Kosher Blog

Ten Pound Lasagna

My mother makes a great lasagna, and I’ve often tried to emulate it but with only moderate results. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been very tasty, just always lacking something.

So, I’ve come to terms with the fact that no-boil lasagna noodles just don’t cut it. Both Barilla- and Prince-brand no-boil noodles are good in a pinch; if you have the time, though, boiling curly lasagna noodles is worth it for better texture and structure.

The right sauce is also critical. I’ve been happy with Barilla’s Italian Baking Sauce; great taste and widely available. When I have the opportunity, I pick up a big can of Frutta! Di Orto Marinara Sauce at Cirelli Foods; 6 lbs. 11 oz. of the chunky sauce will satisfy two hefty lasagnas.

Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles provide the final kick, imparting a meaty flavor and hearty texture to an otherwise limp pasta dish. Non-kosher diners think it’s ground beef, and kosher folks don’t suspect a thing.

And then we get to cheese. I’m a purist when it comes to cheese in a lasagna: ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella. No cottage cheese. No tofu. No muenster. Just simple ricotta, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and shredded mozzarella.

Put all that together, and you have a whopping 10 lb. of “Italian noodle kugel,” certainly more substantial than any back-of-the-box recipe.

TEN POUND LASAGNA

• 2 cups part skim ricotta
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 5 cups hearty tomato sauce
• 12 oz. (one bag) Morningstar Farms veggie crumbles
• 1 lb. curly lasagna noodles
• 1.5 lb. mozzarella, shredded

Boil lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Lay two connected sheets of paper towel over a baking sheet, and then place a single layer of noodles on towel. Cover with a sheet of wax paper, then another double sheet of paper towel. Repeat with remaining noodles, like photo above, and let cool until ready to use. If some noodles have ripped, that’s fine; use them to patch up gaps, or cut them up and eat them separately.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix ricotta with eggs, parsley, and grated Parmesan. Set aside.

Mix tomato sauce with veggie crumbles. Set aside.

Pour 1 1/2 cups sauce mixture in bottom of deep 9″ x 14″ pan. A disposable aluminum lasagna pan works admirably.

Cover with four lasagna noodles, overlapped slightly.

Spread half of ricotta mixture (approx. one cup) over noodles…

…then spread two cups sauce…

…and 1/3 of your shredded mozzarella. Repeat.

Add one more layer of noodles, two more cups sauce, and one more cup mozzarella. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.

Wrap tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove foil, bake for 15-20 minutes more, until cheese on top is lightly browned.

Remove from oven and let cool 20 minutes. Cut and serve, or let cool completely in refrigerator, cut into individual servings, wrap in aluminum foil, and freeze until desired.

FAQ: Stuffed Derma / Kishka

From the Kosher Blog mailbag
I was recently in Long Island on business when on pure whim I stopped at a kosher deli and restaurant for lunch. My “PLT” was so tasty that I brought my colleagues back for dinner. For an appetizer we ordered something that had the word “derma” in it. It appeared to be pureed something – probably vegetables – in an oil or fat base, enclosed in a casing. I thought it tasted great! What was it?

Stuffed derma, also known as kishka (Slavic for “gut”), is traditionally a cow’s intestine stuffed with a mixture of grain, fat, and sometimes ground meat and vegetables. Nowadays, kishka is most commonly made with a synthetic casing, and when made at home, some people use chicken skin as a wrapping instead.

Typical filling recipes include flour, matza meal, salt, pepper, chicken or beef fat, grated carrots, and grated onions. It’s eaten plain, with sauce, or on top of the traditional Sabbath afternoon stew (called “cholent”).

Coming up next…

What with moving house and all, I’ve been away from the computer for a couple weeks, and I apologize for the lessened activity on the blog. Of course, a special thanks is in order to sweinberger for his delicious look at smoked BBQ brisket last week.

Now that our kitchen and computer are set up once again, stay tuned for plenty of new postings. I’ll recap my search for perfect borekas, share some great recipes we enjoyed while being fed by friends during our move, report on a mysterious symbol you might see on cheeses in your local kosher market, take a look at how the Container Store can impact your kitchen (and your wallet), and reflect on a week of dining out in Boston while our home was inundated with boxes.

