We celebrate Passover and Easter. Since Passover is my favorite holiday (wine, symbolic food plate, literary interpretation, celebration of freedom from exile), and Easter is my least favorite (pastel colors, egg dishes, ridiculous bunny, odd theology), it's no surprise that I enjoy Passover more.
This year for Passover I'm making beans. We're going to a kid-friendly, vegan, kosher Passover. Quite frankly, I shudder at the thought, but I'm playing along. Passover, to me, is all about the brisket and matzoh ball soup: the meat, dammit, the meat. But since the hosts this year are vegans, it will be about beans. Beans, believe it or not, are a contentious food at Passover. Ashkenazi (Jews from Eastern Europe and thereabouts) don't eat them for Passover, but Sephardi (Jews from places like Spain and the Middle East) deem them acceptable. Since vegans subsist on tofu and legumes, the vegan Passover will be Sephardic. Hence, my beans. I'd give you a nice recipe for Lebanese green beans with tomato sauce, but it's too easy. I'd rather give you a more traditional dish, if you are in the Passover business, or you just want to fool your friends.
Chopped liver!
Well, sort of. I brag about my meat eating, but I balk at organs. I invented this recipe last year, a liver-less version of chopped liver, for my husband who doesn't like liver but likes the idea of saying "what am I, chopped liver?" It isn't vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, using chicken and stock, but it makes a grey mush that looks just like the real thing. Doesn't taste bad, either. It tastes like chicken. You can use it as a paté-like spread for any spring holiday you celebrate. And it will clog your arteries 53% less. I made it using already boiled chicken thighs from my soup stock, but you could bake thighs and save some for the spread.
I really hope the above photo of real chopped liver looks appetizing to someone. My fake stuff is a bit lighter and less grainy.
What-Am-I Chopped Liver
Vegetarian faux chopped liver usually contains lentils or mushrooms or both; this recipe springboards off those, but it is much easier to make because it salvages stuff from your already-cooked pot of chicken soup. The stuff still looks like gray mush and smells slightly off, just like the real thing. Hey, be glad you don't have to eat liver. All measurements are approximate.
Serves: whoever wants to eat it
Kitchen needs: working stove burner for chicken soup, plus food processor or blender
3/4 cup shredded chicken from the chicken soup you made last night. Flavorless is ok.
a small chunk of carrot salvaged from the same pot
4-5 small brown mushrooms, chopped (the ones that look like mini-portobellos, or heck, just use part of a portobello)
1/2 med. onion, chopped
a small handful toasted walnuts that you saved from the haroset
one hardboiled egg, if you must (optional)
chopped fresh parsley and carrot, for garnish
dark soy sauce
paprika
salt and pepper
Saute onions in oil until golden. Add chopped mushrooms and saute on relatively high heat to get out liquid. When pan starts to get too hot, add a few spoonfuls off the top of your chicken soup (i.e., skim the fat and use that, plus some broth). When nice and cooked and aromatic, take pan off the heat, then add some dark soy sauce and/or salt, freshly ground black pepper, paprika and the walnuts, egg if you are disgusting, chicken and cooked carrot.
Put the whole thing in a food processor and blend, blend to your heart's content. Again, it is supposed to be a spreadable mush. Garnish with chopped carrot and parsley; serve with matzoh. Enjoy, if you can.
P.S. If you are interested in vegetarian chopped liver, avoid the revolting recipes using canned peas, and try this one using mushrooms or this recipe using, what! beans!.
Photo courtesy of someone's flickr set.
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