GATHERING A Louisiana Passover Seder Merges Generations and Culinary Traditions By Rien Fertel Photography by David Gallent

This Passover feast explores the city’s historic Jewish communities and their ties with Creole cuisine, featuring the contrasting styles of Mildred Covert’s Ashkenazic, (brisket and root ) and Alon Shaya’s Sephardic (Mediterranean-centric nuts, honey, and oil) backgrounds.

ometimes this gets Springing from one of his earliest food me into trouble when memories—the scent of flame-charred I say it, but I don’t peppers and wafting throughout believe there is any his grandmother’s kitchen—the recipe such thing as Jewish works as a deconstructed —the cooking.” Mildred stewed, southern Italian cousin to the Covert is no rab- French —but with an additional ble-rouser, but this feels like a subversive drizzle of tahini. “Sstatement, especially considering that Or, better yet, take the Israeli-born chef ’s we are gathered for a Seder, the ceremo- Matzo Ball Soup “Wedding Style,” a bowl nial meal that commences the Passover of which I look forward to eating each year holiday, the festive commemoration of the at the week-long series of Passover dinners Israelites’ freedom from bondage in Egypt. Shaya holds at Domenica, his Roosevelt Alon Shaya, perhaps the brightest young Hotel-located restaurant in New Orleans. chef in America, changing the way eaters Substituting airy-light matzo balls for the think about traditional Jewish foods, nods dense meatballs found in Napoli region’s excitedly. “Yes! It’s from everywhere. That’s minestra maritata (married or wedding the beauty of it.” He unconsciously reaches soup), he brilliantly melds two soupy tra- down to rearrange the that top a ditions. One of this evening’s Seder guests plate of roasted and continues. declared this to be his favorite matzo ball “Like in , there’s this great old Jewish- soup, next to his bubbe’s, of course. Chef . …” Shaya smartly responded. “I’m not in the That dish exemplifies the shared ideas business of competing with grandmothers, from Shaya and Covert’s exchange—the but I do want y’all to know, the cook who roots, customs, and assimilationist-ten- made these matzo balls is from Cut-Off, dencies of Jewish culinary culture. Louisiana.”

Chef Alon Shaya’s wood-fired matzos. Menu by Mrs. Mildred Covert (Kosher Creole) & Chef Alon Shaya (Domenica) | Hosted by James and Patricia Glickman & Family

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ust as this soup linked the familiar with the contemporary, the planners of this Seder ambitiously set a table and guest list that spanned generations, cooking styles, and cultural traditions. This Passover feast would explore the city’s historic Jewish communities and their I am New Orleans: ties with Creole cuisine, featuring the contrasting styles of Mildred Covert’s “We broke our Yom Ashkenazic, (brisket and root vegetables) andJ Alon Shaya’s Sephardic (Mediterranean-centric nuts, honey, and ) backgrounds. Kippur fast on fried A local culinary icon, Covert was the guest of honor, for her role in bridging Jewish and Louisiana culinary chicken and potato canons. Back in 1982, Covert co-authored with Sylvia Gerson the Kosher Creole Cookbook, a quirky, comb- s a l a d .” bound recipe collection CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: Chef Mrs. Mildred Covert that, with great impro- Alon Shaya and Mrs. Mildred Covert share visation and ingenuity, the Hagaddah at the Passover table; adapts the eat-anything musicians Randy Cohen a.k.a. “19th Street approach of Creole Red” and Ben Shenck of the Pamorama cooking to the occa- Jazz and Brass bands; the Glickman sionally strict system family’s collection of kosher cookbooks; Seder hosts Jimmy and Patricia Glickman of Jewish dietary laws. at the New Orleans Music Exchange, their Because much of our popular Magazine Street store; Chef Alon water’s bounty is Shaya in his kitchen at Domenica, his forbidden to obser- restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel. vant Jews, the authors swap in gefilte fish for the main proponent in their Oysters Mock-A-Feller and tuna for shrimp in the Stuffed Mirlitons. In many dishes, kosher smoked sausage easily replaces the variety of porky products. While Louisiana’s abundant use of fresh vegetables, eggs, and certain fishes (such as redfish, trout, and flounder) remind us how pareve—the term for non-meat/dairy foods that can be eaten with anything, according to Jewish law—Creole cuisine really is. Adaptation is the key idea—the “big magic word” in her words—to Covert’s lengthy career as an author and home cook. Growing up in a kosher-keeping home, she remembers eating her grandmother’s red beans and rice each Monday, with brisket displacing the ham hocks and sausage. Despite such culinary switches, she and her family never thought of them- selves as outsiders. “I am New Orleans,” she asserts. “We broke our Yom Kippur fast on fried chicken and potato salad.”