Plus, I’ll be adding a new category to the blog, “FAQ.” We receive many questions through the site, and we do our best to answer them thoroughly. Now, in addition to answering them by e-mail, we’ll post them publicly for all to benefit.

Adventures in BBQ: Brisket

I don’t have the time or inclination to write a long article on the merits of Barbecue Cuisine or why I believe that Texas-Style Barbecued Beef Brisket is a dish befitting royalty. That’s because I’m too busy cooking Texas-Style Barbecued Beef Brisket, and eating like a king. Be thankful I found the time to write this article. :)

For those who don’t know it already, BBQ is a process of cooking using low temperatures (about 200° F), indirect heat and wood smoke to cook food very slowly. If you’re putting the food over the heat source, you’re grilling. Yes, in the vernacular, a BBQ is the get-together as much as the cooking process, but we’re talking about the process.

My tool of choice for BBQing is my Smokintex Electric Smoker. I’ve discussed this beauty in previous posts, and in the summer it really gets a workout. I know that I may draw the ire of the purists who say that BBQ has to have a wood fire, but I’ve got a busy family life (with a wife and 4 kids) – I BBQ in an electric smoker, and I’m not ashamed. If I had the time to tend a wood fire for a day, I just might. These days, convenience rules. Call me a Good-for-Nothing City-Slicker, I don’t care.

The ingredients for a good BBQ Brisket are very simple: 1 untrimmed, first-cut beef-brisket. That’s it. You can try for the whole brisket (and I have before), but the first cut is more manageable. They usually weigh about 10 pounds. That’s about 8-9 pounds of meat after the fat is trimmed away, but you won’t be doing that until you’re done cooking. All that fat is going to be basting your brisket. It takes about 3/4 pound of meat to feed a hungry adult, so I’m cooking for about 10 people. I made this particular hunk of beef for a family get togther last week.

Saturday Night
It took about half a cup of dry rub to cover all the surfaces of the meat. I use a recipe from Smoke & Spice. Pretty standard affair, with paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper, sugar, garlic and onion powder. You’ll note that I trimmed off the tip of my brisket. That’s for space constraints. I’ll be cooking that on the shelf below the big piece, so it can catch the drippings. I put the meat in a plastic zipper-lock bag, and refrigerated it overnight. Make sure you know which side of the meat is the fatty side – it’s harder to recognize after the rub settles in.

5 AM, Sunday Morning
Half an hour before you start smoking, you need to take the meat out and let it come to room temperature. This helps cut down on a bitter tasting compound, called creosote, from adhering to the meat. While the meat was warming up, I went out to prepare the smoker. The floor of and smoking box of the smoker were covered with heavy-duty aluminium foil, to facilitate cleanup. I added 5 ounces of oak to the smoker’s smoke-box. (I purchased a 50-pound sack of oak firewood a few years back, and I chop off a few blocks when I need it for BBQ. Hickory or Mesquite are also good smoking woods for beef, but I like the subtle taste of oak. Yes, at 5:15 in the morning, I was choopping wood logs with an axe and hammer. That’s devotion!) I put a few pieces of charcoal in there because the smoker manual said that I would get a nice smoke-ring on the meat that way. It didn’t work out that way, but it didn’t hurt.

At 5:45 in the morning I put the meat into the smoker. Of course, I had my trusty thermometer probes stuck in the meat. I set the thermostat to 220° and closed the door and went back to sleep.

While we’re waiting for the meat to cook, I’ll give you the recipe for my family’s favorite BBQ side dish. We call them Aunt Ellen Beans (Aunt Ellen actually was a guest at this meal), but you can just call them Enhanced Baked Beans. This is one of those guideline-recipes, it never comes out the same, but it’s never bad:

• Canned Baked Beans – we use the large cans of Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans. Sometimes Heinz’s
• Onions
• Ketchup (always Heinz)
• oil for frying

Peel and chop as many onions as you wish (proportional to the amount of beans you’ll be making). Fry them in a small amount of oil, until they are as done as you’d like. We usually go for browned, bordering on burnt. Add the beans to the onions and stir well. Add a few squirts of ketchup and stir well. Heat and serve.

