Pesach Same'ach! Let's Celebrate with Coffee & Wine Braised Beef-less Brisket with Vegetables & My Very Favorite Charoset Recipe

Using a new media editing program - so please excuse the crappy photography.

Passover starts tonight. I could write a whole book about why I love Passover. All my good memories and how it combines food and loved ones. I could try to describe the warm glow I get in my heart when I look out over a table of friends drinking Cherry Manischewitz mixed with Kosher Coke and how sad I am that we aren't going to be able to host our annual Secular Sedar this year. We have about 2 weeks left in Norfolk, VA - the city where I met my husband and found an unexpected home. It would have meant a lot to me to make it work but it just won't... BUT I can share with you some of my very favorite recipes and what I might have served if the world had spun a little differently.

Every year I make a 2 big pots of Matzah Ball Soup for our Sedar. You might have seen it on the Peta2 blog before. Even if you're not celebrating Moses freeing the slaves - you should make a pot because it's so good. I plan on making a big pot as soon as we move into our new place in Brooklyn just to make the place a bit more like home.

If you are one of the lucky ones sitting down to a sedar tonight, I hope you take a shot at that soup and if you need any suggestions for your compassionate sedar plate you can click here. Last year, I posted a Sweet Potato Kugel recipe that was an adaptation of a not so vegan Bubbie recipe that I personally love because let's face it - sweet potatoes are awesome. But this year, I'll also share 2 other recipes that are actually adaptions of recipes I found in Real Simple magazine. The charoset recipe below is one of those and is a bit more classy and special than just going with apple sauce. Plus if you have any leftover - it makes for a great breakfast.

You might remember awhile ago when I talked about how Italian gals are taught the importance of a good cutlet... I think if you're trying to find a Jewish equivalent it would be a brisket so tender it melts. Trying to make a vegan version of that can be a bit tricky because mock meat can melt pretty much on it's own. These beef-less brisket bites are very tender without getting spongy and end up having an extremely unique flavor that is not quite like a BBQ sauce or like a mole... but something different and really delicious.

Now I have to say that Gardien isn't Kosher or least certified so I can't tell you that this brisket meets all your Kosher for passover needs. In fact, as you probably have figured out from the fact my mom's Sicilian and I married a nice Irish boy... I'm not a stickler for keeping Kosher but I love my Jewish heritage nonetheless and have found a place for us.

On that note - Enjoy some beef-less brisket & Pesach out my friends! XO

By Popular Demand - Our Pinch of Chutzpah Matzo Ball Soup

Photo Credit : Sarah Posey

So the past 4 springs Dan and I have hosted some of the best Secular Passover Potluck Seders in the fine state of Virgina. We live in Peta-ville. . . also known as Norfolk - The Headquarters for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. . . where we're all mostly transplants from everywhere really. . .  and maybe that is why we all have grown so close. You find yourself within walking distance of 5 or 6 people who share a lot of your view of the world - your ethical compass and understand your dedication to helping those who can't help themselves. . . you find a family - a Mishpocha -  in this home away from home.

This year's Seder was particularly momentous for us because it was going to be the last one we would host in our first apartment in the city where we met and fell in love and of course - our first as a married couple. Next year - we will be living in Los Angeles and have new friends to invite to our home and we won't all be walking distance from each other anymore and some people won't be making the move and well things will change. . . it's hard to not be nostalgic. . . while also being excited for the step.

This year we've had several people write in asking for the Matzo Ball Soup Recipe. . . we get requests every year. . . but maybe it was the number of emails or maybe it was because I know next year - we won't all be together anymore. . . But this seems to be the right time to go public with this little jewel from my box of tricks.

• 1 Cup of Matzo Meal 
• 1/2 Cup of Nutritional Yeast 
• 3/4 Teaspoon Braggs
• 3/4 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Pepper ( The big chunks are key for texture )
• 1 Package of Firm Silken Tofu 
• 1 Half of a Large Red Onion 
• 9 Cups of  Better Than Bouillon - Organic Vegetable Broth (you can also use Faux Chicken Broth - this is just less salty - follow directions on the label on amount of water)  
• 2 Tablespoons White Wine
• 1/2 Cup of Olive Oil 
• 3 Carrots  ( sliced like coins )
• 1/4 Teaspoon Celery Seed 
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley ( chopped )
• 1 Teaspoon Fresh Dill ( chopped )
• 2 Pinches of Onion Powder

Blend the Tofu, 1 Tablespoon of Veg Broth and Oil  in a food processor. In a bowl mix Matzo Meal, Nutritional Yeast, Braggs and Pepper.

