Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

eG Foodblog: Pam R - or Pam's Passover Plotz (Part 2)


Pam R

Recommended Posts

The Manischewitz matozs that I bought say..not for passover..do they sell some that are? Wouldn't they all be kosher for passover?

Manischevitz and other brands make Matzah year round, but only the ones stamped "Kosher for Passover" should be used during Passover. The ones that are baked year round could have come in contact with some sort of leavening.

The machines and the room where the matzah is made are thoroughly cleaned before they are used to make their matzah for Passover and it is inspected by Kosher authorities prior to baking.

BTW- This rule applies to any factory that makes products for Passover.

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

During the week of Passover, shelves that contain products that are not "Kosher for Passover" are covered with plastic and we are not allowed to purchase them.

Most of the bakeries are closed during the week of Passover. I say most, because there are some that stay open to serve the Non-Jewish citizens and non-observant.

You usually see people buying multiple loaves of bread and/or packs of pita a few days before the holiday.

Pam, do you carry Kasher l'Pesach dog and cat food?

Someone on a local yahoo group asked if fish flakes were Kosher for Passover. Some people are quite pedantic about keeping Kosher for Passover. It turns out that it is not; you can buy maggots :shock: to feed them for the week of Passover.

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You usually see people buying multiple loaves of bread and/or packs of pita a few days before the holiday.

I was totally prepared this year and started stocking up on bread three weeks ago. Now my (atheist/secular/high-holiday Catholic) household has 3 loaves in the freezer and two in the fridge. :wink: But as an outsider, I do love a holiday that involves so many macaroons! :smile:

Your menu looks fabulously tasty, Pam. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You usually see people buying multiple loaves of bread and/or packs of pita a few days before the holiday.

I was totally prepared this year and started stocking up on bread three weeks ago. Now my (atheist/secular/high-holiday Catholic) household has 3 loaves in the freezer and two in the fridge. :wink: But as an outsider, I do love a holiday that involves so many macaroons! :smile:

Your menu looks fabulously tasty, Pam. Good luck!

Rehovot, I don't know if you noticed but Roladin is selling Pierre Herme-like macaroons this year. The come in a variety of flavors. I prefer those over the coconut ones.

Tapenade doesn't like coconut, so sometimes I buy the peanut macaroons for him. I like the coconut macaroons stuffed with apricot or raspberry jam.

What I am looking forward to are Mamoul and Mufleta for Mimouna. My neighbors are Moroccan and I am hoping they will invite us to their celebration this year.

Pam, is there a Moroccan community in Winnipeg?

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pam, that's an amazing lineup of stuff you're cooking. How long does it take to cook how many of those? 140, you said?

One question: What is Mandarin salad? Salad with mandarin oranges?

There are 140 orders, but again - some of the orders are for only one item, while others are for complete seders. We kashered our kitchen about 2 1/2 weeks ago (think blow torches and lots of boiling water) - and started preparing items that can be frozen. With limited oven space, we have to work out a tight schedule to get everything done. People don't want to know that their food has been frozen - but anybody doing this type of thing, pushing all of the food out in one 4-hour period, has to do it this way. And then, there are some items that I encourage people to keep in their own freezer if they won't be using them within the next day or two. Passover rolls made with cottonseed oil, for example, will go rancid quickly.

I try my best to estimate how many of each item we'll need so that I can complete all of the prep for that item at a time. We look at the orders that have already come in and the number of orders from last year. It never works :biggrin: . This year the orders just kept on coming. So although I baked a large batch of Passover rolls almost 2 weeks ago (about 250), last week I had to bake another 120. I've now made 3 huge batches of komish (mandelbroit), and so on.

Items that get done a day or so before include all of the meats, fish, chopped liver, dessert finishing.

Mandarin salad is exactly that :wink: . For non-Passover times it's romaine, mandarins (or fresh orange segments), slivered almonds, toasted sesame seeds and honey-dijon dressing. Very simple, very popular. At Passover, we eliminate the sesame and rework the dressing. No dijon (mustard's not allowed) but apple cider vinegar, honey, garlic, seasoning and oil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Manischewitz matozs that I bought say..not for passover..do they sell some that are? Wouldn't they all be kosher for passover?

Manischevitz and other brands make Matzah year round, but only the ones stamped "Kosher for Passover" should be used during Passover. The ones that are baked year round could have come in contact with some sort of leavening.

What she said :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pam, do you carry Kasher l'Pesach dog and cat food?

No we don't. I feel that we should not impose our religious beliefs on our pets. :wink:

Seriously - I don't. But I haven't had anybody ask for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Manischewitz matozs that I bought say..not for passover..do they sell some that are? Wouldn't they all be kosher for passover?

