My mother can’t get enough of Ina Garten’s homemade gravy. The recipe does look good, but I don’t usually have cognac lying around and I can’t put heavy cream into my gravies. I chanced upon an unlikely alternative at a recent trip to Whole Foods — Hain Pure Foods “Vegetarian Chicken-Flavor Gravy Mix.” It’s an unassuming packet of powder, to which one simply adds a cup of cold water and thickens by bringing to a boil. Surprisingly, the gravy tastes good without any adulteration. But, truth be told, it’s even better when you pour in some delicious turkey grease from the bottom of your roasting pan, stirring vigorously. I’m sure cognac wouldn’t hurt either!

(The “Brown Gravy Mix,” unfortunately, tastes like concentrated vegetable broth with caramel coloring. Maybe a good candidate for fleishig enhancements, but weak on its own.)

I like to say that Thanksgiving turkey is a great excuse to eat stuffing and gravy. I like a traditional bread stuffing, bursting with sage, and I don’t like the vegetables to play a prominent role. Don’t get me wrong, they’re critical, but they should stay in the background. A little sweetness is also welcome, accomplished by a sprinkling of Craisins and the use of sweet challah. The “pan” challah from Cheryl Ann’s Bakery in Chestnut Hill is my choice; its shape lends itself to cutting into perfect one-inch cubes.

This is my first attempt to formalize my recipe, so the spices are all to-taste, no precise measurements.

A note about using the stuffing: food-safety paranoia is running at an all-time high these days, so many folks aren’t stuffing their poultry any more, to assure the meat gets fully cooked. If you happen to be one of those “crazies,” here’s a tip to getting all the great taste of poultry drippings into your plain-baked stuffing. Load up a greased casserole dish with stuffing, dot the top with teaspoons of shmaltz, and bake until hot and browned.

CHALLAH STUFFING

1 one-pound “pan” challah, cut into 1″ cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms
olive oil
2 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
sage
paprika
thyme
salt
pepper

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

Saute onion and celery in two tablespoons of olive oil until soft. Remove from pan and saute mushrooms until soft. Add mushrooms to onion and celery and set aside.

Spread challah cubes in single layer onto sheet pan and drizzle olive oil onto cubes to moisten. Sprinkle sage, paprika, and thyme generously over challah cubes. Bake in oven 15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool. At this point, you may opt to put the vegetables in the fridge and the cooled croutons into a large zipper-top bag and assemble a day or two later.

Toss half of toasted challah cubes with half of vegetable mixture and half of dried cranberries. Moisten evenly with 1 cup of warm chicken broth, mixing gently to avoid creating amorphous mush. Repeat with remaining ingredients and combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let cool and use to stuff a bird or bake in a casserole dish.

Updated Thanksgiving 2005 with a bit more detail.

It was fortuitous to the point of eerie that the January-February issue of Cook’s Illustrated contained an article entitled “Rethinking Cornbread,” in which they created an ideal compromise between southern skillet cornbread and cakey northern cornbread. I figured this would be an appropriate springboard for my experimentation in the realm of pareve cornbread.

My strategy was simple: make the recipe as written, with dairy ingredients, and then compare it directly to a a non-dairy recipe I’d develop to match… and keep it moist. It would be easy to swap margarine (Fleishmann’s Light Unsalted) for the butter, but the challenge remained in replacing the full cup of buttermilk. I reached for my trusty soy milk, but it lacked buttermilk’s tang. I thought about adding a kick of extra acid — vinegar? No, lemon juice. And a bit of honey to add some extra sweetness and depth.

The dairy product was full of corn flavor, had a nice, slightly crunchy crust, and remained moist (enough) even after cooling completely. An encouraging foundation.

My pareve product maintained the crunch and the corn flavor, but I could certainly detect an undercurrent of earthy soy. Also, the soy made the batter and resultant cornbread a shade or two darker. Otherwise, the soy switch stood up to the dairy original. If I were to make another attempt, I’d consider using half soy milk and half non-dairy creamer, retaining the lemon juice for tang.

