It was not a traditional seder, but it was a seder nonetheless. We bought an apple, walnuts, eggs, horseradish root, Kedem kosher wine and Haggadahs all in preparation for this night. My fiance had already started on a box of matzoh this week, so we were good on the matzoh. We used his grandmother's crystal for our wine glasses and had his grandmother's seder plate on display. I helped to cook the food and I have to say that everything turned out very delicious!
The charoset was made with one very sweet green apple, a handful of walnuts, a splash of lemon juice and some kosher wine. It's a basic recipe and turned out very yummy! Everything was pulsed into a fine pulp in the food processor. I didn't measure everything out but I made sure I only used about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of lemon juice and enough kosher wine that it sweetened and moistened everything, but didn't cover up the taste of the apples and lemon.
I also roasted a hard boiled egg in the toaster oven to make the beitzah. I probably should have poked a few holes in the shell before I put it in the oven because it cracked dramatically while roasting! My fiance didn't mind it, saying that in his family, they don't eat the egg so it doesn't matter that it cracked. Well, since I would rather not waste food, once the seder was over, I ate the egg. Lol! There was a slightly smoky flavor to the egg and it was delicious in the salt water.
As for the bitter herb, we used horseradish. It was a big root and we only needed a little for the seder. So after my fiance cut out the portion he wanted to use, I made the rest into prepared horseradish to put into our mashed potatoes. It's actually very easy! After you skin the root, cut it up into pieces and pulse in the food processor until fine. Because fresh horseradish can make your eyes burn and make you really, really uncomfortable, you should grind horseradish outside or near an open window with a fan blowing. Our root was rather old and not very strong, so we just did it near the window. Once you have the horseradish ground fine, add enough vinegar to coat and a tiny pinch of sea salt to taste. It tasted wonderful! I don't think I'll ever have the store-bought stuff and be satisfied anymore! We did put a little of the prepared horseradish on the plate with the bitter herb for the hillel sandwich.
So then we sat with our haggadahs and did our very own seder. For the festive meal, we were so stuffed already, we just had some horseradish mashed potatoes. Basically mashed potatoes flavored with the fresh prepared horseradish I made earlier. It was so good, we stuffed ourselves on it and couldn't eat anything else for the meal! After the seder was over and everything washed and put away, we still had a lot of leftover matzoh.
So I made some chocolate-covered matzoh! The method is very simple. Wrap an oven rack in foil and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then take equal amounts of butter and brown sugar and boil it for three minutes in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Pour it over the matzoh and spread to coat. Then place the matzoh in the oven and reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Keep an eye on the matzoh to make sure it doesn't burn. If it starts to burn, reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. and you can take the matzoh out for a bit to cool it down a little. Bubbling is okay though. Bake for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up some Toblerone chocolate, or whatever chocolate you have on hand, or use semisweet chocolate chips. Once the 15 minutes are up, take the matzoh out of the oven and spread the chocolate out on it. Wait a few minutes and begin spreading the melted chocolate to coat. Allow the matzoh to cool completely before enjoying. We actually ate half the matzoh before the chocolate cooled completely. Lol! It was soooooooo delicious!
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