Preparation for Easter

As a way to prepare ourselves for celebrating Easter, my husband and I had a traditional Seder Plate.  We read both the Haggadah and the New Testament Last Supper passages in the gospels.  It was a really great experience, something about how the food is used to represent the struggles of the Jewish people helps to show the significance of the Exodus story and understand how the observation of Passover fits into Holy Week.

The Seder Plate includes

a hard-boiled egg, a symbol of mourning

bitter herbs, representing the bitterness of slavery

Charoset (recipe below), represents the mortar used when slaves

Karpas  (celery), a symbol of the pain suffered by the Jewish slaves in Eygpt 

Chazeres (horseradish), a symbol for the harshness of slavery

a roasted shankbone, a reminder of the Pesach sacrifice (I didn't have one)

Some of my patients were gracious enough to share some of their family's Passover recipes.  If I had made everything we would have been eating for days.  Most of the recipe were for the Festive Meal.  Once however was for the Charoset.  It is a mixture of apples, nuts, sweet wine, and cinnamon.  It was good but even better when mixed with the bitter herbs which I know sounds strange.

Charoset

2 apples

1/4 cup of walnuts

3 TBS of sweet wine

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor.  Keep it running until the mixture is an even consistency, you may need to add a bit more wine.