Jewish Recipe With Matzah and Ground Beef

Kitchen Window: A Passover Recipe Equally Piece of cake As Matzo Pie Minas, or layered matzo pies, are found in Jewish cuisine from Egypt to Turkey to the Isle of Rhodes. Sheets of strong matzo crackers are softened with h2o until pliable, and then layered with savory fillings and baked, yielding something akin to a Passover-friendly, Ottoman-inflected accept on lasagna.

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A Passover Recipe As Easy Equally Matzo Pie

Toward the opening of the Passover Seder, participants indicate to the matzo on the tabular array, and announce: "This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the country of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and consume. Let all who are needy come up and gloat Passover." It's a lovely sentiment, remembering the struggles of previous generations of Jews, and opening your abode to all those who suffer to this 24-hour interval. But bread of affliction? No more.

Layered matzo pies, or minas, await slicing. The meridian layer of matzo is glazed with a browbeaten egg, to give the finished dish a glassy shine. Alex Trimble for NPR hide caption

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Alex Trimble for NPR

Layered matzo pies, or minas, expect slicing. The tiptop layer of matzo is glazed with a beaten egg, to give the finished dish a glassy shine.

Alex Trimble for NPR

While matzo — a cracker-similar unleavened bread — harkens dorsum to a time of slavery and fleeing without time for loaves to fully rise, it has come a long way from hardship fare. Matzo is now coated with crunchy caramel, or dipped in chocolate, or dredged in nuts (or, rapturously, sometimes all three at once). Ground into meal, it's mixed with oil or schmaltz (chicken fat) and shaped into plumage-low-cal matzo balls (or, depending on your tastes and the kitchen skills of your family matriarch, somewhat denser, more-toothsome-still-equally-dear "sinkers"). And, if you're lucky enough to come up from a Sephardic background, it's formed into minas.

Minas, also known as meginas or mehinas, are layered matzo pies, found in Jewish cuisine from Egypt to Turkey to the Isle of Rhodes. Sheets of strong matzo crackers are softened with water until pliable, then layered with savory fillings and baked, yielding something alike to a Passover-friendly, Ottoman-inflected take on lasagna.

Mina fillings run the gamut, from herb-flecked lamb pies to meltingly soft stewed eggplant, many of them like to the savory turnovers (bourekas, samboussek, etc.) establish throughout the Sephardic world.

Minas tin be cut small and served as appetizers (part of the always-succulent mezze tradition), offered as part of a spread of dishes or served every bit main dish showstoppers. Vegetable minas are especially beloved equally the often-difficult-to-find traditional vegetarian Passover entree.

A search for mina recipes, however, can yield something of a mixed bag. Many Sephardic recipes become Americanized over fourth dimension, with lamb giving fashion to beef, frozen spinach replacing fresh, and warm spices and fresh herbs falling by the wayside.

To notice truly exciting minas, I checked with the experts. Jennifer Abadi comes from a family of Syrian Jews with a rich culinary history, detailed in her cookbook A Fistful of Lentils, and has been researching Sephardic Passover recipes for several years. She found mina variations from Italian, Greek and Egyptian traditions, vivid with fresh herbs and varying slightly across the regions.

Deena Prichep is a Portland, Ore.-based freelance print and radio journalist. Her stories on topics ranging from urban agriculture to gefilte fish have appeared on The Splendid Table, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Market place, Vox of America, The Environment Report, Salon.com, The Northwest News Network and Culinate.com, and in The Oregonian and Portland Monthly. She chronicles her cooking experiments at Mostly Foodstuffs.

She kindly shared a recipe for a Turkish mina de carne, featuring a rich filling of oniony lamb and beef in tomato plant sauce, perked upwardly with handfuls of fresh parsley and dill. I adapted my own favorite spinach-feta pie filling as well, adding extra moisture in the form of not-traditional-only-oh-and then-creamy cottage cheese, to account for the matzo's tendency to sop upwards liquid.

And because Passover also celebrates the coming spring, I pulled together two fillings celebrating the new crops. A Roman-inspired irish potato-artichoke filling is simmered with saffron and studded with peas, then topped with punchy parsley-lemon-garlic gremolata. Leeks, which are often fried upwards as fritters at Sephardic Seders (the honey keftes de prasa), are sauteed with spring asparagus, then given a sunny lift with fresh mint and lemon zest.

