[1]I’ll be posting 2 favorite recipes from my Seder this week, but first I wanted to highlight a moment from yesterday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court. As these hearings were so monumental, I suggested to my Seder guests that we start the evening by watching Rachel Maddow’s analysis of the day at Court. She played these opening remarks by attorney Ted Olson, who was giving the Justices context about Proposition 8. (The bold emphasis is mine.)
Mr. Olson: “….It walls-off gays and lesbians from marriage, the most important relation in life, according to this Court, thus stigmatizing a class of Californians based upon their status and labeling their most cherished relationships as second-rate, different, unequal, and not okay.”
I looked around at everyone else in the room who all happened to be married (actually one was widowed). And for a brief moment, I felt like a second-class citizen.
Happily, let’s move on to food.
MOROCCAN BRISKET from The Foods of Israel [2] by Joan Nathan
Serves 10-12
1 5- to 6- pound brisket of beef
5 garlic cloves, peeled
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large onions, diced (about 8 cups)
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
2 bay leaves
1 celery stalk, diced
3 large tomatoes, diced
1 cup water
1½ cups green Moroccan olives, pitted
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
3 preserved lemons, diced
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. With a knife, pierce the skin of the brisket in 5 places and insert the garlic cloves. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy skillet or roasting pan; add the meat, sear on all sides, and remove.
3. Add 2 more tablespoons of the oil to the same pan and saute 3/4 of the diced onions (about 6 cups) until they are limp. Add the turmeric, ginger, white pepper, bay leaves, celery, one of the diced tomatoes, and water to the pan. Stir-fry a minute or two and cool.
4. Place the brisket in a baking pan and surround with the cooked vegetables. Roast, covered, in the oven for 3 hours or until a fork goes in and out of the meat easily. Remove, cool, and refrigerate, reserving the vegetables. You can prepare this a day ahead of time.
5. The tomato-onion sauce can be done a day in advance as well: heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in another frying pan; add the remaining onions and saute until clear. Then add the 2 remaining diced tomatoes and simmer, covered, for a few minutes. Set aside or refrigerate overnight or until ready to serve the meat.
6. Remove any fat that accumulated on the brisket as it cooled. Cut, against the grain, into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Return the slices to the baking pan, along with the reserved vegetables in which the meat was cooked in step 4.
7. When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and reheat the brisket for about a half hour.
8. Add to the tomato-onion sauce all but 2 tablespoons of the parsley or cilantro, the olives and preserved lemons, and heat in a small saucepan.
9. Remove the brisket and some of the vegetables to a serving platter and serve, covered with the tomato-onion sauce and garnished with the remaining parsley, cilantro, olives and lemon. Yield: 10 to 12 servings
ULTIMATE FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE from Cooks Illustrated [3]
8
large eggs, cold
1
pound bittersweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2
pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1/4
cup strong coffee or liqueur (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder for decoration
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.
2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.
4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).
5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.
Artwork by Antone Desailly [1]