Instructions: FOOD tells the signature story of the Jewish people at the annual Passover seder, celebrated tonight in Jewish homes everywhere. The oddly delectable fruit-and-nut paste called haroset has become a popular side dish, reflecting the rich and variable cuisines and cultures of the Diaspora.

Traditionally - at least among European-descended Jews in the United States - the symbolic haroset blends apples, nuts, cinnamon and sweet red wine into a paste that looks like mortar, evoking the mortar that the Hebrew slaves of the Bible used to cement bricks together. Its sweet taste offsets the bitterness of the horseradish root, eaten at Passover as a reminder of the harsh treatment the Hebrews endured in Egypt. The red wine in the haroset and drunk at the table recalls the Red Sea, which parted to allow the Hebrews to pass to freedom.

Lately, a proliferation of haroset recipes, reflecting cultures far and near, has made the rounds. While Ashkenazic, or European, haroset is fairly universal, differing in texture, but not much in flavor, ingredients in the Sephardic, or Spanish and Mediterranean, versions reflect the cooks country, and sometimes even city of origin.

This year, an e-mail titled Haroset x 12 circulated with long lists of recipients, offering a dozen recipes for the traditional Passover side dish. In addition to a basic recipe, it included Yemenite haroset, Venetian haroset, dessert haroset from Israel and California haroset, with one highly unusual ingredient.

Why the sudden interest in this particular Passover food? One can only speculate. Perhaps the multi-cultural nature of our communities and a general appreciation for diversity have led to trying new and different ethnic recipes.

Perhaps as more people move and migrate from one community to another, and make seder with friends living nearby but hailing from afar, different family recipes are tasted, toasted, sometimes altered and transmitted.

Joan Nathan, author of The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, offers this explanation for how regional recipes build on one another, reflecting available ingredients and personal tastes: On the Island of Rhodes, for example, dates, walnuts, ginger and sweet wine are used to make haroset. The Greek city of Salonika adds raisins to this recipe. Turkish Jews, not far away, include an orange. Egyptians eat dates, nuts, raisins and sugar, without the ginger and wine. Yemenites use chopped dates and figs, coriander and chili pepper. An interesting haroset from Venice has chestnut paste and apricots, while one from Surinam calls for seven fruits, including coconut. Each Israeli uses the Diaspora haroset recipe of his ancestors or an Israeli version that might include pignolia nuts, peanuts, bananas, apples, dates, sesame seeds, matzo meal and red wine.
Just what qualifies a haroset recipe for the category of California cuisine?

What else but the emblematic avocado.

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