Whatever the filling, the basic template is the same: Moisten sheets of matzo with water and set up them aside for a few minutes to absorb the liquid and soften. The pliable sheets are then layered with your filling of choice — most of these recipes use iii layers of matzo, although Abadi's large and saucy mina is best made with iv. The top layer of matzo is glazed with a browbeaten egg, to give the finished dish a burnished smooth.

After a adept bake, the mina is allowed to set for a few minutes, and then devoured. Matzo is certainly no longer a bread of affliction.

Basic Mina Template

Any type of filling can exist used with these basic instructions for making a layered matzo pie.

Minas, or matzo pies, consist of alternating layers of moistened sheets of matzo and fillings, such as this Turkish-way mina with ground lamb and beefiness (see Mina De Carne recipe below). Alex Trimble for NPR hide caption

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Alex Trimble for NPR

Minas, or matzo pies, consist of alternating layers of moistened sheets of matzo and fillings, such as this Turkish-style mina with ground lamb and beef (see Mina De Carne recipe beneath).

Alex Trimble for NPR

Makes ane 8- or 9-inch mina

4 to six sheets matzo (depending on the size of your casserole dish — an 8-inch dish volition require fewer than a ix-inch dish)

1 recipe filling of choice (all fillings can be prepared upward to a twenty-four hours in advance)

one large egg, beaten with a compression of common salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and oil an 8- or 9-inch square casserole dish. You tin can use equivalent casserole dishes of other shapes if desired — which might involve a piddling more breaking and reassembling of matzo to encompass the dish.

Soften the matzo sheets, either by dipping them in a dish of water or running them under the faucet, until they are but starting to soften (you don't want to oversoak, or they'll become mushy). Gear up aside in a make clean dish towel for nearly 5 minutes, then check to encounter that they accept become somewhat bendable. If not, moisten them further and prepare them aside for another few minutes to blot.

When the matzo is ready, comprehend the entire bottom of the baking dish with a layer of matzo (you lot will have to break some matzo in pieces to fill up in the gaps). Gently spread half of the filling over the matzo. Top with another layer of matzo, then the remaining filling and then a final layer of matzo. Cascade the beaten egg over the top, and spread to evenly glaze the top layer of matzo. Bake until the matzo is golden and the filling is hot and set up, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool and ready for xv minutes, and then serve.

Roman-Inspired Potato, Pea And Artichoke Filling With Gremolata

Italian Jewish cuisine does a wonderful task of jubilant the foods of leap, frequently lightly stewing them up with but a chip of seasoning such as saffron. In this mina, artichoke bottoms (fresh or frozen) are simmered with an equal corporeality of potatoes and studded with peas. Gremolata, a pungent mixture of lemon zest, garlic and fresh parsley, is not common to Sephardic cuisine (you're more probable to run across it accompanying the Milanese osso buco), simply information technology does a lovely job of bringing a bright notation to the oven-cooked mina.

Makes filling for an eight- or 9-inch mina

Filling

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

ane pound artichoke bottoms, cutting into thick slices

1 pound waxy ruby-red or yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into rough chunks

1 1/2 cups vegetable or craven goop

1 hefty pinch saffron

Table salt and white pepper, to taste

1 cup peas, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw or precook)

Gremolata

1 agglomeration flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

ii cloves garlic, minced or pressed

Finely-grated zest of ane lemon

*Frozen artichoke bottoms are available in Middle Eastern markets. Jarred artichoke bottoms are available at some supermarkets. Make sure they are plain, not marinated.

Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, saute for 1 minute and add together the sliced artichoke bottoms. Saute until the garlic colors to a low-cal brown. Add the potatoes, broth and saffron. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat until information technology is merely high enough to maintain a simmer. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are falling-autonomously tender, 20 to thirty minutes.

When the potatoes are washed, mash the unabridged mixture with a murphy masher (or fork, if yous don't have one) until everything is reduced to a rough mash, with no pieces larger than bite-size. The mixture should be much looser than standard mashed potatoes, somewhere but shy of soupy. You lot can add more broth (or simmer some off) as needed. Season to gustatory modality with salt and white pepper — depending on the saltiness of the broth, table salt may not be needed. Stir in the peas. Keep with the Basic Mina Template recipe.

When the mina is out of the oven, mix together all of the gremolata ingredients, and bring to the table for diners to sprinkle over their mina as desired. A hot sauce such as harissa also is nice.

