Barcelona: Sephardic cooking workshops

Get a head start with your Passover cooking with these neat classes.

I met Janet Amateau in Barcelona last year at the first meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Catalunya -- Dr. Jeff Malka was the speaker. A former New Yorker, she is a Sephardic cooking expert and lives in a small coastal town between Barcelona and Girona.

The dishes she's planning for her annual spring Sephardic cooking workshop are mouth-watering.

Each two-day workshop combines demonstrations and hands-on practice in making some 14 dishes.

Here's the menu, with Ladino spellings and brief descriptions:

Supa de gayina: Chicken stock with spring herbs and vegetables; Avgolemono: Greek chicken soup with egg & lemon; Harosi: A version using dates, apples, toasted nuts and wine; Ouevos haminados: Hard-cooked velvety-textured onion-flavored eggs; Mina: Savory pie of ground beef and spring herbs with matza; Cuazhado de spinaca: Baked casserole of fresh spinach, eggs, aged/fresh cheeses and toasted sesame; Keftes de prasa: Delicate leek pancakes; Gayina: Salt-baked chicken; Andjinaras con avas: Braised artichokes and fava beans with fresh dill & garlic;
Fasuliya: Turkish-style haricots verts stewed in rich tomato sauce; Arros pilaf: Rice pilaf with sauteed onion & toasted pine nuts; Birmuelos de Pesah con arrope: Matza fritters with raisin syrup; Masapan: Hand-rolled almond-paste hazelnut, pistachio, lemon and rosewater varieties; Mustachudos: Toasted hazelnut pyramid cookies with cinnamon, clove and orange; Gateau de tia Rachel: Nut flour, cocoa & orange cake; and Turkish coffee.

For dates and reservations, go to the Sephardic Cooking Web site.

When is my flight?