Get creative with eating kosher for Passover
Options include matzo-balls made with tofu for vegans and buttery Passover Rolls
The word Seder, as in a Passover Seder, comes from the Hebrew word for order. But if you’ve ever been to a Passover Seder — the ceremonial spring meal enjoyed by Jews around the world — you will understand that order has nothing to do with it.
No one stays seated, the readings get skipped on account of hungry children and inevitably one cousin has more than the rabbi’s prescribed four cups of wine and seizes this opportunity to confront a cousin about a decade-old resentment, resulting in a freshly cemented resentment to revisit in a decade. L’chaim!
I can only deduce, then, that the definition of order must refer to my grandmother’s method of Seder planning. Bubbie orders chicken soup from the deli, matzah on Amazon and protein from Costco, which isn’t exactly the same as a nice Jewish butcher, so you didn’t hear that from me.
At its heart, Passover marks the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. It’s a celebration of freedom, plain and simple. On our tables, however, we’re forced to contend with a different kind of plain and simple due to the holiday’s dietary laws. But just as ingenuity has allowed the food industry to meet other dietary constraints with flare, appealing to gluten-intolerant gluttons and persnickety vegan palates, so too has creativity enriched the lives of those who keep kosher — even kosher for Passover.
What’s the difference? In the Jewish tradition, there’s kosher, and then there’s kosher for Passover, or KFP, which means for one week Jews are asked to further restrict an already restricted diet.
Take a BLT, for example. On a normal day, I can’t eat a BLT because of the B. But on Passover, it’s not just the swine that I’m skipping, I have to avoid the bread the sandwich is served on. Chametz, which we do not eat on Passover, is loosely defined as any food made with yeast and left to rise. So if I can’t have the B or the bread, I’m left with the L and T, which is essentially a salad. And I don’t do salad.
Luckily, there seems to be far more options for the modern KFP-conscious eater these days. It started with a bit of good news in 2016: The Jewish Conservative Movement decided we needed to loosen up a little. For centuries kitniyot, which includes rice, corn, beans, peas and pretty much any other legume, was also on the blacklist. Not anymore — a marvellous revelation for the modern mensch, who can now bulk up on bean salad at Whole Foods without guilt.
Jews eat matzah on Passover because it’s unrisen. It’s also dry and flavourless and will turn your mouth into Joshua Tree and your bowels to stone. Enter Passover rolls. We al- ways called them bubbie’s soft buns, which made my grandfather, who we call zaida, blush. They’re surprisingly buttery, but contain nothing taboo for the Passover table. I can’t speak for other Bubbie’s buns — and I hope my zaida can’t either — but luckily there’s Hermes Bakery on Bathurst St., which make Passover Rolls, plus an assortment of Passover-safe goodies to curb carb cravings this week.
KFP-conscious connoisseurs sick of sipping on that super saccharine (though seriously sentimental) Manischewitz wine can partake in a glass of award-winning Gva’ot Masada, an elegant, oaky and100-per-cent Passover-approved red.
The LCBO stocks it for a steep $103.20, but if for those who can justify a $10 craft beer after a long day at the office, surely they can justify a nice glass of wine after, you know, building the pyramids.
For vegan KFP diners out there, matzo-balls, which are traditionally made from matzo meal and egg, can be made with tofu. There are a whole host of new-agey blogs that feature their own spin on this updated dish, but I prefer a recipe from actress Mayim Bialik’s vegan cookbook, Mayim’s Vegan Table, $19.60 online at Indigo. If you’re not going to make it like bubbie did, at least make it like Blossom does.
Next, I’ve also found a way to bring a little colour to the Seder table. Or at least have someone else bring it. Raised on “beige” Passover meals himself, Chef Toben Kochman of Toronto-based Toben Food by Design takes a more epicurean approach to kosher-style catering.
For Passover, he swaps the standard gefilte fish starter with crispy local pickerel, served with spring vegeta- ble ratatouille, butternut squash mousseline and a dairy-less shaved asparagus salad, with sherry and mustard gastrique ($17).
For dessert, he does a deconstructed strawberry rhubarb crumble, with a lemon matzo-meal crust, and Manischewitz sorbet ($12). It’s too late to book him for this year’s Passover celebration, but KFP diners might still be able to nab him for Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day, on May 1.
Though keeping kosher for Passover is customary, we no longer have to be conventional about it. To my fellow KFP diners, take chances and get crafty. And that angry cousin? If he has to come to the Seder with a chip on his shoulder, make sure it’s Lays — they do a special KFP run of salted original potato chip that’s certified and labelled Passover-approved.