There is so much I love about this cookbook that I don’t quite know where to start! So I’ll start at the beginning.
When you first set your eyes on Passover Made Easy, you’ll be struck by it’s beautiful design and styling. Rachel Adler did an impressive job laying out this cookbook with brilliant coloring, masterful layout, and gorgeous typography. I am literally blown away.
Aside from the graphics, the photographs and styling are also impeccable. As a blogger who photographs and styles her dishes, I can tell you firsthand that many, if not most, of the dishes in this cookbook are extremely difficult to photograph. And so many Pesach recipes lack eye-appeal. But not only have the dishes been masterfully plated, the authors also include many step-by-step plating guides to help you serve the dishes as beautifully as they are pictured.
Passover Made Easy is the brainchild of an unlikely pairing – Leah Schapira, the author of Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking and co-founder of CookKosher.com, as well as Victoria Dwek, the managing editor of Whisk Magazine. Leah is Ashkenazi, with Hungarian roots, while Victoria is Sephardi, with Syrian roots. How an Ashkenazi and a Sephardi came together to write a successful Passover cookbook is nothing short of a Pesach miracle. Leah and Victoria each offer their own unique perspective, striking the perfect balance of grebroks and non-gebroks recipes. The authors guide you along page after page in a playful and friendly manner. You almost feel as if you’re hanging out with them in the kitchen. Victoria shares her recipes for Syrian Charoset, tortillas, Matzaroni and Cheese, as well as many non-grebroks dishes. Leah offers up unique and tasty dishes like Meatballs in Blueberry Sauce, Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup, Apple-Jam Chicken Drumettes, and so much more.
Some of the other features that I enjoyed from this cookbook are the wine pairings and building block recipes like mayo, crepes, and Passover crumbs. There is also a nifty replacement index that helps guide those who avoid using processed ingredients and peels on Pesach. While the guide is helpful, I wish there were a few more recipes suited for the more stringent among us (me included!)
While I am unable to make most of these recipes on Passover, I look forward to trying many recipes throughout the year including the Mock Techineh (for my brother who is allergic to sesame seeds!), Butternut Squash Salad with Sugar ‘n Spice Nuts, Braised Short Ribs, Jalapeno-Lime & Ginger Salmon, Stuffed Onions, Vegetable Lo Mein (for my dieting days!), Espresso Macaroons with Chocolate-Hazelnut Cream, and Truffled Grapes.
Busy In Brooklyn is giving a copy of Passover Made Easy! To enter the giveaway, you must:
1. Share you favorite Passover memory in the comments below.
2. Like Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook.
Winner will be chosen at random on Monday, March 18th, 9:00 AM.
BONUS RECIPES FROM PASSOVER MADE EASY:
Eggplant Wrapped Chicken
Ingredients:
Eggplant
1 tall eggplant
1/2 cup oil
1/4 tsp salt
pinch coarse black pepper
Meat Mixture
3 tbsp oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lb. ground meat
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Chicken
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/4 tsp salt
pinch coarse black pepper
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to broil. Grease a baking sheet. Cut eggplants lengthwise, 1/4″ thick to get 6 or 7 slices. Reserve remaining eggplant scraps. Place eggplant slices on prepared baking sheet. Brush slices with oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil 5 minutes per side, until second side is beginning to brown. The slices should appear as if they were fried. Remove and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Peel and finely dice remaining eggplant to obtain 1/2 cup diced eggplant. Heat oil a in a saute pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and diced eggplant and saute until soft, about 5-7 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, combine onion mixture with ground meat. Season with salt and garlic powder.
5. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper Place a tabslepoon of the meat mixture into each thigh and roll up to lose. Roll a eggplant slice around each stuffed chicken thigh. Place, seam side down and close together, in a baking pan. Cover and bake for 2 1/2 hours.
Homemade Mayonnaise
Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves or 1/4 onion
juice of 1 1/2 lemons
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch black pepper
3 cups oil
Instructions:
1. In a bowl of a food processor or in a blender, blend garlic, lemon juice and eggs.
2. With the machine running, slowly pour in the oil in a thin stream.
3. Blend until thoroughly combined and mayonnaise is emulsified. Do no over-mix. When the mayonnaise is thick and holds together, it’s done. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.
The immersion blender method:
Add oil to a tall jar (you can use the one that comes with the blender). Add garlic, lemon juice, eggs, salt and pepper. Insert the immersion blender and blend, without moving the blender, for 2 minutes. When the mixture begins to thicken, move the immersion blender up and down until mayonnaise is emulsified.
Making matza pizza all together!
Finding the afikomen and being able to ask for “whatever” we want :). Oy the joys of that!!!
Ironic for a food blog but my favorite memory is cake mixes! We spent every Pesach at our house with my cousins and my aunt was in charge of the cakes. She would come in Erev Yom Tov with a large laundry basket full of cakes in the tiny rectangular pans that come in the box. Even though in my own home I bake from scratch, I sometimes miss the mixes. That’s what Pesach tastes like for me!
Like u on. Fb
When my grandparents were slive and they come for the sedar
my mom makes matzoh ball soup and my sisters and I would constantly ask for “tastes” growing up-Taste after taste after taste. finally we’d each get one tiny bowl and one tiny matzoh ball to satiate us. then my mom gave us each a little plastic bowl and colored construction paper and had us make our own “soup” to show to our guests at the Seder (aka distract us for hours). so funny to think about that, 20+ years ago!
