{"id":22880,"date":"2015-08-27T10:21:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T15:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ou.org\/life\/?p=22880"},"modified":"2015-08-27T10:21:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T15:21:12","slug":"judy_bart_kancigor_passover_creative_cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/food\/cooking\/judy_bart_kancigor_passover_creative_cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"Passover – Creative Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Most dishes we think of as \u201cJewish food\u201d are delicious borrowings from whatever country our ancestors happened to find themselves in, but one of the very few foods that Jews actually did invent is matzah, the unleavened cakes the Hebrew slaves ate in their haste to depart Egypt. Today strict rabbinical rules govern every aspect of its production.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur process with our Passover matzah,\u201d explained David Rossi, vice-president of marketing for RAB Food Group, owners of the Manischewitz brand, \u201cfrom the time water touches the flour and gets mixed, then sheeted, made thinner and thinner, to the end of baking in the oven \u2013 can be no longer than 18 minutes. If there is a mechanical failure or some issue or error where the matzah did not get through that run in 18 minutes, then the whole run must be thrown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the company can begin production for Passover, the entire facility must be thoroughly cleaned and inspected \u2013 a procedure that makes my grandmother\u2019s yearly white glove test routine seem like a light dusting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process takes four to seven weeks,\u201d Rossi noted. \u201cAll the belts, all the lines, all the motors, all the ovens are cleaned and kashered<\/i> to meet strict rabbinical standards for Passover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning out hundreds of Passover items, in addition to 10 varieties of matzah is no overnighter. \u201cWe begin making Passover products in September until early March for the following year,\u201d Rossi noted. \u201cBecause the plant is kashered<\/i> at tremendous expense, we produce Passover products until we’ve run all the requirements for the year. Then in March we start making non-Passover products.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Seder we call matzah the \u201cbread of affliction,\u201d but that misses the real point of the holiday. Most of all Passover is the story of freedom<\/i>. In retelling the Passover story, each of us relives the exodus as if we ourselves were there. To focus on what we do without for those eight days is to see the glass half empty.<\/p>\n

Yes, we eat matzah, the poor bread that sustained our ancestors in the desert, but because we were liberated, we are free to use our ingenuity, skill, traditions and collective memory to create a glorious celebration around it.<\/p>\n

Challenge breeds creativity, and imaginative Jewish cooks through the ages, like a million Iron Chefs all working with the same surprise ingredient, have molded, crumbled, whipped, layered, fried, baked, infused and combined matzah and its ground cousins with an astonishing variety of other ingredients to produce a tempting feast. The fact that we base a banquet on the \u201cbread of affliction\u201d illustrates that we have the freedom to do so.<\/p>\n

During the Seder, we eat matzah with haroset, the fruit and nut mixture resembling the mortar the ancient Hebrews used as slaves in Egypt. Ground matzah, known as matzah meal, combines with eggs and oil to produce the feathery soup dumplings every Jewish mama\u2019s cooking is known for: matzah balls.<\/p>\n

Any lingering thoughts on the restrictions of Passover are quickly dispelled by dessert. Matzah ground even finer into matzah cake meal underpins the stunning display to bring a sweet end to our sweet celebration of freedom.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m looking for Passover dessert recipes, I always return to Penny Eisenberg\u2019s classic cookbook “Passover Desserts” (Wiley). Now the book has been updated and revised in CD form, available on amazon as well as through Eisenberg\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With 50 new drawings and photos attached to the recipes, you’ll salivate over Fudgy Nut-Butter Torte; Linzer Tarts; Hazelnut, Pear and Raspberry Torte; Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies; White Chocolate Mousse Cake and Browned Butter Strawberry Tart.<\/p>\n

Some Orthodox communities observe the custom of not eating matzah or matzah meal that has been moistened with water or other liquid (known as gebrokts<\/i>), to avoid the possibility of leavening. A new cookbook from Tamar Ansh, \u201cPesach \u2013 Anything\u2019s Possible!\u201d (Targum Press) offers over 350 non-gebrochts<\/i>, gluten-free and wheat-free recipes with mouth-watering photos and dozens of tips and helpful hints for the holiday.<\/p>\n

Caramelized Onion Chicken, Sweet Potato Apple Tzimmes Kugel, Pepper Short Ribs, Cinnamon Pumpkin Soup, Minted Carrot and Fennel Salad, White Coconut Chiffon Cake \u2013 too bad Passover lasts only eight days! Chag sameach!<\/p>\n

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Judy Bart Kancigor<\/b> is the author of \u201cCooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family\u201d and can be found on the web at www.cookingjewish.com. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most dishes we think of as \u201cJewish food\u201d are delicious borrowings from whatever country our ancestors happened to find themselves in, but one of the very few foods that Jews actually did invent is matzah, the unleavened cakes the Hebrew slaves ate in their haste to depart Egypt. Today strict rabbinical rules govern every aspect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":42888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cooking","category-pesach"],"yoast_head":"\nPassover - Creative Cooking - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Imaginative cooks through the ages have combined matzah & its ground cousins with an astonishing variety of other ingredients to produce a tempting feast\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/food\/cooking\/judy_bart_kancigor_passover_creative_cooking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Passover - 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