Let's Play Passover

My family is a strange mix of Catholic, Jewish, Atheist, and some form of Protestant. This Easter we decided to abandon the Jesus worship and hit up the Old Testament with a good old-fashioned Seder.

Don't get me wrong; I love a good Cadbury egg as much as the next Anglican (I still packed these away with gusto, never fear). But every now and then we all appreciate the guttural tones of Hebrew chanting before we dive into strange dishes like Gefilte fish and potato kugel.

The question on every Gentile's mind: what is Gefilte Fish?

I embrace my ignorance on this front and gladly pass this jar to my neighbor. Does anyone really know the answer? Does anyone really want to know the answer? Does anyone want to just, you know, toss it casually into the dumpster?

Why, yes. Yes I do. And what the hey is jellied broth?
Don't tell me; it was a hypothetical-ish question.

I'm going to focus on my sister's deeeeelighful rendition of "Off the Broiler's" Potato Kugel, since it was not only tasty but completely without balled-up fish of any kind. So put on your pray shawls and adjust your yamulke; it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

This little lady has been trying to overthrow my position as the culinary sister, so maybe you can help me out by letting her know it's never going to happen. Or maybe I should just throw her one of these and assume she'll back off:

What a mug! She sure is fearsome in her fleece coat with lots of drool hanging down in ropes from her over-sized yapper.

The full recipe from the Broiler folks can be found here, and this is what you'll need:

1/2 cup Parsley Leaves
4 medium yellow onions
1/2 cup Schmaltz (mmm chicken fat; we just used butter)
7 Eggs
2 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 cup Carrots, peeled and shredded
4 lbs yukon gold potatoes
2/3 cup Matzo Meal
1/2 tsp baking powder

Put the slicing blade on the food processor and process 3 of the onions. Caramelize them over medium heat using half of the butter.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a large bowl.

Mince the parsley in the food processor with the regular blade. Add one of the onions and pulse until thoroughly demolished. Add this to the eggs and mix.


Rinse, scrub, and quarter your potatoes. Place them in a bowl of cold water until the onions are caramelized so they do not brown.

Shred the carrots and add them to the egg mixture, along with your Matzo crumbs, baking powder, salt and pepper.

 If the onions are close to being all brown and lovely, you can go ahead and shred the potatoes. Please use the Cuisinart for this, unless you have some weird need to hate life by the end of this Seder.

See how happy she is using that wonderful machine? Don't you want to be that ecstatic about potatoes? Now, mix everything together!

Grease up a 13'x9' pan and add some butter, just for the heck of it:

Express skepticism:

"That's not how my grandmother made it."
Now you can bake this puppy at 375 for about 60-90 minutes, depending on your oven and how brown you want it. 

The entire menu was composed of lamb roast, matzoh ball soup, lots and lots of wine, almond torte, roasted cauliflower and beans, and this lovely kugel. And there I was thinking Jewish food was a hair shy of tasty!
*Nom*