Pam R

When I graduated from high school, I traveled through Israel for about 6 weeks with most of my graduating class (about 30 of us). In the evenings, while touring or running from the kibbutz into Ashdod - it was common for everybody to grab a slice of pizza. Being lactose intolerant, I opted for a potato burekas. I loved the burekes. Over the years, I've tried to recreate the burekas from memory. I make a couple of versions and we even sell them at work. For potato, I steam then mash the potatos and mix with a lot of caramelized onions, salt and black pepper. I also make a mushroom and onion version that's similar. For the dough I've always used puff pastry. I know there is a Turkish version and a "Jewish" version. But does anybody know what the dough is that they use in Israel? Am I on the right road or should I be using phyllo (which is what I believe the Turkish ones are made with). Are there any spices I should be using to give me an authentic flavour? Or is there nothing authentic about this and is it just an easier way to make what's quite similar to a knish? Any thoughts or ideas? - Pam

Finally made it to the St. Norbert farmer's market yesterday. I got there rather late and there wasn't much left. What was there was rather wilted. I'm going to try to get there early next weekend. But, on my way home, I stopped in a Crampton's Market on Waverly and Bishop Grandon. I love this shop! This is what I bought: Great red/green onions, mixed greens, fresh basil, freshest corn I've had in years, baby potatoes, purple pepper, orange and yellow plums, shallots, garlic and a loaf of bread (that was actually 4 mini-loaves). all for $18. They're open from May to Oct. or Nov. I'll try to get some pictures when I go back. I'll definately go back. Still have to get to Vic's.

Some say that one reason for the kashrut laws are to keep Jewish people from sharing food with non-Jews. If you can't share food, it's hard to form strong relationships. You then can't date people of a different faith so it will prevent intermarriage. Marrying somebody of a different religion could mean the loss of traditions and eventually, the religion will die out. If you keep to the Jewish laws concerning foods (I'm not going into non-food points here), that means you keep the religion going. This is just one of the reasons behind religious dietary laws I studied in my 12-year Jewish school education. Another of course is the health issues already mentioned. And don't forget that one that goes "keep these laws because g-d said so" - no explaining necessary.

After visiting a farmer's market and a little, local produce place yesterday: Ribeye steak, fresh corn and red/green onions - all grilled. New potatoes and green and wax beens, steamed. Orange tomatoes and purple bell pepper, left raw and crisp. All on a bed of mixed baby greens. Served with a balsamic, red wine vin., olive and canola oils, grainy dijon mustard, honey, shallot, basil, garlic and s&p dressing. I'm ready to have it again. Maybe next week

I freeze pp. Most often in assembled Napoleons. But I realize that on the savoury side, I also bake off rounds of pp to top chicken pot pies. I haven't had a problem with them thawing. If you freeze them on your own, just wrap them well to freeze.... but thaw unwrapped (unless you're in a humid climate). Dragonfly, don't be miffed! I think people just want to help. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for cynicism to rear it's ugly head in the food industry. While many people involved love it, there's no question that being in the industry for years (especially as an owner) it can bleed you dry. The hours are crazy, the work physical and often the reward is not what it should be. As an owner, no matter how you plan on spending your time, the fact is that when somebody calls in sick, YOU have to fill in. When one of your dishwashers, bakers, counter persons, servers just stops showing up for work YOU have to cover their job, do your own and find somebody else to replace them. After years of this, you're a little worn down. Having said that - you have partners and restaurant experience. People to share the load with you and a history in the industry. And I for one can tell you, that if you have a strong desire to do this, and a love for it, there's nothing else for you to do but jump in and do it! You're in for a hell of a ride - just remember to try to enjoy it. When a customer's eyes close as they savour a bite of one of your cakes or a little kid gets chocolate all over their face as they demolish a cookie - remember to enjoy the moment! Sorry if we upset you earlier - I wish you all the luck in the world.

Nope. They're both long gone. You have to come to my store for Jewish food now

I've never had a reach-in before. We had a 16x12 foot and an 8x8 foot walk-in. We're planning on getting a 10x20 walk-in put up in our parking lot in the next month or so. We did however, buy a 2-door reach in from the previous business when we moved in last month. They were only in business for about 8 months... so it seems to be in pretty good shape. I believe it's a True (though I can't swear to that). Since my kitchen isn't up and running yet, I haven't used it for any baking... it's full of frozen beef and poultry for now.. and they're doing well.