But is it moist enough? Well, judge for yourself. I’d say it’s equivalent to Cook’s Illustrated’s tried-and-true cornbread, so that ought to count for something!

BEST (SO FAR) PAREVE CORNBREAD
1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 cup soy milk
3 teaspoons lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1 teaspoon honey
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons unsalted pareve margarine, melted and cooled slightly

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray glass baking dish (8×8 or 11×7) with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.
In food processor or blender, process brown sugar, thawed corn kernels, soymilk, lemon juice, and honey until combined, about five seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.
Using rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted margarine and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes, invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces and serve.

With the recent opening of a new Trader Joe’s near my office in Burlington, I spent my lunch “hour” punctiliously scanning their aisles for interesting kosher products. The most promising line of products that I returned to work with was TastyBite’s ready-made Indian foods. They’re fully prepared and vacuum-sealed in a foil pouch, making them shelf-stable without refrigeration for fifteen months. The diner simply tears open a pouch, microwaves the contents for a minute or so, and enjoys.

Price
After my LaBriute fiasco, I had low hopes for these heat-and-serve products. At TJ’s reasonable price of $2.49 - $2.99 per package, however, I had no barriers to try them.

Kashrut
All of TastyBite’s Indian products are produced in India, so I wasn’t surprised to find emblazened on the box the “Kosher Inspection Service” heksher, run by Indian Rabbi Avraham Binyamin (hence the Aleph-Bet included within the symbol). According to TastyBite’s website, he’s recognized by the Chief Rabbinical Council of Israel and certifies meals for El Al.

Truth In Packaging
TastyBite’s first triumph was the close similarity between the product photo and the food itself. Granted, most Indian food has an advantage in that regard: when visiting the Burlington Mall’s food court with my coworkers, I regularly refer to Gourmet India’s dishes as “the red slop,” “the green slop,” and “the yellow slop.” My coworkers seem to enjoy such homogenous-looking cuisine, so I didn’t bat an eyelash when TastyBite looked the same.

Preparation
TastyBite offers two product types: individual dishes (i.e. Jaipur Vegetables or Madras Lentils) and complete meals (i.e. Peas Paneer with Basmati Rice). Both can be warmed either in the microwave, or submerged in a pot of boiling water. The complete meals, though, come with a convenient plastic box with lid, into which rice and entree may be poured before microwaving.

Quality
You’d expect that a fifteen-month shelf-stable product would be made so with unpronounceable preservatives and flavor enhancers. Not so in these products. Take their “Bengal Lentils” (Chana Masala), for example. Its ingrendients are simply water, lentils, tomatoes, onions, sunflower oil, chickpeas, garlic, salt, ginger, chiles, coriander, turmeric, herbs and spices.

Taste
Each of the TastyBite products I’ve tried so far are indeed “tasty bites.” Is it gourmet food? No. Is it a good lunch alternative to my usual tuna sandwich? Absolutely. The Jaipur Vegetables contains TastyBite’s greatest variety of vegtables, plus chunks of paneer, cashews, and raisins. The cashews weren’t crisp, and the vegetables all had a consistent taste and texture not unlike Campbell’s Vegetarian Vegetable soup. But its sauce was pleasantly spicy and creamy. The Madras Lentils were a lot like soupy refried beans, both in terms of flavor and texture, but actually good. The Peas Paneer & Basmati Rice meal offered a tasty combination of peas and paneer in a nice sauce, but the basmati rice, despite its perfect texture, had an “off” flavor and odor something like an old candlepin bowling alley.

Overall
These products aren’t going to win awards for pure visual allure, but each product is flavorful, convenient, wholesome, and inexpensive. TastyBite’s Indian dishes have provided an exotic change to my other monotonous lunch routine. Plus, you can keep a stash of these in your file cabinet for days when you forget your lunchbox. Just steer clear of the disappointing basmati rice.

With all our recent talk about gourmet establishments as Solo and Decks, this witty piece published Wednesday on the Black Table may help us “yokels” appropriately handle and fully enjoy such fine dining experiences.

