Global Passover

Jolene Thym, FOOD WRITER

BITTER HERBS. Unleavened bread. Charoset. Meat. The elements of the traditional Seder dinner that will be served the first night of Passover never change.

Tradition dictates each bite of the meal -- every food on the plate is an invitation to remember and to celebrate a specific moment of history that is shared by Jewish people all over the world.

Still, here in the Bay Area, home to Jews from all over the world, there are questions. Parsley or celery? Dates or apples? Juice or wine? Chicken or lamb? Rice or potatoes? How there could be so many variables in a meal that has been served for 2,000 years is no mystery to local Jews.

"Of course it is different. Everyone does it their way," says Rmy Pessah of Mountain View, a member of Jimena, a San Francisco group that promotes peace by building relationshipsa San Francisco group that promotes peace by building relationships between Jews from countries all over the Middle East and North Africa.

"How you celebrate depends on your history," Pessah says. Pessah's Passover feast will be distinctly Egyptian, reflecting the flavors of the country where she grew up. Pessah will serve barbecued lamb, fresh fava beans, okra soup and chicken with Swiss chard.

Other Bay Area Jews will serve Passover feasts with their own unique twists -- featuring the foods and spices of Yemen, of Iran, of Iraq, of Tunisia, Libya, Russia, Italy and dozens of other countries that have, at some time in history, been home to communities of Jews.

No matter the cuisine, next week kicks off a cooking marathon for many Jews, mainly because the Passover celebration includes so many dietary laws that cooking is a necessity, explains Susan Sasson of Orinda.

"All of the quick foods you would normally eat are out -- you can't have pizza or sandwiches or fast food," she says. "If you don't prepare foods, you get pretty hungry by the end of the week."

Taste of tradition

Although each sect of Judaism -- Sephardic, Mizrahi, Karaite, Ashkenazi -- has different laws, many of those dietary laws are similar. During Passover, Jews are to eat no leavened bread, which means no breads or pastries that have been made with yeast or other leaveners.

Some Jews are not allowed during Passover week to eat anything that has been fermented, which includes wine, vinegar, yogurt, cheese, chocolate, even soy sauce. These, it should be noted, are just a few of the many complex dietary rules that are added to such year-round dietary laws that forbid shellfish, pork, dairy with meat and many other foods and food combinations.

Some of the dietary laws vary wildly from sect to sect. For example, some Jews are allowed to eat rice and dry beans during Passover, some are not.

"I was raised in a family that did not eat rice," Sasson says, "but when I got married, the Rabbi told me that I was to take the laws of my husband, so now I eat rice."

To make sure every one of her children and grandchildren eat well during the festive Passover week, Sasson's mother-in-law, Frances Nouromid, will spend hours chopping, grinding, stewing and roasting. She will make most of the Seder and Passover feast for her four sons and their families, which includes 12 grandchildren. She will also make several other family meals during the week.

"During Passover, there will be no foods from a package or box ... not from the store ... and not even pre-ground spices or salt," Nouromid says. "We will make everything that we use. When I grew up, my mother even made the flour."

Dinners don't need to be complex, but because no bread will be eaten all week, Nouromid will serve rice at every meal, always with a saucy topping or two. Favorites include celery mixed with meat; parsley, lemon and tomato tossed with green beans; and chicken with walnut and plums.

Home cooking

Last week, when we visited Nouromid's Orinda kitchen to secure some of her recipes, Nouromid acknowledged even though Passover means lots of work, she looks forward to it every year.

"I am 73 and I spend most of my time in the kitchen. I come from a time when the tradition is you get married, you cook. I cook for every Shabbat (sabbath.) Everyone comes. This is about the family together."

The Passover feast, she adds, is especially fun. It begins at 5:30 p.m., as family members gather around a table set with a special Seder platter that contains all of the symbolic foods. Additional helpings of each food are set on the table for passing.

The dinner continues for about five hours, during which there are many prayers, readings from the Haggadah, and bites of food that range from bitter morsels of horseradish to sweet spoonfuls of banana-flavored haroset.

"Everyone gets a long green onion that reminds them of the whips the Egyptians used on the Jews when they were slaves," Sasson says. "The children will make sure they give everyone at the table a slap." Sasson's sisters-in-law nod at Sasson's descriptions and laughs.

Memories of spending hours around the Seder table as a child, playing games and enjoying family, are also precious to Doris Keren- Gill of Cupertino, a Mizrahi Jew who grew up in Libya.

"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.

When the onions are soft, add potatoes. Stir and cook until potatoes just begin to soften. Add chicken pieces and stir. Add 1/4 cup water to the pot. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan with a tight lid and cook for 30 minutes with the lid closed.

Serves 6-8.

Per serving: 475 Calories; 35g Fat; 21g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 99mg Cholesterol; 1962mg Sodium.

Rice and Currants Recipe courtesy Frances Nouromid.

2 cups basmati rice, washed and drained 3/4 cup dried currants 1 chicken, stewed and boned 2 teaspoons salt 2 large potatoes, sliced into disks about 1/2 inch thick 1/2 teaspoon powdered saffron 4 tablespoons vegetable oil 1/2 cup water

Bring a medium-sized pot salted water to a rolling boil. Add the rice and boil for 3 minutes. Drain the rice in a colander.

