Pesach Ends

it is 10:00 p.m. in the holy city of zefat. pesach is officially over. i had a few people in for an evening meal called the 'moshiach seudah'. we usually drink 4 cups of wine and eat matzah, reminiscent of a pesach sedar. this year i cooked an actual meal.

i invited a married couple who aren't knowledgeable, yet, in yiddishkite (jewish tradition). i felt weird about not serving them food, especially since the wife does not drink wine. i took this into account when i prepared the food for the holiday.
as one of my other guests is a vegitarian who can't eat gluten or night shades, i prepared a separate fish meal. i stewed the fish with root veggies, onions, zucchini and carrots, sweet potaoes and lemon and olive oil.

i was going to stew the rest of the fish with a lot of root vegetables and tomatoes. i only cook with salt and peppercorns on pesach. i never use garlic or other spices. i tend to use a lot of onions. i usually don't bother to fry up the onions but on pesach you can't escape it. i did use ginger root alot this pesach. it went especially well with the honey glazed orange chicken and the poached pears in wine.

as i was making the stuffed eggplant dish, i had a lot of batter left over. i decided to make fried fish for the moshiach seudah. the eggplant dish was a bit of a potchka. first, i peeled the eggplants and salted them. i then patted them dry after they sweat. i then made the mashed potatoes filling. i made a batter with eggs and potato starch. it was way too thick and resembled wallpaper glue. i then dipped the eggplant slices into this mixture. it was no easy feat.

i then fried up the eggplants and drained them on paper towels. i then coated the niles fish chunks and fried them, too. i then made up a tomato sauce with peeled fresh tomatoes and onions. it cooked for quite a bit. i religiously, peel all the veggies on pesach, even tomatoes. it is quite a work out. i then stuffed the mashed potatoes, teaspoon at a time, into the fried eggplant slices and rolled them. you are then supposed to bake them in the oven for 25 minutes.

as i didn't have a pesach oven, i cooked them in the tomato sauce for 25 minutes, on a very low flame. they honestly, didn't look like anything great, and were a bit soggy. but they were delicious. so was the fried fish. i also made mashed orange and ginger flavored sweet potatoes. i made candied almonds too. i had made gingered pears in wine the night before. they went really fast. since i had a bit of the sugary syrup left in a pan, i simply threw in a few fresh almonds and let it bake on top of the electric hot plate until they were like peanut brittle.

i served up fresh sangria. i added a lot of fresh oranges and lemons and ginger. it was very tastey indeed! i had about 3 cups full and even made my havdallah on another cup. i am way too wasted to put away my pesach dishes tonight. i'll try to do this tamorrow. even though it's a mitzvah, i am in no hurry to eat chometz yet.

it got very cold this evening. i was invited to go to the in-laws for moraccan pancakes. it is a custom. i have no room to eat anything else. that last maccaroon did me in. tomorrow it's diet, diet, diet and laundry, laundry, laundry. i actually, had to unzip my skirt a little while ago. shame, shame, on me!