Then combine the two mixes in the bowl - till everything is moist. Cover the bowl and put in the fridge over night. You can visit your baby matzo throughout the night and give it a good mix with a spoon a few times. . . but always put it back in the fridge.

It will take about an hour to cook the Matzo Balls. . . So about an hour and half to two hours before you want to serve your soup - fill your pot with the rest of the Veg Broth, White Wine, Carrots, Red Onions, Celery Seed, Parsley, Dill and Onion powder and bring to a boil.

Put some parchment paper in a casserole dish. Remove the Matzo Mix from the fridge. Form VERY tightly packed balls - about the size of a melon ball - and place them on the parchment paper so they don't touch. Then drop in the boiling soup one at a time. Give yourself time - so you don't need to rush. After they are all in there - put the lid on and leave it on for around a half hour. Don't lift the lid. . . I know you will want to. . . but it's OK. . . give them time. . . sometimes you just have to let things do their thing. . . have trust.

After that half hour - lift the lid and watch your Matzo Balls rise to the top.

Now you're ready to Nosh All Night! 

The Betty Crocker Project

I recently saw the movie Julie & Julia - being an armchair chef myself - it was actually surprising it had taken me so long to see a movie about a book about Julia Childs and a normal person finding her way through a classic cookbook in a normal kitchen. . . I love food - movies - books - eating. I was charmed at first. I mean here was a devoted vintage clothing wearing amateur foodie - who wore pearls in the kitchen ( one of my own personal dreams - though my dream pearls would be fake ). I admit I was charmed by finding someone so like myself in so many ways. . . but as you can imagine - she lost me at the Lobster Killer scene. . . and I never really bounced back. But that didn't stop me from picking up her new book Cleaving at the secondhand book store for $1 this weekend. It is all about her love of meat and butchery and how she ruins her marriage by being selfish. I'm 10 pages in. Needless to say -  she has lost her "charm" but I will read it. You can't just fill your life with things you relate to and like. That isn't healthy.

But that's a tangent for another day.

SEE - The Lobster Killer scene planted a little seed in my brain. I kept waiting for her to have a change of heart and save them . . . but she never did. . . and that is just not OK.

THERE NEEDS TO BE A HUMANE ALTERNATIVE TO LOBSTER KILLER

Yes - After years of meeting and knowing literally 1,000s of vegans from all over the world and working at the largest animal advocacy agencies on the planet - I can say with complete confidence - that no one in the world loves food the way a vegan does. We think it about food constantly - we read labels with a Christmas Morning eagerness - searching for those deal breaker words - Whey, Egg Whites, Skim Milk Protein, Casein and sit around talking about food like the gals in Sex in The City talk about orgasms. We send emails to all our friends and family telling them about new products to buy and use with a loyalty and eagerness that can only be compared to Beatle Mania. When I pitched to my dashing husband that we should cook our way through The Joy of Cooking ( considered by many universal eaters to be the bible of cooking) - making every recipe vegan - I might have teared up a little with his overwhelming eagerness to eat my experiments and maybe try out a few himself. He is the best thing to ever happen to me.

He patiently drove me to every secondhand book store in town to find it. See, I had a copy once. My mother had given it to me on my 16th birthday. I think it has taken me 18 years to realize that this is how Sicilian mothers usher their daughters into womanhood. . . making sure they have the skills and resources to feed others. I may have lost it in a roommate divide once or maybe a moving purge. I never used it much and until last week - didn't miss it much. After 4 stores, we both found ourselves wishing I had been more sentimental.

We gave in and went to Barnes and Noble. . . and that's when it happened. . . We looked through The Joy of Cooking. After seeing multiple recipes for "Liver Mousse" and "Lamb Shoulders" - Seriously people out there eat that - apparently - I found myself drawn to a bright red binder decorated like some Bavarian gingerbread. It was the reprinting of the original 1950s edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. It was laminated. This book that had been reprinted for someone like me - in saddle-shoes and thick black rimmed glasses. . . had been sealed up so I guess less ethical versions of myself wouldn't steal pages from it. After some debate over if we would really feel any "Joy" eating vegan "Oyster Cakes" and what could possibly be inside this MARVELOUS cookbook that had been reprinted just for us - as well as the Top Chef cookbooks and various other amazing journeys through the art of mastering food art book things. . . you know the ones. . . we agreed on The Betty Crocker Cookbook . . . it is in a binder so we can add pages, large margins to write in and a wide variety of recipes to make vegan over this next year. Going off nothing besides my vast knowledge of Better Housekeeping circa 1950s - we decided to go for the one that we could look though and we suspected had more than just Pork Chops and Meatloafs.