Wash currants and saute them in 1 tablespoon oil for about 2 minutes, or until soft. Set aside.

Heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pot. Add potatoes, arranging them so that they cover the entire bottom of the pan. Salt potatoes and add 1/2 cup of water. Add rice to the pan, not disturbing the potatoes at the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle currants over rice, then place chicken on top of the rice.

Cook the mixture in the pot over medium high heat for about 2 minutes, then cover the pot and turn the heat down to simmer for 25 to 35 minutes, or until rice is perfectly cooked.

To serve, pour 1/4 cup boiling water over 1/2 teaspoon powdered saffron. Allow at least 2 minutes for the spice to steep. Remove 1 cup of the rice from the pan. Pour saffron water over the rice and mix gently. Plate all of the rice, potatoes and chicken, and pour the bright yellow saffron rice on top of the pile. Serve hot.

Serves 4-6.

Per serving: 905 Calories; 49g Fat; 50g Protein; 63g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 226mg Cholesterol; 929mg Sodium.

Maror Recipe courtesy Rmy Pessah.

1 bunch fresh anise (may substitute fresh fennel), chopped 1 small head endive, chopped 1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped 1 head curly lettuce, chopped 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 pickled lemons, diced 1 teaspoon salt

Combine the above ingredients and serve on homemade Matzo during the Passover seder night.

Serves 6-8.

Nutrition could not be accurately calculated.

Pickled Lemons Recipe courtesy Rmy Pessah

4 whole lemons Juice of 6 lemons 1 tablepoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon cayenne Olive or vegetable oil, as needed

Slice lemons into 1-inch slices and put in a pickling jar. Add the juice of 6 lemons, salt and cayenne. Top the jar with oil and close with jar lid and store in the refrigerator several weeks, or until ready to use.

Nutrition could not be accurately calculated.

Homemade Matzo Recipe courtesy Rmy Pessah Note: Matzo should be prepared and put in the oven within 10 minutes to make sure that dough does not rise.

4 1/2 cups Matzo Meal 3/4 cup oil 1 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients together into a dough and knead until smooth. Spread dough on a 12-by-17-inch cookie sheet. If you would like your Matzo to be very thin, spread the dough onto 2 sheets. Cut dough into 2-by-2-inch squares. Bake for 10 minutes.

Makes approximately 2 dozen.

Per serving: 158 Calories; 7g Fat; 2g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 90mg Sodium.

GozWeTome Recipe courtesy Rmy Pessah

1 bunch of green Swiss chard -- use only the leaves, not the stems 5 cloves of garlic 1 boiled chicken, deboned 3 cups chicken broth 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Chop Swiss chard leaves and saute in oil. Note that you will not use all of the swiss chard, but the chard will freeze very well.

Place 1 tablespoon of the swiss chard in 1/2 cup chicken broth and blend using a hand blender.

Saute garlic gently, without burning. Add the blended swiss chard and the remaining chicken broth to the pan. Stir. Add the boiled, deboned chicken and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4-6.

Nutrition could not be accurately calculated.

Stewed Chicken with Walnuts and Plums Recipe courtesy Frances Nouromid.

1/2 chicken or about 2 pounds cut-up chicken 4 cups water 2 cups walnuts 1 cup dried plums 1 whole onion, peeled and quartered Salt and pepper to taste

Place water in a pot with the chicken, bring to a boil and simmer slowly until chicken is fully cooked and falling from the bone. Remove chicken from broth and set aside to cool.

De-fat broth using a gravy separator or by chilling and removing fat from the surface of the broth. You should have about 3 cups of broth.

Bone chicken, making sure to remove all skin and fat. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Puree 2 cups walnuts, 1 cup dried plums and onion in a food processor, until they become a chunky paste. Stir paste into de- fatted broth and cook on low to medium heat, stirring occasionally and making sure not to burn. When sauce begins to get thick, add chicken pieces to the pan. Stir gently. Serve over rice.

Serves 8-10 as a side dish.

Per serving: 337 Calories; 24g Fat; 18g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 60mg Cholesterol; 103mg Sodium.

Hramie (Fish with hot tomato sauce) Recipe courtesy Doris Keren-Gill.

1 pound white fish, cut into 4 pieces 1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce (Del Monte) 4 big garlic cloves 1 tablespoon hot paprika 1 teaspoon caraway, freshly ground 1 teaspoon cumin, freshly ground 1/4 cup of vegetable or canola oil 1 teaspoon salt

In medium-sized pot, heat oil. Add the crushed or minced garlic and gently saute just until it turns light brown. Add the paprika and salt and cover the pan for 1 minute.

Add the tomato sauce and cook for 7 to 12 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Add the fish, cover, and cook for 8 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of water and let it cook, uncovered, for an additional 15 minutes. Add the caraway and cumin stir it gently and cook until the sauce is reduced to half. Be careful not to burn the fish.

Serve warm with matzo during passover, or with bread during the rest of the year.

Serves 4.

Per serving: 318 Calories; 21g Fat; 24g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 68mg Cholesterol; 1236mg Sodium.

You can e-mail food writer Jolene Thym at jthym@angnewspapers.com or call (510) 353-7008.

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