot sponge cake With fresh raspberries
Or
Chocolate Swiss Roll with Vanilla ice Cream


And there you have it! Anyone want to come help me make it all?

----------------------------------------------------

Well the green beans didn't survive the couple of days in the fridge, and hubbys car broke down on the way to the store before Shabbat started so I made do with carrots and celery to go with a spread of CC with onions,( red and green) garlic, parsley and some hyssop seasoning. I also served some veggie chips with this. I forgot to cut up the cheese cubes, but they had enought to nosh on.

First course: Potato Leek Soup was served after the 4 questions and right before the telling.

I quickly threw this soup together because I had gotten behind earlier finishing the haggadah and printing them off and collating them and putting together. So what I did was to saute the chopped and cleaned leeks I had washed and chopped the night before in a little olive oil that was flavored with basil and garlic. Just until they were lightly browned, this brings the sweetness out in them. I left half in the pot and removed half to a dish. I then added about 5 potatoes I had steamed the night before ( scrubbed organic red potatoes) , cut up and about 8 cups of water and a bit of kosher salt and some pepper. I let this simmer some and then took my stick blender and pureed it until there was only a few lumps left. I turned it off and let it sit until I went to serve it. Then I added a bit of cream when it had heated through and after dishing into bowls, I topped with the other set aside leeks. It was very good, and hearty enough to get everyone through the next part without starving!

To accompany this I served some Salmon pate on Mary's gone crackers with a spring of fresh dill on each and on some rice crackers a schmear with some fig topping. the soup came out better than I'd imagined, I couldn't find any recipe I liked so I just winged this as the guests arrived, but Baruch HaShem, it was really good!

I had explained to my guests that we were going back to Egypt for the night so we could see what it was like to come out of there. We were going to taste all six foods pined for in the wilderness and experience the plagues that HaShem sent to bring us out.

We started the telling and got to the second cup. We did the traditional reduction of our joy from our cups , unto the napkins, but I thought this was perfunctionatory and wanted to experience more.

So after the drop on the napkin, I told my guests that I would bring them some water to drink as they must be thirsty by now.

I went to the kitchen to get my prepared glasses. They were nice crystal looking plastic which I had placed some red food coloring into the bottom. I then passed out the glasses and filled them with water, which turned red upon mixing with the bottom dyes. It turned a few stomachs, but I had them imagine how it would have been to not only have your drinking water like this, but also your bathing water, etc. I am sure they will remember this plague! While one of the guests was reading from a special supplement I had printed up of the scripture describing the plagues, when they got to the part where it speaks of all the fish dying, that is when I brought out the Swedish fish I had bought and threw some at each guests plate. They were startled but I noticed when I cleaned up, they were all eaten, all but by my plate as I don't think they are gluten free.

Now to the next plague................

 

[Lulav]

PlaGUE 2

Next plague is the frogs and I had looked high and low to find these. I must have gone to 8 different stores and only procured two! So I sent away to the Oriental Trading company and they came two days before Passover. I was a bit disappointed because they really did'nt behave as advertised, they were supposed to jump when you pressed on a little flap on there backs. But they were colorful, came in six different colors if I remember right. Red, blue, purple, yellow, lime green and ?? can't remember the other color, anyway they are about 2' long and curved enough to look 3-dimensional.

When we got to the frog part I started to throw them by handfuls onto the tables, showering each guests with them. There was lots of startled laughter. And when the reading was done, some throwing around. Then I wanted them to experience the gathering into heaps. Because there were 144 frogs I got, we had quite a few heaps around the table, then I passed a little plastic bucket ( the kind you let kids place with at the shore) and then they would pass the bucket to me and I would empty it into a larger can ( that I had gotten round matzah in last year and it had passover graphics on it, I used this to store my plagues in beforehand.) This way we got to see the intensity a bit of this plague. Funny thing, even after doing this we still kept finding them throughout the rest of the night. One had lodged in the pitcher of parsley I had on the table, there was one in the flower arrangement, and various other places. One even managed to be caught in a stained glass Magen David I had hanging from the fan pull chain that is over the table, but I found out later one of my guests put it there as a joke.

