Angela Day
Passover, the eight-day Jewish festival, begins at sundown on Friday (April 23). It marks the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.
It is the favourite festival of well-known cook and author Sharon Lurie, and she hosts family and close friends around her table to share the traditional Seder meal.
Seder means “order” and Sharon says it is ironic that on the night when Jews celebrate their freedom, they have to follow a 15-step Seder done in a very particular order.
Passover requires weeks of preparation - spring cleaning, cooking and packing the deep freeze to capacity, so that when the day finally arrives everything can run smoothly and everyone can relax to enjoy the celebration with the family.
When Angela Day visited Sharon at home a few days ago, she had laid out a spread of delectable sweet treats she was preparing for Passover.
The house was a hive of activity, with Sharon giving directions on how the table should be set. The kitchen, where a large chalkboard stood with a planned menu displayed on it, was abuzz with Sharon's helpers cooking and baking up a storm.
Sharon hosts a morning show on Chai FM and receives many requests for her recipes over this time, especially the her flop-proof meringues.
FARFEL JAM SQUARES
Makes 20-25
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup of oil
1tsp of vanilla essence
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
100g crushed almonds
1 1/2 cups potato flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup strawberry or apricot jam
Combine sugar and eggs and beat until light and creamy.
Add the oil in a slow stream with beater on high speed. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the jam, and mix until well combined.
Place half the mixture into a greased baking tray, pressing it well until the entire tray is covered with a thin layer. Wet your hands if you find the mixture sticks to your fingers while pressing into tray.
Place the remaining dough into the freezer to firm up.
Bake the base at 170degC for 15 minutes. Remove and cool.
Cover generously with jam and grate the rest of the dough over the jam.
Return to the oven and bake at 170degC for 25 minutes.
Switch off oven and leave in oven for about 15 minutes to dry out a little.
Remove from oven and slice into squares while still warm. If you feel it s not crisp enough (after slicing), place back in the oven on 160degC for 10-15 minutes, but keep an eye on it.
Allow to cool and remove from tray. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.
FARMHOUSE APPLE CRUMBLE
Serves 8-10
APPLE FILLING
4 large Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and quartered
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp potato starch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
1 cup raisins
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
100g pecan nuts, chopped
DOUGH
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup of oil
1tsp of vanilla essence
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
100g crushed almonds
1 1/2 cups potato flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
NON-DAIRY TOFFEE SAUCE
1/2 cup cold water
3/4 cup sugar
125 ml non-dairy creamer
FILLING: Combine apples, sugar, orange juice and cinnamon in a pot and bring to the boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until soft, but not too soft as the apples are still going to cook in the oven.
Just before removing from heat, add potato starch dissolved in water and mix carefully so as not to break up apples. As it starts to thicken, remove from heat and add in the raisins. Cool completely.
In a separate bowl combine brown sugar, cinnamon and crushed pecan nuts.
DOUGH: Combine sugar and eggs and beat until light and creamy.
Add the oil in a slow stream with beater on high speed. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined.
Line a springform tin with three quarters of the dough pressed onto the base and up the sides of the tin.
Add half the cooled apple and raisin mix, followed by half the sugar, cinnamon and nuts mix, another layer of apples and raisins and finally another layer of sugar, cinnamon and nuts.
Finally cover with a layer of grated dough mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170degC for 1 hour. Remove and cool in the tin. Unmould onto a serving plate and serve drizzled with the sauce.
SAUCE: Bring water and sugar to the boil. Once it starts to turn caramel in colour, remove from heat, add the creamer and mix well.
FLOP-PROOF MERINGUES
Makes 10-12
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
Place egg whites and sugar (all at once) into the bowl of your electric mixer and beat with the whisk attachment for at least 10 minutes until firm, glossy peaks form.
Place spoonfuls of meringue onto a lined baking sheet and bake at 140degC for 1 hour.
Switch off oven and leave meringues inside it overnight to harden.
GINGER CAKE
1 tea bag
1 cup of boiling water
6 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of oil
1 cup of golden syrup
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 3/4 cups cake meal
1 cup of potato starch
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Place the tea bag into the boiling water and allow to steep for at least 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, cream the eggs and sugar until light in colour. Beating continuously, add the oil, followed by the syrup.
Add the bicarbonate of soda to the tea, then add this to the egg mixture and continue to beat.
Add the cake meal, potato starch, ginger and cinnamon and mix well.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and bake at 170degC for 1 hour. When done, switch off the oven and leave the cake in for a further 10 minutes.
NOTE: This versatile recipe can also be used to make a date pudding by adding 200g chopped dates to the batter.
PESACH CHOCOLATE POLONY
300g dark chocolate
200g sugared almonds (roughly crushed with a rolling pin)
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
200g packet baby marshmallows
100g desiccated coconut, toasted
100g honeycomb, roughly crushed with a rolling pin
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Remove pot with the chocolate off the double boiler, and add to it the nuts, peanut butter, marshmallows, desiccated coconut and honeycomb.
Mix well and spread over the baking paper. While still soft, roll the chocolate and the rest of the ingredients into a polony-shaped roll.
Refrigerate until ready to serve, then cut into thin slices.
The Angela Day cookery column is published in The Star, the Cape Argus, the Daily News and the Pretoria News.