As with many words that you encounter in Judaism, the real problem is spelling things. Chanukah, Chanukkah, Hanuka. Matzah, matzoh, matzo. It’s the same problem with what I’m about to discuss her.e Charoset. Or Haroses. Haroset. Okay okay it makes one’s head (chead?) ache (akhe?)

Charoset is a ritual food that I always thought tasted wonderful and that couldn’t be right could it? Imean it symbolizes mortar. MMMMmmm, yummy. There’s some excellent explanations of the meaning of the food during Passover al over the net. During the Seder, the lovely ceremony and dinner that celebrates this wonderful holiday, a decorative plate is often used to hold the various ritual objects and foods you use during the evening. The items include “maror” which is “bitter herbs” usually horseradish, a shankbone, (I read that vegetarian households use beets in place of this item- this stuff is really interesting but maybe not to all of you so I won’t do major details. Some links at the end.)

But because this is Judaism, even the set up of the plate and what belongs on it varies. Oy. But charoset is always there.

I never paid much attention to varying recipes from the version I know. Like anything else, there’s no one version. I mean even the matzoh I bought this year had about seven different types advertised ont eh box (I draw the line at low-carb matzoh but admit that rye and whole wheat sound yummy.) And in case you’re wondering, I know I’ve said I’m not observant. I’m not. I like matzoh. And I like the spirit of Passover/Pesach, which celebrates freedom. And had good food and good symbolism.

I used to be the appointed charoset maker when I was going to seders at Ellen and Jims – it’s portable, the ingredients are pretty cheap and even if you don’t have lots of kitchen space or appliances, it’s easy to make. The basics as I grew up with are apples, walnuts, wine and cinnamon. See? Chop it all up, mix it together. Yum. I’m from the Ashkenazi side of Judaism – that means more or less Jews from Europe – originally meaning “German Jews” it’s expanded, but it’s meant to differentiate from the Sephardic Jews, which vaguely means Jews from Spain, Portugal but also tends to refer to Turkish and other more Mediterranean cultures. I’m being less than accurate but it’s good enough for here.

What it means in terms of food is that I grew up with apple haroset, no dates, no figs, no oranges in the stuff. And cinnamon, sure but no saffron, no cardamom, no fancy-schmancy spices.

Stu surprised me this year by bringing home some printouts of charoset recipes. And oh MAN, do they Rock. I mean if you like the whole apple/nuts/wine/cinnamon thing, then apricot/pistachio or orange-ginger might do it for you the way it did for me. Slobber, slobber.

Though I’m not ready, quite yet, for bananas, in my charoses, I’m easy enough about using pecans or almonds, allspice or ginger certainly. I’ve seen hazelnuts mentioned, as well as a recipe that calls for making the stuff into balls, apparently a Moroccan tradition.

So we started talking about versions of Charoset and my ever-creative boychick suddenly came up with “the Charoset Hut”. And thus our new restaurant was born.

Come to the Haroset Chut (name changes weekly). It’s a little building – the roof looks like it’s tiled with big slabs of matzoh. You can get some matzah ball soup as a starter, then you pick what flavor matzoh you’d like (or order the sampler basket) and pick your haroses. While you wait for your order to come, take your plate over to the horseradish bar and dish out a variety of types to have with your food. What, you expected just one kind of horseradish? What sort of restaurant would we BE? We grow it and grind it fresh all week long but also offer some familiar preparations including the purple/red stuff that has beet juice in it (which I just read will make the preparation milder) (horseradish as served here is basically grated horseradish root mixed with vinegar. Sugar, beets can be added to calm it down. Manischewitz which makes a “creamy horseradish sauce) has created three varietals, one with dill, one with lemon and one (you gotta love this) with wasabi.

Desserts include the traditional – macaroons, honey cake and sponge cake. The macaroons are standard coconut but we’re working on new possibilities. My sister, whose birthday often came during Passover, for years, had a sponge cake for her birthday cake; I mentioned this some years ago and said how I felt sorry because she couldn’t have the standard birthday cake and she said in fact she loved the sponge cake. It was different and special. And it was. And our mother was a wonderful cook and baker and it was really tasty.

There are really loads of dessert possibilities from flourless cakes to Mandelbrot which to me are simply Jewish biscotti) to fruit of course; the rules again are, well there’s no one set. You got the “no yeast/no leaven” basic rule, but there are so many variations, it can make your head spin.

But at the Charoset Hut, we do go against tradition in one way. Sure, you may have your Dr. Brown’s soda; we stock all the flavors, from the popular cream soda to black cherry to the – no accounting for taste but it’s better than it sounds celery (aka “Cel-Ray”) soda, (but we regret to inform you that apparently “diet Cel-Ray is no longer being made) but if you want wine, you’re going to get real wine here. We don’t serve Mogen David or Manischewitz Concord Grape. We know that wrecks your traditional time travel/memory lane trip, but we decided that breaking with tradition in this case was right. We want people to come back to our restaurant, not run out screaming. We’ll also provide decent grape juice for the grape juice fans (of whom I am one.) And we may have to try a couple other items from Jeff’s New York Coffee Egg Cream Soda (the egg cream – the beverage that I think of as the quintessential Vonnegut drink “no damn eggs, no damn cream") as well as “Manhattan Special Espresso Coffee Soda”. Water, coffee, tea, iced tea also available if you insist.

Virtual seder plate - http://nj006.urj.net/seder/plate.html
http://www.judaism.com/holiday/passover/sederplates.asp - for all sorts of plates including “budget and disposable” (which includes a paint it yourself version) and glass. As with menorahs, they are varied and often really gorgeous. And occasionally tacky.
http://tinyurl.com/nwgyq - which discussing charoset recipes and Ashkenazi stuff

Enjoy.