Favorite Passover Recipes

My favorite Passover dishes are brisket with tons of onions and coconut macaroons. The coconut macaroons I truly love to eat are from a recipe I saw on the Food Network’s show The Barefoot Contessa. They are gooey and sweet and just plain addictive. If you cannot have dairy, there is another great macaroon recipe that directly follows it. So, Pessah Sameakh, Good Pesach, Happy Passover to you and your family.

Notes/Suggestions: This is one of the recipes that get handed down generation to generation; it is so simple and everyone always loves it. Don’t worry if you only have one or two types of onions in the house, they will work just fine.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of brisket
• 1 large red onion, sliced
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced
• 1 large white onion, sliced
• 2 large shallots, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 2 cups beef or vegetable broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 5 Tbsp all purpose unbleached flour

Directions:

1. Place the sliced onions and garlic on the bottom of a crock pot.
2. Place the Brisket of beef on top of the onions.
3. Pour the broth over the top. Add salt and pepper.
4. Turn crock pot to low and cook for 12 hours.
5. Just before serving, remove the brisket from the crock pot and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a medium sized sauce pan heat 3 Tbsp of olive oil. Add about 5 Tbsp of flour and make a paste. Adjust thickness with the flour if need be. Heat the flour-oil paste (called a Roux) for 2-4 minutes until the flour is cooked.
7. Slowly add about 2 cups of the broth from the crock pot. Don’t worry if onions get it, that is fine. Continue to stir the gravy over medium heat until it starts to thicken.

To serve, ladle the onion mixture onto a large plate. Slice the brisket and lay over the top of the onions. Serve the gravy on the side

Coconut Macaroons
By Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa (without her permission, but I have been making them for years, I feel like they are my own… Ina, I hope you don’t mind)

Ingredients

• 14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.
3. Drop the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper using either a 1 3/4-inch diameter ice cream scoop, or 2 teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

Coconut Macaroons Again
Something Dairy Free, Wheat Free and Peanut Free for those that have food allergies.
Makes 2 dozen large or 60 small macaroons.

Ingredients:

• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• A pinch of slat
• 1 1/3 cups of baker’s sugar (it is more fine the regular sugar and dissolves better)
• One 14 oz package of flaked, unsweetened coconut

Directions:

1. Pre heat the oven to 325 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a baking mat.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the egg whites with the vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt at medium speed until well incorporated. Then turn the mixer on high and continue to beat the egg combination until soft peaks with curled tips form.
3. Add the sugar in 6 small batches, beating the eggs back to stiff, straight peaks each time.
4. Gently fold in the coconut.
5. For large cookies, use an ice cream scoop to scoop the coconut mixer up and drop on to the cookie sheet. Repeat this process depositing the mixture about every 2 inches. For smaller cookies, using a teaspoon to scoop the coconut mixture onto the cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Shut off the oven and let the cookies dry for an additional 30 minutes in the oven undisturbed.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack or platter.