At the risk of offending (or flattering) some of my Jewish brothers and sisters, I decided to make a Messianic but Jewish Easter lunch in celebration of Christ's dying on the cross and rising from the dead! See, depending on which side of the Messianic divide you stand, some Jewish people cringe at the thought of celebrating a resurrected Jesus in a Jewish way, while some would embrace it as the most appropriate Easter celebration one could think of. Well, this blog is no place for politics so I will just hope that this post is taken in the best spirit possible.
I had been fantasizing about doing a seder for a while but didn't get enough enthusiasm from friends to actually carry it out. But when I mentioned to the partner I'm working for that I wanted to do a Sephardic-Jewish meal, I was met with utmost enthusiasm and he even lent me his wife's fancy cookbook! Well, I couldn't resist that. So, here's a little chronicle of the meal I made. We were joined by dear friends for the meal. Reviews are that it was wonderful! I think this might be the beginnings of a tradition.
First the husband did a fantastic job of setting the table beautifully
I prepared a whole host of Sephardic dishes including:
Sephardic Charoset (a yummy ground dried fruit compote) that we spread on matzo (see side story below)
A simple tomato and lemon salad
Baked eggplant salad: cut up some eggplant, toss in the oven on high for a few minutes, take out and sprinkle with lemon, S&P, and some fresh parsley- easy!
Rice and black lentil pilaf- most Jews eat no grains during the passover period but only Sephardic Jews are exempt from this regulation. It was basically rice cooked with black lentils and onions, spiced with allspice. And topped with slow caramelized onions. yummers!
Slow cooked
lamb shanks- this was the hit of the lunch and soooo easy to make!
Our friends D&S spent all night making this amazing Russian Easter Bread. Well worth the hassle, guys!
We finished with M&A's wonderfully fluffy carrot cake.
Quick side story.: Two nights before the meal, I went to my neighborhood Whole Foods to pick up some Manicsheewitz wine and matzo for some of my recipes. When I arrived at said Whole Foods, I was told that they were out of matzo and any other Jewish products. I was flumoxed! See, I don't live in rural Kansas. I live on the border of Brookline, one of the most Jewish neighborhoods in all of America! Sometimes they write signs in Hebrew at my Whole Foods because of the high population of Russian Jewish neighbors we have. So, Mr. Whole Foods, are you serious that you have no matzo on the week of Passover and can't order any until after Easter? How dare you! Anyway, I had to walk to the Shaw's nearby where they had a WHOLE PASSOVER SECTION brimming with matzo and all kinds of food I'd never heard of. Thank you, Shaw's. I heard you sometimes mistreat your workers but I commend you for having what I need.
This whole meal was well worth the 'itis it caused in the afternoon. I had a hard time staying up for our afternoon Easter church service.
Happy Easter, everybody. HE IS RISEN INDEED, HALLELUJAH!
