Pesach Hits and Misses

gryp

Fri, Apr 02 2010, 4:15 pm

Don't have much time to type out the story, but think: 25 lbs of fish with too many eggs, too little salt and sugar. Been working for a week and half to make it edible, every day for a few hours. I'm stuck with big fish balls, little fish balls, fish patties, and fish kugels. All of it tastes horrendous.

ra_mom

Fri, Apr 02 2010, 6:22 pm

GR wrote:

So sorry about that GR. Crying

I can try to dig up my mom's Pesach gefilte fish recipe for you, so you can have it for next year.

Fabulous

Fri, Apr 02 2010, 6:59 pm

Hits were a made up veggie kugel inspired by a made up recipe from my mom and the homemade duck sauce that ra_mom posted (YUM!! Thanks), chremslach and latkes.

Misses were the apple kugel (a recipe from here but not followed exactly because of different size etc.. so no one's fault but my own) and my parents' cucumber salad (totally flavorless).

But beyond that, everything was pretty good.

Oh, and I by mistake put a bit of cinnamon in the mashed potatoes (used for blintzes as well) before I realized it was not black pepper. No one noticed but me!

Seraph

Sat, Apr 03 2010, 5:28 pm

Fabulous wrote:

Oh, and I by mistake put a bit of cinnamon in the mashed potatoes (used for blintzes as well) before I realized it was not black pepper. No one noticed but me!

I did the same thing! It tasted just fine!

Add the oil SLOOOOOOOWLY to homemade mayonnaise. So that it doesnt take 4!! tries to get it to work.
Buy ground nuts, not whole. The whole ones don't crush well without a food processor.
Kishka stuffed chicken with homemade pesach duck sauce was a hit.
Beef/chicken soup was a hit.
Boiled then baked potatoes with tons of spices was a hit.
Making matbucha, mock chopped liver, and babaganoush ahead and sticking them in the freezer in disposable cups was a definite hit! Saved me so much prep time.
Better overbuy than underbuy matza! We ran out in the middle of shabbos and had to get from a neighbor for shaleshudes.
The list of what dishes/pans/utensils I had for pesach and kept on the door of the pesach cupboard was a definite hit.
Do, however, mark the list when intentionally chometzifying a pesach utensil.
Sfardi charoses a definite hit.
Horseraddish/garlic pot roast was a definite hit.
Chocolate syrup- definite hit.
Make sure the refrigerator isnt too cold so it doesnt freeze and make inedible unripe avocado, kohlrabi, raddish, lettuce, etc...

hadasa

Sat, Apr 03 2010, 6:19 pm

Misses - don't go to sleep before turning off the fire under the chicken.
In general, almost nobody eats the chicken at the evening Seudos - even when it's not burnt - so don't make so much.
If you're going away for two days Yom Tov don't forget the frozen fish rolls - you'll probably need them.

Hits - Soup with chicken balls, baked salmon, banana-kiwi ice cream, Gefilte, homemade ketchup and basically almost everything else. B"h!

curlyhead

Sat, Apr 03 2010, 6:27 pm

Gr try this recipe for gefilta fish

5 pounds minced fish
minced onion
approx 3-5 eggs
1/2 cup water
salt

mix and put in 9" x 13" pans
optional garnished with sliced tomatoes
bake for 50 min. Do not over bake as it gets dried out. Should come out moist.
Makes 2 trays
could be mixed when you buy the fish and frozen raw in trays. Pull out of freezer, defrost and bake
or you could defrost the fish,mix and bake

Kivi's Mommy

Sat, Apr 03 2010, 11:00 pm

Hand grated potato kugel really does taste better... So hand grating 10 potatoes and 2 onions by hand was so worth it! I brought it to my mother for Shabbos to help feed the masses and somehow there were two other potato kugel versions but mine went every last piece!

Also, I posted this under best Pesach food ideas... but it was really sooo good. Next time I would try and make a dipping sauce to go with it.

I made non-gebrokts chicken fingers- they taste great!!

roll them in potato starch, egg, and then a mixture of potato starch,ground nuts, and crushed potato chips. Makes an excellent crust! II fried them so they would be more brown and crunchy but they would probably come out good baked too...

I brought them with me to my mother and my nieces and nephews who are really picky eaters gobbled them up.