My only qualm is that the author, Brian Bernbaum, stopped short after putting forth his five rules of haute cuisine — I would have enjoyed hearing (and seeing — great pictures!) about the other courses in his $300 Jean Georges meal.

Here’s Steven Weiss’s take on KosherFest, published today in the Forward.

Large Wheels of Brie
Anderson International Foods, producers of Les Petites Fermieres, Monsey Dairy, and Natural & Kosher brands, offers a full-size wheel of brie (in addition to the more prevalent small 4-inch wheels) under the Petites Fermieres label.

English Cheeses
Atalanta Corp., importer of such kosher cheeses as Barkanit and Danablu, now has a line of kosher English cheeses, including Cheddar, Double Gloucester, and Leicester.

Jeff Nathan
Abigael’s chef Jeff Nathan was at Kosherfest. I’d seen him in print and on TV before, but this is the first time I’ve seen him in person. Despite his stature in the gourmet kosher world, he can’t be more than five feet tall!

Kosher Wines
If you’re an afficionado of kosher wines and spirits, Kosherfest is a great event to visit. Several major winemakers, importers, and distributors were there (Abarbanel, International Kosher, Pribokaar, Roberto Cohen, Tishbi Estate, etc.) offering tastes of their latest and greatest wines and an opportunity to discuss the finer points of oenology.

Fred’s Organic Soups
Not only were these guys friendly, but their soups were delicious. We tried their mushroom barley soup, which tasted very fresh and flavorful, as well as their cold strawberry soup, which would be a great meal starter on a hot summer day. All varieties are vegetarian and organic, but that should preclude you from adding your own meat — perhaps chunks of lamb in the bean/barley, or cooked smokey sausage meat to the split pea — to make a hearty entree.

Predictable Israeli Cheese
I carried all my pamphlets and other materials in a large bag given to me by the Israel Dairy Board, labeled “Israel’s Dairy Delicacies.” The bag pictured several delicious looking cheeses. The Israeli companies exhibiting at Kosherfest, however, seemed to focus almost entirely on feta. Note for next year, guys — we have feta covered here in America. Try something innovative.

Man-o-man … a-missing?
It was a bit strange that Manischewitz didn’t have even a token presence at Kosherfest… not that I would expect them to introduce new products that I’d actually buy. They’d probably offer stuff like “Low-Carb Extra Heavy Malaga,” or cheddar-chipotle gefilte fish. Maybe we’re better off in their absence!

This summer, my family and I went up to Tiberias, mostly to go to Decks. Decks is a world famous restaurant with a tremendous reputation for service, quality, and excellence. They have a beautiful spot on the Kineret Sea, with patrons actually sitting on a deck overlooking the lake and the beautiful mountain range. Their specialties include rare mullard (moullard, not mallard, a rare species of duck), Adriatic Sea lamb ribs, cast-iron fillet, and a variety of other delicacies.

When we were seated, the woman mentioned that she would have to give us Hebrew menus and personally translate because there had not yet been English versions translated. I quickly remarked, “Why not? I’ll do it.” The woman almost lost her duck supper. “What?! Are you kidding?” I knew how to take this one. “Of course I will. Plus, I have a degree from an American university, I am an expert in both languages, it’s no problem.” She was ecstactic. “This would take us months, it would be so expensive, I cannot believe this.”

She brought us free drinks. She brought out the most beautiful appetizers. Tasty! Delectable. Unique. Diversity of flavor. It was fantastic. Then, she brought out four different entrees; we shared them among us, and we were all incredibly impressed with the meal. She kept shmoozing with us, complimenting us, she was loving it even more than we were. Mind you, we still had not done anything for her. “But you are all so kind,” she said.

In the middle of the meal, all the lights went dark, a ship came in from the sea with lights flashing and fireworks, and the announcer blasted, “Welcome to the Loike family from New York.” We were having a blast.

After dessert, we asked for the bill, and she said “It’s on the house.” Now we’re talking over $200 for four people. We said at least we need to tip the waitress. “No,” she said, “I’ve done that for you.”

