Video: Nut-Free Charoset for Passover

We are hosting a big Passover seder this weekend and the cooking has already begun! For us, the traditional meal always includes charoset, a paste typically made of nuts and dried fruit with a symbolic meaning to the story told on Passover. This year we came up with a nut-free version that Ezra can take to his preschool seder. It's just 5 simple ingredients. Watch us make it on the deck and the recipe is below. Happy Passover!

Cherry-Date Charoset

1 c pitted dates

1 c dried cherries

1/2 c pumpkin seeds (shelled, roasted and salted)

1/2 c sunflower seeds (shelled, roasted and salted)

juice from 1 large orange

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until mostly smooth, but some chunks remain. The consistency is up to you; feel free to make it as smooth as you like. If you want it creamier, you may want to add a bit more liquid (another orange, or a splash of water). It can be made a couple days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Spread it on matzah or eat it plain!

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We made this video to share with our friends at Interfaith Family, an organization that helps people engage in Jewish life. Learn more at interfaithfamily.com.

For more Forest Feast Passover recipes (including a Spiced Charoset and Spinach Farfel), check out this post!

Passover Recipe Roundup!

We are hosting a big Passover Seder next week and I'm menu planning! Here are some ideas from the FF archives. Happy cooking!

Spinach Farfel

Spiced Haroset

Beet Haroset

Matzo Brei

Chocolate Ricotta Mousse Cups from The Forest Feast Cookbook

Spiced Apricots

Cooking with Friends in Barcelona

During our month in Barcelona last Fall, some friends who live there invited us over to their house to cook together. Monica grew up in Barcelona and Ricky is from NYC but has lived in Spain for many years. Together they founded the company Delicious & Sons which includes a variety of Mediterranean products (developed by Ricky) including sauces, spreads, oils, vinegars and more, that are all organic, vegan and gluten free...and, well, DELICIOUS! I had fun cooking with them because they infused flavor into a simple dish so effortlessly.

Ricky and Monica have a stunning home – it's like an oasis in the city. Their sun-drenched chef's kitchen overlooks a dreamy backyard that makes outdoor entertaining seem easy. Outside they have a huge vine-covered table that they gather friends around regularly. Using their products we made some simple appetizers to enjoy outside one afternoon during our visit. And of course, I took lots of photos as we cooked.

With Ricky & Monica in their backyard, eating what we made!

Shooting on the stairs that lead out of their kitchen into the back yard.

We made Aioli Deviled Eggs using their Garlic Aioli with Lemon Zest and Basil. Ricky picked baby basil leaves in the back yard to garnish each egg. Find the recipe here.

I wanted to make a caramelized onion crostini using D&S porcini mushroom tapenade. Ricky had the idea to top them with lime zest which really sealed the deal! Here's the recipe for these Porcini Crostini.

I fried up some eggplant strips in their kitchen (so envious of this stove & grill!!) to make some rolls with their sundried tomato pesto. These are so good I could eat a whole plate of them in one sitting.

Eggplant Rolls with D&S sundried tomato pesto, arugula & Manchego cheese. Get the recipe here.

So fun cooking together in this kitchen!

For dessert we made a simple sundae using their thick balsamic glaze over ice cream with fresh figs. So easy and tasty! Find the recipe here.

Thanks for having us, guys! Come to California!

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QUICK RECIPES LINKS:

Aioli Deviled Eggs

Porcini Crostini

Eggplant Rolls

Balsamic Fig Sundaes

*This is not a sponsored post...these are just my friends and I love the cool food company they have created! And I think their products are really tasty. For the full blog post that Monica did on our day of cooking together that lists all my recipes and a short interview, click here.

And Click here to see where you can buy Delicious & Sons products (they are sold all over the NYC area, including Zabars). Some of their items are also on Amazon.

Eating Our Way Along the French Riviera

As part of our 3-month #ForestFeastMediterranean journey, after our month in Barcelona , we headed to the French Riviera. We met Jonathan's parent in Antibes and we all stayed in a dreamy Airbnb that my mother-in-law found us right by the sea – an old stone house that was actually part of the town's ancient ramparts. Antibes is on the southern coast of France, not far from the Italian border.

Our Airbnb in Antibes

We were just steps from the open air market which we passed through daily, picking up the most beautiful radishes, zucchini blossoms and cherry tomatoes.  We had the radishes with butter at cocktail hour several nights in a row. Once a week the socca stand was at the market-- a traditional local chickpea pancake made in fiery oven as you wait. Delicious!

The Antibes Market

Ezra with goodies we picked up at the market

Radishes from the market with butter back at our house

The Socca being cooked at the market

Socca, splashed with black pepper-- so good!

Antibes is the most adorable cobblestone town. Right on the water and a shot train ride from Cannes and Nice. We stayed in the old town and each evening we could walk to a different restaurant for dinner. We also rented a car and did day trips to the nearby towns of Eze and Saint Paul de Vence. It's a stunning stretch of coast and I can see why so many artists have been drawn to it. I loved our visits to the Matisse and Picasso museums and imagining them being inspired to make work there.

One of my favorite lunches was on the beach at Le Galet in Nice. A version of the eggplant pizza I had there (with rosé!) is going in the book.

On a day trip to Saint Paul de Vence (Ezra, 3 and Max, 10 months)

Saint Paul de Vence

We also loved our lunch at Le Tilleul in Saint Paul de Vence.

A salad inspired by this one at Le Tilleul is also going in the book! I mean, phyllo wrapped goat cheese!?!