From my office I can hear two customers talking with my father right now. I haven't said a word, but a recent Israeli immigrant jsut said that he was amazed to see the non-kosher for Passover matzo.

Michelle - do they sell these chometz ones in Israel?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You usually see people buying multiple loaves of bread and/or packs of pita a few days before the holiday.

I was totally prepared this year and started stocking up on bread three weeks ago. Now my (atheist/secular/high-holiday Catholic) household has 3 loaves in the freezer and two in the fridge. :wink: But as an outsider, I do love a holiday that involves so many macaroons! :smile:

Your menu looks fabulously tasty, Pam. Good luck!

Is it really strange to be in Israel and not celebrate the Jewish holidays?

Living here I never think about people having the opposite problems we have. Some people come in and literally spend thousands of dollars on food for a one-week period. We were discussing this - amazed to see what people were spending. Then we realized that people here, who care about keeping kosher during the holidays, have no other choices. They can't go out for a meal - everything must be prepared at home (or catered :wink: ).

Surely the treif restaurants in Israel remain open?

As for macaroons - I've never been a huge fan of the tinned ones. I don't mind homemade ones. This year though, we got in some Shachaf macaroons - they are so superior to the ones in the can. They remain... moist. (I like the strawberry filled ones.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pam, is there a Moroccan community in Winnipeg?

There is - though I don't think it's very large. Since we've opened and have started carrying items like jahnun and melawah - I've been meeting more and more of them! :biggrin: (I realize these items aren't Moroccan, but they are much loved by most of the Sephardi population here.) In the last year I've learned about foods that I've never heard of before. It's not unusual to hear customers telling each other about one product or another.

Carrying all of these Israeli items has really introduced us to a segment of the Jewish population we didn't really know. Apparently 1+ Israeli families are moving to Winnipeg each week. Many of them are Russian families via Israel - but some are Sephardi. It's a great mix.

We've been playing Israeli music in the store - and as your shopping for your Passover supplies you can hear English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and Spanish being spoken. It's a very 'hamish' place. All the staff yells across the store at each other and the customers. You can hear people singing along - yelling back at us. It's really lots of fun. (and very different from when we're catering fancy-shmancy parties :wink: )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and non-Jewish people coming in all the time.. who have no idea what we do. 

Do you have a lot of non-Jewish customers? Maybe not to buy 'kosher for pass-over" things ofcourse, but other items? Just because they like them?

Edited by Chufi (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Manischewitz matozs that I bought say..not for passover..do they sell some that are? Wouldn't they all be kosher for passover?

From my office I can hear two customers talking with my father right now. I haven't said a word, but a recent Israeli immigrant jsut said that he was amazed to see the non-kosher for Passover matzo.

Michelle - do they sell these chometz ones in Israel?

Yes, they do. So, naturally they are removed from the shelves and replaced with the ones for Passover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have a lot of non-Jewish customers? Maybe not to buy 'kosher for pass-over" things ofcourse, but other items? Just because they like them?

We do. Both for catering and in the store. In our new location there's much more 'walk-in' traffic. The two parts of the city couldn't be more different.

We've been lucky to get a few very good reviews in the local newspaper - so that has brought in people from all walks of life. When we had a restaurant it went through several different incarnations. For a few years we had a vegetarian/dairy restaurant - one of only a couple in the city. In more recent years we had a good, old-fashioned Jewish-style deli. We brought in meat from Montreal, then Toronto. We steamed real, Montreal Smoked meat and sold 3.5, 7 and 10.5 oz. (100, 200 & 300 gram) thick sandwiches on good Jewish rye bread. Together with our 'house-made' knishes, verenekes, blintzes, gefilte fish, etc., plus our baking - we had customers who came just to experience real deli food.

Though we no longer have a restaurant, we continue to have non-Jews come in to buy baking, prepared foods and items from the store that they know of or have heard of (like hummus, babaganoush, etc.). We also cater for companies and organizations. For years we used to cater the staff Christmas dinners for a bar down the street from us. If we are able to do it, we do. As long as the customer isn't expecting a seafood buffet or cheeseburgers, it's just food. :wink:

btw - I've been working in this answer for about 2 hours now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, they do. So, naturally they are removed from the shelves and replaced with the ones for Passover.

A couple of years ago I was checking out the Passover section of a local grocery store (part of a big chain). A display had been set up in front and I noticed that they had some of the non-Passover matzo in this section. A manager was walking by and I mentioned to him that he might want to move it out of the area. His store is located in an area with a lot of seniors - and for those of you who haven't seen this stuff, the writing on the packaging that says it's not for Passover is quite small. I know of people who have picked it up by mistake and I would have been concerned if it was my store. His response to me was "this is what they send us. this is what we put out".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it really strange to be in Israel and not celebrate the Jewish holidays?

