What’s Cara Cooking? The Five Flavors of Passover
Passover begins April 1st, and I'm deep in menu planning.
The word Seder means order. While there's flexibility to create a personally meaningful celebration, we retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt step by step.
For those unfamliar, : the centerpiece of every Seder table is the Seder Plate, filled with foods symbolic of the Israelite experience — a roasted egg, a lamb bone, salt water for tears, haroseth representing the mortar used to build the pyramids, parsley for renewal, and horseradish for bitterness. Some tables also include oranges for women, olives for Palestine, chocolate for Africa, or tofu as a stand-in for the bone.
A Chinese Medicine Lens on the Seder Plate
Chinese Herbal Medicine teaches that flavors are actions.
Acrid/Spicy flavors move qi — think garlic, cinnamon, watercress. Feeling stuck? These get things flowing.
Sweet flavors nourish and moisten — the taste of fruit, grains, and carbohydrates. Feeling depleted? Sweet, tonifying herbs restore.
Sour flavors gather and conserve fluids — citrus, yogurt, pickles. Feeling scattered or excessively sweaty? Sour herbs help contain.
Salty flavors ground and soften — seaweeds and minerals. We call steady, reliable people "the salt of the earth" for good reason.
Bitter flavors clear heat, calm agitation, and fight infection. Coffee is the most common bitter in the American diet; dandelion and parsley are close behind.
This barely scratches the surface — but I share it to bring you into my process around holiday meals and the intersection of food, emotions, and lived experience.
We are living through a heated moment in American history. Nearly everyone I know is anxious, upset, or angry. In Chinese Medicine, we use formulas containing bitter herbs to alleviate fan xie — vexation and agitation.
The Seder plate features horseradish. Yes, it's bitter — but it's also spicy. Through a Chinese Medicine lens, it's both calming and mobilizing. It meets the energy of the moment.
So, What Am I Cooking?
My upbringing was untraditional, which means I don't feel locked into a fixed menu. I have the freedom to follow my mood — and this year, the year of the Fire Horse- a year filled with momentum- my mood is to have a calm meal. One that nourishes the Yin to balance the heat of the world’s energy. And also one that is playful for the children who will be there. .
Last year, I made Joan Nathan's Saffron Fish with Preserved Lemon — a dish with salty olives and sour preserved lemon that perfectly matches where I am right now. Joan curates extraordinary recipes from across the Jewish diaspora, much of it available on the NYT Cooking app. Salty flavors have a decending energy. We call a grounded person the salt of the earth. Sour flavors are astringent. They gather in our energy when it’s scattered.
Saffron Fish with Preserved Lemon
Adapted from Joan Nathan | Serves 4–8
Ingredients
A few pinches to ½ tsp saffron strands
2 tbsp olive oil
3 red bell peppers, trimmed, quartered, seeded, and halved crosswise
1 large red or yellow onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
6 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 bunch cilantro, leaves and delicate stems separated and chopped
Kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper
8 skinless fish fillets (~4 oz each): salmon, sea bass, striped bass, whitefish, or rockfish
1 tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
¼ cup pitted kalamata or green Moroccan olives
1 preserved lemon, rinsed, chopped (peel and flesh), and seeded — or juice of 1 fresh lemon
Instructions
Pour 2 cups boiling water into a bowl and add saffron. Press strands against the side of the bowl to release flavor. Cover and set aside.
Heat oil in a large skillet over low. Add bell peppers, onion, tomatoes, garlic, and cilantro stems. Season with salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high and cook ~5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent.
Nestle fish into the vegetables. Sprinkle with paprika, red pepper flakes (if using), 1 tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper. Pour saffron water over everything. (This can be done a day ahead and refrigerated.)
When ready to cook, add olives and preserved lemon (hold fresh lemon for finishing). Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low. Cover and simmer 15–20 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Add cilantro leaves in the last few minutes.
Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve the fish over the vegetables. Finish with fresh lemon juice if using. Serve warm or at room temperature.
The rest of the menu follows the classic script: matzah ball soup, the Seder plate, a bitter green salad.
And after the Seder? This year it may feel a little like Festivus — time for an Airing of Grievances. Now more than ever, there's much to discuss about freedom and slavery.
May we all be happy and free.
With great love,
Cara