Ez in Ezé :) At the Exotic Garden, in Ezé, France, a hillside cactus garden overlooking the water.

Cocktails outside, looking out onto the main plaza, at Cafe Clemenceau in Antibes.

Sunset from the Picasso museum in Antibes. He worked in this building for several months and the paintings that came out of that time were very much inspired by the food in Antibes.

It was so exciting to find a French Edition of The Forest Feast for Kids in a bookstore in Antibes.

*Just yesterday* a copy of The Forest Feast Gatherings in French arrived, so excited to see it!

This was such a magical little stop on our trip-- I so recommend staying in the historic/old town of Antibes if you are in this area, especially with kids. It's a lovely little village, and very walkable. We were there in November for a week and it was still nice enough to eat outside! I hear the beach scene in summer gets pretty crowded, but I'd love to go back then, too. 

Au revoir!

Stay tuned for our next stop...Italy!

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We spent 3 months in Europe in the Fall of 2017 as I was doing research on Mediterranean food for my upcoming cookbook, The Forest Feast Mediterranean (Abrams, Fall 2019). For more photos from our entire trip, check out the hashtag #forestfeastmediterranean on Instagram.

Other posts in this series:

• Forest Feast Mediterranean Begins!

• Barcelona Travel Guide

Barcelona Travel Guide!

Our month in Barcelona was amazing. We loved our neighborhood and found lots of great places to eat (with and without kids). If you're planning a trip, here are some of our favorites:

STAY:

We got an Airbnb in the Sant Antoni/Eixample neighborhood, right on the Poble Sec metro stop, which we thought was a great location, especially for an extended stay with kids. It was not touristy, but we had everything we needed within a 3 block radius. It's the area where lots of new cute restaurants are, but it's not loud. It's a neighborhood of locals. It's not in the cobblestone gothic quarter (which is very cute, but more crowded/loud/touristy) but it's still very central. We walked all over from there, or took the metro a few stops to the downtown area or other main attractions. 

at our Airbnb in the Eixample neighborhood

EAT:

We ate a lot in our neighborhood because it had so many great, cute, hip options, so a lot of these suggestions reflect that. With kids, we often opted to make lunch our main meal of the day since a lot of restaurants don't serve food until 8pm (our kids' bedtime). Not all restaurants offer lunch during the week, but most do on weekends. We tried to find restaurants that had outdoor space which makes dining with kids easier. We did get a babysitter a couple times (through 'Little Prince' agency) to have dinner out.

• Lolita Taperia: one of my favorite meals in Barcelona. We went for a weekend lunch and got there right at 1pm when they opened. Tables filled up quickly. You can sit outside with kids. Creative tapas. I loved the eggplant dish with molasses, the fava bean salad with avocado and eggs, the burrata, and the vermouth (below).

• PIcnic: super cute lunch/brunch spot closer to the gothic quarter. They serve dinner too. They have things like pancakes and sandwiches (with a tapas flair). I got some tasty avocado toast with kale on it. 
• Cafe Flanders: I liked this restaurant mostly for the location. The plaza it was in was so cute (outdoor seating), and kids can run around outside. They serve fairly basic tapas and we had a Sunday afternoon lunch here after a visit to Park Guell. There's a burger restaurant in this plaza too that was very crowded with locals.

Cafe Flanders' Vermouth cocktail

• Tapeo: a couple different people recommended this place and we thought it was great. Nice tapas in El Born neighborhood. We went for dinner (yay, babyistter!) and it was delicious. Creative twists on traditional dishes, but not too fancy. I loved many of their dishes, especially the leeks,  tomato bread and the honeyed eggplant (below).

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• Hoja Santa: (pics below) This was our one big fancy meal out. It's a Michelin star place and we did the tasting menu, which they were very accommodating to adapt for dietary preferences. This is a part of the El Bulli restaurant group which is having its revival in the Sant Antoni neighborhood where we stayed since Ferran Adria's famed El Bulli closed a few years ago (some say it was the best restaurant in the world). Tickets is sort of "the" place to go in this group of restaurants, but we couldn't get a reservation, so we opted for Hoja Santa and were very happy. Hoja Santa is a Mexican restaurant, but we were ready for something other than tapas so we loved it. It was a long meal, maybe 20 small plates and almost 3 hours... very creative and delicious. Amazing presentation! Fine dining in a somewhat casual atmosphere.

Tasqueta de Blai: (below) At least once in Barcelona I suggest you do an evening of pintxos! This is a genre of tapas bars where lots of small tapas on toothpicks are on the bar and you grab whatever you like. At the end, you pay by the toothpick (usually about 1 Euro each). Fun, inexpensive, and casual, and there were generally several vegetarian options. This is one pintxos restaurant (on a strip of many) that we enjoyed.

Pintxos (tapas that you pay for by the toothpick)

Tasqueta de Blai

• Bar Calders: We had a good weekend brunch here and sat outside for eggs, potatoes hummus and vermouth. Cute spot to sit!

VISIT:

• Park Guell: my favorite Gaudi spot!
• Cable car to Montjuic: great view of the city + a castle
• The beach near the Barceloneta neighborhood! Fun for a low-key break, especially with kids.

Buen Viaje!

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We spent a month in Barcelona in the Fall of 2017 as I was doing research on Spanish/Mediterranean food for my upcoming cookbook, The Forest Feast Travels (Abrams, Fall 2019). For more photos from our entire 3-month trip in Europe check out the hashtag #forestfeasttravels on Instagram.

Check out this post for more pics from Barcelona.