Here in Israel we are currently restricted to only leaving home for food shopping, medicine shopping, receiving medical care or stretching our legs within 100 metres of home. Police have begun to enforce this and do spot checks and generally Tel Aviv is pretty quiet and a bit of a ghost town. It’s been amazing hearing the birds tweet all day long!
Many have had a hard time adjusting to the new ‘isolation’ reality but I’ve actually seen it as a bit of a blessing in disguise. I’m still working, but also now finding more time for ‘me’ without the constant rush! I’ve been reading, cooking, listening to podcasts, doing yoga, watching Netflix, doing a couple of online courses and getting plenty of early nights! I hope others are also using the time wisely to unwind or learn new things.
Seder night will definitely be one to remember this year (with me myself and I for company and Zoom video conferencing! But that’s also absolutely fine and it means there’ll be all the more charoset for me!!
I'll be making this Persian Charoset, a recipe passed down for generations in my (Persian) family and passed to me by my dear Auntie Ilana in Jerusalem. She usually makes a huge batch and distributed amongst her kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews etc but this year is different from all other years!
Once made, it can be frozen or simply kept in the fridge in a sealed container. If you cannot find all the ingredients, that’s ok too... but hopefully all are fairly easy to find.
Method:
- Remove the stones from the dates.
- Deseed one pomegranate and blitz it in blender to make a thick juice. You can juice it too in a juicer or use pre-made pomegranate juice instead — just check the label for added sugars and ideally avoid those!
- Overnight in a glass bowl soak the dates in the pomegranate juice, wine, grape juice and vinegar ensuring the bowl is covered over in cling film or a plate.
- The following day, blend together the almonds, walnuts and pistachios into a uniform powdery nut mixture.
- In a blender (or using a hand blender stick) blend the dates and the liquid they soaked in to form a thick smooth creamy texture.
- Add in the nut mixture and blend or mix together.
- Serve and garnish with pomegranate seeds.
