Here it is folks, the recipe for the best hamentashen I’ve ever had. Three notes: use “Dutch process” cocoa powder (e.g. Droste) — it has a stronger flavor and richer color. The pareve butter flavor is made by McCormick — if you don’t like using “imitation” ingredients, skip it. Find the best preserves you can for the raspberry filling; I like the “778″ brand preserves from Israel.

Chocolate-Raspberry Hamentashen

1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. pareve butter flavor
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 jar raspberry preserves

In an electric mixer, combine margarine, sugar, egg, vanilla, and butter flavor until well mixed. In a separate bowl, combine cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to mixer and blend together until well mixed. Divide dough into four pieces and chill for one hour. When chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out on a lightly-floured surface to approx. 1/4 thickness. Cut 3-inch rounds. Re-roll scraps. Place 1 teaspoon raspberry preserves in center of round and fold three sides up to form a triangle, leaving some preserves visible in the center. Pinch the corners and place on greased cookie sheet, two inches apart (hamentashen will expand). Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Tnuva, a farmer-owned marketing collective which supplies 70% of Israel’s dairy (milk, butter, cheeses), has entered the U.S. market, according to this week’s Jewish Advocate. No sooner had this report emerged than I saw their products in the Allston Stop & Shop dairy case.

I picked up an 8.8 oz. container of Tnuva’s “Feta-style sheep’s cheese” (from the “Mediterranean Collection”) and an 8 oz. packet of Emek sliced cheese. My first reaction was that they’re both quite expensive. Stop & Shop charges $6.99 for the feta and and $4.99 for the Emek. Those prices might be defensible if the cheese were exceptional, but they both fall short. While both are fresh and pleasant, the “feta” tastes more like salty cottage cheese, and the Emek was nothing special (texture of swiss cheese, very mild flavor like muenster).

Though I’m happy that New England supermarkets will have a wider selection of Kosher cheese, I don’t think I’ll be buying these varieties again.

Coming Sunday: a decadent, pareve Hamentashen recipe that my wife won’t let me divulge until after the Young Israel of Brookline Sisterhood’s Hamentashen Contest.

Any favorite recipes out there? Add a comment.

After “The West Wing” tonight, I surfed frantically for something to watch. You’d think with 100 channels, something decent would be on. I reluctantly settled on FoodTV’s “$40 a Day,” because it was about Portland, ME. After watching for ten minutes, I decided that, despite her quaint Bay State upbringing, I hate Rachael Ray. By implying that everything she does is the most authentic, amazing thing on the face of the planet, she comes off incredibly fake.

Flak Magazine takes aim at the Food Network’s “over-the-top enthusiasm,” citing Ray’s “exaggerated pleasure,” then thoroughly taking down the “cocky and dismissive” Bobby Flay. Author Alissa Rowinsky astutely paints him as “an eighth grader who is too cool for his choir concert.” Plus he’s from New York.

I’ll take old PBS classics anytime. (Remember this theme song?)

Aaron, my buddy down in South Africa, informs me that a Kosher Chinese restaurant will be opening in Johannesburg. To aid the cause, he’s requested the take-out menu from our old college hangout, Taam China, or “Uncle Tom’s” in the parlence of our times. I’m posting here for the benefit of the greater public, in those critical moments when you want to order Chinese, but can’t find the menu.

Cover (phone, address, hashgacha)
Appetizers & Soup
Chef’s Specialties
Chicken & Beef
Veal, Vegetables, Rice & Noodles
Luncheon Specials & Map

After two transcontinental flights (mmm…first class good) and a week in (rainy) Southern California, I have successfully imported to New England a special treat, or should I say bag full of treats — gourmet sausages!
So, coming soon to KosherBlog, a full review of Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage Factory of Los Angeles. Keep your eyes peeled and posted to the blog for the complete report by TeamKosher’s crack taste-testers, including a couple of special guests who bring a real Treif Eye for the Kosher Guy.

Although I can’t say I imported them myself, samples have arrived at our leader’s office from Neshama Gourmet Kosher Sausage, so we’ll be reviewing them too. As a third comparison, we’ll be picking some sausages up from the local butcher to include in our taste-testing extravaganza!

As employment is suddenly (and happily) taking up a fair chunk of my day, Kosher on the Cheap jut got downsized from a daily to a not-so daily. Such is life.

To tide you over here’s a handy dish that I tried out Motzoi Shabbos:

1. Core, peel and slice some apples.
2. Sprinkle with whatever spices you’ve got on hand(I used nutmeg and McCormick’s “Applie Pie Spice”).
3. Microwave slices on a flat dish for a minute and a half.