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hen she This sense of community informs the lives and married Uptown home of our Seder hosts, Jimmy and her Patricia Glickman. The shop they co-own, the less-devout New Orleans Music Exchange, acts as a nucleus of husband, the city’s vast and various circles of professional David, and amateur musicians. It was a bit difficult to though, she keep kosher when he moved here in 1985, Mr. was faced, Glickman said. But the Passover ritual and dinner for the first is adaptable to one’s own degrees of Judaic belief. time, with Glickman has attended nine-hour-long Seder the challenge of cooking ham. She went to the ceremonies, but prefers his family’s semi-ortho- grocery, unsure of how much salt-pork to pur- dox, somewhat freewheeling approach. “We chase. “I need a piece of meat for my husband to do it how we want to,” he says, inviting, each Weat,” she told the butcher, who presented a piece spring, a diverse group of 10 to 20 individuals, that looked much too small. “I asked for a bigger frequently including local musicians. This piece,” (she holds up early evening, her hands indicating Randy Cohen, a a cut of meat much MENU singer/guitarist too big) “and cooked who travels around it in red beans. Dave the world playing took one bite and it On the Seder Plate: Charoset under the sobriquet was like eating brine.” (Chef Alon Shaya) 19th Street Red, She teases herself. “It and clarinetist Ben had to have been a Soup Course: Matzo Ball Soup Schenck, founder mental block. I could “Wedding Style” of the New Orleans not remember things (Chef Alon Shaya) Klezmer All-Stars and with pork in it.” the Panorama Jazz and Entrée and For decades, Mrs. Accompaniments: Creole Pot Roast Piquant, Brass Bands, join the Covert was known (to be passed Galilee Glazed Carrots, Passover table. as the little lady in family-style) The history of Jewish the red-brick house Jaffa Jazzy Beets; people and New Orleans (all from Kosher Creole by Mrs. Mildred Covert) The Seder Plate near Tulane’s campus has long been entwined, who, in those pre- Coal-Roasted Eggplant with jazz musicians and word processor days, with Tahini and Olive supporters playing key typed dissertations Oil- Roasted Vegetables roles in the evolution of (Chef Alon Shaya) and manuscripts for the musical form. In the In a medium saucepan, students and profes- late 19th and early 20th combine vinegar, sugar, sors. She obtained Salad Course: Bitter Salad centuries, thousands wine, , apples, and her lifelong dream of (Chef Alon Shaya) of Eastern European honey. Cook on a low writing a book when Ashkenazic Jews—my flame until onions become one of her clients Dessert: Passover Almond Cake great-grandparents translucent, about seven spied on her desk with Figs, Orange, among them—settled ⅓ cup rice wine vinegar minutes. Stir gently so that a mimeographed and Honey throughout the city and ⅓ cup granulated sugar apples retain their shape; compilation of rec- (Chef Alon Shaya) state. They followed ⅓ cup Moscato d’Asti wine remove from heat. ipes titled Creosher scores of Sephardic, ⅓ cup onions, cut in ½-inch dice In a separate bowl, com- Cooking, which she French, and German 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, Charoset bine figs, dates, preserves, had put together with immigrants from cored, cut in ½-inch dice Chef Alon Shaya citrus zest, and juices. her friend Gerson. For the past three decades, Western Europe who migrated and readily assimi- ¼ cup honey the Pelican Publishing Company has kept their lated into the city, a century earlier. The Ashkenazi, My mother would always make charoset 1 cup dried figs, cut in ½-inch dice Place fig mixture in a first cookbook in print, along with its three like the Sephardi before them, used food to for us at the house during Passover. 1 cup dates, cut in ½-inch dice food processor and lightly kosher sequels that highlight Cajun, Southern, integrate and define themselves against Creole I loved it because it was sweet and ¼ cup good-quality apricot preserves pulse one or two times until and cooking for children. The cookbook series, New Orleans. As Marcie Cohen Farris writes in complex in flavor and really gave me a zest and juice of ½ lemon ingredients combine but are according to Covert, fulfilled its promise in Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish reason to eat matzo out of a box. Some zest and juice of ½ orange not puréed. Return to mixing locating and re-creating a source of ethnic Jewish South, “Through foods served in their homes, at of my favorite Italian ingredients seem ½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts bowl. Gently mix in the pride within the city and region, in “letting a fund-raising banquets, and in food businesses, like they were created for charoset. That ½ cup chopped toasted pistachios apple and mixture; community know who we are, where we are, and Jews of New Orleans . . . defined their relationship is why I added moscato wine, pistachios, 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt fold in hazelnuts, pistachios, that we are still here.” to the Gentile world that surrounded them.” and hazelnuts to my version. pinch ground allspice salt, and allspice. Serves 6.