Some of my favorite Pesach memories as a kid actually come from kashering the kitchen! Kids, huh?
I like BIB on fb.
Finding the afikomin;)
I now have wonderful Pesach memories with my grandchildren. They go to the same Hebrew Day school my daughters went to bringing home the same songs of years past.
My favorite memory is when my grandparents used to come for the seders- and eating Grandma’s Gefilte carp!
My favorite Pesach memory is going to a hotel as a child. I don’t think I’d want to do that as an adult, but the way I remember it, it was perfect!
I’m not on Facebook though :( but if I were, I would’ve liked your page by now!
Hey this post is awesome and your blog keeps getting more and more awesome. I’m definitely going to try the eggplant recipe because I’m always looking for appetizer ideas on Pesach. And I love your little diagram with how to use mayo…so fun. You must teach me how to do that. These little touches are what set your blog apart from the rest!
xo
Sharon
I absolutely love the seders and love the conversations around the table. And my favorite memory is trying to find the afikomen every year after my dad hid it in very clever spots!!
Fave memory must be the pre pesach cooking bash in my mom’s kitchen. it was just a blur of peels, pots and pans. hoping to create the same memories in my own kitchen iyh
My favorite Passover memory is the Seder I had last year, after having knee surgery and recovery. We had so much fun and it was a creative Seder. I also gave my friend some matzo (he had never had it, and didn’t like it), but his reaction was funny. Now this memory is more important than ever because this year, my parents have to move into a nursing hom after some healtg problems and sell their house. I had many fun times with them and will miss it!
Thanks for giveaway. My favorite memory is helping my mom make charoset from dates. It took a looong time but was fun!.
My favorite memory are the sedarims when my favorite uncle would come and though we werent orthodox at the time, he would always leave $20, which was a lot of miney back then, under my plate.
I don’t have a specific favorite memory. But I have fond memories of Pesach as a child.I enjoyed helping to clean and most of all getting to stay up late!
When a frog (or toad, I didn’t know the difference) hopped into our dining room during the seder! I don’t know how it got there.
Making charoset with my mom!
I love the busy kitchen the night before Y”T when everyone would be together trying to finish up cooking with the anticipation of Pesach in the air!
I have fond memories of my Bubby making me matzo brei for breakfast…
I too think this is a great year-round book.
I loved singing with my uncles late into the night.
Going to visit my great grandparents in Florida with the whole extended mishpacha!
My favorite Pesach memory is going on chol hamoed trips with my family- uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents- everyone together went on a large planned day trip- and sometimes even an overnight trip! I really miss those days….
That eggplant chicken looks and sounds amazing! May have to try that one this year
My children and I will agree that the best Pesach we ever had was ten years ago in Orlando where we stayed in a villa and our meals were brought to us. The food was exotic with a sephardic/latin blend with no kitniyot. We had our own seder, but we were able to socialize at the makeshift shul after davening.The people at the villas came from different backgrounds yeshivish, Sephardic, Ashky, and modern. Everyone treated everyone else with much respect. My children had a great time playing and swimming in our own pool.My late husband loved the davening because whoever lead the davening used his own minhag and no one complained.When I’m in a less than stellar mood I think back to that Pesach.
My favorite memory is Pesach prep – cutting up the Romaine lettuce for Maror, watching my brothers grate the real maror with goggles.
I Like Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook.
The first year I joined my husband’s family for the Seder I learned a different tradition – when his father left the room to wash his hands, the children stole the afikomen to hide it. When it was time to search for the afikomen, my father-in-law was the seeker with the grandchildren giving him hot/warm/cool/cold clues. What a cute twist from my family’s tradition.
Baking cookies and brownies for passover with my mom :)
My father throws toy animals for the makkos!
sitting at the seder with my Parents OB”M
Making Haroset with a rela mortar and pessel with my Granny.
My dad used to make all of our seder’s themed and for one we had American Idol. My group shook and shimmied as we sang “don’t shake the table.”
Chicken Cutlets with Pecans
6 chicken cutlets salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. orange juice 3 T. margarine
1/2 c. finely chopped pecans 3 T. oil
1/2 c. matzoh meal
Rinse and dry cutlets. Dip cutlets in orange juice. Combine chopped pecans, matzoh meal, salt and pepper. Dip cutlets into nut mixture and coat completely. In large skillet over medium heat, heat margarine and oil until margarine melts. Add 3 cutlets and cook, turning cutlets once, about 5 minutes on each side or until chicken is cooked through and outside is browned and fork tender. Add more oil if needed and cook remaining cutlets.
Great review! This cookbook looks nice!
This recipe looks amazing… trying it now for Shabbat, but I was just wondering about the 2.5 hour cooking time as it seems a little long – is this correct? TIA!
As per the cookbook (this is not my recipe), 2.5 hours is the cooking time.
The homemade mayo sounds so good but I am hesitant to use raw eggs. Is there any substitute for this ingredient?
Hi Gisele, mayo is an emulsion of oil and eggs – there is no other way to make it.
Eggplant stuffed chicken can I use chicken cutlets instead?
Hey Joan, this is not my recipe, it’s a sample from the book, but I think you can.
My dad took us on a candy hunt every PESACH where we kids would just eat tons of candy. So much fun.