Leek And Asparagus Filling With Mint And Lemon

Sephardic Jews make leek fritters (keftes de prasa) for holidays from Rosh Hashanah to Passover to Hanukkah. Here the beloved leeks are combined with spears of asparagus, and the whole mixture is perked upwards with lemon zest and fresh mint. If you'd like to serve this for a dairy-free kosher meat meal, simply bandy out the cottage cheese for an equal corporeality of moist mashed potatoes.

The prepared leek-and-asparagus filling is spread between layers of water-dampened matzo. Alex Trimble for NPR hibernate caption

toggle caption

Alex Trimble for NPR

The prepared leek-and-asparagus filling is spread between layers of water-dampened matzo.

Alex Trimble for NPR

Makes filling for an eight- or 9-inch mina

two tablespoons olive oil

4 to five small-scale leeks, or 2 to 3 large, thinly sliced and washed gratis of all dirt

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bunch asparagus, done, tough stems snapped off and sliced into 1-inch lengths

1 pocket-size bunch fresh mint, finely chopped (a scant 1/4 loving cup)

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Grated blackness pepper to taste

1 cup cottage cheese (for dairy-free, substitute an equal amount of very moist — borderline soupy — mashed potatoes)

two big eggs, lightly beaten

Rut the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium flame. Add the leeks, sprinkle with the common salt and saute until they totally soften only practise not color, about 10 minutes. Add the asparagus, cook for an additional minute until they just begin to turn bright green, then turn off the heat (they'll melt further in the oven). Add together the mint and lemon zest, blackness pepper to taste and additional common salt if needed. Let cool for a couple of minutes, then add the cottage cheese and eggs, stirring to combine, and keep with the Basic Mina Template recipe.

Spinach And Feta Filling With Fresh Dill

In near spanakopita recipes, the goal is to bleed off excess liquid before it makes crisp phyllo dough soggy. In minas, the matzo does a fine job of absorbing backlog liquid, and yous can use fresh spinach without worry. This recipe is unabashedly cheesy, tangy with feta and snappy with fresh dill.

Makes filling for an 8- or nine-inch mina

2 cups cottage cheese

one/2 pound feta cheese, crumbled

1 small bunch fresh dill, finely chopped (a scant 1/4 cup)

one/4 red or yellow onion, or 2 scallions, finely chopped

Table salt and pepper, to taste

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

i minor bunch spinach, washed, dried, and roughly chopped

Mix together the cottage and feta cheeses, dill and onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper — information technology should be somewhat strongly seasoned, since it'll exist mixed with the spinach, simply be careful as the feta volition add a lot of common salt. Mix in the eggs. Add the spinach, by handfuls, stirring until the mixture is well combined. Proceed with the Bones Mina Template recipe.

Mina De Carne Filling

This Turkish-way mina with footing beef, lamb and crushed tomatoes is from Jennifer Abadi, author of A Fistful of Lentils (Harvard Mutual Press, 2002). Considering it makes a large amount of savory filling, information technology's best to employ a larger 9-inch square pan and four layers of matzo instead of 3. Only soften two additional sheets, layer the matzo, and then one/3 of filling and repeat, topping with the final matzo layer. Abadi also recommends having additional prepared tomato sauce for serving leftovers if desired, as the sauce tends to absorb as the mina sits.

Makes filling for a 9-inch mina

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups finely chopped yellow onions (about iii medium onions)

one pound ground beefiness

1/2 pound basis lamb

two teaspoons kosher salt, or more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

one teaspoon carbohydrate

1/2 loving cup coarsely chopped flat leaf (Italian) parsley

1/ii loving cup coarsely chopped dill leaves

I 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes (about three cups)

5 large eggs, lightly beaten

Prepared love apple sauce (optional — see note above)

Estrus olive oil in a large skillet over medium-loftier rut for 1 infinitesimal, or until it is hot but not smoking. Add the chopped onions and cook until soft and somewhat transparent, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add the ground beef, ground lamb, salt, black pepper and sugar and melt until brown, near 10 minutes (stir occasionally and brew with a fork to cook pieces).

Lower to medium rut, add the chopped parsley and dill, and mix well. Melt 5 minutes.

Pour in the crushed tomatoes and mix well. Bring to a slow boil over high heat and cook 3 minutes, then lower the heat to medium and cook an additional 7 to x minutes.

Remove from estrus and absurd to room temperature. Mix in the beaten eggs and go on with the Basic Mina Template recipe.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2011/04/13/135345886/a-passover-recipe-as-easy-as-matzo-pie

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