After recently moving business, I was unpacking my cookbooks in my office a couple of days ago. One that I found, but didn't know I had was North African Cooking. Who knew? Many of the recipes sound amazing and as soon as I get a chance I'm giving them a try. The author does include Egypt in this region though.

I'm not sure where to put this post... but since is the most current Winnipeg food thread I figure it'll work here. Had dinner tonight at Baked Expectations. Foods was good.. though nothing exceptional. They do make their own, very good fries though. For dessert though, a couple pieces were shared. One I was not crazy about, but somebody else at the table loved - Chocolate Orange Mousse cake. The cheesecake however was very good. We chose German Chocolate Cheesecake - it was dense, but not crumbly. Creamy. Not too sweet. Really good. If you like cheesecale - give theirs a try.

re: walk in vs. commercial freezers I'm assuming that your freezers work like my walk-ins? Mine are colder that a typical home freezer, so I can keep things in there for months with no harm done, as long as they are well wrapped or packaged.

I have been definitely thinking about this. Care to share any recipes? I'm happy to. I'm just working on gathering more of them now - our kitchen is under construction so I can't do much (any) testing for a month or two. Honestly, what I generally do is search through tons and tons of cookbooks to get ideas. A lot of recipes have components to them that I like, or have good bases but often need tweaking. I don't have any of my recipes at home right now (all at work) but what type of things are you interested in? For the dainties I do things like: tarts (lemon meringue, pecan, butter, fresh fruit), rum balls, peanut butter chocolate covered cherries (not my favorite thing to do, and not quite my dream dessert to sell, but dammit, people love them), small eclairs, lemon swans (cream puffs with lemon curd/mixed with whipped cream filling, pipe a neck to add), then you can do all kinds of squares - cheesecakes, dense & rich brownies. There are a couple of threads on here that discuss many of these things... take a look at: Wendy DeBord's foodblog She does amazing stuff. Much fancier than me - but I'm working on that! Help me design a dessert bar .... has some great suggestions and of course the pastry and baking forum has tons of information.

Other than taste, smell is most important for me. Sight is nice, but if something smells truly horrible, I can't eat it. If it looks not-so great.. but I trust the person making it, it's ok. I'm the first one to admit that I may have missed out on some great-tasting things because the smell drives me mad (ie: canned fish. people seem to like tuna and salmon - I tend to gag when I smell it). The other thing about smell and food is that it brings back many memories. Every Passover when I start baking with cottonseed oil, it sends me right to Israel in my mind. I can smell the falafal and fries that I enjoyed while strolling around. When I walk into work and the 50 lb. sack of onions has been frying for 2 hours, the smell sends me right back to my grandmother's kitchen when I was a child. Even if the food doesn't taste as great as it did in the past, the smell makes me think that I'm enjoying the same things I used to. edited to add that the only thing from Senses I've tried is their bottled water. It looked clear, felt cold, smelled like clean water, swished when I poured it over ice and tasted like clean, clear and tasty water

As part of a pre-wedding evening party, just 2 weeks ago, I did a 'composed' Nicoise for 60. It wasn't the main, just another part of the meal. So a HUGe platter was put together with a layer of lettuce, then sections of egg, beans, olives, tomatoes, potatoes and onions were on top. OVer the whole thing were placed thin slices of grilled tuna. The entire thing was drizzled with a tarragon, balsamic, red wine, dijon, olive oil, s&p and garlic dressing - with more on the side if anybody wanted. It worked like any vegetable of fruit platter would - people helped themselves to a little of each thing with tongs. It went fast!

According to answers.com , Sabra is a prickly pear... or native Israeli. My hebrew dictionary is at work... I'll try to remember to check next week.