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Creole Pot Roast Piquant Matzo Ball Soup I’m not in the business of Mrs. Mildred Covert At Passover, when I was a child in New Orleans, “Wedding Style” competing with grandmothers, everyone in our big family looked forward to “real meat,” Chef Alon Shaya “but I do want y’all to know, the since we were usually “chickened” and “turkeyed” to One of my favorite Italian soups is wedding soup. There is some- death. And when that roast was laid on the table—the thing about meatballs floating around in a lemony broth that makes cook who made these matzo balls sweet and spicy aroma, the hearty presentation, and the me very hungry. I’ve had some fun with this classic and switched out is from Cut-Off, Louisiana.” texture that was crisp on the outside, moist through and the meatballs for matzo balls. The beans, tomatoes, and escarole through—we knew a culinary tradition had been honored. combine to really make the textures and flavors more appealing to Chef Alon Shaya me than just plain matzo balls in chicken broth. ¼ cup potato starch 2 teaspoons salt 1 5-pound chicken, giblets removed ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper 1 large onion, halved Remove chicken; cool. Remove all meat; save for another use. 1 3- to 4-pound beef pot roast 1 large carrot, peeled, cut in half 2 tablespoons peanut oil 2 celery ribs, washed, cut in thirds Carefully add Matzo Balls to broth; cook slowly for 45 minutes. At this point, soup may be held warm until ready to serve. When ready 1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes, preferably Creole 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 onions, halved and sliced 2 bay leaves to serve, add cannellini beans, escarole, and tomatoes; cook until heated through, about 10 minutes on medium heat. Season with ½ teaspoon grated ginger or Matzo Balls (recipe follows) ¼ teaspoon ground, dried ginger 1 cup cooked while beans, such as cannellini lemon juice and salt if necessary, and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil just before serving. Serves 6. 1 cup orange juice 6 baby carrots, peeled, halved, blanched ¼ cup red wine (labeled kosher for Passover) 2 heads escarole, washed, blanched, chopped coarsely Matzo Balls Combine potato starch, salt, and pepper. Coat meat 10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half 1 cup matzo meal with mixture. Add oil to a Dutch oven, preferably cast salt 4 teaspoons kosher salt iron, set over high heat; add meat and brown on all 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice ½ teaspoon onion powder sides. Add tomatoes and onions; reduce heat to low, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil ½ cup duck fat (or chicken fat) cover, and simmer two hours. Add ginger, orange juice, 4 whole eggs, lightly beaten and wine; stir. Cover and continue simmering until meat Remove excess fat from chicken. Rinse chicken under cold running is tender, about one hour. Serves 8. water; place in a large pot. Cover chicken with cold water; slowly bring Mix matzo meal with salt, onion powder, and powder. Warm to a simmer over low heat. Skim off all foam and fat as it rises to the duck fat until it becomes liquid, but not hot. Add eggs and duck fat to top. Continue cooking on low simmer until chicken is fork tender, about other ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Let mixture rest in refrigerator for Galilee Glazed Carrots 45 minutes. Add onions, carrots, celery, salt, and bay leaves; continue one hour before rolling into one-ounce balls about the size of ping- Mrs. Mildred Covert cooking partially covered on lowest possible heat, for 3 hours. pong balls. Makes about 24 balls. With so many Seder dishes to serve to so many people, these holiday carrots were always a simple addition that required little fanfare. Just clean them, cut them, boil them, and add the condiments. Inevitably, several guests always asked for this “simply sweet” recipe they knew they could handle. 12 to 14 large carrots, peeled salt 4 tablespoons melted pareve margarine Nicole Glickman, daughter 4 tablespoons local of the host and hostess honey ¼ teaspoons cinnamon Guest juice and rind of Ben Shenck 1 orange Cook carrots in boiling, salted water until crisp-tender; drain. Set aside. Combine margarine, honey, and cinnamon in vessel within which carrots were cooked. Blend well; set over medium heat. Add orange juice and zest, and carrots. Cook until carrots are glazed, carefully turning to coat evenly. Serves 6.