AND THE BETTY CROCKER PROJECT WAS BORN. 

For as long as it takes - Dan & I will be veganizing every recipe in The Betty Crocker Cookbook and sharing our tips and secrets with you - our lurking readers who never officially "follow" for whatever reason. We have been searching for a project we could share but have struggled coming up with something we could prioritize with the Los Angeles Exodus and all these weddings and babies. . . but we have always said we can make ANYTHING Vegan and Fat . . . now we are putting this claim to the test! Thank you Lobster Killer for inspiring a project that I suspect you would hate. . .

What will not be attending Dan & Annie's 4th Annual Secular Passover Seder Potluck :

1. Traditional Hebrew Readings and Prayers

2. Mass Bread Burnings

3. Jewverine can't make it.

4. Neither can The Hebrew Hammer

5. I guess these guys won't be able to make it till 2080 :

OX

Matzah Wars

Re-posted from : Frost Street

PS - Don't forget to read labels to make sure your Matzah is Vegan & Kosher for Passover

Matzah may be the least palatable food ever devised by man. But for a week, we must eat it, or tempt the wrath of God. So I've taken it upon myself to find the least offensive matzah on the market today. I've collected all the varieties of matzah I could find in various supermarkets (21 total) and conducted a taste test to identify the tastiest matzah of them all. (That's Frost Street: Eating all the crap so you don't have to). Before getting into the tasting notes, I should explain the categories of matzah listed below. If you lack patience for all this detail, you can skip right to my recommendations.

Traditional Matzah: This is your garden-variety bread of haste, made from special Passover wheat flour and water (more on what makes the flour special in a second). Sometimes egg is added for flavor and body. The point is that these matzahs are perfectly suitable for the Passover table, and are mass produced so as to be widely available.

Shmura Matzah: This is the pascal equivalent of artisinal bread. The word "shmura" means "watched", a reference to the requirement that a rabbi watch every stage of production, from the harvesting of the wheat, through its threshing and milling, on to mixing and baking, to ensure that no water is introduced before its proper time. Shmura matzah is made in small batches, often of whole grain flour, and typically in hand-formed round wafers (distinguishable from the square shape of mass-produced varieties). Most shmura matzah is made in areas with large Jewish populations, and sold to the local community (the most notable exception being shmura matza made in Israel for sale in the United States). I have included in my tasting only one example of shmura matzah, found in a grocery store.

Designer Matzah: Much of the matzah on the market today is not kosher for Passover. Nine of the 21 matzahs I found fell into this category (six of them carrying the Manischewitz name). These matzahs usually contain added flavors -- some of them are even flavored with malt, a definite Passover no-no due to the fermentation taboo. No observant Jew may eat these products during Passover, and no rational creature would eat them if not compelled by religion or starvation to do so. Their raison d'être escapes me, but my guess is that there are many Jews who like to obey religious imperatives in spirit rather than in letter, so I have evaluated them all the same.

Traditional Matzah

Streit's This is the grand old matzah of the Lower East Side, manufactured here by five generations of the Streit family for almost a century. Light and neutral in flavor, not too brittle nor too grainy in texture, this is the benchmark against which I'll judge all the other traditional matzahs.

Manischewitz Sodium Free Manischewitz (pronounced man-uh-SHEV-its) is the Wonder Bread of matzah. You can find it just about anywhere matzah is sold. I was unable to find a kosher-for-Passover Manischewitz matzah that had any sodium; presumably this is the standard product. It is a bit darker than Streit's, with a more burnt, carbony flavor. Some may find this to be a welcome alternative to the utter blandness of other matzahs; I do not. There is also a faint musty aftertaste to the Manischewitz; this may be a result of improper storage, but improper storage may be an inevitable consequence of Manischewitz's massive volume. This comes in a bigger box (16 oz. instead of 10 oz. for most other matzahs).