Dessert in less than two minutes for less than two dollars? If you don’t overcook the slices — and remember to take them out of the microwave before your guests arrive — the secret will be just between the two of us.

Through my extensive research into Kosher cheese, I have indeed found one Miller’s product worthy of praise. Their “Italian Grating Cheese” — Parmigiano-Reggiano — is the best Kosher Parmesan available, and for good reason. Miller’s oversees, in Italy, a special Kosher run of traditional Parmigiano-Reggiano, made in just the same way as its non-Kosher cousin. The result is a rich, crumbly, incredibly fragrant cheese, which, when freshly grated, will enliven any dish even in small quantities.

It is important to know what distinguishes it from the alternatives: Miller’s also produces a pre-shredded Parmesan. Most significant is its domestic origin: made in the United States, not Italy. Though a good cheese (and Kosher for Passover), it lacks the intensity of the Italian variety. Besides, pre-grated cheeses almost always pale in comparison to freshly grated.

If your only Parmesan experience involves a shaker-jar, find out what you’ve been missing. Make Parmegiano-Reggiano a permanent addition to your well-stocked Kosher pantry.

I’m always up for the salty-sweet combination of a chocolate-covered pretzel, and Trader Joe’s delivers with their “Belgian Chocolate Pretzels,” dipped in “Sumptuous Belgian Callebaut Milk and Semi-Sweet Chocolate.” Not too sweet, a perfect marriage. Certified Kosher-Dairy by Kof-K. Trader Joe’s offers lists of all their Kosher products on the East Coast and West Coast (PDF).

It’s Thursday night, so that means a quick dinner before we spend the rest of the evening preparing food for Shabbat. I made my usual pasta with meat sauce — 1 lb. ground turkey/beef, jar of Barilla Marinara, two cans of sliced mushrooms, random spices — but something was missing.

I scanned my kitchen counter for an easy fix, and spotted a bottle of red wine. Splashed in about half a cup and, voila, fine dining from cupboard staples.

I’m no whiz with wine, though. The only stuff I drink regularly is sweet, bubbly Moscato (Bartenura or, preferably, Golan), and the only wines I’m truly comfortable cooking with are Marsala and Sherry. Tonight, it was the inexpensive J. Furst California Cabernet Sauvignon (from Herzog’s Royal Wine Corporation). I’m helpless to detect its “hints of berry, cranberry, oak, and light green pepper” — just lucky it worked out.

Please share (in a comment, perhaps?) your experiences cooking with Kosher wines. I’m curious to know more. And if there are any aspiring sommeliers in the audience, maybe there’s a place for you on TeamKosher — let us know.

Lunch was a cheap rehash of a favorite Friday Night dish, The Kosher Pallette’s “Salmon-Tuna Twists.”

The original recipe, which yields 3 dozen twists:

• 1 (3 oz.) can of drained tuna
• 1 (3 oz.) can of drained salmon
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish, drained
• pepper
• 1 (17.3 oz.) package frozen puff pastry, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 400oF.
2. Combine tuna, salmon, mayonnaise, onion, garlic, lemon juice, horseradish and pepper in the container of a large food processor fitted with knife blade. Process until smooth.
3. Roll pastry on a lightly flowered surface. Spread tuna mixture over dough.
4. Cut into 2½ x 1½ inch rectangles. Fold top left corner of rectangle into center; fold bottom right corner of rectangle into center. Place on baking sheets.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. (Dough may puff open a little.)

Instead of preparing the fish salad in puff pastry, I usually serve if with whole wheat crackers and yesterday’s cucumber salad.

The version I had for lunch:

• 1 (3 oz.) can of drained tuna
• just enough mayonnaise to coat the tuna
• garlic powder to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon of my generous roommate’s horseradish sauce
• pepper to taste

1. Combine ingredients in the bowl you plan to eat lunch out of.
2. Serve with whole wheat matzah and eliminate the need to wash an extra utensil.

Don’t skimp on the lemon juice. It’s flavor is what separates this dish from your regular ho-hum can of tuna.

Dinner was a yummy tomato vegetable soup prepared al yadei my old roommate. Here’s a frugal variant:

• one can of Campbell’s vegetarian vegetable soup
• vegetables in the back of your fridge that are about to go bad but not quite there yet
• salt and pepper to taste

I’ll bet sheqalim to sufganiot that you can figure out the rest.

Enjoy!

