Kitchen to Kitchen: It's all matzah to me (a 3 part prelude to Pesach)

For the last 5 or 6 parashot, we were flooded with information. Everything is described in minute details. Everything is elaborated upon. It seems as if the Israelites have so much free time on their hands that they can devote endless amounts of it to painstakingly following instructions. The key word, of course, is 'free'. It is exactly because they are free that they can devote as much time to their religious practices as they wish to. What a relief to be allowed such freedom at last. What a joy it must have been. No wonder Pesach is called the holiday of freedom. My kids say that if they ever achieve such level of freedom, the first rule they will practice in their own households will be the rule of "Eat dessert first." Smart mouths.

My friend Marcie said "At the Seder, you know the food is good when it doesn't taste like Pesach food."

What in the world does that mean? "Pesach food" is one thing, and only one thing: Matzoh. The rules for food on Pesach, as explained in the Torah are as follows:
1. No chametz. 2. Matzoh.

That's it.

The trouble starts when our totally unreasonable, spoiled and demanding families insist on eating other things, as well. They want meat (no problem), fish (ditto), chicken (easy), eggs (coming right up), fruits and veggies (At least I have heard rumors of one family, possibly even a real one, where the kids actually like fruits and veggies) and dessert ("or at least plenty of candy", says my husband's niece, Elisheva).

All of the above is not too bad. Most of it can be cooked using almost exactly the same recipes as everyday dishes. It's when we get to the side dishes that we run into a problem. Namely, we don't really know many starchy side dishes that are not pasta or rice, or involve some sort of wheat product. And we don't want to have yet another potato dish.

Enter the 11th plague: Matzoh meal.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Matzoh meal. I use it and even like some of the dishes made with it. But let's be honest here. No matter how well you manage to disguise it, the matzoh flavor still comes through loud and clear. Not to mention the effect on your digestive system. And, by the way, don’t think you’re off the hook if your kitchen is “Sephardi Style”. Rice isn’t all that gentle on your stomach, either.

To my mind, the real problem is one of perception: we look so long and hard at what we cannot eat on Pesach that we don't see everything that we can eat.

There is no rule that says that the starchy side dish must be pasta, rice or potatoes (or that you even have to have a starchy side dish at all). Once you get rid of this preconceived notion, the rest of the menu will just fall into place easily and naturally.

So, what can we eat that will not taste like matzoh with matzoh?

Let’s have dessert first (Great cheer from the kids).

After the fish, the soup, the brisket, the chicken (for those who don't like brisket), the chopped liver (because we must have chopped liver, no?), the many side dishes (most of them containing heavy matzoh meal, because, well, veggies are nice, but aunt Fanya's Pesach will not be complete without the Pesach kugel and she is getting on in years and we love her so much we want to please her), not to mention all the things we ate before the meal (the matzoh, charosset, marror, wine, potatoes, eggs, whatever your family's minhag is) - well, after all that, does anyone really have room for a heavy dessert? Sure, we want dessert, but can you honestly say that what you want is a pale copy of something that you know could have tasted better if only you could have used real flour? Something so laden with eggs and nuts that it will sit in your stomach until Shavu'ot?

Dessert doesn't have to make your guests groan. And it doesn't have to take hours of work. Invest in excellent ingredients: the best dark chocolate you can find, the most beautiful fruit in the market (and don't make the mistake I made - do not buy berries 4 days ahead of time and expect them to look good. Send someone to the store erev Pesach to get the freshest fruit they can find), as many varieties of nuts as you can find (again, good quality is important - it's worth a trip to a specialty store), new and exciting types of dried fruit (not those coated with sugar, though).

Make simple fruit platters or fruit salad (excellent way to keep the kids busy erev chag),