This recipe is an adaptation of the California-influenced Israeli charoset of the well-known kosher cooking instructor and cookbook author Judy Zeidler. This recipe truly tells a story since the ingredients are an amalgam of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic culinary traditions. Flavorful, intriguing, and a big hit at the seder.
Ingredients
2/3 cup pistachio nuts
2 apples (Gala or Empire), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
15 pitted dates
2 bananas, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1–2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (depending on sweetness of fruits used)
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
Zest of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sweet Concord grape Passover wine
4 tablespoons matzah meal
Directions
- Place the pistachio nuts in a processor work bowl and pulse on and off until the nuts are ground fine but not forming butter.
- Add the apples and dates, and pulse until the fruits are fairly well chopped.
- Add the bananas, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, and cinnamon, and pulse until the mixture is a coarse but combined mass.
- Remove the mixture to a glass bowl, and stir in the wine and matzah meal. Chill, covered, until serving time.
Additional Notes
- Here the banana is used, with its great ability to impart both sweetness and a dark brown color when the mixture oxidizes.
