Pickled Turnips

Place 3 cups water, ⅓ cup kosher salt, and 2 bay leaves (if you have) into a medium-sized pot. Stir over medium heat until salt is completely dissolved, 3–5 minutes. Let cool completely, then add 1 cup white vinegar. Place 2 pounds turnips, and 1 small cooked beet, both peeled and cut into ½-inch thick sticks, into a large container with a tight-fitting lid. Pour the liquid into the container. Let the vegetables pickle for about 5 days before serving.

—Rivki Rabinowitz

FT, Help Me!!!

I always mess up my egg whites when I separate eggs. What one tip do you find to be most crucial? And about how long do you think the beating should take?

A: First, there should be NO yolks whatsoever in the whites. Any residue of fat will prevent egg whites from beating up properly. Second, the eggs should be room temperature for best volume (although it’s easier to separate them when they’re cold!). Last, start the mixer on the lowest setting, adding one egg white at a time. When it starts looking foamy, raise the setting, and when it looks whipped, put it on the highest setting to get the most volume. If you’re adding sugar to the whites, do it very gradually. This should take about 2–3 minutes.

—Brynie Greisman

Just Sayin’

What’s the one dish that keeps your family going over Pesach? That you can go back to again and again and never have enough of?

Parsley Grilled Cutlets

I make a couple of batches of this recipe before Yom Tov and freeze it in ziplock bags flat, so it defrosts quickly. I use it for salads, plain grilled chicken, whatever I need it for.

• 3 lbs (1½ kg) chicken cutlets
• 1 full package frozen parsley cubes (2.5 oz?)
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 4 tsp kosher l’Pesach imitation mustard (optional)

Blend parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and mustard, if using, in a food processor. Place cutlets with the mixture in a ziplock bag and marinate overnight. Grill a few minutes on each side until done.

—Esther Ottensoser

Okay, quick:

If you could only have one of these at a Pesach meal — soup or salad — which would it be?

A: I love a good soup and a good salad. If I haaaaaad to choose, though, I think salad. But not a regular salad. A fully loaded one. Something with crunchy lettuce, arugula for a bite, some purple cabbage, all the crunchy cold chopped veggies, some roasted hot veggies, something briny like olives or capers, and some sort of protein. Think tuna, grilled chicken, eggs, or cheese. Of course, it all needs to come together with a really fresh, bright acidic vinaigrette.

—Danielle Renov

Here’s a Halachah

I finished the mayonnaise that was in a glass jar. Can I make dressing in the same jar without toiveling it?

Although some poskim require toiveling these jars before they may be used for other purposes, Rav Moshe Feinstein rules that in this case tevilah is not required. He explains that tevilas keilim is only required when one intends to purchase a kli — a utensil — from a non-Jew. In this case, however, one is intending to buy mayonnaise, and it just so happens that the mayonnaise is stored in a utensil. From a halachic perspective, the jar is considered secondary to the mayonnaise and does not have the status of a kli to be obligated in tevilas keilim.

Rav Moshe writes that he remembers from his youth that people in Russia did not toivel the small bottles of whiskey that were bought from government stores, even though they were used for other purposes after the whiskey was consumed. He concludes that regarding glass utensils, which require tevilah only miderabanan, one may certainly be lenient.

-Answered by Rabbi Doniel Neustadt

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 735)