And the Main Course Is...

There’s always a question of what to serve at our Passover seder. I could always trot out the award-winning brisket, but truthfully I’m tired of it. Roast chicken is safe, but rather pedestrian. Then the Post came today and I knew what we would be eating: lamb shanks with root vegetables.

This dish has the advantage of not being so sensitive to the timing of the meal, which inevitably is later than anyone would like it to be by the time we plow through most of the Hagaddah. I just like the sound of root vegetables; it seems so earthy at a time when we celebrate new life.

The recipe calls for some rather strange things, like date molasses and star anise. Calls to Whole Foods, Balduccis, and Dean & DeLuca failed to turn up any date molasses. A rather comical exchange with someone at Balduccis in Old Town:

Me: I’m looking for date molasses.
Clerk: He ain’t here.
Me: It’s a product, not a person.
Clerk: We still don’t have it.

Fortunately the Mediterranean Bakery in Alexandria has the date molasses. And Whole Foods had the star anise, the adorable little brown stars like the one in the picture.

I ordered the lamb shanks from Whole Foods to be picked up on Friday morning.

This is rather cooking-intensive holiday, so I will be busy on Friday and Saturday making things like gefilte fish, red horseradish, chicken soup with matzoh balls, fruit compote, and now lamb shanks. I will go through lots and lots of eggs, carrots, and onions. Then I will get to sit down with some sweet wine on Saturday night as we once again tell the story of how the Jews came out of Egypt. It’s the same old story, but the main dish will be new this year!