Our first skirt with EJ’s was last November at KosherFest, where we encountered their understocked booth and were denied any food samples or marketing materials given our lack of big-time food distribution credentials. The pizza did look good though, so I was happy this week to see it had arrived at the local kosher market.

The 12-ounce deep-dish pizzas are available in cheese and cheese/spinach combinations, and sold in Brookline for $4.99 a piece (non-kosher premium brands hover around that price for a pizza typically twice the size, according to quick look at Peapod.com). Preparation is simple (unwrap, bake for 25 minutes) and the results were tasty, but didn’t fully compare to our treyfa memories of delicious Pizzeria Uno pies. The crust was a good texture (developed a nice brown crunch from my pizza stones), but I personally felt there was too much of it and it was too puffy. Also, the cheese was somewhat paltry.

Another detail irked me a bit. EJ’s website states that one 12-ounce pizza “will satisfy one adult” but the package’s nutritional information indicates that the small pizza is in fact two servings. Now, I don’t expect waist-reducing results from eating pizza of any kind, but I find it disingenuous to mark individual-sized food items as two servings.

Overall, it’s nice to finally have a kosher way to satisfy a deep-dish pizza fix on those days I don’t have several hours to prepare my own dough, and in a handsome box no less.

Category	Score
Taste	3
Presentation	3.5
Value	2
K-Factor™	2.5
TOTAL	11

Tonight, I’m introducing a new gizmo to accompany KBLog’s food product reviews and add an element of objective legitimacy to our otherwise fanciful whims and opinions.

Without further ado, the Kosher Blog Product Scoresheet:

Each category is graded on a 4-point scale.

Taste: This one’s the most obvious, how does it taste?
Presentation: Is the product visually appealing? Is the packaging stylish? Does the product look like the picture on the box?
Value: How well does the product justify its price?
K-Factor™: This one sums up the product’s originality, whether it fills a unique void in the market, and any unusual prestige not awarded by the previous categories.

Shawarma
Rami’s
324 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02446
617-738-3577

Outside of the massive population centers which can support a wealth of highly-targeted ethnic eateries, the best kosher restaurants are the ones which transcend or outright obscure their religious peculiarities and sell themselves to the general public simply as quality eateries. For Boston’s premier kosher middle-eastern cafe and, as we’ll see, its signature rotating entree, though, the challenge is made threefold.

First, Rami’s was opened by an Israeli. Having traveled several times to the nascent Jewish state, I’ve experienced first-hand the blunt, no-nonsense, live-for-today attitudes of Israel’s prickly-on-the-outside and sweet-on-the-inside citizenry. Such a characteristic does not always bode well for sabra restaurateurs; Israeli wait-service often feels like an afterthought. But, at Rami’s, they strike a good balance. During a busy lunch hour, they run the cramped shop with exacting precision. (”We’re here to work; we’re not here to play!” I once overheard being said to a hesitant customer.) At calmer moments, they’re happy to put on a little music and shoot the breeze.

Second, Israel does not have a monopoly on fine middle-eastern food. All of her Arab neighbors offer up delicious meat and chickpea combinations, which means competition geopolitically… and locally. Tiny Rami’s has stood the test of time, seeing neighboring kosher eateries come and go, and surviving despite constant threat from nearby non-kosher shawarma “kings” and other, lesser vassals of falafeldom.

Third, Rami’s is glatt kosher. For the uninitiated, glatt is Yiddish for “smooth,” meaning no tolerance for even minor imperfections in the animals slated for kosher consumption. If you think that level of detail could be expensive, you’re right. Kosher mammalian meat can cost several times more than standard meat, causing typically higher prices at kosher restaurants.

So, while the middle-eastern delight known as “shawarma” is traditionally prepared on a vertical rotisserie loaded with stacked slices of lamb, the budget-minded restaurateur instead uses similarly spiced and cooked slices of turkey. Unless advertised outright, however, Rami’s surreptitious selection of less-expensive turkey over other meats would go completely unnoticed.

Expertly cooked so the meat chunks remain juicy but slightly crisp at the edges, stuffed into the softest pita this side of Jerusalem, covered with freshly chopped veggies, and slathered with sauces — ranging from hot, green s’chug, to smooth, garlicky hummus, to sesame-laden t’china, to the mysteriously spicy orange amba — the shawarma at Rami’s is a phenomenon to behold. Religious or not, you’ll find that the thrill of delicious shawarma grease dripping down your arm as you try to overcome your burgeoning sandwich is a spiritual experience.

The Kosher Blog is honored to be among the inaugural 30-blog jury for the first ever Independent Food Festival and Awards. Comments are welcome here, or on the main Festival/Awards site.

Now with a photograph.

