Read Online Around the Passover Table by Jayne Cohen - Free Book Online Page A

softened. Add the garlic and the artichokes, stir to coat well with the oil, and sauté over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add 1 cup of the broth and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, cover the pan, and sweat the vegetables over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover the pan, raise the heat to high, and boil the pan liquid until it is nearly evaporated. Add 6 cups broth, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender.
    LET the mixture cool slightly. Working in batches, puree about half of the vegetables together with the lemon zest, parsley, dill, and mint in a food processor or blender under fairly smooth.
    RETURN the puree to the pan. If desired, thin the soup with the remaining broth.
    MAKE the matzoh balls: combine the yolks with the onion, chives, dill, 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste, and beat very well until thickened. In a separate bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Gently fold the whites into the yolk mixture until well combined. Sprinkle with the matzoh meal and gently mix until completely blended in. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes.
    BRING a large, wide lidded saucepan of well-salted water to a boil. Lightly form the mixture into walnut-size balls. (A light touch is essential here—perfectly formed, compact little balls will result in dense, heavier matzoh balls.) Place the balls on a platter.
    SLIDE the balls one by one into the water. Avoid crowding the pot—if necessary, cook the matzoh balls in two batches. Cover the pot tightly and reduce the temperature to a slow boil. Cook without removing the cover for 20 minutes. (They need the steam to fluff up properly, and removing the cover will dissipate some of the steam, causing deflation.)
    REMOVE the balls with a skimmer or a slotted spoon, draining off excess water. Place the balls in the soup or set aside, covered with a little broth, until you are ready to use them.
    TO serve the soup: if the matzoh balls need warming, add them to the soup. Reheat the soup gently and adjust seasonings, adding more salt, pepper, or lemon juice as needed.
    PLACE two matzoh balls in each shallow bowl, and ladle the hot soup over them. Garnish with additional fresh herbs and serve at once.

    Smoked Whitefish Gefilte Fish with Lemon-Horseradish Sauce
    yield: About 24 fish dumplings
    This unusual recipe, combining smoked whitefish with a mild fillet like flounder, is from a seder meal I devised for Bon Appétit magazine. It’s much quicker to prepare than traditional gefilte fish because the delicate dumplings are steamed between cabbage leaves to keep them moist, not poached in fish broth. Leftovers can be refrigerated for a few days.
    A reader who prepared the recipe wrote: “I made these for Passover for my husband’s family. They were so delicious that I made them for my family for Easter Sunday! The fishcakes are light and tasty and the horseradish sauce is to die for! I very rarely give 4 forks to a recipe but this one really deserves it—it is an excellent dish.”
    FOR THE FISH
    Kosher salt
    3 ⁄ 4 cup scraped and thinly sliced carrots
    1 ⁄ 4 cup matzoh meal
    2 tablespoons mild olive oil
    1 cup chopped onion
    Freshly ground pepper
    1 cup trimmed and chopped scallions, white and light green parts only (about 6 medium scallions)
    4 large eggs
    1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
    1 1 ⁄ 2 pounds mild white-fleshed fish fillets (such as sole or flounder), skin and any bones removed and discarded, cut into 1-inch pieces
    2 cups smoked whitefish, carefully removed from the bones of a 2 to 2 1 ⁄ 2 pound fish
    1 large cabbage, separated into leaves and rinsed (these are discarded before serving, so you can use slightly imperfect or dark green outer leaves)
    FOR THE LEMON-HORSERADISH SAUCE
    2 garlic cloves, peeled
    1 ⁄ 4 cup plus 2 teaspoons prepared white horseradish
    3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
    1 1 ⁄ 2