Get recipes for a Basic Mina Template; Roman-Inspired Potato, Pea And Artichoke Filling With Gremolata; Leek And Asparagus Filling With Mint And Lemon; Spinach And Feta Filling With Fresh Dill; and Mina De Carne Filling.
Toward the opening of the Passover Seder, participants point to the matzo on the table, and announce: "This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are needy come and celebrate Passover." It's a lovely sentiment, remembering the struggles of previous generations of Jews, and opening your home to all those who suffer to this day. But bread of affliction? No more.
Layered matzo pies, or minas, await slicing. The top layer of matzo is glazed with a beaten egg, to give the finished dish a burnished shine. Alex Trimble for NPR hide caption
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Alex Trimble for NPR
Layered matzo pies, or minas, await slicing. The top layer of matzo is glazed with a beaten egg, to give the finished dish a burnished shine.
Alex Trimble for NPR
While matzo — a cracker-like unleavened bread — harkens back to a time of slavery and fleeing without time for loaves to fully rise, it has come a long way from hardship fare. Matzo is now coated with crunchy caramel, or dipped in chocolate, or dredged in nuts (or, rapturously, sometimes all three at once). Ground into meal, it's mixed with oil or schmaltz (chicken fat) and shaped into feather-light matzo balls (or, depending on your tastes and the kitchen skills of your family matriarch, somewhat denser, more-toothsome-yet-equally-beloved "sinkers"). And, if you're lucky enough to come from a Sephardic background, it's formed into minas.
Minas, also known as meginas or mehinas, are layered matzo pies, found in Jewish cuisine from Egypt to Turkey to the Isle of Rhodes. Sheets of stiff matzo crackers are softened with water until pliable, then layered with savory fillings and baked, yielding something akin to a Passover-friendly, Ottoman-inflected take on lasagna.
Mina fillings run the gamut, from herb-flecked lamb pies to meltingly soft stewed eggplant, many of them similar to the savory turnovers (bourekas, samboussek, etc.) found throughout the Sephardic world.
Minas can be cut small and served as appetizers (part of the ever-delicious mezze tradition), offered as part of a spread of dishes or served as main dish showstoppers. Vegetable minas are especially beloved as the often-hard-to-find traditional vegetarian Passover entree.
A search for mina recipes, however, can yield something of a mixed bag. Many Sephardic recipes become Americanized over time, with lamb giving way to beef, frozen spinach replacing fresh, and warm spices and fresh herbs falling by the wayside.
To find truly exciting minas, I checked with the experts. Jennifer Abadi comes from a family of Syrian Jews with a rich culinary history, detailed in her cookbook A Fistful of Lentils, and has been researching Sephardic Passover recipes for several years. She found mina variations from Italian, Greek and Egyptian traditions, bright with fresh herbs and varying slightly across the regions.
About The Author
Deena Prichep is a Portland, Ore.-based freelance print and radio journalist. Her stories on topics ranging from urban agriculture to gefilte fish have appeared on The Splendid Table, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Marketplace, Voice of America, The Environment Report, Salon.com, The Northwest News Network and Culinate.com, and in The Oregonian and Portland Monthly. She chronicles her cooking experiments at Mostly Foodstuffs.
She kindly shared a recipe for a Turkish mina de carne, featuring a rich filling of oniony lamb and beef in tomato sauce, perked up with handfuls of fresh parsley and dill. I adapted my own favorite spinach-feta pie filling as well, adding extra moisture in the form of not-traditional-but-oh-so-creamy cottage cheese, to account for the matzo's tendency to sop up liquid.
And because Passover also celebrates the coming spring, I pulled together two fillings celebrating the new crops. A Roman-inspired potato-artichoke filling is simmered with saffron and studded with peas, then topped with punchy parsley-lemon-garlic gremolata. Leeks, which are often fried up as fritters at Sephardic Seders (the beloved keftes de prasa), are sauteed with spring asparagus, then given a sunny lift with fresh mint and lemon zest.
Whatever the filling, the basic template is the same: Moisten sheets of matzo with water and set them aside for a few minutes to absorb the liquid and soften. The pliable sheets are then layered with your filling of choice — most of these recipes use three layers of matzo, although Abadi's large and saucy mina is best made with four. The top layer of matzo is glazed with a beaten egg, to give the finished dish a burnished shine.
After a good bake, the mina is allowed to set for a few minutes, and then devoured. Matzo is certainly no longer a bread of affliction.
