Passover 2013 - Make Ahead Items

[Diane in Bexley]

I will be hosting both Seders at my house and have just found out I will need to work on Mon 3-25 until late afternoon. Looking for some make ahead items I can prepare the day before or put into the freezer that would be nice enough.

Obviously, brisket can be frozen, but perhaps a chicken entree as well? How about a Pesach kugel that can prepared in advance? Any suggestions on cakes or desserts that would keep for a couple of days? Thanks in advance!

[ahuva]

i've made (and frozen) apple kugels, pear kugels, carrot kugels, butternut squash kugels - just about any baked good can be easily frozen and defrosted. briskets, pot roasts, corned beef - all that freezes and defrosts well.

[4greatkds]

I freeze cabbage kugel,broccoli , apple, carrot. The more you wrap and layer the food, the less chance of air getting in and the fresher it will taste when thawed and reheated,

[daphnar]

I have successfully frozen potato kugel many times. Key is to defrost it slowly on a low temp UNCOVERED for a few hours.

I also freeze brisket, pesachdik cookies, cakes, and biscotti. Fried "breaded" zucchini layered w sauce (like a parmigan without the cheese)...

[Diane in Bexley]

Can you please share your recipe for potato kugel - my family would like this to serve with the brisket, thanks!

[DeisCane]

Obviously, matzoh balls and soup freeze well.

We just did a kitchen renovation and froze a bunch of food beforehand for easy microwave thawing. Some examples that held up fine

-Turkey meatballs, with sauce and without.
-Kugel
-Prepared but not yet cooked schnitzel

You should also see if you can make your slow cooker pesadich (sorry if that's not possible, we've never tried) but it's so easy to knock out a soup or entree with that with so little hands-on work.

[Diane in Bexley]

Thanks for the reply. For Passover, I usually make a potato kugel with the brisket. I haven't had success freezing that. Have you? Do you have a recipe? Other make-ahead Passover kugel suggestions?

[DeisCane]

I usually make a sweet-n-sour brisket for Pesach. It's always a big hit--even with me...I don't usually eat traditional brisket. I've never frozen it though. The slow cooker would be my recommendation to avoid freezing it but keep it hands-off.

Here's the basic recipe:

3-4 pound brisket
1 cup water
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 onions, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt

Turn the slow cooker on high before you prepare the marinade (you want to get the temperature up)
Mix the liquid marinade ingredients in a large bowl, then put in slow cooker (it should not fill more than half the pot).
If you have enough time, leave the marinade in the slow cooker for enough time to warm up before you put the meat in. If not, you can quickly heat it in a pan on the stove. Not enough to boil, just to get hot.
Sear the brisket in a large pan over medium high/high heat, 3-4 minutes on each side
Remove meat from pan and put in slow cooker
Saute onions in the same pan for 2-3 minutes, then put in chopped garlic for another 2-3 minutes. If there are still drippings in the pan, you can do a very simple deglaze with whichever vinegar you use for the marinade, or even with just a few TBSP of water.
Put the onions, garlic and deglazed juiciness into the slow cooker.
Cook on high for two hours. Then turn to low until it nearly falls apart (usually another hour). This dance is a feel thing, and depends on how big the brisket is and how much liquid there was, etc. Mostly just keep checking to see if it's soft. I like to cut off a piece or two from the brisket for testing.

[helou]

Would you give us the recipe for the turkey meatballs, please?

How do you freeze them?

My experience is that meat immersed in a suce or liquid freezes very well, but something like meatballs with no sauce would get freezer burn. I don't ever feel that I could squeeze out all the air unless I'd use a vacuum sealer. Then how do you defrost them - in a sauce?

[DeisCane]

We have successfully frozen with sauce and without. I don't have the recipe handy right now, but with good freezer bags--and we might have used tin foil on the ones without--there isn't, or at least hasn't been, freezer burn.

[cheesecake17]

I freeze meatballs on a tray, then transfer to a freezer ziplock. Make sure you press out all the air. Works fine.