Of course, you can make this with any proportions you want, and I’ve never been dissappointed. What can go wrong?

Sunday Afternoon
By about 6:00PM, the brisket was ready. What’s ready? 210°. That sounds awfully high for beef and you’re right – that’s way overdone. But there’s a rationale. You already know this factoid, but here’s the explanation for the rest of you.

Brisket is a very tough meat, full of connective tissue and the like. If you cooked it to the normal temperature that you like your meat at (145° for medium rare), it would certainly be edible, but it would take a lot of chewing. When brisket is brought up to 210°, the juices have all been cooked out of the meat, but the collagen in the meat has just finished melting. Collagen is the gelatinous substance in meat, and brisket has plenty of it. So while you’ve cooked out all of the juices, the meat is now bathed in collagen juciness. Trust me, it’s better this way.

I took the meat out, and put it on my cutting board. Time to trim off the fat that’s been basting the meat.

Slice the meat thinly, across the grain, and serve with your favorite BBQ sauce, warmed up. My favorite way of eating this is a big brisket sandwich, slathered in BBQ sauce with a big dollop of extra-creamy coleslaw in the sandwich (sort of a tribute to the Pulled Pork Sandwich). Oh, man, is that good eating!

The Fourth of July is coming, and I hope that you’re planing on making a BBQ. It’s an American Tradition. If you end up cooking some real barbecue, let us know!

Biblical Nutrition

Would you eat something called “Noah’s Nuggets”? How about “Abraham’s Bossom”? House of David, an online retailer billing itself as the “the world’s premier distributor of biblically based health products“, offers these products and more, in their “Foods of the Bible” line. The products appear to be kosher – or at least the product photos on the website show kosher symbols. Caveat emptor.

My favorite is the Bible Bar:

…a highly effective appetite regulator based on the seven foods from the Book of Deuteronomy 8:8 – “A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey”.

Wouldn’t that be a great treat on Tu B’Shvat? The closest local retailer is a place called Gospel Den – maybe I’ll stick to ordering my bible-foods online.

Eli’s, Washington, DC

KosherCritic, a brand-spanking-new blog whose mission it is to review all of Maryland and DC’s kosher restaurants, has just posted a review of Eli’s, DC’s newest restaurant. From their intro:

Harris, Josh and Adam, a friend, ate at Eli’s, the new restaurant which just recently opened up in Dupont Circle. The restaurant was started by Sina Soumekhian, the owner of Sienna’s in Rockville (look for a review of this restaurant soon!). With the exception of the DC JCC, Eli’s is now the only kosher cuisine available in Washington, D.C., as Stacks, the restaurant formerly owned by high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff closed its doors a while back.

Restaurants are rated on scale of 1 to 10 “hamburgers” in the following categories: Food Quality, Service Quality, Atmosphere, Cleanliness, Price.

Hot Stir-Fried Chicken and French Beans

The Shavuot recap is on its way, but in the meantime, I’m all about meat — can’t get enough of it. After catching a whiff of the Chinese take-away near the office, I had my heart set on something Asian for dinner. I decided to crack open a cookbook I’ve had on my shelf for two years and have hardly used — the China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Tropp. The style of the book just oozes “1992,” but it sets some very useful cooking paradigms. The key to the following recipe — which I’ve adapted from “Stir-Fried Chicken in Hot Bean Sauce” — is the “velvet marinade” and poaching of the chicken pieces. This combination of techniques makes for perfectly cooked, tender chicken breast chunks, and even worked okay with only very minimal (15 minutes) marinating. Plus, the sauce ingredients are proportioned very well and produces a thick, spicy coating for chicken and vegetables that isn’t at all gloppy or overwhelming. My adaptation eliminates many of the vegetables called for in the original, with the hope of simplifying the recipe for quicker preparation and paring it down to its most important, and flavorful, components.

