PLATES FOR PASSOVER 🥘🥕🍫🍷
Celebrate Passover with these Springtime recipes!
Passover starts next Saturday, so if you’re hosting a Seder or tasked with bringing over a dish (and haven’t decided what to make yet), we’ve got a few new recipes and some old favorites to consider for this year’s menu! We’re featuring a brand-new roast chicken, a spring-themed side, one of our favorite easy desserts, a festive spritz that uses up any leftover Manischewitz wine that would otherwise sit open in your fridge, and an ode to matzo brei.
Our new roast chicken recipe (while not as traditional) can be a nice change-up from the classic Passover brisket or matzo ball soup.
For this recipe, the chicken is spatchcocked (cutting out the backbone so that the chicken lies flat) for quicker and more even cooking. While “spatchocking” sounds complicated, there is a technique that makes it pretty easy to accomplish (as long as you have a sharp pair of kitchen shears or knife). You can watch this short tutorial here. The chicken is seasoned with a za’atar spice blend and quickly seared to keep the skin crisp before putting it in the oven with shallots. Once cooked, use the roasted shallots, drippings, and more za’atar to make a delicious pan sauce to drizzle over the roast chicken before serving. This meal pairs well with a herby potato salad or our next featured recipe…grilled carrots with labneh.
Grilled carrots and labneh are a delicious combination and a perfect spring-inspired side dish! Weather permitting, these carrots are also a good excuse to dust off the outdoor grill! Top the labneh with the grilled carrots and drizzle them with honey. Add dukkah or za'atar on top and finish with pumpkin seeds or chopped pistachios.
The result is an aesthetically pleasing new take on roasted carrots that will impress your friends and family.
Matzo bark is such a nostalgic treat for us. We loved going to friends’ houses after school to make it (or happily find that one of their mom’s already had 😍). It’s the perfect mix of sweet and salty and one of our favorite Passover treats. We use pastel candies for added color and springtime flair. Don’t forget to sprinkle on a touch of sea salt to enhance the flavor!
And just like any bark-based dessert, it’s so easy even our Mom can do it 😂❤️
We wanted to create a drink that pairs well with a Passover Seder. While scouring the internet, we found a cocktail that used Manischewitz wine in syrup form. Although the cocktail wasn’t for us (just needed something else 🤷🏻♀️), we found creating a syrup out of Manischewitz wine very intriguing. And so came the idea of adding the syrup to an Aperol Spritz. Interestingly enough, the sweet tartness of the Manischewitz syrup cuts the bitterness of the Aperol, creating a very smooth spritz (making it great for those who don’t like the bitterness of Aperol spritzes). Plus the syrup is a nice way to use up any leftover Manischewitz wine and can be used to replace any cocktail or spritz that calls for a sweet/tart simple syrup.
Lastly, we couldn’t end this week’s Digest without talking about matzo brei. Matzo brei is a breakfast made with matzo and scrambled eggs and is commonly eaten over Passover. I tried it for the first time a few years ago, when my mother-in-law, Judy, served us a delicious plate for breakfast. I was honestly shocked that I had never heard of it before!
I tried a few recipes at home, but quickly learned that the real way to perfect matzo brei was trial and error (and figuring out how YOU personally like it). There are a few things to consider:
Do you want fried onions? the answer is yes
Do you like a more scrambled egg-forward matzo brei or a more matzo-forward matzo brei? I like a pretty equal ratio, maybe a little more egg to matzo
Do you like the matzo very soft or a little more bite to it? I prefer the latter
The matzo turned out too wet during my first few attempts. But I recently tried soaking the matzo in the egg mixture instead of water, and this technique resulted in my favorite batch yet!
To create your preferred version of matzo brei, here are a few recipes you can work from!
America's Test Kitchen Matzo Brei - I found this article very helpful when starting out
Allison Roman's Matzo Brei - This recipe is great for a crowd and looks pretty too
Happy Passover!
THANKS FOR READING!
Cheers 🥂
Hil & Nat
Don’t forget you can access the entire recipe library with all your favs here.