Andrea writes in asking about a good substitute for “oyster sauce,” a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. Oyster sauce, unlike “lobster sauce,” actually contains its namesake shellfish, so some serious research is necessary. Here goes.

About.com provides the first clue:
“Although the Buddhist vegetarian diet does permit the eating of oysters, vegetarian brands, often using mushrooms as a substitute, are available. Oyster sauce is normally sold in bottles; refrigerate after opening. If purchased in a can, transfer to a closed jar and refrigerate.”

Ah, vegetarian brands, perfect. Oh, none of them are kosher? Hmph.

For this reason alone (and only this reason) we can be thankful there are vegans in the world, who come up with implicitly kosher recipes for tasty, tasty animal products. Courtesy of vegan-food.net:

• 1 mushroom broth (boullion) cube
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 Tbsp. brown bean sauce
• 1 generous Tbsp. unprocessed sugar
• 1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 tsp. cold water

Dissolve the broth cube in the boiling water. Mix with the brown bean sauce and sugar, and heat to boiling. Add the dissolved cornstarch and stir until thickened. Cool and store in a covered jar in the refrigerator.

(This site also provides a recipe, using ground dried mushrooms instead of mushroom cubes)

I assume the mushroom boullion is doable, but what’s this “brown bean sauce”? Cook’s Thesaurus tells us:

This salty brown sauce is made from fermented soybeans, and is available in cans or jars. If you buy it in a can, transfer it into a jar. It can then be stored indefinitely in the refrigerator. Chinese bean sauce isn’t as salty as Thai bean sauce. Substitutes: black bean sauce OR chili bean sauce OR awase miso

Aha! Black bean sauce, we’re there. Kosher Depot will be introducing kosher black bean sauce starting this week, so keep an eye out for it.

So, with all these pieces, we have a suitable oyster sauce substitute.

As the week races by and Shabbat approaches, I usually don’t have time to bake anything more complicated than chocolate chip cookies, and most often relegate our Shabbat desserts to any of the fine bakeries in the area. In December, with some time off before starting my new job, I took the opportunity to flex my underworked baking muscle. I struggled to find something elegant, pareve, and not overly complicated that could be prepared in advance. I found my dessert — Chocolate Hazelnut Torte — in Lora Brody’s Growing up on the Chocolate Diet, an entertaining memoir dotted with recipes. I later discovered that her Chocolate American Style also features this recipe, but, unfortunately, not even this glossy full-color book had a picture of the finished product, so I was on my own visually.

What stands out in this flourless dessert is the centrality of toasted hazelnuts, something almost totally foreign to me, as my mother is highly allergic to tree nuts. Risking a fatal surprise visit by my parents, I embraced the aromatic ingredient which provided much of the torte’s substance.

The surprise ingredient, not evident from the title, is raspberry preserves — fabulous when paired with chocolate. Fresh raspberries accent the top and hint of the flavor within.

Following her instructions meticulously, and with enough time, I found this torte to be a lot of fun to prepare, great looking, and great tasting. (As a plus, it can be made for Passover.)

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT TORTE
from Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody, with minor adaptations

For the cake:
• Unsalted margarine and flour for preparing the pan
• 8 oz. bittersweet/semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 6 oz. Fleischmann’s unsalted stick margarine, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 extra-large eggs, room temperature, separated
• 1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and ground
• 1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam or preserves

For the glaze:
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 2 Tbsp. Fleischmann’s unsalted stick margarine
• 6 oz. bittersweet/semisweet chocolate, cut in small pieces
• 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, cut in small pieces
• fresh raspberries for garnish

Equipment:
• 9×3-inch cake/springform pan
• Parchment paper
• Wax paper
• Electric mixer

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, with the rack in the lower third of the oven, but not at the very bottom. Grease the interior of the cake pan. Line the bottom with a circle of parchment. Grease the parchment. Dust the pan with flour, knocking out the excess. [K.B. Note: Pam with Flour works well, too.]

To make the cake, melt the chocolate in a metal bowl set over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, or in a microwave-safe bowl in a microwave oven. When the chocolate has melted, remove it from over the water and set aside to cool slightly. [K.B. Note: I was VERY careful, and used a low heat, to melt my chocolate in a pan directly on the burner.]

Place the margarine and sugar in a large bowl. With an electric mixer, beat them together on medium-high speed until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate and nuts until they are just incorporated.

In a clean mixing bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Do not overbeat. Scoop a large spoonful of whites into the chocolate batter to lighten it, then scrape the remaining whites onto the chocolate batter and fold them in thoroughly. The batter will deflate considerably. Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan [it’s greased and floured, right?] and level it off with a rubber spatula. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is buffed and crusty and feels firm when pressed in the center. It is important not to overbake this cake. [K.B. Note: Oven performance varies widely. Check after 40 minutes and keep a close eye (and nose) on the cake.]

Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and remove the parchment, but leave the cake bottom-side up.

When you are ready to assemble the cake, place the preserves in a small saucepan and bring them to a boil over medium heat. Place the cooled cake with the flat (bottom) side up on a flat serving plate with four strips of wax paper under the cake to catch drips from the glaze. [K.B. Note: the four strips, rather than a single sheet, make it possible to slide the wax paper out from under the completed cake.] Pour the preserves over the top of the cake and smooth with an offset spatula. Use only enough to cover the top, but not the sides, of the cake. Let the preserves set while you prepare the chocolate glaze.

Place 3 tablespoons of water, the corn syrup, and the margarine in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add the bittersweet chocolate and the unsweetened chocolate. Stir gently, then set aside to thicken slightly. When it is slightly thickened, pour the glaze over the cake and smooth over the top and sides with a cake spatula. [K.B. Note: a blunt, straight-edged meat-slicing knife is a handy substitute for a cake spatula.] Remove the protective wax paper strips. Garnish the cake with fresh berries, or serve with a bowl of unsweetened whipped cream.

Store the cake, covered, at room temperature for up to 4 days. [K.B. Note: I kept it refrigerated for several days.]

ColumbiaAuds’s party Wednesday night to kick-off her new Jewish Advocate dating column was a lot of fun, and the delicious cream-cheese-based spreads I provided were no small part of that success. Well, they were only a small part, but I thought they were tasty and easy, so I’ll share:

BOURSIN-STYLE SPREAD
32 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. celery salt
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried parsley

BLUE CHEESE SPREAD
32 oz. cream cheese, softened
7 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
4 Tbs. finely grated sweet onion
2 Tbs. worcestershire
dashes of Tobasco to taste

For either spread, combine all ingredients and chill several hours. Serve with a variety of crackers. Each makes approximately 4 cups.

From today’s New York Times comes a fun story about a man and his endeavor to become a Culinary Casanova.

From the rumor mill: An as yet uncorroborated story has it that Taam China will be moving from its current location to a larger one. It is not yet known where the new place is, but the old location will be kept by the Taam China people so that they can open a kosher steakhouse!

This is big news, and I don’t have any more information, but I’ll update as soon as more becomes available. In the meantime, if you know anything, please share.

It’s been a while since my last posting in the realm of cheesemaking, and though I haven’t performed any further experiments yet (milk supply is cut off during winter), I’ve received some good news on kosher rennet.

Jonathan writes:
I’d like to say that I have been able to purchase OU-kosher Liquid GMO Chymosin (microbial rennet) produced by Chr. Hansen and distributed by the litre (about $45.00) by Kelley Supply, (800) 782-8573.

This microbial stuff is said to work better than the fungus-based rennet, as it’s genetically identical to the animal-based original.

While there is no requirement that we serve kosher food to our pets, two general prohibitions apply. First, we can’t feed pets a mixture of milk and meat at any time during the year, and second, we can’t feed pets chametz during Pesach. But before you go to check the ingredients on that can of Mighty Dog, visit KosherPets.com, producer of acceptable-for-Passover dog and cat foods, all certified by the CRC to be free of forbidden mixtures and chametz.

While these products are acceptable for animal consumption, they aren’t kosher (for human consumption), which most obviously means don’t eat it (mmm… dog food), but more practically means don’t prepare it with kosher utensils.

(Thanks, Gwen!)

Boruch Hashem, Oriental Trading (my favorite bulk shlock store) is offering chocolate Easter eggs with a big cross on the wrapper - Kosher! This is almost as good as the Ham Glaze mix with O-U certification! Years ago, my mother-in-law was very persistent in getting Oriental Trading to identify all the Kosher items their catalog. Good to see that her hard work has paid off. They actually have a number of products that they claim are Kosher. No, I didn’t inquire whose Hashgacha it is - but if I recall correctly, I think they’ll send you a list of the product certifications, on request.

What products have you seen with valid certification, that you didn’t think we needed kosher?

On our Discussion board, Ari Y asks for a concise hot wing recipe that won’t stink up his house. Check out the KBlog-suggested recipe, or add your own!

Also, in the Kosher Travel section, Jeffw mentions a new kosher family program at Camp Yavneh scheduled for August.

The following Empire products produced on August 10 and Decemeber 5, 2004, are being recalled:

• 48-ounce boxes of Empire Kosher Fully Cooked Buffalo Style Wings, Chicken Wings Coated in Sauce, with date code 1444.

• 28-ounce boxes of Empire Kosher Fully Cooked, Breaded, Fried Chicken, six to nine assorted pieces, with date code 0274.

Each product also bears the establishment number P-787 inside the USDA seal of inspection.

They were distributed to retail stores in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia.