Seder Accomplished!

Gentle readers, I can now report from the field. The seder was a huge success! All the meat eaters enthusiastically embraced our vegetarian offerings, and, in fact, after the holiday eve and the next day’s lunch, we are officially OUT OF FOOD. Which is funny, because we thought we’d live on the leftovers for the rest of the holiday!

A couple of hours before the Seder, Chad had an inspiring (though somewhat gross) idea, and we embarked on an artistic project: we made images of the Ten Plagues out of Fimo, baked them, and placed one on each plate. We had eleven guests, so one person got a little matzo.

The salads were a big hit.

And so were the main courses.

Altogether, a good experience. The green quiche was particularly successful, and people also liked our celery-mushroom-sprouts stir-fry with an unexpected ingredient. And indeed, here’s a recipe for

Celery-Mushroom-Sprouts Stir-Fry with an Unexpected Ingredient

5 celery stalks
5 shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 portobello mushrooms
5 forest mushrooms
2cm piece of ginger
1 tsp schug (Yemenite chile with cilantro and other wonderful ingredients – very hot!)
1/2 tsp honey
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sake
2 cups sprouts

Place shiitake mushrooms in water glass. Fill with water and add soy sauce. Let sit for a night.
The next day, chop up celery stalks to 1 cm slices. Also, slice portobello mushrooms, and cut up forest mushrooms by hand into bite-size pieces. Take shiitake out of cup and keep the liquid. Slice ginger thinly.

In a wok, heat up a bit of canola or olive oil with the ginger and schug. When air becomes fragrant and aromatic, add celery. After five minutes, add mushrooms and some of the mushroom liquid. Gradually, as you stir the contents of the wok, add more liquid, lemon juice, rice vinegar and sake. When things are cooked but still chewy and full of character, add sprouts. Stir-fry for another minute, then serve.