Crushed potato chips works well as a coating for regular chicken too. Use a little mayo to make it stick...

ra_mom

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 1:36 am

GR wrote:

Thanks for the gefilte fish recipe offers. I should make a collection of them. Except that after working on the fish from Wednesday to the next Friday, I am thoroughly sick of the thought of cooking fish.

Next year, quarter a gefilte fish recipe, and try it, way before Pesach.
Pesach gefilte fish is hard. Make sure to taste the batter to see how much more seasoning is needed, and then spit it out. It sounds gross, but it's the only way to ensure tasty fish.

Btw, my MIL started buying her gefilte fish at a fish store that is very Machmir. My FIL goes down and watches them make the fish, and then he takes it home. They do not use potato starch. They check the fish for worms, check the onions, etc.
Find out if this is a possibility for you. I used to really dislike Pesach gefilte. I got fish from my IL's this YT, and it was really delicious.

Raizle

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 2:10 am

I don't think I'm going to bother trying to make mayonaise again next year. It's always such a flop!

GR wrote:

GR, fish in general is a Shabbos thing, not a yomtov thing, even more so gefilte fish
On Yomtov it's more of an inyan to eat meat
therefore why bother with gefilte fish altogether.

If you want fish make easy whole fish instead.

yOungM0mmy

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 5:13 am

ra_mom wrote:

Raizle wrote:

I don't think I'm going to bother trying to make mayonaise again next year. It's always such a flop!

If you have a food processor and a plastic cup, I have a no-fail recipe for you Smile

I used my immersion blender - easiest thing ever, and took 10 seconds. 1bsp lemon juice on the bottom of the cup, 1 tsp salt. on top of that, put 1 egg, then on top of that, 1 cup oil. Stick blender to the bottom of the cup, start blending and bring the stick up slowly. By the time you get to the top, you have perfect mayonaise!

Inspired

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 5:47 am

10 kilo of carrots was perfect.
"nagva"? mayo was disgusting. taamon was good
All my standard recipes were a big hit- except the coleslaw made with aforementioned gross nagva mayo.
2 bags of potatoes next year to start.
The amount of egg we bought was too much.
10 milks perfect.
5 oils perfect.
Start with 3 p. starches.
More chocolate- find chocolate chips before yom tov!
Serve more fruit.
Less peppers.
way more plastic plates- big and small.

TzenaRena

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 8:15 am

chocolate moose wrote:

I bought A & B gef fish, Raskin's gef fish (both sweet and plain) and they all were delicious; but they have cottonseed oil and potato starch in them. I gotta get Benzy's fish next year - it's got more hiddurim. Since we don't use that stuff Pesach, why should it be allowed in the fish?

Shabbos Fish on Kingston (Levertov) has yellow label KLP fish with nothing in it - no sugar, oil . another color - I think green label has sugar and no oil. If I'm not mistaken there's no starch in any of their KLP fish.(they have another couple of labels).

Tamiri

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 8:26 am

Seraph wrote:

Buy ground nuts, not whole. The whole ones don't crush well without a food processor.
...

Ah to be young... Seraph, what do you think we did in the days before food processors? We had two options: Pesach blender, but you had to be careful while chopping the nuts so they didn't become shmeared, and a hand thing, I think it was called a mouli. Here I found it on Wiki: "A mouli grater is a hand-operated cooking tool designed for grating or pureeing small quantities of food. The device consists of a small metal drum with holes that grate the food and a handle for turning the drum.

The hand-held unit consists of two sections with hinged handles. The end of one handle contains a food hopper with a grating cylinder and a crank for rotating the cylinder. The other section has a rounded surface that acts as a clamp, pressing the food to be grated into the grating cylinder. The hinged handles are held in one hand and squeezed so that the food presses against the grating cylinder. Meanwhile, the other hand turns the crank, causing the cylinder to rotate and the food to be grated.

Mouli is a French brand name that later changed into Moulinex. A grating cylinder similar to the one used in this design later turned up in food processors from that company."

My mother sat all of us down at the table before Pesach, had us crack nuts and then grate them. Can you wonder why ground nuts were so hard to use?

overthehill

Sun, Apr 04 2010, 10:50 am

Really Gross-

Goodies Mayonaise- Sweet and disgusting!!!

Hadar Instant Hot Cocoa Mix- Super disgusting, lumpy, Ewww and very expensive

Also disgusting- that Watermelon is now 1.19 a lb! Hondeydews are 5 buck each, Cantaloupes, 3.50 each, and onions have reached an all time high of 99 cents a lb- what are these stores doing?????