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


Pam R

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Fun Fact: I have personally cracked 1800 eggs over the last week and a half (that's 150 dozen).

Each egg must be cracked into a small bowl or cup, checked for blood-spots and then they can be added to a recipe. Any egg containing any blood must be discarded. This year they haven't been too bad - except for one case that seemed to contain most of them.

For some reason I really love this picture. I loved last year's version too :wink: . Here's the shells from 30 dozen eggs:

gallery_25849_641_3131.jpg

And here they are in my cooler - separated and waiting to be turned into cakes.

gallery_25849_641_16899.jpg

I'm going home to bed (11 PM). 'night.

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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.

Thanks for the info..so much to learn. Great blog Pam!

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What do you do for Hechsher (official certification of being kosher).

Do you have to have resident rabbinical supervision?

Here in the UK it is (or was - I've not been involved for many a year) highly political with differing rabbinical organisations refusing to recognise each other, and in some ways an extortion racket - "you want our congregation as customers, you pay our enormous fees".

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Hi Pam! I just found your blog this year! You're a wonderful blogger and I love reading about your adventures and wish you lots of success in the new space. And hope that you are able to rest after the holiday. :wink:

Anyway, last year you shared two brownie recipes with us - one had choc chips, butter, cake meal and potato starch; the other had oil and cocoa powder. I've had some people ask me this year to make brownies for them (they know I'm not a kosher baker, I share space and they are aware of that. Mostly I make macaroons for my Passover clients). Which recipe is your favorite or maybe the question is which version sells out faster!? I would leave out the nuts either way.

Thanks again for taking the time to share with us this year. It's a big effort, and I most definitely appreciate it.

Jeanne

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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 LOVE brisket!!! My suggestion would not be appropriate for Passover or for those who keep kosher homes, but the trimmings would be fantastic in a slow-cooking, meaty ragu. Grated cheese on top of the pasta presents the problem.

Please let me add another note of appreciation for the photograph of egg shells. It is humbling to see evidence of how much you are cooking this week.

"Viciousness in the kitchen.

The potatoes hiss." --Sylvia Plath

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Schlaf gut, sweetie!

I slept well - but there was a terrible thunder/lightening storm that woke me at 4 AM. Made up for it by sleeping through my alarm. Made it to work at 8:30 :wink:

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What do you do for Hechsher (official certification of being kosher).

Do you have to have resident rabbinical supervision?

Here in the UK it is (or was - I've not been involved for many a year) highly political with differing rabbinical organisations refusing to recognise each other, and in some ways an extortion racket - "you want our congregation as customers, you pay our enormous fees".

Different country, same issues. We were under local supervision for about 20 years. This supervision was not recognized by some. A group tried to put together a higher supervision - and we switched over to them. For various reasons (money and a key rabbi moved) we were only under that supervision for about a year.

Rather than returning to the previous Va'ad, we decided to drop our hechsher completely. As a result we lost only a few customers (for prepared foods only). Any catering we do for the orthodox synagogues is done in their kitchen.

Another result is that I cannot say that our food is kosher. I can tell you that we use all kosher ingredients and we do everything as we did when we were under supervision - but legally we are not kosher.

The local va'ad has been talking with the national COR - they're trying to bring the city's level more in line with the national. I don't know whether we'll return to being hechshered or not - I would never say never.

I can tell you that it's very difficult - especially in a small community like ours. The fees involved are prohibitive. It just seems odd that we are trying to provide a service for the community and the powers that be want to tax us for it.

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Do you carry this brand of bagele? They are very good.

http://www.abadibakery.co.il/

I don't carry them - but thanks! I've emailed them to see if they have a Canadian distributor. I'm thinking that a 20' box may be too much for us...

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I LOVE brisket!!!  My suggestion would not be appropriate for Passover or for those who keep kosher homes, but the trimmings would be fantastic in a slow-cooking, meaty ragu.  Grated cheese on top of the pasta presents the problem.[...]

In the early 1990s, I had friends in Castelnuovo Berardenga, in the Chianti country of Tuscany, who taught me that a really good sauce is better off not obscured by the addition of cheese. (As a result, I always try the pasta before deciding whether or not to add cheese.) So I think that a really good kosher ragu' could be excellent.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I must apologize for being such a bad blogger :sad: . Only two posts all day. Each time I opened the window to post more I got called away.