We stayed up until 1 AM, translating the exact style and flavor of the menu into English, making sure to maintain the fine level of the menu, matching the language with the culinary experience.

We also made sure to add in our family’s famous Loike Salad. “A colorful salad with croutons and a pleasant kick,” was the tagline. We decided 36 shekel was a fair price. (The Loike Salad is famous, you’ll know if you’ve tried it.)

So, we told her we included the salad, and she had her executive chef buy all the ingredients. We went into the kitchen, showed them the secrets, and together with the Muslim chefs (who could not taste it because of the balsamic vinegar), we prepared enough salad for the entire restaurant.

That afternoon, when we dropped off the menu, the manager said, “What are you doing tonight?” We said we’re going next door to Pagoda, the famous fine Chinese restaurant, to try that out.

“I OWN Pagoda,” she replied. “You cannot. Come here. Decks is better.” So we did. We came back, and had everything on the menu that we did not try the first night, except the moullard, which we had to have again.

Once again, she would not let us pay, insisting that what we did for her was invaluable. In fact, that night, they were already using our menus. We went up to one of the customers and said, “Excuse me, pardon for asking, but what do you think about the menu?”

“It’s very good,” they said, “Clearly it was not written by an Israeli.”

So that was how we got two free meals from a world-class restaurant. And it why we send people there whenever they go to Israel, insisting that they request the Loike Salad.

Old Brick English Cider (OU supervision)
I’m not a beer drinker; I’ve never enjoyed its characteristic hoppy bitterness. In college, I took to the alternative malted beverages (Smirnoff Ice, Skyy Blue, etc.) and hard ciders. Cider Jack was the most typical cider available, but after graduating, I began to discover other brands — Magner’s from Ireland, Strongbow from England, and Woodchuck from Vermont. Strongbow’s my favorite, but I’ve never been certain about the kashrut issues surrounding cider beverages. Fortunately, Old Brick English Cider is not only kosher, but kosher for Passover. It’s tasty, too, despite having a label that looks like it was printed up on a personal computer.

Mirsa Smoked Salmon (OK supervision)
Thanks to what they calls the “neo-classical” way of smoking salmon, Mirsa, Inc. offers perhaps the best salmon products I’ve ever tasted. The fish was moist, tender, and flavorful, lightly smoked and not “fishy” at all. Keith Regan, Director of Sales, explained that most smoked salmon producers use a lower quality of fish, which they make up for by using an overkill smoking process. Mirsa, on the other hand, chooses only the finest Atlantic salmon and adds only enough spice and smoke to bring out its inner flavor. Not only have they mastered plain salmon, but they offer a line of innovatively (but naturally) flavored salmons as well — tri-peppered vodka; tequila, jalapeno, and cilantro; honey whiskey; pastrami; ginger; and pesto, to name a few.

Elegant Desserts by Metro (Central Rabbinical Congress supervision)
These guys have mastered pareve desserts so completely, you wouldn’t know they were non-dairy unless you were told twice. We just sampled their “ice cream” — the peanut butter & jelly flavor was a trip — but their displays of cakes, sorbet-filled fruit, chocolates, and pastries looked like delicious ends to any elegant fleishig meal. With any luck, they’ll be available retail soon… maybe in Boston?

Allied Food Products Soup Bases (OU supervision)
If you’ve read this year’s wish list, you know I’m dying to find kosher beef and fish stocks. These guys are exclusively in the industrial sector, producing premium, regular, and low-sodium soup bases (chicken, beef, fish, vegetable, mushroom) under the brands “Concert” and “E&S” — but maybe through my casual urging, they’ll spring into retail.

Cinnabon Cinnapretzel
Bavarian Brothers Gorumet Foods has licensed the Cinnabon concept and introduced a tasty amalgamation of a cinnamon bun and a pretzel — the cinnapretzel. I wasn’t amazed by the product — it was a faint glimmer of the true (treyf) Cinnabon. It’s too bad they’re not just marketing a kosherized Cinnabon cinnamon roll with all the buttery badness of the original. If Cinnabon’s ingredients were kosher, there could be a good franchise opportunity available.

