Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Easter is Over, but my Jewish guests are keeping kosher for Passover - what can I NOT serve?

Problem
What can I serve Jewish guests who are keeping kosher for Passover?

Answer
Let's start with what not to serve. Bread. You need matzo.

Unfortunately it has to be kosher for Passover. We happily bought Matzos in Waitrose.

Later I looked at my matzos. Not for Passover!

I'm not kidding. Here's proof.

NOT FOR PASSOVER USE on a packet of Matzos.

They will keep for a year. But no good this Passover, nor next Passover.

Then I looked online. The online stores selling kosher for Passover goods were closed for Passover.

Waitrose search offered me assorted goods. When I got down to bacon I realised something was wrong.

I then tried searching again under kosher. I came up with nothing.

I looked online for kosher for Passover. I found lots of advice, including the goods not allowed, basically anything that can be fermented:

no barley - so no chicken soup with barley
no oats - so porridge breakfast is out
no rye - I had already guessed no rye bread allowed since bread is the big well-known no-no
no spelt - what's that?
no wheat - yes, I guessed.

I remember one year I visited an ultra frum household (my former travel agent). She never used to be so frum (frum is Yiddish for religious - keeping all the rules). However, her daughter married somebody ultra-orthodox, so, if my friend wants her daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren to visit her house, she has to keep completely kosher.

I thought I would be ok taking her a pot plant as a gift, but, apparently, that was out, too. Literally out. It had to be put down - not killed, put downstairs, in the garage.

Growing food in the garden is now even more imperative, if I am to cater for Passover. I can't grow barley, oats, rye, spelt nor wheat. But I wasn't planning growing those anyway. I have a lawn. How about tomatoes on a windowsill? I shall have to check.

The moral is, buy your kosher for Passover food before Passover. I shall know for next year. Now I know why so many Jewish people like to go to hotels for a Passover meal. Because it is such a palaver. At the end of the Passover seder meal, you read in the Haggadah: Next year in Jerusalem. From a catering point of view, I can see why.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous posts on Passover.






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