Many thanks to the gracious and knowledgeable people I interviewed, the daring friends who tasted my recipe trials, and to everyone who gave me feedback.
Tag Archives: Passover
New food writing: “Passover, with a strictly biblical flavor”
Free Range on Food, with yours truly

The table is set for an online chat about food and maybe even my own recipes and writing on Wednesday, April 9. Pictured here are Karaite-style matzah and a green take on maror.
Friends,
I’m pleased to announce that on Wednesday, April 9, I’ll be a guest on the Free Range on Food chat with The Washington Post. This weekly online Q & A features WaPo food editors and staff writers, as well as the occasional freelancer like myself. An article I wrote about Passover will appear in the newspaper that same day. Readers can tune into the chat from noon to about 1 to ask about food, drink, and maybe even my piece.
Here’s the site to bookmark: http://live.washingtonpost.com/free-range-4-9-2014.html. And here’s what you’ll see when you go there before the chat:
Joe Yonan is editor of the Food section; joining us today are deputy editor Bonnie Benwick, staff writer Tim Carman, Spirits columnist Carrie Allan, Smoke Signals columnist Jim Shahin and Beer columnist Greg Kitsock. Guests: Washington Baker Teeny Lamothe, author of “Teeny’s Tour of Pie: A Cookbook”; freelance writer Rhea Yablon Kennedy. [<—Yep, that’s me right there, just a few phrases removed from the editors of the Food section]
Check out past Free Range sessions if you’re curious about what they look like. See you there Wednesday at noon!
Sepharaeli Charoset
For a Passover seder last week, I was charged with bringing the charoset. I decided to make a batch in the Sephardi style with Israeli influences to compliment the traditional Ashkenazi version I’ve made and eaten since I was a kid.
Charoset is one of the symbolic foods on the seder plate. Whatever your ethnic take on it, it represents the mortar that enslaved Israelites slathered on bricks under the Egyptian sun.
My Middle Eastern melange of dried fruits, nuts, orange zest, and spices received about 100 times as many comments as the familiar Old World mixture of apples and nuts. It also drew an emphatic email request for the recipe, comparing the sweet paste to a certain highly addictive drug. Here is what I wrote up–stat–for the fellow seder guest.
So, just in time for Easter, I figured I would post it here. We still have a few days of Passover left (it ends at sundown on Tuesday, April 2) and it’s never too early to plan your fix for next year. (Recipe after the jump) Continue reading
Filed under Jewish community
Sprout your own karpas
The Jewish sustainability organization Hazon put out a great post earlier this month. It’s called 10 Ways to Make Your Passover More Sustainable. I think my favorite is the idea of sprouting your own karpas, the leafy greens that hold a symbolic place at the seder table (#7). Using a “pascal yam” in place of a shank bone (#9) is a close second. Even though Passover is just about upon us (eliminating the option of #2: “Plan ahead,” by the time you read this), I couldn’t resist posting about it.
Check out the list, and feel free to leave a comment about making your Passover seder — or any dinner party — more positive for the environment, people, and the economy.
Filed under Events, Jewish community, Sustainability