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FAQs
Matzo reflects common Ashkenazi pronunciation (which dominated in English speaking countries in past centuries) but is not entirely accurate since it drops the “h” from the end. Matzah, on the other hand, retains the “h” and can be read accurately and easily by both Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
What flour is matzo made from? ›
The flour must be ground from one of the five grains specified in Jewish law for Passover matzah: wheat, barley, spelt, rye or oat. Per Ashkenazic tradition, matzah made with wine, fruit juice, onion, garlic, etc., is not acceptable for use at any time during the Passover festival except by the elderly or unwell.
Why is some matzo not kosher for Passover? ›
Matzos which are labeled “Not Kosher for Passover” are made without a full-time mashgiach present during production, and the water used in kneading the dough is not mayim she'lanu (specially drawn water). Though we would not eat these matzahs on Pesach, it is not certain that the matzahs are absolute chametz.
What is matzo meal made of? ›
Matzo meal is made by grinding matzo, a traditional Jewish unleavened bread that's also known as matzah or matzoh. Matzo bread is made by mixing flour and water, rolling it out thin, then baking it in an extremely hot oven. It can be soft and pliable, or cracker crisp.
What can I substitute for matzo? ›
What Is A Substitute For Matzo Meal?
- Matzo Crackers. One of the easiest substitutes for matzo meal is matzo crackers. ...
- Bread Crumbs. If you don't have matzo crackers on hand, you can also use bread crumbs as a substitute. ...
- Almond Meal. ...
- Cornmeal. ...
- Potato Flakes. ...
- Oat Flour.
Saltines have been compared to hardtack, a simple unleavened cracker or biscuit made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. However, unlike hardtack, saltines include yeast as a leavening agent, which causes the bread to rise.
Why is oatmeal not kosher for Passover? ›
Along with wheat, barley, rye and spelt, oats are one of the “five grains,” which can become chametz when brought into contact with water. On Passover, it is forbidden to eat or even own chametz. Oatmeal (and most other oat products) is therefore not kosher for Passover.
Why can't adults eat egg matzah? ›
Egg matzah is called “matzah ashirah,” rich man's bread, for it contains more complex ingredients and is unacceptable for the mitzvah of matzah. Therefore, even the elderly or infirm should (if they are able) eat a kezayit of shmurah matzah on the night of the Seder.
What are the five forbidden foods on Passover? ›
Consider this a brief slice of a very complicated discussion. The Obvious No-Nos: Wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye. Known collectively as chometz, these grains are universally left out of diets during Passover week.
What can I substitute for flour on Passover? ›
You might not typically think of baking with potato starch, but it's a traditional flour substitute for Passover. Some people combine it with matzo meal (typically ¾ cup potato starch mixed with ¼ cup matzo cake meal can be substituted for 1 cup of all-purpose flour), while some recipes rely solely on potato starch.
The extra level of scrutiny — and the labor-intensive process required to make handcrafted matzah — is largely what accounts for its high price: anywhere from $20 to $60 for a single pound.
What is the hidden piece of matzo? ›
They break the matzo in two, returning the smaller piece to the stack and putting aside the larger piece to be eaten later during Tzafun ("Hidden", the twelfth part of the Seder, which immediately follows the main meal). This is the afikoman, which is wrapped in a napkin before being hidden.
Is egg matzah the same as regular matzah? ›
The Torah refers to matzah as “lechem oni” poor man's bread, because it is made solely from flour and water, the simplest of ingredients. Egg matzah is called “matzah ashirah,” rich man's bread, for it contains more complex ingredients and is unacceptable for the mitzvah of matzah.
Why do Jews only eat matzah on Passover? ›
Without it, the Children of Israel could not leave Egyptian slavery. It had to be eaten on the night of the Exodus; later will be too late. It is obviously connected to the celebration. It is to be eaten in a small group as an intimate commemoration of redemption as it is taking place.
Is matzo singular or plural? ›
Because, in English, matzo is both singular and plural. Like fish, which you might just have as a first course at your Seder.
What does matzah mean in the Bible? ›
Matzevah or masseba (Hebrew: מַצֵּבָה maṣṣēḇā; "pillar") is a term used in the Hebrew Bible for a sacred pillar, a type of standing stone. The term has been adopted by archaeologists for Israelite contexts, seldom for related cultures, such as the Canaanite and the Nabataean ones.
