Passover: 1st seder aftermath

[jbsegal]

Somewhat less than 1G of soup left over.
(No, I don't know how much I started with - I need to measure various volumes-by-height in the BIG pot.)

Use more salt next time.
Make more of the matzah balls in time for the soup serving.
Try to make sure I know if I made -per-person before serving.
Find some way to remove the matzah balls from the soup before they sink - strainer basket or something...

Overall rating: A-?

Lots of haroset left over, but we're using it tonight, too.

Kimberly's fish cakes were fabulous.

The Chicken/Beef cassarole was good, but needs some tweaking..salt, to begin, smaller pieces of chicken, perhaps the Morrocan spice mix that corwin has.

The hunt for a good Kosher L'Pesach wine continues, for those who don't like Concord Grape.

Oh, and NEVER buy non-dishwasher-safe china.

Tonight someone else cooks!

Comments

[pookfreak.livejournal.com]

Hey the Cab Sauv. that I brought was decent - you'll never find a GOOD Kosher wine I think because everyone compares it to regular wine and I dont see how they can keep it kosher and have it measure up. But I could have drunk that Cab Sauv without a problem.

I also liked the Kadem Plum wine as well.

other decents

[cthulhia]

both bottles of the pinot grizio were fully enjoyed. and yeah, the plum wine was good too.
riesling would be an hoot.

[jss]

Two of my seder guests each brought a bottle of k-for-P white wine (one was a '99 California chardonay, the other I don't remember and the bottle's already been recycled). It's possible to get non-Manischevitz-type k-for-P wines, though you may have to hunt for 'em. (Drop me a note if you want me to research where these folks got their wines.)

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember being told that the only true distinguishing factor in a kosher wine is it has to be made by rabbis.

The solution here is obviously for a rabbi who is also a wine snob to open a vineyard.

[lolitasir.livejournal.com]

Not made by rabbis, just observed by rabbis.

BTW go to a nice liquor store in a nice Jewish neighborhood like the Upper West Side in Manhattan and they will have a tgreat selection. My placew has a whole kosher section with a big section of wines from Israel. All price ranges.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Hm. This article implies a difference between 'normal' and Kosher L'Pesach wines: "Congregants consumed their first sample at a community seder in March. "Beth Ami Blanc" was filtered to remove all residual yeast cells, making it kosher for Pesach."

And it also mentions the 'problem' with 'traditional' KlP wines: How do you kill yeast? Heat...
(Of course, some of us LIKE 'traditional' KlP wines. :) )

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

You can also kill yeast by adding alcohol above the beasts' tolerance.

Port is tasty ...

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Yarden (in Israel) makes a number of good K-P wines, from about $15-25 per bottle. One of the less xpensive ones is a cab-merlot-something else blend (available at Kappy's in Medford). If you want something less expensive, good, but not "wine-snob" good, try Teal Lake K-P Shiraz from Australia.

OT

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

hi JB ;) just an FYI that I have added you to my LJ friends list. I think you know who I am as we have many friends and interest in common and have met a few times. Feel free to add me back or not- up to you. Hugs to Kimberly!

[awfief.livejournal.com]

As for the matzah balls -- we cook them separately and add them to the bowl, and then the soup. It also prevents them from soaking up all the chicken soup flavor, and gives them flavor of their own.

As for the dishes -- my mother has always had a cleaning lady, and she got the brilliant idea one year to have *her* do the dishes, while the seder is going on. It worked brilliantly, and while I occassionally have a twinge of "hey, here we are celebrating our freedom from slavery and we have a slave in the kitchen", well....it helps now that the woman who does it has gone to college, is no longer a cleaning lady, and *still* comes, once a year, for passover, to help us with our seder (she does still get paid, $50 flat rate for the night, and this year she worked from 6-11pm, and we had to tell her "enough, go home" at 11 pm).