Easter and Passover meet in spring feast

This year, the early spring holidays of Passover and Easter, which hold equal weight in both Jewish and Christian faiths, will overlap this weekend as the week-long Passover celebration begins at sundown on Good Friday.

If you come from an interfaith family, or you simply enjoy marking the hopeful message of both spring holidays, there’s no reason you can’t celebrate both together in one, lovely spring feast.

Chef/owner Josh Silvers of Jackson’s Bar and Oven considers himself “food-wise Jewish” because he was not raised in the Jewish religion but attended a few Seders growing up in the Bay Area. His wife, Regina, was raised Catholic in San Leandro.

So every spring, the couple celebrates Easter with their son by going to Silvers’ uncle’s house in Sebastopol and making a feast for family members from far and wide. The dinner is often a mashup - celebrating what the two spring holidays share in common as well as the “transition” season when winter’s root vegetables give way to tender spring greens and peas.

“It’s not technically religious - it’s a celebration of family and spring,” Silvers said of the meal. “While we’re cooking, we decorate eggs, and there are always fresh flowers.”

The holiday meal is centered around a roasted leg of lamb, which has long been showcased on the spring holiday tables of Greece, Italy, France, England and much of the Fertile Crescent.

The symbolism of the lamb is an ancient tradition shared by both Christians and Jews in the early spring. Passover celebrates the Exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. (According to the story, the Jews were spared from the final plague inflicted on the Egyptians because they marked their doors with the blood of a spring lamb so that God would “pass over” the first-born in each home.) Easter is rooted in the Passover celebration - the Last Supper was a meal celebrated at Passover by Jesus with his disciples - and Christians made the Passover lamb a symbol of Jesus.

At his Easter celebration, Silvers plans to serve a roasted whole leg of lamb rubbed with a fragrant dry rub of garlic, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Alternately, you could roast a boneless leg of lamb, already tied and netted, and it takes less time to cook.

“Lamb with the bone in takes a little longer to cook, but food with the bone in is always better,” he said.

“I like to cook it medium to medium-rare. Otherwise it’s too chewy.”

He also plans to serve a traditional side of fresh mint chutney made with a splash of vinegar, a kick of jalapeño, shallots and sugar.

As a simple side, Silvers will roast potatoes, carrots and onions in the pan with the lamb, first throwing in the potatoes and carrots, then adding the onion wedges toward the end so that they don’t burn.

“They roast in the fat and get caramelized,” he said. “It’s all the roasted, dark flavors that are sweet.”

To balance out the wintry roasted veggies, he suggested starting with a bright, springy salad of baby romaine, endive and parsley as homage to the bitter herbs on the Seder plate symbolizing the bitterness of slavery.

Rounding out the Passover Salad will be chunks of apples and walnuts and a Honey Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette, reminiscent of the sweet fruit-and-nut Charoset on the Seder plate that recalls the mortar the Israelite slaves used to construct buildings for the Pharaoh.

Both Easter and Passover traditions tend to feature the foods of spring, but with winter in the rear-view mirror and the spring harvest not yet in full swing, it makes sense to blend ingredients from both seasons as well as both traditions.

“The dinner has some heavier flavors, with the lamb and the roasted veggies, but the salad is brighter,” he said.

“To lighten it up, you could also serve some peas … frozen peas are always better, unless you grow the peas yourself. The sugar converts to starch right away after they are picked.”

As a dessert option, Silvers offered up a recipe that pays tribute to both Easter’s chocolate bunnies and Passover’s unleavened restriction by serving a Flourless Chocolate Cake he learned from Napa Valley Chef Cindy Pawlcyn at Mustards Grill.

The recipe includes butter, but those who want to avoid dairy can use margarine.

“It’s made with ground walnuts, eggs, sugar, butter and chocolate, he said.

“Instead of whipped cream, I’ll serve coconut sorbet.”

Whatever your religious orientation, blending food traditions and sharing family traditions in spring cab foster goodwill and openness at this time of year, when the fields of Sonoma County are blooming with new growth and new things to eat.

