In the rush to gather, assemble, and cook gourmet Passover recipes for the seder meals, it can be daunting to even consider pre-preparing any meals for chol hamoed. Many families either continue to eat leftovers from the seders, or live off of cold cuts, tuna, and matzah pizza for a few days. Not that there’s anything wrong with matzah pizza, but we here at Gourmet Passover Cooking think it’s possible to make chol hamoed more delicious without tiring yourself out. There are many delicious Passover recipes that may not be suitable for the seder meals, either because they are dairy or simply because they lack the elegance for a Yom Tov meal. Some of these can be made in advance and frozen until the appropriate time, some are great for packing up on a chol hamoed picnic, and some are just plain old comfort food for the family craving their lasagna. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sticky Salami
Passover Mandelbrot
Passover Pizza Dough
Mozzarella Sticks
Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Matzah Toasts

The simple to the more decadent.

Sponge cake is perhaps the most well-known and traditional dessert served on Passover and it has come a long way since our grandmothers and great-grandmothers made it years ago. First, we no longer make it with 12 eggs (that is seriously a health hazard and should be eliminated from your recipe boxes) and second, they are now infused with more flavor including citrus zests, cocoa, vanilla extract, and even coffee and cinnamon. GKC has had a lot of fun taking the traditional sponge cake recipe and elevating it to something extra special for Passover. And of course with the overwhelming number of fantastic products available for Passover today, you can skip the homemade sponge cake and buy one, and use the same recipes below just omit the homemade cake part.

Traditional Sponge Cake
Passover Tiramisu
French Toast
Balsamic Berry Strawberry Shortcake

All these recipes work well with store bought cakes and mixes. We tried the Osem cakes, available in chocolate chip, marble, pound cake, chocolate and coconut, chocolate chocolate chip, and walnut flavor. I loved the chocolate chocolate chip (admittedly, I whirled up some frozen strawberries and drizzled them over the top with pareve whipped cream) and the walnut flavors most. Each is moist and tasty. The added elegance of using it in tiramisu or strawberry shortcake or in a parfait (just layer it with berries, pareve whipped cream and some crumbled cookies) makes it an extraordinary dessert that is easy to prepare. Happy Passover.

In this second installment of “Gearing up for Pesach”, we’re providing a few tips on specifically how to prepare your kitchen and pantry for the joys of kosher for Passover recipes and cooking. Again, these tips are meant for advance use, not the final days. If you wait to do these things until the Seder meal is upon you, you are guaranteed to feel stressed and frustrated year after year.

1. As we mentioned in Part I, it is important to prepare all your cooking utensils in advance of the holiday. This means checking to make sure you have all your pots and pans, plates, cutlery, and other essentials ready to go, as well as bringing all your new items to the mikveh well in advance of Passover.

2. Many ingredients we use all year round are also kosher for Passover. Take some time to do an inventory of your kitchen, and separate out all your unopened kosher for Passover foods, such as canned goods and unopened beverages. This way, you won’t re-buy the products you already have on-hand.

3. If you don’t already have the following essential Kosher for Passover ingredients on-hand, start stocking up on them early. They will be one less thing to worry about when you are doing last-minute shopping:
1. Matzah meal
2. Matzah Cake meal
3. Potato starch
4. Spices, Salt, Pepper, & Sugar
5. Wine & Grape Juice (both for cooking and drinking)
6. Semisweet chocolate

4. Start getting your Passover menu ready well in advance. This means both for the seder meals, and for all the other Passover meals you will have over the course of the holiday. Even if you don’t normally plan out your week’s worth of lunches and dinners, it will be very helpful to have a plan before the holiday begins so that you have one less thing to worry about in the days leading up to it. Collect kosher for Passover recipes together in a single folder from family, friends, old cookbooks, and of course, www.gourmetpassovercooking.com!

While Passover is still a couple of months away, it never hurts to start getting ready early. Many families start thinking about their Passover meals and Passover recipes as early as possible to get a jump start on shopping and stocking up their pantries. When the real preparations begin, such as completely cleaning out the house and starting to prepare your seder meal in earnest, you’ll be glad you thought to get some of the little things out of the way in advance. In this series of blogs on gearing up for Passover, we’ll be providing some tips and ideas on how to think about your Passover menu and ambiance well in advance of the inevitable chaos that ensues around the holiday itself.

First off: some house-cleaning tips.

While this is a Passover recipes website, one cannot ignore the necessity of cleaning the home in as stress-free a way as possible, so as to leave enough time and space to actually prepare the seder meal. In the spirit of stress-free cooking, here are a few quick tips on some ways to keep your home Kosher for Passover well in advance of the holiday itself:

1. Stop allowing ANY food out of the kitchen and dining room at least a month and a half in advance. That includes the car.
2. Once you have banned food in the bedrooms, you can start some of your cleaning in those areas any time before the holiday. Do little things like checking closets and drawers throughout the weeks leading up to Pesach, so you won’t have to worry about that when the holiday arrives.
3. Check out your Pesach supplies, and make sure you are all stocked up on essentials like cooking utensils, new toothbrushes, paper goods, and Yom Tov clothing. These kinds of things should never be left to the last minute, when all you will care about is cooking those delicious Passover meals.
4. If you buy any new cookware, bring it to the Mikveh right away, as it will get very busy as the holiday gets closer.
5. Try using one of those Pesach cleaning schedules that are everywhere in books and on the internet nowadays. Some of them may go a bit overboard, but you can tailor them to your needs. Keeping a good schedule can do wonders for your time-management.