Pam R

I was thinking about something with chicken and lentils tomorrow... I'll see what I have in the fridge

I'm not sure I completely understand your question :) It is not hard to make the meringue layer - I assume that's what you're asking about? Pulse the nuts in your food processor - don't let the thing run continuously, cuz that's how you get the oil. It won't take long to get the nuts down to a good size. You don't need to pipe it - jsut use a spatula (off-set is best) and spread the meringue out in rounds - Use parchment paper if you have it. Bake the meringues at about 225 for one hour. Turn the oven off and leave for another hour or so (don't open the door once you've turned it off - it will release too much hot air and it won't dry well). You can also leave the meringue in the oven over night for a super-dry layer. The trick is, once you've dried the meringues, you actually want to ice them several hours before serving to soften them up a little. Does that help at all?

I always thought it was holopchi...

You should have made it a surpise contest... because now I'm going to wait until you hit about 999,900 before I post my books

Not if you're willing to share the recipe. ← All you have to do is replace the cream cheese in your favorite recipe with the soy cream cheese. If the recipe calls for sour cream, the soy sour cream is great too. (the recipe I use doesn't call for any cream, but if yours does you can replace it with Rich's coffee creamer - I haven't tried using the potato milk, but I think that may be a great alternative) I'd be happy to share my recipe with you, but it's at work and I am not. I can post it in the next few days though if you'd like.

What happens if I say I'm all for dairy-substitutes? Will people think less of me if they know that I have been known to bake a non-dairy cheesecake (I actually prefer the soy-cream cheese cheesecake to a real-cheese cheesecake. That can also partly be because I'm lactose-intolerant as well as trying to keep things kosher... and I am ALL about the potato milk - testing recipes with it all the time) Silverfish: did you want help just with dessert or with the whole menu? I wasn't sure if your menu was set or if you were asking for ideas .

Either do I .. all I know is that my grandmother (born in Poland in 1900) and my great-aunt (on the other side of the family, born in Canada but to Russian-born parents) both made them the same way - round, in a stretch dough. I think it's just a case of potatoes being inexpensive and plentiful - and trying to come up with different ways to eat them .... that's why we have verenekes, blintzes and burekes as well.... Like most ethnic foods, cheap ingredients form the base of many of our foods. (Back in the old days, I am told, briskets were very inexpensive... that's one of the reasons why every Jewish family has a brisket recipe that appears on every holiday table and why you have so much corned beef, smoked meat and pastrami in jewish delis) I'm not an expert on the square knishes - I've only had them twice, once in NY and once in Toronto - as I said before, I've never seen them here nor do I know anybody who makes them.

Susan - you directed me to this thread a while ago, but I didn't have much time to read it then. I've just spent a little more time scrolling through, stopping to read about one weekend or another, looking at some of your amazing pictures. It all brings back great memories! When I was a kid, my parents bought an acre of land on a private lake about 10 minutes north of Kenora, Ont. They cleared the land by hand, making sure to take down just enough greenery to build the cottage - no more. In our entire time there, we never had plumbing - it was a 'biffy' for us, or if we were REALLY desperate, we were allowed to use the chemical toilet set up in the 'bathroom' (there were plans to one day have plumbing. I think that my parents let us use it only because it was not unheard of to hear bears splashing around at night on our private beach. To tell the truth, I hated the cottage.... for the first few years. While my parents and sister looked forward to it, I thought staying at the Holiday Inn in Kenora was a much better idea. But little by little I began to love it, and I looked forward to it more and more every year. When I graduated from high-school I spend 2 months in Israel with my class... then my sister flew out and we continued to travel in Europe together. It was an amazing summer - but we came home to find that our parents had sold the cottage and we would never be able to return. The food business that I love so much was the reason - our catering company was so busy that we just did not have the time to get to the lake. Of course, summers are big for weddings and bar mitzvahs (and unveilings... etc.) and the 3-3/12 hour drive was just too much. It's been more than 10 years since we sold, but I still miss it! When I have some free time now, I head north about an hour to the shores of Lake Winnipeg, but it's not the same thing. (Especially this past summer... it was just crappy all around) Thanks so much for telling us about your wonderful cabin - I look forward to living vicariously through you this summer! Pick some blueberries for me this summer (and try the blueberry soup!) and take a dip in the lake.

