No, seriously, what's different about tonight?

April 7, 2009 9:23 AM

SederFilter: I'm having my first Passover Seder and I asked guests to bring food to share. They asked me what they ought to bring. So, what are your favorite passover-appropriate recipes?

I'm not religious, but was raised Jewish, and thought it would be fun to have a Seder with my (twenty-something) friends (gentile and otherwise) where we can turn it into the red-wine-drinking game that I've always thought the holiday was intended as.

So what should I ask my friends to make and bring? Recipes for foods actual crucial to the Seder are welcome, but I'll be hitting up my mother for those. What else? I'd like to keep it kosher-for-passover, but don't really care about actual kosher-ness.

posted by zazerr to food & drink (17 comments total)

How about egg dishes? They're topical and kosher for passover. Just avoid the use of the five forbidden grains: wheat, oats, barely, spelt, and rye.
posted by Electrius at 9:36 AM on April 7

I made some orange chocolate macaroons for Wednesday night's first Seder.

14oz of sweetened coconut
Zest of one orange - finely chopped
6oz chocolate - chopped (I used bitter sweet, but that's just a preference)
1 Cup sugar
3 egg whites

Pre-heat your oven to 325F
In a large bowl, combine the coconut and orange zest.
Toss in the bowl with your hands until fully incorporated.
Then add the sugar and chocolate, and mix around until fully incorporated.
When done, add the egg whites and continue to mix until full incorporated.
With a one inch ice cream scoop (or spoon) pack the mixture into tight balls, and place on prepared cookie sheet with parchment (or wax) paper.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

It smells glorious.
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 9:43 AM on April 7 [3 favorites has favorites]

Any flourless chocolate cake is perfect for passover. Epicurious has one with almonds and orange that is fantastic.

In your position, I'd do a "charosets of the world", asking people to bring different charosets to see what you like. The standard Ashkenazi one is apples and nuts and cinnamon and wine, Sephardic ones tend to use apricots, though I'm not sure what's standard. There are lots of recipes. Find 5 interesting and different ones and ask people to make them.
posted by jeather at 9:59 AM on April 7

It's not a recipe, but don't forget Passover Coke for those who don't want wine.
posted by TedW at 10:11 AM on April 7

Spelt is a no-no? But they make spelt matzah!

Anyway, there's got to be a potato kugel.
posted by amro at 10:22 AM on April 7

Potato kugel recipe I found online:

Ingredients: 8 medium potatoes
2 onions
6 eggs
1/2 cup oil
4 Tbsp. matzo meal
1 heaping Tbsp. salt
1/2-1 tsp. pepper

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit (200° Celcius).
2. In a large bowl, mix eggs, oil, flour, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Coarsely grate the potatoes and onion by hand or food processor. Let stand 3-5 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid. Add grated potatoes to the egg-matzo meal mixture. Mix by hand only until smooth.
4. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
5. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour or until golden brown on top and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
posted by amro at 10:23 AM on April 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

Matzoh kugel.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:29 AM on April 7

Sorbet
posted by watercarrier at 11:49 AM on April 7

You can use those five grains, you just can't allow them to rise.
posted by j1950 at 12:18 PM on April 7

Matzoh Lasagna!! So tasty - a hit at the seder I attended.
posted by BundleOfHers at 12:19 PM on April 7

(c)haroset
posted by pinto at 12:58 PM on April 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

Chopped liver

Tsimmes

Brisket
posted by jillsy_sloper at 1:20 PM on April 7

Gefilte Fish
posted by caddis at 2:04 PM on April 7

Wait, nobody mentioned Matzo Ball Soup?
posted by caddis at 2:07 PM on April 7

Famous 4th Street Deli Passover Sponge Cake
posted by watercarrier at 2:39 PM on April 7

Vegetarian Chopped Liver with walnuts and lentils is amazing if you dont eat liver.
http://tinyurl.com/cs7czs

Just in general....The New York Times Passover Cookbook is the best....its so good that my grandmother used it...and she could cook! This is my first passover at my own house and so far everything I have made from this book is really good, especially Barry Wine's Tsimmis Terrine (time consuming).
posted by bdoop21 at 7:32 PM on April 7

Matzo crack.
posted by wyzewoman at 1:43 PM on April 8