Akasha Richmond owns Akasha restaurant in Culver City. She hosts a Passover seder every year, run by her friend Albert Spevak.
Her menu includes:
Tuscan Style Chopped Liver, Moroccan Eggplant &
Roasted Tomato
Traditional Seder Plates: Beet Horseradish/Charoset with Dates
& Walnuts, Hard Cooked Local Farm Eggs/Sea Salt Water
First Course: Sephardic Style Gefilte Fish/Tomato-Shallot
Sauce, Wild Arugula & Radish Salad/Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette
Second Course: Matzo Ball Soup, Weiser Farms Carrots
& Fresh Herbs
Third Course: Braised Chicken with Kennedy Farms Dried Plums
& Apricots, Sephardic Potato & Leek Fritters, Rapini with
Preserved Meyer Lemon
Dessert: Lemon Pistachio Cakes/Lemon Curd/Candied Kumquats,
Chocolate Meringues/Almond Macaroons, Chocolate Chunk Brownies/Pudwill
Farms Berries, Chocolate Covered Matzo Toffee Crunch
Akasha's Moroccan Fish Balls (Photo: Ed Caraeff)
Moroccan Gefilte Fish with Tomato Shallot Sauce
Fish Balls
1 1/2 lb skinned
whitefish fillets or a mixture of pike and carp
1 small onion, grated
1 large egg
1/3 cup matzo meal
2 tsps ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp finely grated
ginger
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground
black pepper
2 Tablespoons minced
fresh cilantro
Tomato-Shallot Sauce
2 Tablespoons
extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 can (14.5-oz) whole
tomatoes in juice, pureed (or 1 lb fresh plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled seeded
and pureed)
2 tablespoon tomato
paste
1 1/2 tsps sugar
1 tsp Kosher salt
2 cups water
Chop the fish in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Remove to a bowl; mix in the onion, egg, matzo meal, coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, salt, pepper and cilantro. Mix well, cover and refrigerate while you make the sauce.
Heat the oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt and water. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Take lumps of the fish mixture the size of walnuts and roll into balls. Place one by one into the sauce and add additional water if needed just to cover the balls. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, turning over once. Chill. Serve with horseradish and lemon wedges.
Makes about 20 balls.