Jump to content

Pam R

eGullet Society staff emeritus
  • Posts

    6,876
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Pam R

  1. Good morning from the Can(ada)ola Capital! (It was first "engineered" right here at the university of Manitoba.)

     

    The majority of oil in the supermarkets here are canola and you'd have a hard time finding a bottle of peanut oil around these parts. When I used to shop at the restaurant supply, the only oil they had in pails or 16 litre boxes was canola oil,  so it makes sense that most restaurants use it here (other restaurant suppliers have other options, but always lots of canola).

     

    I have never had the fishy taste problem with canola, but this year a store substituted "vegetable" oil for the canola oil I ordered.  It was a soybean/ canola blend that was 100% fishy.  Had to throw it out. 

    • Like 1
  2. 8 minutes ago, shain said:

    - so many are dry, floury, too soft or made with margarine (why?!).

    I do bake mine with butter, but if they need to be parve,  people use margarine.  I've never made a recipe with oil that I liked,  but if I had to, I'd use a good margarine (there are a few okay margarines out there now - much better than they used to be,  like Earth Balance). Having said that, I can't remember when I last made a batch with something other than butter. 

    • Like 1
  3. 6 hours ago, shain said:

     

    Honestly, most hamantaschen are terrible - those are not easy cookies to get right. But when their good, I love them. Classic poppy seed filling is my favorite.

    But those above are all creative and tasty sounding as well.

    See, everybody says this, but the only bad ones I've ever had are the mass-produced ones from large bakeries.   Any that my grandmother or mother baked when I was younger were delicious and once I started making them myself, well, I like those too. ;) 

    • Like 3
  4. 2 hours ago, weinoo said:

    Do you use A/P...I know you Canadians have some fancy flour up there?

    Yep, A/P flour for the regular dough and a mix of A/P and whole wheat for the graham wafer.  I do know our A/P flour is different up here -- I think it's higher in protein/gluten.

    • Like 1
  5. Anybody make any hamantaschen in the last 10-11 years? 😁

     

    This year I made:

    Prune, apricot and poppy seed in vanilla dough

    Raspberry almond frangipane

    Raspberry cheesecake in graham wafer crust

    S'mores (just used some chocolate chunks and marshmallow fluff in graham crust)

     

    IMG_20210214_174238_530.jpg

    IMG_20210214_105724_070.jpg

    IMG_20210208_170919_420.jpg

    IMG_20210131_191257_914.jpg

    • Like 6
    • Delicious 4
  6. 23 hours ago, FeChef said:

    I don't use egg, flour, or any of those nasty binders. My 90 yr old polish grandmother taught me to use shredded/grated potato, and as a binder.........mashed potatoes. You're welcome.

     

    Are you making pancakes, or potato cakes? There should be nothing but potato, onion milk, butter, and herbs and seasonings.

    Is that a Jewish latke? My Jewish-Polish baba (who would be 120 now) made them just like I do - shredded potato, onion, salt, pepper, egg and maybe some extra starch. 

     

    She would most likely have made a garlicky brisket to go with them for a holiday meal, and since she was orthodox would never have served with any dairy products. 

     

    Now, I'd say they were both latkes, because latkes really are just a pancake and I've made many varieties over the years (sweet potato, zucchini/ leek,  beet/ chevre,  corn, cauliflower, etc) but the potato/ onion/ egg mix is probably the most common traditional mix. 

    • Like 4
  7. 1 hour ago, SLB said:

    For those who use the recovered potato starch as a binder -- do you use ALL the starch???  It seems like a lot.  

    Yes.  It depends on what kind of potato you use though.  I've been using Yukon Gold lately and there isn't much starch in the bowl, so  I add flour (or potato starch if they need to be gluten free).

     

    But just mix the starch back in with the eggs and seasonings. 

  8. 3 hours ago, ambra said:

    I'm on the fence! Any suggestions welcome. 😃

    For soup or not for soup? :) (For soup we stick with meat/onions/potato) but just to eat on their own, browned in butter and served with sour cream? Well, you could go so many ways.. )   

    • Like 1
  9. 13 minutes ago, weinoo said:

    Yeah, that makes sense.  Not that I remember my ancestors from Russia/Poland ever making kreplach, though I could be misremembering.

    My baba and great aunts definitely made all of the traditional foods like kreplach and knishes (and would even come into my mom's catering business to teach our staff how to make the stretch dough for knishes). ;)   We grew up with the meat filled ones for soup, or they were filled with pressed cottage cheese or potato/onion.  And not my favorite, but if somebody found some wild Saskatoon berries and picked them for her, my grandmother would make them filled with berries. 

  10. 6 minutes ago, weinoo said:

    Interesting, @Pam R. One thing I've seen in almost all the recipes I've looked at is that the dough they make is an egg flour dough. Any idea on why they use that instead of a water flour dough?

