Global Passover

"The dinners were so long that we would play around the table. The adults would drink the wine and get sleepy. Sometimes it would be 2 a.m. and most of the family at the dinner would be asleep on the carpet before we were done!"

Like Pessah, Keren-Gill's meal will include a leg of lamb barbecued on charcoal, just as it was cooked in Biblical times. But her homemade haroset is so spicy that it needs to be diluted with water before it is eaten.

"It takes a long, long time to crush all of the apples, dates and nuts together. Then we add some cinnamon and some other spices. We roll it into balls."

Other dishes include mafroom, potatoes stuffed with meat, then battered, fried, and baked in tomato sauce; hramie, fish cooked in spicy hot tomato sauce; and tirshe, pumpkin cooked with Indian spices and paprika.

Keren-Gill says she does not always make all of the traditional Passover dishes herself.

"I like to simplify things. I won't make my own haroset this year. It just takes a very long time," she says. "For me, and for a lot of Jews, Passover doesn't need to be about making every detail perfect. For us, it is something we do to preserve our identity. It is a chance to observe and to celebrate."

There is, however, one standard Passover menu item Keren-Gill intends to not only serve -- but to improve upon.

"I really do not like gelfite fish," she says. "I have tried so many different kinds and I just don't like it. This year I'm going to try to make my own."

Not-so-delicious foods, it turns out, are an important part of the Passover traditions, says Annie Liberman of Palo Alto.

"I remember the hard, hard matzo we had in Tunisia. It was so hard that it would crack your teeth. My mother had to pound it into little pieces for us to be able to eat it."

Liberman, a Sephardic Jew who moved to France when she was a teenager, still remembers the first time she tried store-bought Matzo. "It was so thin and crisp. It's delicious. That's what we eat now."

Even though Liberman and her family observe Passover, she says there is little about her meal that is traditional.

"I think this is because my mother died when I was 16, and just before she died, we were forced to move to France. I never really learned how to cook Tunisian. I think of myself as a French cook."

This year, Liberman will serve the traditional Seder foods plus braised fresh brisket flavored with onions and paprika. She may also serve a couscous salad made with garlic, olive oil, lemon, parsley, tarragon and vegetables in season.

But, she says, if someone else would do the cooking, she would love to serve some msokie, a Tunisian stew made with onion, eggplant, cardoon, celery, spinach, tomatoes, sausage and matzo.

Potato and Chicken Recipe courtesy Frances Nouromid.

1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 large onions, chopped 2 pounds boned chicken 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 2 tablespoons kosher salt

Toss the chopped onions in the vegetable oil in a large frying pan. Add turmeric. Cook onions over medium heat for about 30 minutes, until they are very soft and golden in color. The onions should not become brown.