Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Not All Charoset (That Fruit-Nut Concoction Served at the Passover Seder) Are Created Equal

When I was growing up, I knew of one recipe for charoset:
  • chopped nuts (almonds and walnuts)
  • chopped apples
  • sweet red wine
  • cinnamon
Among the basic kitchen tools I was sent off to Israel with were a large wooden bowl and a special rounded knife for chopping nuts and apples in the bowl.

I guess I was pretty lucky that my husband's family kept the same tradition.  We never imagined that there was any other recipe for charoset.

My husband is in charge of making the charoset, the nut cracking/shelling and chopping etc.  Then he puts in some cinnamon and pours in some wine and asks me to taste it.  I always pour more and more wine in until I decide there's enough.

When I was a vegetarian I considered charoset my meat/protein for the holiday.  Now I just eat it as an annual treat.  I love it.

Nu, how do you make yours?

4 comments:

Mrs. S. said...

Last year, I posted our family's charoset recipe here.

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Dates, coconut, cinnamon, cloves, walnuts, dry red wine... There's more but I haven't looked at the recipe yet. Rabanit Gilda Angel's Sephardic cookbook has several good recipes. Rose water and rose leaves with which to wrap the haroset would make my husband really happy, but we haven't been able to find them.

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Mrs. S., we were once treated to a dessert of half a melon filled with haroset on... I think it was the last day of Pesah. I agree: haroset should be made in huge quantities. Even though we eat humous during Pesah, we also spread haroset on rice cakes.

Batya said...

Thanks for the ideas. I'd try the others as dessert food, but I can't imagine anything other than my recipe at the seder.