    I think most (many?) people use more of a pasta dough, but we've always done them with a perogie dough -- maybe it depends on where your ancestors are from?  It makes sense to me that my eastern European/Russian ancestors make something that's more comparable to dumplings from that region than something closer to a tortellini (though my people probably come from Italy, they put in a long time in Russia/Poland before coming to Canada). 

    • Like 1
  11. On 9/18/2020 at 5:54 PM, weinoo said:

    L'shana tova, @Pam R and all.

     

    After the weekend, perhaps let me know how you fill the kreplach - I was this close to making them, but opted for matzoh balls instead.

    Check out my infamous (in my mind) eGullet Kreplach demo!   Basically soup chicken (or beef or leftover roast or. .  etc) ground up with caramelized onions and a little boiled potato to bind it. 

     

    Shana tova! 

    • Like 1
  12. Challah is done! Baked while on a zoom call with my office. 😃

     

    Kreplach  and soup were done and frozen on Sunday.  Mom cooked a brisket.  Cornish hens will be roasted. Kasha and bowties, some sort of salad and vegetables. Apple honey cake. 

     

    May everybody celebrating have a happy, sweet, delicious and healthy new year! Shana tova u'metukah!

    IMG_20200918_110022_211.jpg

    IMG_20200916_212523_655.jpg

    IMG_20200914_183643_132.jpg

    • Like 13
    • Delicious 1
  13. We're only a week away to the beginning of a new year (thank G-d -- I'm done with this year!). 

     

    What are your plans?  Depending on where you live, I'm sure Rosh Hashana will be different for most of us this year.  Personally, it will only be immediate family at the dinner table, but my mother and I will be cooking a bunch of food in the next week and dropping it off to family and friends.

     

    So far we'll be making dozens and dozens of my (infamous??)  meat kreplach and potato and onion vernekes (using the dough from the kreplach recipe and the filling from the knish recipe). (I've had a couple of requests for potato knishes so I will try to make some if I have time). 

     

    Soup is made and in the freezer,  round challot will be baked for my table and to be dropped off for my aunts and uncles.  I am thinking about a plum cake and make an apple/honey cake. . . maybe a regular honey cake.

     

    I have a brisket in the freezer, just not sure what I want to do with it.  I just keep thinking 'something different'.  There are Cornish hens and a package of lamb stew meat that I bought accidentally but I think might be made into some sort of tagine-like dish with dried fruits. 

     

    I think the big difference this year is that instead of a big table with lots of people and at least two meat dishes per meal, we'll have a small table and probably one 'main' for each meal.

     

    What are your plans? 🍎🍯

    • Like 5
  14. 12 hours ago, BeeZee said:

    You are thinking of Russian honey cake. The Jewish honey cake resembles a brick, in more ways than one.

    Though not a light cake, it shouldn't be a brick -- hopefully! A moist, dense cake flavoured with honey and spices and a hint of. . whatever booze you have in the house. ;)  Everybody in my family loves it. 

    • Like 3
  15. 6 hours ago, heidih said:

    I tried to interview a local Rabbi at the Chabad center around this time of year being clueless until he said "not  good time, busy, High Holy Days".  As we come up to that time of year I thought Honey Cake might fit here. Anyone make it?

     

    It's not Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) without honey cake.  And I do make a version with fresh apples, but have never thought to add any dried fruits, so I'm not sure if this would be our version of fruit cake.  Though the best recipes include alcohol -- usually rye whiskey (Crown Royal, naturally as it is made here) and in my family we fight over the top of the cake, where the booze seems to form a softer, gooey-er layer. 

     

    Confession: I've never tried fruit cake. 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 2
  16. It's been a while since I've posted - life got in the way and I wasn't at work much for a few months. But we did put together some different samples for the venue, including:

    • assorted macaron
    • chocolate dipped pretzels with toffee and pecans
    • sweet & spicy nuts
    • marshmallow/cereal bars with dried cranberries, chocolate chunks and pumpkin seeds
    • homemade marshmallows (assorted flavors, most half dipped in chocolate)
    • caramel/nut corn
    • specialized sugar cookies (Wicked just came through town and we did huge witches hat cookies)

    From that, he selected the caramel/nut corn, the marshmallow treats and the Witch's Hat cookies (which we will do in other shapes for other events) ..  plus the 7" assorted cookies.  They keep ordering more, so we may add some of the other items (or other ones) in the future.  They seem to be open to other ideas, so if anybody has any, don't hesitate to post 'em.

     

    Thanks for the help!

    • Like 4
  17. Happy 7-11 day. We are officially the Slurpee capital of the world for the 15th year in a row. It's been a while since I've had one, but it's a beautiful summer day and a free Slurpee to celebrate may be in order.

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...