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Coal-Roasted Eggplant Tahini Sauce Bitter Herb Salad with Tahini and Olive ½ cup raw Tahini paste Chef Alon Shaya Oil-Roasted Vegetables 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed This is a fun salad to make, because it Chef Alon Shaya lemon juice really combines a piece of biblical history with beautiful and fresh ingredients that As a child, my grandmother would roast 2 garlic cloves, minced are easy to find. The bitter herbs, also peppers and eggplant in the house over 1 teaspoon salt known as maror, symbolize the bitterness an open flame. It is one of my first food Combine all ingredients in a food pro- the Jews experienced when they were memories. This dish allows me to relive cessor; process until very smooth. Some slaves in Egypt. I like to use herbs grow- those memories through its wonderful water may need to be added to create ing close to my home in New Orleans, aromas and flavors. a texture that is conducive to drizzling. Makes about ¾ cup. but any herbs may be used based on 5 whole eggplants what is available to you and your taste. 1 cup finely chopped heirloom tomatoes 2 cups frisée lettuce 1 roasted red pepper, 1 cup red mustard frills finely chopped 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves bottom of 1 leek, washed, 2 cups dandelion greens finely chopped 1 red endive, sliced 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil 4 baby red beets 2 teaspoons chopped fresh 4 baby pink beets (Chioggia) leaves 4 baby yellow beets oil for frying 1 cup rice wine vinegar tops from 1 leek, washed Jaffa Jazzy Beets ½ cup sliced green onions ¼ cup spearmint leaves and julienned Mrs. Mildred Covert ¼ cup sorrel leaves salt Fresh beets “beat” everything, especially Tahini Sauce (recipe follows) Horseradish Vinaigrette when we went to buy them downtown (recipe follows) If you have a wood-burning oven, at the French Market—long before there remove enough hot coals to cover five were so many convenient, neighborhood Wash and dry all lettuces. Set aside. whole eggplants. Place half on bottom of farmers markets everywhere you turn. Bring a pot of water to boil; add beets CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The a hotel pan; place eggplants atop. Cover The sweet tooth takes over with the and cook until just tender, about 10 Seder table with Coal-Roasted eggplants with remaining hot coals. If you combination of fresh vegetables and juicy minutes. Drain, cool, peel, and cut into Eggplant at the foreground; do not have a wood-burning oven, char fruits that turned this into another one of quarters. Place beets in a container with writer Rien Fertel with Mrs. eggplants on stove top over high heat, our family’s signature Passover dishes. No one cup of rice wine vinegar; set aside. substitutions allowed here. My Polish- Mildred Covert; Mrs. Covert’s using a metal grate to hold them steady. To serve, drain vinegar from beets. immigrant grandmother insisted on white Jaffa Jazzy Beets; Seder host Turn until charred all over, then place in Combine reserved lettuces, beets, and raisins, and white raisins only! Jimmy Glickman raises a glass a 400ºF oven until tender throughout, green onions in a large bowl; toss with just to his guests. about 15 minutes. 2 bunches fresh beets, peeled, enough Horseradish Vinaigrette to lightly Combine reserved tomatoes, roasted thinly sliced coat salad. Serves 4. peppers, and leek bottoms in a sauce pot 2 medium apples, thinly sliced with olive oil and thyme. Cook over low- 2 oranges, peeled and sliced est possible heat until vegetables are soft ¼ teaspoon cinnamon but still identifiable, about 20 minutes. 1 cup orange juice 2 tablespoons peanut oil Meanwhile, heat oil to 375ºF. 1 tablespoon local honey Fill a small sauce pot with water and 1 teaspoon salt Horseradish Vinaigrette bring to a boil over high heat. Blanch and ½ teaspoon orange zest ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil shock julienned leek tops. Dry thoroughly, ¼ cup sultanas (white raisins) ¼ cup sherry vinegar then fry until oil stops bubbling. Remove In a one-and-a-half-quart casserole dish, 2 tablespoons honey with a slotted spoon; drain on paper layer arrange beets, apples, and orange 4 tablespoons freshly towels; season with salt. slices in alternating layers, sprinkling grated horseradish To serve, cut each roasted eggplant in each layer with cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons Creole mustard half lengthwise; season with salt. orange juice, oil, honey, salt, and orange ½ clove garlic, minced Drizzle Tahini Sauce over eggplant and zest; pour over layers in casserole dish. 1 teaspoon kosher salt spoon some atop the “confit” Top with raisins. 1 teaspoon lemon juice atop; top with fried leek tops. Serves 10 Cover; bake until tender, about one Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl as an appetizer. hour. Serves 6 to 8. and whisk together.