The KosherBord
All in all, this ~$200 collection of six wooden cutting boards is primarily fancy marketing. Anyone can go out, buy six cutting boards, and label each for use in a kosher kitchen. What is nice about KosherBord is the metal rack used to organize them — a well-designed, compact storage solution. I did learn an interesting tidbit, too. Apparently, according to UC Davis microbiologist Dean Cliver, wood cutting boards are actually safer than plastic cutting boards.

Soda Club Home Soda Maker
I’d seen this gadget advertised on Yahoo before, and given my very specific taste for Diet Coke and Tab, I never thought a generic soda machine would do it for me. At Kosherfest, I had a chance to try Soda Club’s homemade soda, and in all honesty, its diet cola was pretty good. With the significant cost savings over commercial soda (plus their use of Splenda over other artificial sweetners), even a diehard diet soda fanatic could consider switching.

EJ’s Chicago Style Deep Dish
So, maybe we didn’t get to try the pizza. And maybe we didn’t even get a pamphlet about the pizza. But this frozen pizza product really looked good, and if it ever makes it to Boston, I’d gladly buy one and compare to my vivid memories of Pizzeria Uno.

Reena’s Indian Meals
Reena “The Curry Queen” and Vinod Pushkarna have become household names in Israel, the most prominent Indian immigrants to Israel since introducing their line of ethnic food to the Jewish state. Their company, Presko Food Industries, has this year signed a contract with the government to provide Indian meals to the IDF. They’re now expanding into the U.S., and their range of products — from samosas to tikka masala — are very appealing, and would be a welcome addition to the kosher “heat and eat” scene.

The Sausage Scene
I refuse to devote a heading to Empire’s new “Gourmet Chicken Sausages”… largely because they stink, but especially because our friends at Neshama Gourmet have a product line leaps and bounds better. The Empire sausages were merely glorified chicken hot dogs… and simply too dry to enjoy. Luckily, Evelyn Baran of Neshama indulged us with her full ranges of sausages. Most exciting was her introduction of a kosher andouille sausage, perfect for jambalaya and other creole applications. I’m trying to arrange (with several other aficionados) a big sausage order with Neshama’s N.Y. distributor, so we can get an ad-hoc supply of these great sausages in Boston. If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Last Thursday, I noticed that Pastryland & More on Harvard Street had its windows covered over with construction going on inside. A renovation perhaps, or has Pastryland ridden into the sunset?

While in New York for KosherFest, I had dinner at Solo, self-described as a Mediterranean venue with an Asian kick. It’s located in the Sony Building on Madison Avenue, on the first floor. The decor is very pleasant: the outer wall is made up of lights, seen from inside and outside the restaurant, that slowly change colors. The restaurant is composed of a main room, which seats about 60 people, 4 private rooms of different sizes, and a nice bar at which we sat at while waiting to be seated.

Though I made my reservation a full two weeks in advance, the earliest time I could get for 6 guests was 9:15 p.m. On top of that, when we got there, the restaurant was full, and we waited nearly twenty minutes at the bar. On the plus side, since it was really packed, we got lucky — they gave us their best private room situated directly off the kitchen. This room features a glass sliding electric door directly to the kitchen (a.k.a. the chef’s table) and it also had a flat screen TV — so we got to watch (silently) that evening’s World Series game.

Once seated, we were introduced to our waiter; he was genuinely nice and seemed happy to serve us. He explained the menu and the specials very professionally, was patient with all our questions and answered all of them perfectly, and was also extremely knowledgeable when it came to helping us order from the wine menu (which could be a little intimidating even to me). I should mention what also impressed me about the restaurant was the fact that they have a constantly changing tasting menu for $85 (without wine). The only caveat is that everyone at your table has to order it. Naturally, with six friends we couldn’t agree to go for it, so I decided I was there to taste and I would create my own tasting experience off the regular menu.

For my first appetizer, I had the yellow fin tuna tartar: wonderfully fresh, and presented beautifully with a layer of Haas avocado and a mango salsa.