That's how we make them at work - we make a strudel-stretch dough - we actually have a 'knish table' on which we strech the dough as thin as possible - lay down a row of filling on one end and roll the whole thing up. Then using the side of my hand, cut through the dough, making individual knishes and pretty much closing them up on both sides (if we left them open, the filling would go flying out while baking). This is the only way I've seen knishes made here, but outside of Winnipeg I've never seen them like this. I wonder if this is a Polish knish vs. a ... german, russian, etc. knish?

Clarity lies in the shamming (skimming). Just make sure to skim off all the foam and scum, and you should have a clear soup - with as much skin in the soup as you want.

I have read it, but the roasted chicken bone question I either missed the answer or something. I've printed it to review tonight as I'm going to make stock tomorrow, and hopefully still be able to do the lesson on braising. I could get the meat off, I was just trying to figure out a good methodology for using all parts to an optimum degree. Thanks. ← chicken bones can be bought - and they are usually very cheap. What do you think the butchers do with the bones when they sell boneless breasts or thighs?

more details on Yonah Schimmel's knishes ← I've only had a knish in New York once ... and how should I put this? Knishes are not the same throughout the world! Intead of going to NY, head straight north, cross the border and try a Winnipeg Knish. We use a stratch dough that is flaky and crispy and is completely different from what I tried at a deli in NY. Having said that, I assume the freshness factor is the same. We actually make knishes at work and freeze them raw. Then our customers take them home and bake them when they want them so they have the freshest possible product. So follow GG's plan and call them - see if you can be there when they are fresh out of the ovens (and see if they have kasha knishes - they're my favorite)

When I was testing recipes for my book, I came to a very simple conclusion - taste is subjective. I grew up on traditional Jewish/Deli chicken soup. The very best way to make the soup that I like is to use the bones. Having said that, in my cookbook, my recipe for chicken soup calls for using whole, mature chickens - older chickens have much more flavour than young chickens. I did add a line or two to the recipe telling people to use bones only - if you replace the same weight of whole chicken with just bones, you will get a stronger tasting broth. I've tried both ways, and those are my results - but I suggest people do the same testing and see what they like more - my telling you it's better one way really means that that's the way I like it more. You may like it more the other way. Again, if I'm making stock to eat as a soup, I'm not a fan of roasting. It's a different flavour - not MORE flavourful, just different flavour. I'd roast them if I was making a stock for a sauce, but not for a soup. (when I make beef stock, I DO roast the bones... )

And then try making it with just the bones.... because that's where the flavour really comes from

Gel/flavor comes from collagen. Greatest source of collagen: skin. Greatest source of skin: feet. Second best source: wings. Peeling off/discarding skin when making stock would be akin to eating an orange skin but throwing away the flesh. The foundation, the soul, the very essence of chicken stock lies within the skin. ← I'm not disagreeing with you... but you can still make a heck of a stock with bones alone... using necks and bones will give you a pot full of gelatinous goodness.

Chicken necks, wings and 'backs' are also good for the soup. All of our chicken crosses provincial lines (from Ontario to Manitoba) and for some reason they won't allow chicken feet into the province. We sell cases of each of these every week for soup. If they aren't available where you buy your chicken, ask your butcher to keep the bones when he's (she?) preppeing boneless chicken breasts (that's the 'back'). I RARELY use an actual whole chicken for chicken stock. Unless you are planning to use the meat for something else, then by all means use it. If you want a clear broth though, I think it's a waste of cash. And of course, if you want to use a whole chicken, it's better to use an old, tough chicken rather than a young, tender chicken. More flavour in the old guys.