I'm still at work (12:11 AM) and will be for a while. Then home for a few hours of sleep and back by about 7:30. I'm not sure if I'll have time to log in until late afternoon - though you never know. It's odd, but people always come in waves. Occasionally we have a few minutes of downtime.

In spite of a few glitches, things have been going well. Almost all of the customers are behaving themselves (don't get me started :rolleyes: ). The food is almost all done (with the exception of some finishing stuff and things we prefer to leave until the morning of). Most things have even been weighed, packaged and some of it's even priced (we usually don't get a chance to do that until people are already crowding in and it really makes things fall behind).

I have taken many pictures over the last few days - I'll get them off of my camera and into my computer tomorrow or Thursday. I will also share final figures on the ordered food - and for my own amusement some statistics (I figure we've sold over 1000 lbs. of matzo - I need to take notes for next year so I'll be going through all the invoices in the next few days).

I'll get going or I'll end up staying here right through the night.

In case I don't get a chance to get online early enough tomorrow, I'd like to wish everybody celebrating Passover a happy, healthy and kosher Pesach. Chag Sameach.

Goodnight.

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whoops. I forgot to talk about the brownies! I can't find the recipes in my last blog (did I post them?) This year I'm making the version with cake meal, oil, melted chocolate and cocoa - I can try to get the recipe up at some point tomorrow - will that be too late?

I also did another version for a column this year... if it's not too late I'm happy to share.

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Whew. I am exhausted. About 135 of the 140 orders are gone. A few phonecalls to make - sending some deliveries out and home to rest.

I'll post more later - after dinner tonight hopefully.

Pesach sameach!

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Like your other blog, this one is great, Pam. I am following along with enjoyment and in amazement of how much you do.

I love the egg shell photo.

The one thing that is missing for me is the meaning of the phrases that are not in English. :unsure::sad:

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Hello, hope you have enjoyed the first night and that you're able to get some well deserved rest!

I know I have the recipes saved somewhere around here, I copied them from last year because I thought I might use them to do the Sisterhood cooking presentation but there wasn't time.

I do have someone who called today asking for a cake for a 4 yr old's birthday for Saturday - I would like to do the brownie as a sort of layered cake approximation, with layers of brownie baked in a round pan with frosting (or nondairy type frosting) in between the layers and not on the outside (think the inside out german choc cake on epicurious.com).

The brownies I ended up doing for today were the Katharine Hepburn brownies - 4 oz butter or margarine, 2 oz unsweetened choc, melted; then stir in 7 oz sugar, pinch salt, 1 tsp vanilla and 2 eggs (do the eggs separately for best results). Then stir in 1/4 cup cake meal, chopped nuts if you want, pour into 8" square pan (line it with foil or make a foil sling and spray to make it easier to get out of the pan) and bake at 325 for about 35-40 mins. They are fudgy with the classic thin crusty top. and the recipe scales up nicely (multiply by 3 for a 9x13 pan). But they wouldn't be great for this birthday cake, I don't think. It should be something with a cakier texture, but they don't want sponge cake, they like this brownie idea.

Happy Passover!

Any ideas?

edited to add pan prep

Edited by JeanneCake (log)
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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.

Umm. Somebody asked for it. Maybe next year. :wink:

Pam, this blog is *fascinating*! I love seeing how many of the traditional Jewish food items are similar to my North Dakota Lutheran family's food. Of course, no matsoh for us. :raz:  Keep up the great work!

I'm glad you're enjoying! Jewish food is similar to many other cultures. Our foods are influenced by the food cooked in the different regions one can find Jews. My family is from Poland and Russia - so we were brought up with Jewish perogies (vernekes, kreplach), cabbage rolls, dumplings, etc. The differences come through because of the laws of kashrut. No pork, shellfish, mixing of dairy and meat - but basically similar recipes.

There is also some evidence that Jewish traders helped to influence certain cuisines around the world.

I LOVE brisket!!!  My suggestion would not be appropriate for Passover or for those who keep kosher homes, but the trimmings would be fantastic in a slow-cooking, meaty ragu.  Grated cheese on top of the pasta presents the problem.

Please let me add another note of appreciation for the photograph of egg shells.  It is humbling to see evidence of how much you are cooking this week.

