We all have our religious rituals and family traditions. One
of ours is chopped liver (this is not as trivial as it first sounds). My mother
died over thirty years ago after a long and difficult illness.
She lived with us the last few years of her life and I greeted her death
with very mixed emotions: sadness at our loss but relief that she was no longer
in pain.
No matter how ill she was she always insisted on making the
chopped liver for Passover and New Year and to break the Fast on the Day of
Atonement. There was no recipe – and
although I helped her I never consciously took much notice. Even when we all
knew that her life was limited I didn’t take notice – perhaps it was my form of
denial.
There are strange moments when grief strikes you
unexpectedly. The first Jewish holiday
after her death was Passover. There is no thought that has to go into the menu
planning– it is the same year after year and of course there is chopped liver.
I suddenly realised that this now fell to me to make - would I be able to take
over this minor task but somehow central role that my mother had played over
many years? It is part of handing down traditions through the generations. I
sat down and wept.
Of course it isn’t difficult, especially with modern kitchen
gadgets to do the chopping. It is
chicken or goose fat, chicken livers, onions and hard-boiled eggs. Then decorated with more chopped hard boiled
eggs, whites and yolks separated and put in stripes and garnished with parsley.
There is still no fixed recipe but the magic has been passed
on. My daughter made it for their New
Year in Switzerland and here it is.
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