Be kosher

Published 4:53 pm Friday, March 30, 2012

As Catholics prepare to observe Good Friday with a traditional menu of seafood, many Jewish members of the community are starting to plan their Passover Seder menu in observance of Passover, one of the most widely celebrated Jewish traditions. Passover officially begins at sundown April 6.

With a little prior planning and the many Jewish kosher boxed mixes now available at local supermarkets, it is easy to prepare for a small or large Passover Seder celebration that will “wow” guests.

Adele Levy Wormser is already looking through her cookbook filled with old family Jewish recipes in preparation for a community Seder to be held at Congregation Gates of Prayer.

“We observe Passover with a community celebration. All of the food is prepared ahead and brought to the celebration. Some of the people in our congregation have a second night Seder at their home,” said Wormser, a congregation member and GED teacher at PEPI.

“It is not as much about the religion end of it as it is about a celebration of the freedom of the Jews from slavery when they left Egypt.”

Wormser said many congregations offer community Seders as a means of including the single, elderly and childless couples or those without families to partake in a Passover Seder.

Many of the recipes are based around Matzo, often called an unleavened bread of flour and water, considered as the official food of the Passover.

“When the Jews were freed from slavery and leaving Egypt there was no time for the bread to rise, resulting in Matzo. It is one of the main ingredients used in many of the recipes for the Passover celebration,” said the New Iberia resident.

Matzo, sometimes called Matzoh or Matza, can be found in a ground form that is either coarse or in a fine meal and is often used as a substitute for flour in Passover cooking, she said.

The traditional Jewish Matzo Ball Soup and Matzo Ball Dressing still remain among the favorite Jewish dishes of Wormser, a native of New Orleans and her husband, Johnny, and their four grown children.

Right along the side of the many ingredients staked in Wormser’s pantry to prepare the family’s favorite Cajun dishes are foods and box mixes to make the family’s time-honored Jewish dishes.

But Wormser is quick to admit, many of those dishes are spiced up a bit with Cajun seasoning.

“There are so many people in the community who are not Jewish, but enjoy the food and are starting to celebrate with a Passover Seder. The demand for the products is so great that many of the local supermarkets are now carrying a large variety of the box mixes, making it easier to prepare the traditional foods” said Wormser.

As with any celebration, comes a sweet ending. Desserts are kept simple and are non-leaven for the Passover celebration, Wormser said.

Wormser will be trying out a new dessert recipe, Molten Chocolate Cakes, passed along by her daughter-in-law Stacy Ezra Wormser who resides with husband, Michael, and their two daughters in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The five-ingredient chocolate dessert is non-leaven and is a perfect dessert for Passover or for any chocolate lover any time of the year.

“I receive a lot of random phone calls from people asking me to share a Jewish recipe. I like to spread the word about our food, so I really don’t minD sharing,” said Wormser.