Still we got to imagine better what it would be like to have all those creepy frogs everywhere, and as much as little boys may like frogs I am sure that this went beyond even their delight, as they would have covered every inch of the place and jumping from here to there.....................................

Plague 3

The Lice, now I would never go for the real thing here, but I see some here had them for Passover uninvited! I feel so bad for you, I have always dreaded this. When my son was young and in school I was forever checking him. If I ever got them, they probably wouldn't leave until I shaved my head, I have such thick hair!

Anyway, I decided to use some short grain rice for this. Which sent one of my guests in to fits of hysterical laughter! Rice/lice.

I only put about a tablespoon on every other plate but it was enough.

Oh, BTW, before we began, I collected the salt water from each place and asked the guests to cover their wine glasses with the blue foam plates I had given them for the plague dropping so there were no drunken frogs or such!


4th Plague

There is a big difference of opinion as to the proper translation of this, but I prefer the wild beasts understanding of swarms. So I used some plastic animals I had found that would be indigenous to Egypt, crocodiles, panthers, things like that, and passed them down until we had the whole table full of these wild beasts.

The next plague was lots of fun.....................

 

[Lulav]

Plagues, five, six, and seven

Plague number 5 - the disease on the livestock!

This one was a bit hard to come up with , but while searching the stores for the frogs, I came upon these. things, I don't know what they called them but they look like they come from outer space or are blown up microscopic bacteria or something similar. they have these protrusions all over and when you throw them down , they light up with flashing green, and purple and red and blue lights! They were something, and when I threw these, everyone thought they were cool. Didn't turn any stomachs, but they had fun. I got most of them at the dollar store and some at the drug store.

Here, I didn't know what keywords would work, but I found one of them, I got one of these in yellow, it had two light flashers in it.

http://www.jjcardinal.com/kids-wooly-worm.jpg

The others were similar but round in shape with crazy legs coming off them like malformed man o wars. They were fun!

Now for the 6th plague, again a stumper!

I choose to not get too gross as we were between courses. So I bought some colorful pom poms and tossed them out.

Oh, I forgot to mention, where it says that Moshe took his rod and made one of these happen, I had found a snake made of wood that was sliced so it would move, I could hold it toether like a rod and then touch it to someones plate and throw the plague down.

Number Seven

This one wasn't hard at all. Remember I told you I had been stocking up on the Kosher marshmallows? I used the miniature ones for my hail and an old printing sheet to shake to make my thunder.

it 'hailed' all over the table, and that got eaten up too!

It was funny, by now they knew I would have something and one of the woman was listening to one of the men read about the hail, she said later that she was just wondering what I would do next when he read the part that says, that Moshe reached out his staff to the sky and Adonai send thunder and hail. And just at that moment I shook the aluminum printers sheet and tossed a handful of the marshmallow and she screamed! I thought I would die laughing!

 

[Lulav]

The eighth Plague - Locusts

I had gotten some pictures of swarms of these and showed them on the screen I had set up for intermission. I also found a closeup of one so we all could really see what they looked like. I had found about a half dozen of these in some of the bags of other stuf I had bought and threw these at the appropriate time.

The 9th Plague - Darkness

for this I shut off all the lights that were on around the table and closed the door. My dining room is separate and I was able to do it that way. Only the candles on the table and two small dinning table lights were left one, so we could experience the darkness all around us or outside us but we had light at our Passover table.






:The 10 and final plague. We read about this and I told them that there was no demonstration of this, but reminded them of the lamb that had to be slain in order to keep that plague off us.

 

[Lulav]

We remember the Fish in Egypt..........................

Second course was Talapia. A fish native to Egypt as well as Israel

This I had fillets of which I saute'd very quickly in some butter I made last year with the rind of my Etrog and some fresh dill, I was saving it, bringing forth something from the last feast to this feast. I just sauteed it until it started to brown, there was no coating on it. I served it on a bed of non-tabullah tabullah.

What? Tabbullah means cracked wheat and we can't have that for Pasach and I can't have it ever. So I did it with Quinoa and everyone loved it.