I use Fleishmans's for a ton of baking. I know people shudder at the mention of margarine, but for allergies, vegans and kosher reasons, it's a saving grace. I have never had any problems with it, and always get great results. I have experimenting with butter flavoured crisco.. and in another thread (can't remember which) somebody mentioned that they have come out with a non-hydrogenated version. I haven't tried anything with it yet but will. As to the allergy issue re equipment used for both dairy and non dairy margarine. Every margarine that I have seen in North America is certified kosher. Below the kosher symbol will be either the letter P or the word Pareve. This means there are no dairy ingredients at all. If below the kosher symbol are the letters DE it means that the margarine, while it may contain no dairy in it, is made using the same equipment. Sometimes it will actually say Dairy Equip on it. If it just has a D it means it is dairy. LindyCat: are you completely anti-margarine? It really does help to make non-dairy desserts.

I agree with the other responses, you're in for quite a ride!! It sounds to me like you're doing it though, so what you need is some help in the logistics. (My family has a food business, which includes high-end baking and we've just relocated and are developing new recipes as we speak... so I'm right there with you.) When I used to sell muffins, I would mix up huge batches and freeze them in 1 L containers. Then I could pull 1-2 L of a few flavours out each afternoon, put them in the cooler and they were ready to bake first thing in the morning. Cookies, I've done it two ways, but prefer to scoop them, freeze on baking sheets and then keep in plastic containers until ready to bake. Placed on a baking sheet in the morning, 1/2 hour on the counter and they're ready to bake. For cakes, I always bake up what I call components - the cake part or biscuit rounds. Wrap well and into the freezer. Meringue layers are baked and wrapped well, don't usually freeze them but you can. Then you pull them out and ice them as you need them. I sell a lot of what we call 'dainties' here. I think some others on here have referred to them as 'pic-ups' - the 1-2 bite desserts. Whenever I have time I make a batch of this or that and stick it in the freezer. The goal is to have a good variety that I can pull out with I get an order for a tray (or in April when I needed 1500 over 3 days, I only had to make a ocuple of things to fill the order). Eclairs and cream puffs also work well as a do-ahead. They can be frozen and if necessary returned to the oven to crisp up when thawed. Things in the freezer will last a long time. Do you have a walk-in freezer?? Cheesecakes both freeze well and keep well in a showcase. I hope some of this helps. Goodluck!! You have a lot of work ahead of yourself but it sounds like you're on your way.

So they too are hard and prickly on the outside and soft in the middle? I'm really enjoying your stories and pictures. Thanks so much for sharing them.

Balsamic. I know some people seem to think balsamic is over, but I still like it. Balsamic, dijon, olive oil, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I think steak needs a bold dressing. I love this cookoff. I could eat a composed salad daily.... if somebody else washes the lettuce for me.

I think Folklorama should be separate, as well. Well then, go here

What I love about Whole Foods is that while they may charge a lot, they give you some service with it. I did a cooking demo at the Whole Foods in Toronto that was open to the public at no charge. They also offer their teaching kitchen up for use for community meetings and events at no charge. Our national chain of grocery stores (Superstore) may charge less for foods, but they charged $30 for my cooking demo. They don't carry the same products, they don't have the same helpful staff and they charge shoppers .04 per bag! I hate that. If you live in a city with other good gourmet or high-end foods, then maybe a place like Whole Foods isn't all that. If you live in a town without any of these places, seeing a Whole Foods going up would bring joy and happiness to your life

of course it does! we used to make it over the campfire. The pan is black now... looks like plastic... I'm assuming it doesn't melt.

I agree. And since it's been over 20 years since you've been , don't you think it's time you returned?

Anybody who has been to Winnipeg in the middle of summer knows that it means traveling around the world in two weeks without ever going beyond the Perimeter. That's right folks, this Sunday, July 31st starts the yearly culture-fest known simply as Folklorama. Everybody knows (especially members of eGullet) that many cultures celebrate their uniqueness through food. Peggers and many visitors will spend the two weeks visiting Pavillions across the city - we'll look through cultural displays, enjoy performances and best of all - eat amazing ethnic foods! This year will have 44 countries opening their cultural centers to the rest of us. They include: I hope anybody who may be visiting the city checks out some of the foods offered up at one or many of the Pavillians. I had planned on getting to many of them myself, but moving a business this month has thrown up some hurdles. I still plan on getting to as many as I can. Anybody else planning on going? Please share your experiences here. (rona? )

Rona... nu? I'm assuming you've eaten something in the last week??

You sure you didn't live on my street?