Kachka’s chef Bonnie Morales and her team have created a menu for Passover that incorporates elements of the traditional Jewish holiday meal with festive twists, bringing extra culinary joy to the table along with plenty of house made matzah. On the menu is a zakuski platter inspired by the Seder plate, incorporating all six elements of the tradition into a delicious edible centerpiece; matzo ball soup; a seder meal of either smoked brisket or trout, surrounded by fresh spring sides; desserts and drinks like “Manischewitz Punch” and Kachka’s take on the “Four Cups of Wine”— four house made vodka infusions. Many dishes are also available to order à la carte.
All items below are available for pre-order until sold out at kachkapdx.com, for pick up on 3/27 or 3/28.
‘SEDER PLATE’ ZAKUSKI (serves 2) $50
Not your mother’s seder plate! Six zakuski (small appetizers) inspired by the six symbolic items of the seder plate. Comes with three house-made matzah crackers.
Karpas: spring crudite with jacobsen kosher salt water and parsley-onion dip.
Maror: ‘West coast’ gefilte fish, pickled carrots, beet horseradish sauce and shaved horseradish
Beitzah: beet caviar stuffed eggs, shaved beet, bull’s blood beet microgreens
Charoset: chopped chicken liver with rhubarb and celery relish
Z’roa: veal kholodetz terrine, Russian mustard, fines herbes
Chazeret: endive cups with smoked tvorog dip, dill and fried onion
BRISKET SEDER MEAL (serves 2) $100
Matzo ball soup, chicken broth, carrots, old school
Salad of bitter greens and chicories, compressed rhubarb, sunflower tahini dressing
Coriander-caraway rubbed & smoked beef brisket, prune uzvar BBQ sauce
Swiss chard and porcini matzo kugel
Duck confit chremslach fritters
ROASTED TROUT SEDER MEAL (serves 2) $100
Matzo ball soup, garlic broth, carrot, old school
Salad of bitter greens and chicories
Herb stuffed & roasted trout, horseradish sauce
Swiss chard and Porcini matzo kugel
Turnip chremslach fritters
À LA CARTE
CHAROSET $8
½ pint of compressed rhubarb and celery relish with a splash of campari.
SAFFRON & MEYER LEMON MACAROONS $8
Half dozen traditional passover coconut cookies bursting with sunshine from saffron threads and meyer lemon zest.
CACAO NIB, SOUR CHERRY, AND HAZELNUT ‘AFIKOMEN’ $10
½# of chocolate covered matzah toffee studded with cacao nibs, dried sour cherries, and toasted hazelnuts.
MATZO BALL SOUP $15 (1 QT)
1 quart of rich chicken broth with carrot coins and schmaltz & black pepper matzo balls. Super classic and comforting.
BRISKET $23 (1 LB)
Coriander-caraway rubbed, 12 hour smoked beef brisket. Served with prune uzvar BBQ sauce.
MANISCHEWITZ PUNCH $15 (serves 2)
Not your bubbe’s Manischewitz! A playful punch packed with springtime aromatics and flavors, with a balanced combination of wines and grape spirits. Spring Melody Brandy, Juniper Lemon Sherbet, Blackberry Manishewitz, Sauvignon Blanc.
FOUR ‘CUPS OF WINE’ INFUSIONS $36
One of our favorite parts of a traditional seder is the requirement to drink four cups of wine. Sign us up! But around here, we like subbing out the wine for vodka infusions. Includes 3 oz each of 4 different infusions:
First “cup” for kaddish: HORSERADISH
Second “cup” for story and plagues: BEET & DILL SEED
Third “cup” for after meal blessing: RHUBARB
Fourth “cup” for songs and end of seder: KRAMBAMBULYA (Belarusian spiced honey infusion)
About Kachka
Kachka sparked a Russian food revolution when Bonnie and Israel Morales opened their Portland restaurant in 2014. James Beard Award nominated Chef/Co-Owner Bonnie Morales cooks the food of the former Soviet Union, including many dishes inspired by those she grew up eating in her Belarusian family. Kachka is considered by many to be the best Russian restaurant in the country. Chef Bonnie Morales’ acclaimed cookbook Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking was the first Russian cookbook to be published in the U.S. in 30 years. In 2019, the Morales’ opened Kachka Lavka, a deli and grocery upstairs from Kachka, as a showcase for their housemade charcuterie, cured fish, and Russian baking programs, as well as an outlet for their frozen dumplings and myriad Eastern European grocery items. Kachka Horseradish Vodka was relaunched in 2020nand is available in liquor stores across Oregon. Offerings from Kachka to go, and Kachka Lavka are currently available to order online at Kachkapdx.com for pick up or delivery daily.