Here's the recipe

2 cups of quinoa, to 4 cups water, cook in steamer for 40-50 minutes, same as you would for rice.
Let this cool and I put in fridge until the next day so it would be fresh
To the cooled quinoa I added,
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
pint of sliced and squeezed out ( seeds) grape tomatoes
3-4 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon of hyssop seasoning with sumac
black pepper and salt to taste.

Juice of one lemon and 1/4 cup olive oil mixed , add to everything else and mix well, let chill to blend about an hour or so

 

[Kris10leigh]

Lulav, you have been so busy! I hope your second seder was as blessed as the first!

 

[Lulav]

Then after reading about the lamb and last plague, drinking the second cup, we washed out hands and said the haMotzi, and listened to Zemer Levav sing Isaiah 53

then making the hillel sandwich, and listening to Marty Goetz sing Lamb of G-d we did Day-ye-nu , a reading, then we had our main meal.

I had been roasting the lamb shanks along with a breast of Turkey from about an hour before everyone arrived until now, about 6 hours, I was hoping they weren't dried out, but they were succulent and the turkey was juicy and perfectly browned! Baruch HaShem!

Lamb roasted with sprigs of Rosemary and lots of garlic in foil so they stayed tender. Go here to see a quick demo

He says it's not as expensive as a whole leg, and you really can't procure one in the states, mine were Kosher and organic and about $11 per two small ones. I did 5

To serve with the lamb I had made a cucumber salad from here
it is great because it includes the cucumbers and onions and parsley. My husband who really doesn't like cukes at all unless they hae been turned into pickles, loved this, and finished up today, the remainder of the leftovers. go figure!

I also made some roasted potatoes, using more of the steamed ones from the day before, and I cut these up, slatthered on some olive oil, lots of chopped garlic and fresh rosemary, and put in a throw away baking pan.

The Turkey was roasted with a Pomegranate glaze I got from Tyler florence here
I served it with a sauce made from cherry preserves and orange marmalade.

Peas, I didn't have enough mint so they only had s&p but were organic so very delicious.

And I couldn't forget the melons they missed so made this and it was soooooooooooooooo good, everyone loved it and I am making this again for sure! soon!

there is just something about that sauce that is indescribable, but so good!

I took one whole honeydew and cut into bite sized pieces, and 1/2 cantaloupe and did the same. In a small saucepan I combined
3 tbls lemon juice, 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup of pear nectar, with 3/4 teas ground cardamom. Bring to a boil, then set aside and let cool. I put it in the fridge and combined it with the fruit just before serving. I topped it with some shredded fresh mint and it was so good, if there hadn't been all the other great dishes at the table I would have eaten just this! You gotta try it.

 

[Lulav]

Lulav, you have been so busy! I hope your second seder was as blessed as the first!

Actually the first one, well, lets just say, I kept the mitzvah dispite all that went on.

The second one is the one I was describing, and it was good, Baruch HaShem! Everything turned out wonderful. and we had a lot of fun and great Seder and discussion. I was totally washed out but totally pleased!

 

[visionary]

Youmade my mouth water, and I wanted to be there. It sound like so much fun. Curious though...

Apricot sponge cake With fresh raspberries

You have a cake recipe with no leaven in it??

 

[Lulav]

I found those at my local store, they are from cinderella bakery, I would give you the ingredients but I threw out the box after the Seder, but they probably used potato starch. "They are non gebrokts so I can eat them as they are gluten free. Shabtai gourmet read this

 

[Hadassah]

awesome menu!

 

[Lulav]

so last night my husband had to stop off at the store on the way home from work, I called him and asked him to look to see if they had any more of the gluten free non gebrokts pasteries from Cinderella bakery left. I only got the smallest bite of the apricot cake and it was really good. So he calls me back and tells me that they still have alot and that they have been reduced to 50% off! Yikes, I told him to get three of the apricot cake and two of the swiss chocolate. I got a freezer you know and this is the only time of year I can probably f;ind these things in the store that I can eat.

So my cleaned out freezer for passover is now almost full again, and I am happy to have found these/

If anyone wants to come over for dessert, I am happy to share though!