For me, collapsing in bed past midnight and hauling myself out of bed before daybreak is pretty much par for the course. Long time fans may remember the Hillel mass emails that I?d send out at a bright-eyed and bushytailed 4:30am. Needless to say, caffeine?s more or less replaced at least two of the four food groups in my diet. Bad for my formerly pearly whites but fabulous for Starbucks

Coffee is one of the few beverages (and by few I mean the only one besides water and certain alcohols) that, if you do it right, doesn?t require a hekhsher. Just follow the Star-K?s guidelines when shmoozing up your barista:

• All unflavored, roasted coffees (both regular and decaffeinated) may be purchased in a disposable cup. Sugar may be added. Milk (not creamer) may be added for those not maqpid (stringent) on (cholov Yisroel
• Creamers and flavors may be added separately (i.e., mixed in by hand and not added/stirred in via a machine) after the consumer verifies that the label on the original container bears reliable certification.
• Frapuccino, whipped toppings and other beverages are not recommended since they are made in carafes/pump pots that are not exclusively used for kosher beverages.
• Only packaged food items bearing reliable certification may be purchased.
• Starbucks bottled beverages bearking a “KD” are certified kosher, dairy, chalav stam (i.e. not cholov Yisroel) by Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, Dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva Univeristy?s semikha program, which has schooled more ex-boyfriends than I care to admit).

Bonus blogosphere tie-in: Rabbi Charlop?s right-hand man in micromanaging RIETS is Rabbi Chaim Bronstein, whose oldest son Avraham is one of the most well-reputed Jewish bloggers of our time. Of course, by “our time” I mean the past 18 months. I know Avraham, Avraham knows his father, his father knows Rabbi Charlop, Rabbi Charlop deals with Starbucks recipe and production departments in administering their bottled beverages’ hashgachah and the recipe and production departments must have a solid working relationship with Starbucks CEO and MOT Howard Schultz.

I smell a shiddukh! Oh no wait, it?s just spilled espresso.

Having already polished off the aforementioned bag of Double Stuf Oreos (2,100 calories and 105 grams of fat, can you say “Heellllloo control top tights?”) it’s not surprising that I wasn’t too hungry when lunchtime rolled around. Realizing that I’d need energy to get me through today’s move but feeling too lazy to put in a real effort, I decided that eggs were the way to go.

Lunch: Two-egg tomato and mushroom omelet, cucumber dill salad

If I’d had a dairy frying pan available (all my worldly goods are packed safely away to be shuttled two blocks west) I’d probably have mixed a bit of yogurt in with the eggs and then scrambled the mixture sans vegetables for a light, fluffy entrée. To go all-out country club, stir some orange juice into your old Kedem champagne for a twist on the mimosa.

The cucumber salad is a cinch to make and always a crowd pleaser. Combine white wine vinegar with vegetable oil, lemon juice, sugar and a healthy dash of McCormick’s “It’s a dilly: Blend of dill, lemon and seasonings, tailoring the proportions to your personal taste. Pour dressing over paper-thin slices of cucumber, mix, and you’re good to go. This dish tastes best when left overnight to marinate, allowing the cucumbers to soak in some of the dressing. Ideal for tossing together on a rushed Thursday evening, to serve with either of your Shabbos meals.

You’ll note many of the dressing’s ingredients — vinegar, oil, sugar and dill-blend spice — didn’t appear on yesterday’s grocery list. I’ve decided to permit myself use of pre-owned kitchen staples (spices, oils, some instant rice, tuna and the oddball potato) during my exercise in frugality.

Come dinner time, I opted to commit the Kosher pauper’s greatest faux pas: Eating out.

Just got back from the bodega (Spanish grocery store), where $20.64 snagged me:

-one box of whole wheat matzos
-one dozen eggs
-227 oz. of mushrooms
-five kiwis
-four apples
-four tomatoes
-four cucumbers
-six heads of garlic
-two cans of Campbell’s vegetarian vegetable soup
-one 16 oz. can of baked beans
-one 9 oz. can of sweet potatoes
-one 4.5 oz. can of lemon juice
-one bag of Double Stuf Oreos (couldn’t resist)

Not bad for a neighborhood where there’s absolutely no competition between grocers.

Look for the first “Kosher on the Cheap” meal tomorrow afternoon. Can you feel the burn, baby? You know I can.

Edited to add, “I used most of my remaining $3.36 to buy some plain vanilla yogurt. We’ll see what comes of it.” Feb. 17, 3:42pm

Like ColumbiaAuds mentioned below, we’re in New York City for Danny and Devora’s wedding. Given our schedules, we weren’t able to sample the city’s many Kosher options until last night, when we hit Abigael’s on Broadway. Sarah and I have been there before, so the true test was from my parents, who haven’t always enjoyed the Boston Kosher experience. To Abigael’s merit, the service, decor, and food passed the muster of non-Kosher palettes with flying colors.