I guess it might be like living in the Bible Belt and not celebrating Christmas... :biggrin: But Israeli friends seem happy to explain holidays and traditions, and one copied down a series of treasured family recipes. :wub: Living here is an education in cultural exchange. And food. So many diverse foods, so little time....

Surely the treif restaurants in Israel remain open?
Yes. But we usually end up at kosher cafes, anyway, when we go out...

Thanks for blogging, and have a good holiday!

For what Passover dish or baked item do you receive the most orders?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I get a weekly email from Kosher Today - a kosher food industry trade paper.

I just received the email and some of the interesting news bits:

- Kosher Wines are the big story. Discussing all the changes in kosher wine - from the sickly sweet stuff we often associate with kosher to all of the wonderful new wines now available.

- Dominoes in Jerusalem expects a 50% sales increase over Passover (all but 4 stores are open)

- Kosher romaine (washed-precut) is hard to find. Some stores in NY have special rabbinic staff in to check the lettuce for bugs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So - Dad's trimming up all the big briskets - he'll be slow cooking them in a garlic marinade. :wub:

He has been trimming off small chunks that won't make for good carving later on.

Here's my question:

What should I do with five pounds them?

I was thinking of smoking them - but will it be too much for such small pieces?

Any suggestions?

We also have some small chunks of buffalo brisket. We've been trying to get a source for kosher buffalo - and have been in contact with a company in South Dakota. The owner is happy to sell it to us, but the Canadian government wants him to fill our about 20 forms before they'll even consider letting it (and lamb) into the country. In the meantime, while driving home from Florida, my aunt and uncle visited and got some samples. We'll prepared some of it the same way we do the beef brisket and see how it compares.

I have some buffalo stewing meat as well - anybody have any good recipes?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could make Hungarian Porkolt with the brisket meat. It is a type of Hungarian stew. For 5lbs of meat you will probably want to use about 10 medium onion and 1 head of garlic. You can also use a mixture of red and green peppers. Use a generous quantity of smoked paprika.

Tapenade browns the meat in a mixture of goose fat and olive oil.

You could also make Classic Provencal Daube or White Wine Summer Daube

Edited by Swisskaese (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Michelle. I really like the Daube recipes - very similar to some of my own recipes. In fact, I was thinking of doing something similar with lamb later this week.... decisions decisions. Maybe I should divide the brisket up and do it a couple of different ways...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been taking turns manning the cash register today. I've also been busy in the kitchen.

The exciting event of the afternoon was an interview I did with CBC radio for a national broadcast. The Winnipeg CBC producers are putting together a Good Friday show, but realizing that not everybody celebrates the same things, they wanted to include something about Passover. I've don't a couple of things with them since my book was released - but I still get nervous each time! I feel like I'm rambling on and on. They assure me that I'm a great radio interviewee (I think they mean I talk a lot), and I know that they can edit out a lot of my ramblings.

You can hear me rambling on across the country on Friday morning .. or probably over the internet at CBC.ca. (be kind!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So - Dad's trimming up all the big briskets - he'll be slow cooking them in a garlic marinade.  :wub:

He has been trimming off small chunks that won't make for good carving later on. 

Here's my question:

What should I do with five pounds them? 

I was thinking of smoking them - but will it be too much for such small pieces?

Any suggestions?

Mince them and make hamburger or even wurst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can hear me rambling on across the country on Friday morning .. or probably over the internet at CBC.ca.  (be kind!)

I want to hear you. Will it be on "Sounds Like Canada"?

More details please! :smile: I'm actually in Canada at the moment, and I'd love to catch this.

Edited by lexy (log)

Cutting the lemon/the knife/leaves a little cathedral:/alcoves unguessed by the eye/that open acidulous glass/to the light; topazes/riding the droplets,/altars,/aromatic facades. - Ode to a Lemon, Pablo Neruda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all, the first slice of the first brisket was heavenly. Just so you know.

Second - I'm not sure what show it will be on. The producer that did the taping today is supposed to email me with the time (local). They're doing a Good Friday broadcast - so I don't know if that means as part of one of the scheduled shows or if it's replacing a reg. show. (I'd love to do Sounds Like Canada- but I'd want to be in the studio with Shelagh.) We usually have CBC on in the kitchen during the day at work - I've definitely become a 'CBC listener' over the last few years.

I love when Bonnie Stern is on with the food historian debating foods.

I'm leaving for dinner at one of the local Greek restaurants - then I'll be back at work. More later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...