The first seder or dinner for the Jewish holiday of Passover took place March 27 with a special menu and readings from the prayer book or the Haggadah.

Because of COVID-19, there were many different ways of celebrating this year, starting with Zoom seders or seders with just two people present to possibly a handful of close relatives, especially those who received the vaccine.

But for sure, matzoh was available.

And some of the traditional dishes such as matzoh ball soup and the charoset or the finely chopped mixture made to resemble the mortar used to hold the bricks together that the children of Israel used to build the cities of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

Also, on the special seder plate were the greens, the salt water, the bitter herb and a shank bone of a lamb and the roast egg which is the symbol of rebirth.

There was also the drinking of four cups of wine.

The holiday of Passover lasts for eight days and ends April 4.

On March 16, the Jewish Federation sponsored a Passover cooking class on Zoom with Chef Michael Solomonov.

The three recipes for this Passover meal came from the cook book, “ZAHAV” by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook.

The first recipe prepared was the mina.

This is a dish using matzoh as the base and the cover, somewhat like a pie shell and top.

Inside is a ground beef mixture, used as the filling.

Many other fillings could be used with the mina, including a scrambled egg and feta cheese combination.

A red pepper salad and the charoset was made to eat with the mina.

“Mina is the ladino word for pie.

This Passover dish, common throughout the Sephardic world, is almost too good to be true.

“Once the matzo is soaked and baked, it magically transforms into something more like traditional pastry than unleavened bread,” Solomonov said.

Solomonov, who is highly praised also did a Zoom cooking class on Roshanah recipes hosted by the Jewish Federation, which was very popular.

Chef Solomonov is the owner of Zahov, a popular Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia, and the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award winner for an outstanding restaurant.