Next year in Jerusalem

[rachelmanija]

Improvised from limited materials, scattered and separated, in a time of plague, living under an evil pharaoh, deciding whether to go with the word or the spirit of the law: this is going to be the most Jewish Passover ever.

I'm doing mine myself for the first time, over Zoom with the friends whose home I would normally be at. I'm not very observant, so I am not being strict AT ALL. Here's my plans and thoughts - please feel free to make suggestions.

I've emailed a neighbor to see if she can give me a bottle of wine, as I only have whiskey, beer, and sake.

I do not have matzo. I'm planning to make my own. In 18 minutes, just to see how that works out.

I have chicken broth and vegetables, but only AP and bread flour. I have eggs and also noodles. Should I attempt to make matzo balls from flour, or do noodles instead? (I think I'd lose my mind making enough matzo to grind into flour, especially as I have neither a food processor nor a mortar.)

I have apples and pistachios, from which I plan to make charoset.

I think I have horseradish sauce somewhere in the fridge. If I don't, what's a good substitute? I have fresh garlic, lots of fresh herbs, and powdered spices.

I have eggs. Has anyone ever tried roasting rather than boiling them?

I have a confit duck leg that I'm going to use for both my main dish and the shank bone. Or I could roast a carrot for the shank bone.

I have parsley and many other herbs.

Please feel free to make suggestions in comments. I'd also love to hear your plans and thoughts on your own Passovers!

ETA: Neighbor is buying me wine (she's hitting Trader Joe's tomorrow morning anyway) and is also leaving me a jar of homemade chicken stock she made yesterday!

Comments

[naomikritzer]

I hope you saw the screenshot making the rounds of the person on FB saying, basically, "the most meaningful Seder you could possibly do this year is the one pieced together from what you had." I also liked this person's take: "I'm just putting it out there that while Seder plates are beautiful, they're just plates. The symbolic foods that go on them are symbolic. Anything that symbolizes sacrifice, sweetness, bitterness, renewel, freedom will work. If you want to do a Seder, you have the stuff you need"

[rachelmanija]

No! Link me if you find it.

[naomikritzer]

https://twitter.com/Dr_Ophelian/status/1247386646317633536

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! Quoting for posterity:

Point: if you're not eating matzah next week, you're not keeping kosher for passover.

Counterpoint: actually, the principle of pikuach nefesh, the saving of a life, means that it's acceptable to eat chametz this week to avoid going to the grocery store.

SUPERPOINT: ACTUALLY, anything that you scrounge together from odds and ends while huddled fearfully in your home, consumed by the dread knowledge that remaining indoors is the only way to prevent plague from wreaking death in your community, is about a MILLION TIMES MORE KOSHER FOR PASSOVER THAN ANYTHING YOU'VE EVER EATEN IN YOUR WHOLE-ASS LIFE.

Stay safe, friends. Chag sameach. May the Angel of Death pass over all of our houses.

[rydra_wong]

https://findingfeather.tumblr.com/post/614786438277578752/props-for-excellently-nuanced-use-of

For a fine further exchange in comments.

[rachelmanija]

canonically, yes.

LOLOLOLOL.

[naomikritzer]

Meanwhile, after a lot of hilarity, my family even has enough gefilte fish? I would offer you a canister of matzoh meal if you were local to me, I wound up with an extra (one was extracted from the back of my cabinet.)

If you decide to make something like matzoh balls but with flour, look up recipes for dumplings, don't just sub flour, that's guaranteed to be a disaster.

[havocthecat]

This is true, as someone who has made both dumplings and matzo balls. Dumplings are probably easier, tbh.

[rachelmanija]

Naomi, I hope you're appreciating that we are right now living your short story about a food blogger in a pandemic, live and on the internet.

[naomikritzer]

I mean "appreciating" isn't exactly the right word for it but, uh, yeah.

[rachelmanija]

You were the most prescient!

Soon we will be making mayonnaise cookies and trapping rabbits.

[carbonel]

I've recommended it to a number of people recently.

Also, I made a batch of chicken coconut curry soup on Saturday, which meant opening a can of coconut milk for literally the first time in my life, and all I could think of as I did so was the dessert at the end of the story.

The soup turned out really well, though after the first bowl, I added a lot more lime juice, some hot oil, and a bit of sugar, and that improved it. Also, I added about twice the curry the recipe called for. I feel much more confident about fiddling with cooked items like soup than I do recipes for baked items.

[rymenhild]

I read that story this week and thought, wow, it was right about literally everything. I mean, well done on describing humanity. It was oddly very comforting. Thank you.

[rosefox]

It was the first piece of fiction I read after Shit Went Down. I found it very comforting and sent it to my mother, who today put dried cranberries in her charoset because it was what she had.

[naomikritzer]

Also, you should read the replies and responses in this thread, it's AMAZING.

https://twitter.com/JustSayXtian/status/1247014171364839425

[rachelmanija]

I LOVE this.

saintkendall
What is the vacuum cleaner in the doorway meant to symbolize?

justsayxtian
While we are no longer slaves, we are not yet perfectly free. While even one person wants for justice, we are still in the narrow places. The vacuum cleaner is with us to symbolize that there is still work to do.

saintkendall
UPDATE: my parents have just informed me that it's not symbolic, it was just to keep the cats from escaping. The open door was the symbolic part