It can be made to taste mild or sharp or even sweet and sour

It can be made to taste mild or sharp, or even sweet and sour. Let it cool in the foil.Remove the skin and put the fillets, in large pieces, in a serving dish. Place in a tray and bake in a preheated oven (400F/ 200C/gas mark 6) for about 30 minutes or until the flesh begins to flake when you cut into it with a pointed knife – check after 20 minutes. Wrapped in foil, the fish steams in its own juice; marinating it in olive oil and lemon juice keeps it moist and juicy.11/2 kg fish fillets, any firm white fishsaltjuice of 1 lemon125ml of mild extra virgin olive oilwhite pepperSeason the fish lightly with salt. Brush a large sheet of foil with oil, place the fillets together, one on top of the other, in the middle and wrap loosely into a parcel, twisting the foil edges together to seal it.

Everyone was looking at the entrance desperately hoping that a male Jewish tourist would walk in. The thought of our own exodus from Egypt became unbearably sad as I remembered the packed synagogue with blazing lights and exuberant chants, and all the people I spent my childhood with, the men in their top hats, the women in their finery chattering in the gallery.`The Book of Jewish Food’ by Claudia Roden is published by Viking, pounds 25Pesce sott’olio con salsa verde (cold fish in olive oil with green sauce), serves 6Italian Jews make this fish dish on Friday to be eaten cold on Saturday. I have chosen it for the Seder because the salsa verde which is served with it can represent the bitter herbs of Passover. In Italy they use fish such as bream, bass and John Dory, but you could use any firm white fish such as cod, haddock or halibut. There were not the required 10 Jewish men to perform the prayer.

To Muslims the plagues began to sound like imprecations against them.A few years ago I found myself at the Grand Temple, the great synagogue in Cairo, at Passover. Some of our older relatives wore kaftans – one was a cabbalist who wrote magic charms on pieces of paper – some of the younger ones were communists or Zionists, but the gatherings were always harmonious and affectionate.By the early Fifties, after the first war against the new state of Israel in 1948, the situation began to sour and the celebration of Passover became tense We shouted “Next year in Jerusalem” with trembling passion. We sat in large circles and were treated to coffee and sherbets (almond milk, rose, apricot and tamarind syrup), almondy pastries and coconut jam. They too fell about laughing in the kitchen when my father enumerated the plagues brought on their ancestors.Pesach (Passover) was a joyful period of frenetic activity, beginning with weeks of cleaning, whitewashing, the selling of hametz (leaven, fermented dough and grain which is forbidden in Jewish households during Passover) to Muslim neighbours, and the acquisition of matzos which were produced in large round sheets in a Jewish bakery in Mit Ghamr.Passover week was spent in a round of visits to every member of the extended family. As the oldest female child in the family, I held the bowl with my eyes closed and ran to flush the contents down the lavatory.Could our ancestors really have built the pyramids with silt? We tried to feel sad, but the idea of our ancestors as slaves was hilarious as we sat around the table surrounded by servants. Haroset, a date and raisin paste, recalled the Nile silt that the Jews had used to build the pyramids for the Pharaohs.Finally, everyone averted their eyes when my father poured into a bowl the wine while enumerating the 10 plagues brought upon the Egyptians as a result of the Pharaoh refusing to let the Israelites leave the country – the Nile turning to blood, infestations of frogs, lice, flies, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of the first born.

The matzo was to remind us of the Jews who had no time to let their dough rise when they fled. Lettuce, symbolising new growth, was dipped in salted water which represented the tears of the Jewish slaves; and bitter herbs (rocket and cress) were to remind us of how bitter slavery had been for our ancestors. A shoulder of lamb represented the lamb sacrificed by the Israelites on the eve of their Exodus; long-boiled eggs the offerings to God in the Temple. His voice became exalted when he got to the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven and the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.
He ceremoniously passed around the ritual foods from the Seder tray with explanations. Reading from the Haggadah, my father relived for us in our French mother-tongue, with great passion, the unfolding events of the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt more than three thousand years before.