“Spring represents color and vibrancy,” Silvers said. “It’s the beginning of all the new produce.”

The following recipes are from Josh Silvers, who shopped for the ingredient’s at his uncle’s market, Oliver’s.

“Romaine adds a really good texture and flavor to this salad, and I like to buy the baby hearts of romaine,” he said.

“Endive has a nice flavor too. The idea behind this recipe is to reflect the ingredients on the Seder plate.”

Passover Salad

Serves 6 to 8

1 cup walnuts, pieces and halves

2 small heads baby hearts of romaine

2 Belgian endives, green

1 cup picked Italian parsley leaves

1-2 Braeburn apples, chopped

- Meyer Lemon Honey Vinaigrette (see recipe below)

Toast walnuts.

Tear tips off the hearts of romaine and tear lettuce into 2-inch chunks.

Add the parsley leaves and walnuts, reserving a few. Cut the ends off the endive and cut into 2-inch chunks.

Toss with your hands. Throw apples on top and add reserved walnuts. Toss with dressing and serve.

Meyer Lemon Honey Vinaigrette

Makes 2/3 cup

2 tablespoons shallots, mined

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

- Zest of 2 Meyer lemons

- Juice of 1 Meyer lemon

1/4 cup tablespoons high-quality extra virgin olive oil

- Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (optional)

Put shallots, honey, mustard, lemon zest and juice in a bowl. While whisking together, slowly pour in olive oil.

dd a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Taste and add the apple cider for more acidity.

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables

Serves 6 to 8 with leftovers

For lamb:

1 6-pound bone-in leg of lamb

5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon salt and 10 grinds of pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

- Splash of cooking oil

1 white onion, sliced into thick rounds

For vegetables:

1 bag multicolored fingerling potatoes

2 bunches multicolored baby carrots, washed and peeled

1 yellow onion, root end barely trimmed (so they stay together), quartered, peeled

1 red onion, root end barely trimmed (so they stay together), quartered, peeled

Take the lamb out of the fridge and let sit at room temperature for one hour to 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make small cuts all over lamb and insert the slices of garlic. Rub the salt, pepper and garlic powder all over.

Heat the pan and a splash of oil over medium-high heat on the stovetop and sear the lamb on all sides until brown.

Place the slices of white onion under the lamb in the roasting pan and throw the pan into the oven on a middle rack.

After one hour, throw in the potaotes and the carrots. After 20 minutes, open the oven and toss the veggies to coat with the fat from the lamb. Add a pinch of salt. After 20 more minutes, add the onion wedges.

Insert a meat thermometer, and when it reaches 140 degrees, take the lamb out and let rest for a half hour.

Turn the oven off, toss the vegetables again, and keep warm in the oven.

“This is a play on mint jelly, but with the raw shallots and jalapeno, it gives it a little bite,” he said.

“The olive oil gives it a little richness.”

Mint Chutney

Serves 6 to 8

1 cup shallots, diced

1 cup spearmint

1 jalapeno, minced

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 Sparrow Lane Pear Champagne vinegar (or champagne vinegar)

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Put shallots in a bowl and add the jalapeno, sugar and vinegar. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt.

Finely chop the mint leaves and add to the bowl. Add the salt and olive oil and mix to blend.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Makes 1 10-inch cake (12 to 16 servings)

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 cup sugar

3 ounces butter (or margarine)

1/4 cup brandy (or whisky or bourbon)

8 eggs, separated

2 cups finely ground walnuts (or almonds or pecans)

- Pinch of salt

- Coconut Bliss Coconut Sorbet (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop chocolate and put in a double boiler with the butter and brandy and melt.

Beat yolks with half the sugar until light and lemony colored.

Add the nuts to the chocolate and then fold in the yolk mixture.

Beat the egg whites with half of the sugar and then fold into chocolate

Pour into a 10-inch springform pan and bake in a 350-degree oven until set but not dry. The top will crack.

Allow to cool, remove the springform sides, top with powdered sugar, and serve with coconut sorbet.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@dianepete56.