A ragu sounds wonderful (minus the cheese :wink: ) - but will have to wait until after Passover. Only the first day of the holiday and I'm already dreaming about pasta!

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The one thing that is missing for me is the meaning of the phrases that are not in English.  :unsure:  :sad:

Yikes! Sorry about that.

Please let me know what you need defined and I'll be happy to do it. I have problems using words that are in a different language because it's so natural to me.

On a daily basis I speak English peppered with Yiddish and Hebrew. Partly because of my customer base - I'm constantly asked where the polkas (drumbsticks), fleigals (wings), gvina (cheese), lechem (cheese), etc. are.

When I was a young, naive child, I was shocked to learn that the word 'laydle' wasn't Yiddish. It sounds like such a yiddish word to me!

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They are fudgy with the classic thin crusty top. and the recipe scales up nicely (multiply by 3 for a 9x13 pan).  But they wouldn't be great for this birthday cake, I don't think.  It should be something with a cakier texture, but they don't want sponge cake, they like this brownie idea.

Happy Passover!

Any ideas?

edited to add pan prep

Hrm. First of all, I added my usual brownie recipe here. (I'm still a little tired and hope I scaled it down properly! And I don't think my recipe is all that different from the one you have). But yes, they're a brownie and still somewhat dense - and being Passover, a little crumbly.

You don't really have much choice - either sponge or dense. That's the nature of the beast. I have had a lot of success with regular baking recipes by just replacing Passover products for the non-Passover ones - but I haven't really tried cakes. If you have the time and/or inclination - I would take a typical cake recipe and sub the appropriate ingredients. Keep in mind that you need to use less cake meal than flour, as it absorbs more liquid (it depends on the brand, but I tend to cut the cake meal by 1/4 of what's called for in a recipe). And try it. The fact is that it's going to be heavier than you'd want - but the funny thing is, people will just be happy to have something that tastes great for Passover.

Having said all that - why not a sponge? If you do something like a chocolate sponge, and ice it - they could have a wonderful birthday cake. Tell them I said that :wink:

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Why does it seem odd to me that land-o-lakes has Passover recipes?

Again, this recipe doesn't look all that different from the others - but I'd be concerned about the amount of cake meal - it seems a little high for the amount of fat/liquids.

I'd love somebody to report back after they've tried it :smile:

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How the numbers worked out this year:

Chicken Soup - 75 L

Chopped Liver - 35 lb.

Matzo Balls - 195 pieces

Gefilte Fish - 540 pieces

Carrot Dill Soup - 15 L

Planked Salmon - 5 sides

Roasted Turkey - 18 turkeys

Roasted Chicken - 45 pieces

Garlic Brisket - 20 lbs.

Apricot Honey Chicken - 85 pieces

Sweet and Sour Meatballs - 55 lbs.

Breaded Veal Cutlets - 45 pieces

BBQ Short Ribs - 83 strips

Glazed Cornish Hens - 8 full, 15 halves

Potato Blintzes - 100.5 dz.

Chicken Fingers - 45 lbs.

Vegetable Cutlet - 35 pieces

Chicken Schnitzel - 86 pieces

Vegetable Kugle - 18 small, 9 large

Cole Slaw - 33 lbs.

Stir Fry Vegetables - 32 lbs.

Sweet Kugle - 25 small, 9 large

Mandarin Salad - for 12

Garden Salad - Balsamic Dressing - for 20

Passover Rolls - 340 pieces

Choc Mousse Log - 14 cakes

Komish with Nuts (Mandelbroit) - 45 dz.

Komish NO Nuts - 15 dz.

Nothings with Sugar (Keichal) - 16 dz.

Shmoo - 12 cakes

Lemon Chiffon Cake - 9 cakes

Chocolate Chip Chiffon Cake - 23 cakes

Chocolate Brownies - 24 pans

Lemon Filled Chiffon - 17 cakes

Fruit Flan - 8 cakes

Strawberry Shortcake - 3 cakes

The above numbers are what we had on order. People continued to call until yesterday afternoon to see if they could get anything more. We tried to prepare some extras of everything - some things had more extra than others - and everything went. I hate to have to refuse orders - but there is just so little time to do so many things. So we let all the people calling over the last few days know that any extras will be put out on pick-up day (yesterday) and it's first-come, first serve. We're also always concerned about any mistakes that we may make when calculating the totals - so the extras aren't put out until the end.

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