Salad and the rest of last night's frittata for lunch.
Inspired by Sam's culinary efforts last night, humbled by the realization that I myself had never made caramelized chocolate covered matzohs.
I remember occasional boxes of chocolate covered matzohs appearing when I was a child, but they were never that exciting. Years later, when Sarah was in college and invited to seders on her own, she reported that she would make a delicious crowd-pleasing chocolate covered matzoh, but as we haven't had a seder together in years, I'd never sampled them. Spurred on by the possession of six un-opened boxes of matzoh, I decided that with no seder obligations of my own, my personal seder meal would revolve around chocolate and brown sugar.
A quick internet search led me to Marcy Goldman the creator of caramelized chocolate covered matzohs (how had the brown sugar and butter component escaped me?)
4-6 sheets matzoh
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark)
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of semi-sweet and bittersweet)
1 cup toasted pecan bits (or any nut of your preference, or none)
Preheat the oven to 350.
Line a large jelly roll pan with aluminum foil--rolling the foil up around the edges. Top the foil with parchment paper. There is a lot of stickiness in this recipe and at clean-up time you'll be glad you took what might seem like excessive precautions.
Cover the sheet with whole pieces of matzoh. Fill in the empty spaces with smaller pieces. The whole sheet should be covered with one layer of matzoh.
Melt the butter and brown sugar together in a heavy duty saucepan over medium heat stirring constantly. When it starts boiling, continue stirring and cook for another three minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the salt and vanilla and pour over the matzoh, spreading it evenly with a spoon or spatula.
Put the pan in the top of the oven and cook for about fifteen minutes. It should bubble merrily, but not burn--keep peeking to make sure all is well--if it appears to be burning, lower the heat.
Remove from the oven and immediately cover with the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for about five minutes, then spread evenly. You can then sprinkle it with coarsely chopped toasted nuts (I used pecans) or some fancy salt.
Cool completely (you may have to put it in fridge or freezer)--then cut or break into pieces. Store in air-tight container.
That was my seder prep. Jack called around 4pm--the car was fixed. I took the green Culver City bus from Windward Circle--admired new bumper, now minus faded Obama 2008 sticker, and drove immediately to Trader Joe's to see if I could figure out what might accompany the waiting matzoh, and also to buy provisions for the chicken and soup I was planning to make for Ivan and Megan next week. Got a few bunches of daffodils and for the first time, bought frozen tuna (can never remember if tuna is something we're suppose to avoid to save the planet, but told myself that I should trust the Trader to do the right thing in this department. After a quick stop at Ralph's to buy gizzards and hearts for the soup, I headed home. Sarah called just as I arrived. It was 9:30 in NYC--she'd just left work and was biking over the Brooklyn Bridge--favorite phone time. As we chatted, I prepared dinner--marinated the defrosting tuna with a little soy sauce, lime and crushed ginger and garlic for a ridiculously short time. Sauteed the tuna -just a few minutes on each side and served myself a dinner of tuna, with sliced avocado and tomatoes.
This picture conveys the components, but perhaps I was feeling a bit lonely or sorry for myself. It looks like I erred on the side of sparse and minimal, but truth is that photo is deceptive. Sometimes I don't remember to take a picture until after I've eaten most of my meal, but for some reason, I just photographed this sampling and proceeded to eat about three times as much before proceeding to the chocolate matzoh.
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