A Passover Feast!

For Passover, I try and keep Kosher. As someone of Ashkenazi descent, this means no grains, no rice, no corn, no legumes, and no string beans. Given that everything these days is made with soybean oil and corn syrup, this gets difficult. Why do I do this, since I'm not technically Jewish nor am I ver religious one way or the other? I don't know; I take it as a personal challenge. Luckily, quinoa is not a grain. It is actually a grass, just like wild rice. The first night of Passover, things went really well in my quest to keep Kosher. I made a nice salmon with quinoa and broccoli, so here it is!



Start by cooking the quinoa. This can be done over the stove or in a rice cooker. I used a rice cooker, and then towards the end, I put the broccoli florets in the steamer basket. Make sure you use fresh broccoli, not the old stuff in the back of your vegetable crisper. That's what I did, and it brought the dish down. After the quinoa and broccoli were done, I mixed them together and added some red wine vinegar. Don't forget salt! I sometimes do, and this could have used it.

Now for the salmon. This was the highlight of the meal. I tried a little experiment, and made an impromptu grill on my stove. I have a tortilla warmer, which I heated over a burner and then wrapped the fish in tinfoil and put it on the warmer. You could also do this in the broiler. It should take about 15-20 min for the fish to cook through, depending. I like my salmon a little on the rare side, so I think I had it cooking about 7 min on a side.



I used tinfoil for easy clean up, but it's not necessary. First, I rubbed some olive oil into the fish, and then sprinkled it with salt and pepper. I also sliced up some onion, and sprinkled some minced garlic on, as well as some dried Italian herbs. If you have fresh herbs, those would be better. Since I had some parsley, I also tossed some springs in the package. If you have a lemon, that adds a tangy flavor to the salmon. You can get creative with what you put on the fish. Once I had it seasoned to my liking, I wrapped it up and tossed it on the "grill."

While I was waiting for the fish to cook, I assembled the quinoa and broccoli.

After this meal, my attempts at keeping Kosher became less than successful. Oh, well. There's always next year!