Run-down of our meals: we started with two soup specials. I had the “Italian Lentil Soup”, made with a mixture of vegetables, orzo, and veal sausage. The women had roasted pepper and potato soup. Both were delicious and served in a creative manner: the soup remained in a small metal cup, presumably to keep it very warm, before being poured, at our table, into large soup bowls.

For entrees, we enjoyed Skirt Steak San Pedro (Dad), Yakatori Tasting plate (Mom), Chicken Rouladen (Sarah), and the Boneless Rib Eye Steak (me). While my Rib Eye was cooked perfectly and delicious, my father’s Skirt Steak was a real treat with much more flavor, an exciting presentation (on a grilled nan-style flatbread with three sauces, and slightly sweet, roasted white potatoes). Mom’s Yakatori platter was from the appetizer menu, since she wanted a smaller portion; it was presented elegantly and offered small tastes of skewered chicken, sausage, and beef. I felt the sausage could have been more intense; it almost seemed like a thick-skinned hot dog. Sarah’s Chicken Rouladen was delicious: a large portion of chicken breast stuffed with a sourdough/sausage mixture, sliced, and served alongside roasted vegetables (all of which could have been a bit warmer). My Rib Eye was probably the simplest of the four meals: topped with caramelized onions (a great touch), and served with steak fries.

My father enjoyed his meal with a Baron Herzog California Merlot, which was soft, fruity and with no detectable aftertaste.

We capped our meal with tea, Glenlivet scotch, and Abigael’s wonderful molten chocolate cake. One cake and four spoons was just enough for each of us, and we were all impressed by the quality of the non-dairy dessert. (I hope to find/engineer a similar pareve cake recipe. Stay tuned.)

What I find most magnificent about Abigael’s is its true maturity in the Kosher world. Chef Jeff Nathan isn’t trying to be “not your grandmother’s” this-or-that. He just creates great food, with a heksher. The elegant ambience and astute service are such that religiously-observant patrons don’t have to make excuses, as in other restaurants, for Kosher, but lesser-quality experiences.

Though the Abbetts have New York’s many other Kosher destinations to explore in the future, we’ll certainly return to Abigael’s again and again.

As the religious person’s fairy tale often begins, “Last night I was stranded in Kew Garden Hills” — and I discovered the most amazing pre-made (as in, not from a bakery but from a package) babka ever. (Sidenote, I’m somewhat against the spelling “babka” because I always say “bubkie” but I’m not sure how I would feel about purchasing a snack with said title revision… anyway…) From Stern’s brand, this was “baked by 15th Avenue Food Corp, Brooklyn NY 11219, tel 718-633-5850″ — it’s amazing. Tastes like Cinnabon, for all those treyf-ies out there. (Thus my categorization.) Pareve and moist, so many layers… I need to throw out the rest of it so I don’t eat it! (Plus today is Danny’s wedding, where we’ll all be eating for like ten hours straight… oy…)

HebrewNational.com exclusive: your very own Kosher hot dog mezuzah, complete with mustard “shin”. Twenty-five dollars, one size fits all.

This “Bistro Apple Pizza” was a big hit at our little dinner party last night. The recipe comes, with slight modification, courtesy of our friends at Cappiello Cheese, and puts Kirkeby’s Kosher blue cheese to great use.

Note: we were a little pressed for time, so I skipped the sauteed-garlic step and just used some garlic powder. I wouldn’t advise doing so if you have time for fresh garlic, but it works.

BISTRO APPLE PIZZA

2 teaspoons garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups fresh, chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups of apple, cored, peeled and chopped
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
pizza dough, rolled into a 12″ round

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F, with your pizza stone or tiles inside, for 30 minutes to an hour. Sautee garlic in olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Brush olive oil blend over crust. Distribute spinach evenly over crust. Sprinkle on apples. Blend cheeses together and sprinkle evenly over apples. Sprinkle on oregano. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese and crust are browned.

Serves 4

As part of my never ending quest to turn this ghetto-fabulous life of mine into award winning blog content, next week I’ll be launching a new feature-series entitled “Kosher on the Cheap.” The goal is to spend $25- or less on groceries per week but still eat two gourmet-quality meals a day. (If you think I am cooking myself a five-star breakfast when there is Instant Oatmeal close at hand, you are very sorely mistaken.)

Suggestions for the first shopping run, which will take place on Monday bli neder, are welcome below.

Hopefully everyone has already experienced the wide world of eLuna, filled with everything from chesed projects to cookbook reviews and tons of other goodies. Plus, if you’re planning a vacation / to make aliyah / a “business trip” to ha’aretz, you can’t beat eLuna for all the kosher hookups in Israel. Plus you can sign up for their e-newsletter with announcements about auctions, discounts, and other news. B’teavon!