Five Things I Ate for Passover 🌸🌺🌷

Two nights of Seders, two nights of chaos! And more.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we celebrate Passover! As always, this newsletter is completely unedited by AI or any human for that matter. For pictures, as always, check out my Instagram @fivethingsiate.

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Soph on Instagram: "Five Things I Ate for Passover! 🌸🌺💗
Feat…

Roasted lamb shank bone at home

Lamb from Whole Foods.

Passover is maybe my favorite Jewish holiday, because it involves a lot of family, way too much storytelling, a very late dinner for a holiday geared towards children, multiple glasses of wine and inevitable chaos. This year probably takes the prize when all the toddlers accidentally drank Manischewitz wine instead of grape juice. (Rest assured, no children were harmed, although I can’t say the same for their parents.) I also had no idea that Passover Seder is celebrated two nights in a row, which is how I ended up at the Whole Foods in Tribeca at 4pm on the first night, running around like a headless chicken in search of a lamb’s bone for the ceremonial plate, like I was some kind of medieval errand boy. One thing I do appreciate about Judaism is that it feels very old and allows me to pretend I’m playing a RPG where I have to complete a number of ancient quests. This quest was completed by conversing with the butcher, who saw me wandering stressfully back and forth, and rescued me by giving me a lamb shank bone for free! Apparently Whole Foods (at least in Tribeca) has lamb shank bones for Passover if you just ask, which is neat. When I went home, I roasted the bone at 400F for 40-60 minutes, until it was deeply charred. It actually smelled really good and lowkey I wanted to gnaw on it (the dog agreed) however that is not its intended purpose.

Za’atar roasted rack of lamb at home

Lamb from Whole Foods.

I knew that I would try to gnaw the ceremonial lamb bone, so to protect myself against that I purchased a rack of lamb to make a nice entree for us. One warning is that rack of lamb is apparently very pricey, nearly $30 a pound! That being said, one rack was more than enough for two people, very easy to cook, and a showstopper to boot. This would be a great dish for either Easter or Passover. To make it, I simply rubbed the rack of lamb all over with salt and pepper, and set it aside for 30 minutes while I made rice and side dishes, and preheated the oven to 400F (this oven is old and takes a long time). When ready to cook, rub rack of lamb with olive oil, then generously dust all over with za’atar. Bake approx 20 minutes for medium rare (15 min for medium rare). Test for doneness. Let sit for 10 minutes before carving. Delicious!

Fennel & radicchio with lemon salad at home

No recipe needed.

As a huge bitter herb lover who rarely eats bread, this holiday is my jam. Passover is just an excuse for me to buy radicchio and fennel, two of my favorite greens. No recipe needed. Just slice one bulb fennel fronds and all thinly as possible. Mandolin would help. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Zest half a lemon and squeeze juice into fennel. Toss. Add one ripped head of radicchio. Perfect with lamb to cut the bitterness. I find it delightfully addictive. It probably would make a good Italian food side dish, too. The leftover salad was great for lunch the next day, topped with egg salad on matzah.

Assorted mezze at Kings Highway Glatt Meat

Two locations, including the OG on 497 Kings Hwy, and the NJ location at 250 Norwood Ave, Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Kings Highway Glatt Meat really deserves its own newsletter edition, but for now, I’ll sneak in a little intro. It’s one of my favorite grocery stores (up there with Tashkent and Zabar’s) and really a delightfully old school New York/New Jersey place to visit, regardless of whether you keep Kosher or not. KH Glatt even has its own New York Times article about it from 2014, which I can only read half of before I’m paywalled, so I hope the ending is good. The reason (aside from the thick Brooklyn accent that everyone who works there has) I enjoy this Kosher butcher so much is that it’s packed with a ton of Sephardic Jewish precooked and frozen foods. If you’re only used to Ashkenazi Jewish food (bagel, lox, knishes), you’re in for a treat. You’ll find every type of mezze and ma’ashi (vegetables stuffed with ground meat and rice) along with tamarind paste, tahini, and fresh challah. And, of course, they have a whole selection of K for P products, my favorite being the kibbeh which I find even more fluffy and tasty than the regular kind. (While you’re there, throw in some lahmabagin, tahini sauce, and frozen stuffed onions – that’s for another newsletter.)

Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate-covered almond horns at home

Recipe here.

This is my absolute favorite Passover dessert recipe. I also made them last year for friends and family Seder and they were a big hit. They remind me of bakery cookies, and it’s fun to make them at home. They’re K for P and gluten-free, but definitely not nut-free, so you have to be an almond and almond paste lover. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, and be warned the dough is super sticky so it can be a little finicky to shape. I just put on disposable gloves and wet my hands. They always turn out super pretty no matter what once you dip them in chocolate and cover the ends in fun sprinkles, like I did. A huge hit with kids!

Til next time,

Soph