I've been baking hamentashen, rice puddings, bread puddings and cobblers all week. So dinner tonight is simple - tomato basil bruschetta with a greek salad....and a dessert buffet ;) Shabbat Shalom

Here's my recipe. I usually make a bigger batch at one time, but had to recently reduce the recipe for an upcoming magazine article. - double it if you want. You can replace the margarine for butter of course. Use a double boiler - whisking the lemon juice, eggs and sugar until they coat a spoon. Take off the heat and whisk in the butter. Lemon Curd: 2/3 C. fresh lemon juice 2 eggs 3 egg yolks 1 C. sugar ¼ C. non-dairy, cold Passover margarine The grated lemon zest would definately add flavour, but I don't like the texture so I don't put it in. Instead I zest the lemons and add the zest to the lemon chiffon cake batter.

Today (at work) I made (approximately) 70 litres of bean and barley soup and (approx.) 50 litres of split pea soup. I think I may take a break from soups for a couple of weeks... But...that chicken soup was so good this weekend... I may need another pot.... hmmm....

At the moment I'm writing a bi-weekly recipe/food column for our local paper, the Jewish Post and News. I've been sending out query letters like crazy though, and a few other publications are interested - I'll let you know if anything happens.... my column could appear in a paper near you soon.

For me ... try not to breathe when those cans of fish get opened (we make a lot of party sandwiches). The smell kills me.

On Friday night, I made a big batch of Jewish penicillin (ie: chicken soup). It was dinner for the family that night, and pretty much all that was eaten this weekend. I wish I had thought to take a picture! In addition to necks and bones, a couple of trays of wings stayed in the pot for the long haul. A young chicken was thrown in just until cooked (otherwise it dries out) - then it was torn into large chunks and just warmed through before eating. Onions go in whole so they can be pulled out - but I love the cooked celery carrots and parsnips, so they get chuncked and left in. (I added dill, but it could have used a little more) There was debate about what to make with it: matzo balls, rice or egg noodles. So we made all. The only thing missing was kreplach - which I didn't have the time, nor ingrediants (yes, I have matzo meal at home but no flour) to make. Since our weather did go back down to -25 C, it was the perfect pot of golden goodness for this weekend. My only complaint is that there wasn't any left to freeze. (I may have to steal a couple of liters of chicken broth from the freezer at work because I have a hankering for Avgalemeno).

Thanks so much for sharing some of your favorite kugels. I panicked this weekend when I realized I had to write a Purim article or two before I finished my Pesach ones! So this week will be hamantashen and alcoholic beverages for Purim, then I'll get back to kugels and other Passover delights next week... with all sorts of new ideas to try.

I realize this topic hasn't been active in a few months but in a search for kishka (I have a craving!) I came across this thread. I love it - the whole topic. My grandmother was an amazing cook - from Poland - and my parents have run a kosher (no longer hechshered) catering company/restaurant for most of my life (where I still work). I love and have eaten most of these so-called Jewish foods my whole life. For some reason we have NEVER made cholent - but other than that, most of things have been eaten in my house. One thing that has always amazed me is that during the times our restaurant has been open (we are known for opening for a few months, closing for a couple of years, opening for a couple of years, closing.....) non-Jews from across the city (and out-of-towners) would come for the knishes, blintzes, kreplach, verenkes, matzo balls, keichle and whatever other 'Jewish' foods we serve. There's something almost mythical for non-Jews when it comes to these foods... Just a thought! Thanks for the thread.

Haven't made a sweet potato kugel as of yet but I would think that grating the raw sweet potatoes first and then adding the remaining ingredients might be viable. I don't parboil nor do I use a ricer. Have also made Vidalia onion kugels (from nearby Vidalia, Georgia), carrot kugels, cauliflower kugels ... ← I tried grating the sweet potato and adding the rest of the ingredients - but there is something about the sweet potato - it just did not work! I will have to give it anothing go this week... after I'm done writing my Purim articles. What is the cauliflower kugel? Sounds like a great idea... (I also like noodle kugels, but of course off limits for this column)