Passover Lunches 2011

Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach) is every foodie's nightmare and paradise. Celebrating the exodus of the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt, this holiday comes with biblical restrictions on food, namely, the elimination of all wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye from a Jew's possession and diet (with the sole exception of matzot, which is required eating).

Beyond these 5 species comes a plethora of other forbidden foods. Some are cultural (by way of Ashkenazic tradition) and some are the result of food additives derived from the biblically and culturally prohibited foods. The latter never ceases to impress upon me the sinister lack of transparency in the processed food market. When dried fruit, frozen fish fillets, and butter are not kosher for Passover, you really have to wonder.

In any case, I did a lot of cooking during Pesach, seeing as how I could use nothing I'd prepared and frozen before Passover in my non-Passover-ready kitchen. Unfortunately, there was much hectic haste over the holiday, so these are the only foods that I photographed:

Spicy Southwestern Quinoa Salad

Homemade Trail Mix

Cheese Latkes

A Birthday Tea

The Gastronomist Economist's Fabulous Pink Lady Cake

This past Saturday was the Gastronomist Economist's birthday, and we celebrated on Sunday with an afternoon tea. The GE made her own cake, which was a fabulous confection featuring cake layers made with strawberry puree swathed in rich buttercream.

Planning the tea party was a lot of fun in itself. Tea party food should be individualized, tidy, and require no utensils. Bonus points for bento-esque cuteness. Keeping these principles in mind, the GE and I settled on the following menu:

Honey Almond Granola

Why buy cereal when you can make a tastier, cheaper, heartier version at home? This batch has dried blueberries, cherries, and cranberries in addition to pumpkin seeds, almonds, and 7-grain rolled flakes.

Pasta with Lentils

Still working on the Feburary backlog.

Quick, easy recipe from Mark Bittman. Basically, cook brown lentils with onions, carrots, and tomatoes and toss with pasta.

Sailor Jacks

I like baking a large batch of muffins, and freezing them so I can pack one each day for a snack at work. This particular muffin recipe is courtesy of King Arthur's Whole Grain Baking and is supposed to be a variation of an Oregon speciality called a Sailor Jack.

I skipped the lemon glaze I was supposed to drizzle on the bottoms of these muffins, but they were sweet enough with a deep molasses flavor punctuated by raisins. 

Mah Poh Tofu + Steamed Broccolini

Although I made this for dinner back in Feburary, I just made it again for Shabbat dinner last week. So.

This recipe comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Bittman swaps crisply browned tempeh crumbles for the traditional pork. The dish is saucy, savory, and perfectly complemented by steamed brown jasmine rice and a simply steamed green. Below is the broccolini that came in my farm box back in February; last week I had baby bok choy.

Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake: Daring Bakers March 2011 Challenge

 

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.