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Passover Almond Cake with y imme- diate Figs, Orange, and Honey family long Chef Alon Shaya ago left 2 tablespoons matzo meal, plus the faith, some for dusting pan so this 2 cups almond flour traditional (or finely ground almonds) Passover dinner counted as my first. ¾ cup sugar, in all MFrom the Kadeish—the opening ¼ cup brown sugar blessing and imbibing of the first 6 whole eggs, whites and cup of wine—to the Yachatz—the yolks separated breaking of the matzo bread—and 6 tablespoons pure olive oil the concluding prayer of Nirtzah 2 tablespoons orange juice (“Next year in Jerusalem!”) many 1 tablespoon lemon juice glasses of wine later, each ceremo- 2 tablespoons orange zest nial step ranked as decidedly new. ½ teaspoon kosher salt I wouldn’t say I was taking the Honey Syrup (recipe follows) first steps in rediscovering my lost Nut Topping (recipe follows) heritage, but I was connecting to a Fig Marmellata (recipe follows) TOP: Jimmy and Patricia Glickman gathered past that both is and is not my own. family and friends for a Louisiana-style Brush the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan with Speaking to Alon Shaya, I learned Passover Seder featuring a menu of foods olive oil, then dust with matzo meal. that he also reconnected to his past from Chef Alon Shaya of Domenica and Mrs. through food. After years migrating Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mildred Covert’s Kosher Creole Cookbook. along the national chef circuit, Chef Shaya and Mrs. Covert were guests of In a mixing bowl, combine matzo meal, and finally settling in New Orleans honor. LEFT: Seder guest Marcy Nathan almond flour, a quarter cup of granulated sugar a decade ago, a frequent patron and the brown sugar. asked the chef to cook his family a In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks and Passover dinner. The recipes and another quarter cup of granulated sugar; beat Honey Syrup Nut Topping ritual renewed Shaya’s interest in with a whip attachment until thick and fluffy, ½ cup honey ¼ cup roasted pistachios Judaism. “I do it all through cook- about six minutes. Drizzle in olive oil; when 3 tablespoons Manischewitz wine ¼ cup roasted hazelnuts ing,” he affirms. combined, add juices and zest. pinch kosher salt ¼ cup roasted pine nuts Mildred Covert agrees. When she pinch ground black pepper 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon started cooking, and later began Fold dry ingredients into egg-yolk mixture. compiling her first cookbook, In a saucepan over medium heat, combine ¼ cup sugar she remembered that her Polish In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites and all ingredients; cook until honey begins to zest of 1 orange grandmother did not know what salt to soft peaks. Slowly add remaining sugar; bubble. Remove from heat; set aside to cool Place all ingredients in food processor and a banana or was before keep beating until stiff peaks form. to room temperature. pulse several times until nuts are coarsely immigrating to the United States. Fold whipped egg whites into egg yolk chopped. But within years, she adopted mixture to form a thick batter. Spoon into Mrs. Mildred Covert looks on to the local cuisine, marrying it prepared pan. approvingly as Chef Alon Shaya carefully drizzles his signature with her own until the family ate Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center Passover Almond Cakes with enough Louisiana produce to have, comes out clean, about 30 minutes; brush cake Honey Syrup. in Covert’s words, “tomato gravy it with Honey Syrup and sprinkle Nut Topping coming out of our ears.” evenly atop cake. When cool, fill center with Jewish people adopt, amal- room-temperature Fig Marmellata. Serves 10. gamate, and transform culinary cultures. They unite the past and Fig Marmellata present to construct entirely ½ cup honey unique cooking styles. That is 3 cups Manischewitz wine the beauty of Shaya and Covert’s zest and juice of 1 orange distinct contributions to Jewish zest and juice of 1 lemon and Louisiana foodways. This is ½ teaspoon kosher salt Jewish cooking, and this is Creole 4 cups dried figs, cut into fourths cuisine. Fluid yet orthodox. Mildred 2 cups dates, seeded, cut into fourths Covert tells me, “We must be doing something right after all these Combine all ingredients into a medium pot. centuries.” ◆ Place on low heat until mixture thickens, about 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

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