For my second appetizer, I chose a special — creamy black truffle risotto. Before I go on (and explain how this was probably the best dish at Solo), I have to explain that I went to a non-kosher cooking school in California (a Cordon Bleu program), so I am not exaggerating when I say I must have made risotto a hundred times. This was the best risotto I ever had, with truffle oil and black truffle shaven on top. The flavor was so strong (in an excellent way), the texture was perfectly al dente, and it had a creamy mouth-feel even without any real butter. A classic presentation, this dish was divine; everything I had imagined a truffle risotto to be and more!

I had also ordered the soup of the day, which was fish chowder. It was really quite first-rate: not too fishy, had really nice sharpness to it (I believe it was ginger), and slightly spicy.

For my entree, I had the Solo “Cowboy Steak” which is marinated in wine. The steak was exceptional, cooked perfectly the way I wanted it. It came with large onion rings, which were decent but a little bland, and with roasted potatoes, which were much too spicy — not one person at the table ate more then three of them.

For dessert, I had the caramel souffle, which is basically a regular chocolate souffle but it comes with an outstanding caramel sauce and a vanilla ice cream that was first-rate (homemade using real vanilla beans). Though the souffle itself was a little over-cooked for me, the sauce and the ice cream on their own made the dish well worth ordering.

Overall, it was the best restaurant experience I ever had, because I had such a great time. I got very lucky with the private room looking into the kitchen, watching the Red Sox win, and our waiter, who most definitely helped make the evening one I won’t soon forget.

Now, you’re probably thinking: how much was it? Well, yes, it was expensive. I went overboard with ordering five courses and a $60 bottle of wine. But I do suggest you go there for a special occasion or for a high-stakes business meeting. It’s a great opportunity to show friends or clients that kosher restaurants can be just as excellent as non-kosher ones. In this chef’s opinion, it’s really the best kosher restaurant out there right now that can compare to New York’s non-kosher fine-dining restaurants.

Rajiv writes in to share that Wired Magazine’s current issue (Volume 12, Issue 11) “has an article on an engineer working for the
Star-K [Jonah Ottensoser] and how he works to certify appliances.”

It’s a good article (by Michael Erard), though he liberally uses superfluous godspeak: “… certifying that the movement of every electron in an appliance is sanctioned by God.”

If you’re interested in learning more, Ottensoser has an article published on the Star-K website about the “Sabbath Mode.” The Star-K also has detailed information about Sabbath-sensitive appliances, including purchasing advice.

Thanks for being patient while waiting for my Kosherfest recap. In the meantime, why not take advantage of GAN EDEN Wines‘ biggest sale ever. Craig Winchell of GAN EDEN just sent in the following details:

I know this isn’t really a commercial site, but plenty of people seem to enjoy GAN EDEN wines, and they’re really not readily available in much of the nation. Right now, I’m starting the biggest sale we’ve ever run — basically, it’s 2 cases for the price of 1, on any of our current releases, with the caveat that the customer pays all costs associated with shipping. This is a great sale, and it’s good for 46 out of the lower 48 states (Only Kentucky and Utah are excluded).

Look at it this way: my wine is currently unavailable through retail outlets in Massachusetts. Even given approximate $75/case shipping to MA on 1 or 2 cases (less for larger shipments), the Black Muscat and Late Harvest Gewurztraminer will cost no more than the California Suggested retail price, which is a buck or 2 cheaper per bottle than most often encountered in New York. And in Chicago, where it only costs around $40/case to ship, there’s an even more substantial savings.

The savings is far greater for my more expensive wines — the 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance, normally has a per bottle price of $40, but you could nab it for $432 for 2 cases, plus shipping. Even with $75/case shipping, that still only comes to $24.25/bottle, a great savings.

The sale applies to GAN EDEN’s entire product line excluding overstocks and close-outs, through at least November, and possibly December (I haven’t yet decided).

To order, call (800) 829-5686 during normal business hours, or contact GAN EDEN by email at ganeden@ganeden.com. Kosher Blog isn’t receiving any kickbacks for spreading the word; we’re just happy to promote an independent kosher winery (as independent as it gets — Craig’s the only employee).