Wednesday, January 09, 2008

A Passover Query אַ שאלה אױף פּסח


מיט אַ פּאָר טעג צוריק, האָב איך אָנגעבלאָגעװעט דעם רעצעפּט פֿאַר געבאַקענע קאַבאַק װי אַ פּסחדיקן. דאָס האָב איך געטאָן צוליב דעם װאָס עס איז דאָ גאָרנישט אין דעם װאָס איז דװקא נישט פּסחדיק, און עס איז שױן פֿאַר אַלעמען אין די אױגען אַז דער ליבער יום־טובֿ פּסח קומט צו דונערן אונדז אַנטקעגן װי אַ ייִד צו כאַפּן אַ מינחה. צוריקגערעדט, אָבער, װאָלט איך דעם רעצעפּט מסתּמא קײן מאָל נישט אָפּגעקאָכט אױף פּסח. אַפֿילו װען עס איז נאָך גוט קאַלט אין פֿרילינג, כאַפּט עס זיך ניט אָן.

אָט רבותי, איז מײַן שאלה: אין דער קורץ־קירצלעך צײַט ביז פּסח, װעל איך אַדורכבלעטערן די אַלטע בלאָג־אײנסן און און שטעלן אױף די פּסחדיקע קװיטלעך עץ (און איך) זאָלט זײ קאָנען גרינג געפֿינען. צי זאָל איך שטעלן קװיטלעך אױף אַלע נישט־חמצדיקע, אָדער נאָר אױף די װאָס בעטן זיך מען זאָל זײ אָנגרײטן אום פּסח? און װאָס איז מכּוך זאַכן װאָס שטײען געשריבן אױף דער נאָז, אַזױ װי אוגערקע סאַלאַט? דאַרפֿן זײ אױך קװיטלעך? נו, לאָזט'ץ איבער ענקערע תּשובֿות, אַ שײנעם ש'כּוך!

The other day I marked this herbed squash recipe as “peysekhdik” or kosher for Passover. I did so because there is nothing in the recipe that is not peysekhdik, and it does not escape me that the beloved Passover holiday is thundering towards us like a herd of stampeding wildebeest. At the same time, I am unlikely ever to prepare this recipe for peysekh. Even when it is still really cold in the early spring, somehow this kind of dish is not quite the thing.

So here is my question: in the rapidly vanishing time between now and peysekh (I know you hear those hoofbeats), I am planning to go through my archive and label peysekhdik recipes to make them easier for you (and me) to find. Should I label everything that is not clearly contraindicated for Passover, or just things that really cry out to be made for the joyous holiday currently hurtling in our direction? And what about obvious things like cucumber salad? Should they get tagged too? I will be grateful for any and all comments.

װי אַ ייִד צו כאַפּן אַ מינחה
Like a herd of stampeding wildebeest (lit: Like a Jew on the way to afternoon prayers)

כאַפּט עס זיך ניט אָן
It is not quite the thing

זאַכן װאָס שטײען געשריבן אױף דער נאָז
Obvious things (lit: things that are written on one’s nose)

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pesach? But it's not even Tu 'shvat, and I haven't taken my sukkah down yet

10:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Those who live in the Southern Hemisphere might very well make a squash for peysekh. Of course they might call them something else--gourds or vegetable marrows or something--but we shouldn't hold that against them.

I would go with labelling everything to give people the best possible choice for what works for them.

11:30 AM  
Blogger the chocolate doctor מרת שאקאלאד said...

anonymous,

heh. fifteen days in teyves is when I officially begin to worry in earnest about Peasch. tu 'shvat is when we go into orange alert. I wrote a little about this here
How is your sukkah doing?

nomi,

you are of course right, and this is one of the things that occurred to me when I was posting.

11:52 AM  
Blogger Miriam Segura-Harrison said...

I quite agree with nomi. I would go the extra step of labeling kitniyot recipes too, perhaps with a separate tag, for us kitniyot-consumers :-)

11:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

afile retseptn vos zaynen shtark obvious tsu dir (ugerke salat, lemoshl) zaynen nisht azoy obvious tsu ale - beser tsutsuklepn a kvitl tsu ale retseptn vos pastn. ikh volt tsugeklept mistome a tsveytn kvitl tsu di retseptn vos vern shtark rekomendirt af pesakh.

4:53 PM  
Blogger the chocolate doctor מרת שאקאלאד said...

miriam,

this is a very good point. of course, it would involve creating at least four new categories: one for kitnyes stam, one for oils made from kitnyes, one for things like hemp and flax which are not kitnyes, but then some poskim said maybe they are, so I am not entirely comfortable going on record tagging them as kosher for Passover, and a fourth category for oils and extracts of the third category.

avigayl,
yet more categories! dos iz oykh zeyer a guter aynfal--nu ikhl arbetn oyf dem oyf vifl ikh ken!

5:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would label only those recipes that, as you say "really cry out to be made for the joyous holiday currently hurtling in our direction".
Others that would technically be kosher for Pesach, might still not be a likely choice...such as the squash dish you were mentioning.
Thank you for this great blog, I'll visit often.

manuela

8:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too many categories defeats the original purpose of pulling it all together into a single easily-searched unit. Why not, Pesach-Friendly; Kitniyot/Possible Kitniyot (as a single category); My Favourite Pesach Recipes (that would be your favourites [favorites], not mine). The we only have to search for a maximum of three categories.

You could also do the Pesach Survival Guide as a series of permanent links to the recipes, thus obviating the need to search the blog. I do not get great results from the blog search in blogger. I usually use the advanced search in Google to search within IMA for a particular recipe I remember.

5:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I checked out the herd of wildebeast. Those guys are scary!

3:50 PM  
Blogger The Northernmost Jew said...

I would love your cucumber salad recipe!

7:24 PM  

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