(What? no pictures of apples? How could this be?!! Somehow I’ve never taken any during Passover–maybe Tuesday…)
I know, I know, it’s already Friday afternoon, Passover starts tomorrow night after sundown, and have I cleaned out my fridge? Have I found the all-important kosher-enough-for-me chocolate and kosher-enough-for-anyone cocoa powder? Um…no. I did just bake the remaining bowl of dough (why? why?) for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. I kashered the oven afterward, if that’s any comfort. But really. I’ve been hating the idea of kashering for Passover this year more than usual, and that’s saying something. I hate it every year, especially the fridge. And all the boiling. And trying to remember which frying pan was going to be okay for dairy.
It’s just me and my husband this time, again, not even our daughter this year except by Zoom–and due to March Madness, she reports that the typical sports stupids on Syracuse’s campus have been partying maskless AGAIN, like it’s a big surprise that COVID is still around and still actually matters more than the coach’s son’s basketball talents. The distanced seder she was going to is not happening, or at least not for her. The lady in charge is sending her a Pesach kit so she can be a party of one at home–we’ll Zoom with her a couple of hours before we start and so she doesn’t have to be starting at 10 at night to be with us. But oy.
Passover ideas on this site
So I’m obviously not feeling all that brilliant and I don’t have a lot of new great ideas other than the ones I always have, to make best use of a microwave where you can–mostly for fresh vegetables–and to keep the matzah modest and out where you can identify it easily as matzah, not all kinds of dubious baked “treats.” More plain fruit than baked goods–citrus if you still can. Keep the vegetables in the soup, whether chicken or not-chicken. And mostly, don’t forget not to grate raw daikon radish and pour on any vinegar if you can’t find horseradish. That is sage advice, there, the actual one thing I would not do again, ever, so please learn from our hilarious but horrifying experience a few years ago!
I plan to honor my ancestors, including my grandfather whose memoir of escaping the Pale of Settlement I’m re-editing right now, by not wasting food if I can help it and not whining too much for things there just aren’t. Keep it simple, make do, try to make sure other people have food. Keep walking. Improvise.
If you want or need some ideas for microwaveable Passover stuff, look either in the Recipes tab at the top of the page or use the search to find “Passover”. Or in my fabulous “Microwaveable Passover/not-chicken” post from a coupla years ago, which has a roster of links you may or may not enjoy–sort of like second prize in a matzah-crunching competition…
And one more
Meanwhile, one quick, cheap microwaveable idea for the day: microwave applesauce from scratch.
Let’s say you have a couple of apples. Big ones. Maybe with a couple of bruises. And they’ve been sitting in your fridge or in your fruit bowl or (if you’re old-fashioned enough) apple barrel long enough to need using. What can you do with them that doesn’t take more effort than it’s worth? Actually, this is a good time to be using them up instead of tossing them and going back to the store before you really have to.
If you’re not interested in eating them as-is, then at least peel them, core them and cut them up–slices for microwave apple toaster pastry or an apple omelet, dice for throwing into microwave oatmeal, or just whole but peeled for grating…
Grating? yes. I mean, you could get out the food processor if you want, or if you have a lot of apples to do. But if you have a flat or box grater and only one or two apples to use up, it’s probably faster to do it by hand and you don’t have to wash as many utensils afterward. This is what I did on my one night of latke-making during Chanukah this year, because we had no applesauce in the house and I wasn’t about to dash out and buy some. Plus the grater was still handy. It was a seriously nice surprise that it wasn’t a flop.
Microwave Applesauce
Apple(s), washed and peeled–that’s it. Unless you want lemon juice or cinnamon or something–I’d say add that after microwaving, though, because cinnamon contains a compound that’s slightly hyperreactive in the microwave, and depending what and how much stuff you’re adding it to can result in unexpected boilover.
Make the applesauce:
Set the grater in or over a bowl, preferably microwaveable, and grate each peeled apple just about down to the core on one side, give it a quarter-turn and grate it down again, turn and grate the remaining sides and throw away or compost the core. Once you have the gratings in the bowl, stick the pulp in the microwave for about 1.5-2 minutes per cup, just enough to get it cooked through, and voilà! You have fresh (though hot) applesauce and nothing but. Obviously, if your grating bowl’s not microwave-friendly, transfer the stuff to a snaplock or other container that is before you nuke.
Or you could go the other way, especially if you’re making more than 1 or 2 apples’ worth of sauce. Peel and this time core the apples, quarter them, nuke them in a lidded container with a drizzle of water for a few minutes until they’re cooked, then mash them by hand or whiz them in a food processor.
Happy Passover, chag same’ach, stay safe, wear a mask, wash your hands, don’t poke yourself in the eye especially if you’ve been handling horseradish, and eat nice.
Filed under: cooking, frugality, fruits, holiday cooking, Microwave tricks, sauces and condiments | Tagged: food, recipes |
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