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Saturday we spent the Seder with our Moroccan recipe contributor and her family. It was a true Moroccan style seder, right down to the soup. It gave me the chance to get some much needed pictures of some of the Moroccan Salads we’ll be featuring in our authentic Morrocan cookbooks.
The rules of Passover are universal to all ethnicities within Judaism. The customs vary from one region to the next, so one might find certain foods on the Sephardic Seder table that would not be found on the Seder table of an Ashkenazic Jew.
Below is an excerpt explaining the rules and the customs of Passover. It was excerpted from http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault/All_About_Kitniyot.asp
“The Torah instructs a Jew not to eat (or even possess) chametz during all seven days of Passover (Exodus 13:3).
“Chametz” is defined as any of the five grains — wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye — which has come into contact with water for more than 18 minutes. This is a serious Torah prohibition, and for that reason we take extra protective measures on Passover to prevent any mistakes.
Which brings us to the category of prohibited Passover food called “kitniyot.” Sometimes referred to generically as “legumes,” this includes rice, corn, soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils, mustard, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Even though kitniyot cannot technically become chametz, Ashkenazi Jews do not eat them on Passover. Why?
The Smak (Rabbi Yitzchak of Korbol) explains that products of kitniyot appear like chametz products. For example, it can be hard to distinguish between rice flour (kitniyot) and wheat flour (chametz). Therefore, to prevent confusion, all kitniyot was prohibited.
The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo, 16th century, Israel) notes that since regular grains may become mixed together with kitniyot (apparently due to changes in crop cycles), one may inadvertently come to eat actual chametz.
In Jewish law, there is one important distinction between chametz and kitniyot. During Passover, it is forbidden to even have chametz in one’s possession (hence the custom of “selling chametz”). On the other hand, it is permitted to own kitniyot during Passover and even to use it — not for eating — but for things like baby powder which contains cornstarch. Similarly, someone who is sick is allowed to take medicine containing kitniyot.
Interestingly, the Sefardi Jewish community never adopted the prohibition against kitniyot. This creates the strange situation, for example, where a Sefardi family could be eating rice on Passover — whereas their Ashkenazi neighbors will not! “ Many Moroccans do not eat rice on Pessach, but Tunisian Jews do.
On our Seder table there was salada madbucha which is a cooked tomato salad. We also enjoyed Morrocan carrot salad, spinach salad, baba ganoush (a cooked eggplant dip), ful salad, Moroccan beet salad, Moroccan pepper salad, Moroccan hot pepper salad made from Jalapeno peppers, and Zuchini and Potato salad.
Our Moroccan recipe contributor is known for the spicy foods she and her family love, so there was plenty of heat in these delicious authentic Moroccan foods we enjoyed during the Seder.
The soup was the traditional Moroccan soup of passover made with fava beans and meat slow cooked so that the meat melted in ones mouth. This is where those customs come into play because the Sephards will use beans during Pessach. The entree was Moroccan fish tagine. This was a new Moroccan fish tagine I had not had before, made with Tilapia and covered with a tomatoe puree.
As I reviewed the salads I realized another cooking term which one needs to know for authentic Moroccan cuisine is ful, which are fava beans. You might also see it spelled foul, as in foul medamas.
