Spring Cleaning

It's that time of the year to clean out the cupboards and restock the shelves. I spend a good part of the year rationing out the spelt and oat matzos and matzo crumbs I am able to find at Passover. For those of you who can have wheat you probably don't think twice about walking into a store and picking up one of the seemingly 100 different crackers available. For those of us with allergies to wheat or gluten, we are lucky if there are one or two 100% rye crackers on the shelf. Bread crumbs are even more difficult to find. The idea of turning already expensive bread into crumbs for a recipe isn't very appealing either. But with the coming of Passover I'm making my list and checking it twice.

Several companies (Streit's and Manischewitz) now make spelt matzo for Passover. I try to make sure I get enough spelt matzo to last a year. They are great with all of the traditional cheese and cracker events throughout the year. These are nice firm crisp crackers which can be dipped or topped with cheese, etc. Spelt is related to wheat and does contain gluten, but many allergic to wheat can tolerate spelt.

I have found one company who makes oat matzo and matzo meal (crumbs), Shemura (London, England). This completely gluten-free matzo is a softer mild tasting cracker and versatile "bread" crumbs. So far I have only found this product through kosher.com.

I stock up on what I can each year and as I do I am reminded of my friend Sandy's grandfather who decades ago would make a special trip each year to New York to stock up on kosher for Passover products to satisfy his need for corn free products. Corn is one of the forbidden grains during the 8 day holiday. Those who are allergic to corn you know that corn and corn byproducts (syrup, starch, oil, etc) are in many of the every day products we use. So if you cannot have corn and crave a soda try one that has been made especially for Passover.