HOT STIR-FRIED CHICKEN AND FRENCH BEANS
5-6 servings

Chicken and Marinade
* 2 large egg whites
* 2 Tbsp. dry sherry
* 2 tsp. kosher salt
* 2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ribbons 2 inches long and 1/4 inch wide

Aromatics
* 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced/crushed
* 2 Tbsp. finely minced fresh ginger
* 1 small bunch scallions, white and light green parts, sliced

Sauce
* 1 cup chicken consomme
* 2 Tbsp. chili-garlic sauce
* 2 Tbsp. dry sherry
* 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
* 1 tsp. sugar
* 4 Tbsp. soy sauce

* 12 oz. haricots verts, or thin green beans
* 1 hot green chili, seeded, sliced thinly
* 4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
* 2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3 Tbsp. cold water

1. In a large bowl or plastic container with lid, briskly whisk together the marinade ingredients until smooth and thick. Add the chicken and toss well. Seal tightly and marinate for 3 to 24 hours (less if in a pinch).
2. Combine the aromatics in a small bowl, cover until ready to use.
3. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Stir to blend, leaving the spoon in the bowl.
4. About 15 minutes before serving, bring 8 cups of water to a steaming near simmer. Add the marinated chicken, stir gently to separate the shreds, and poach until almost entirely white, 60 to 70 seconds. Drain promptly (a colander is helpful) and set chicken aside. It will be cooked on the outside, but a bit raw in the middle.
5. Heat a large, heavy skillet or wok over high heat until hot enough to evaporate a bead of water on contact. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to glaze the pan. Reduce the heat to medium, add the haricots verts, and stir-fry until crisp-tender and slightly browned. Remove from pan and reserve.
6. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the hot pan, add the aromatics, and stir gently until fully fragrant, 15 to 20 seconds, adjusting the heat so they foam without browning. Add the sliced chili and cook briefly.
7. Stir the sauce ingredients and add to the pan. Raise the heat to high, and bring the sauce to a simmer. Stir the cornstarch mixture to recombine it and add it to the pan. Stir until the sauce turns glossy, 10 to 20 seconds. Add the chicken and beans, and toss gently to cook through, about 30 seconds.
8. Serve at once over hot rice.

Hadassah’s Carbonara

As my wife, mother, and mother-in-law are all members of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, I’m no stranger to the monthly Hadassah Magazine, which is full of engaging interviews, exotic travel locales, and reviews of the latest in Jewish culture and media. I was completely caught be surprise, though, when, while noshing a light seudat shlishit this evening, I spotted a delightful little blurb about the Kosher Blog in the June/July issue’s “Brief Reviews” section (page 49).

It was fitting that reviewer Leah Finkelshteyn mentioned our “Tastes Like Treyf” section, as the following page features a witty tale of Adeena Sussman’s foray into the realm of vegetarian bacon. She offers a simple and delicious recipe for Pasta Carbonara — the rich spaghetti dish named for the carbonari (coal vendors) known to make it — and suggests using a tempeh-based “bacon” product from Lightlife called “Smoky Strips.” She describes them as “denser, meatier” with a “deeper smoky flavor” than the soy alternatives. I’ll be sure to try it when I sample the recipe, which I’ve included below.

PASTA CARBONARA
Adeena Sussman, Hadassah Magazine
4 to 6 servings

* 12 oz. linguine
* 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
* 9 strips vegetarian bacon
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
* 1 cup (4 oz.) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
* Kosher salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring pot of liberally salted water to a boil. Cook linguine until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add “bacon” and cook until crispy and browned. Remove from skillet to drain on paper towels; crumble when cool. In a bowl, whisk cream, egg yolks, and cheese to combine.
3. Draine linguine, reserving about a cup of water; do not rinse pasta. Return to pot and add cream mixture. Cook, stirring, over low heat until sauce coats pasta nicely. If sauce is too thick, add some reserved pasta water. Add crumbled “bacon,” salt, and pepper.

Borekas, etc.

Sorry for the content drought. Life’s been busy, but fortunately we have a chag to thrust me back into the kitchen. From the first time I had borekas in Israel eight years ago, I loved them. I was at a Shabbos morning kiddush somewhere in Jerusalem and the spread included big, hot potato borkeas — who wouldn’t love the juxteposition of crisp flaky dough and spicy, smooth filling?

So, for Shavuot, I figure I’ll try my hand at cheese borekas. A few choices present themselves. Small, appetizer-sized or large entree size? Phyllo dough, puff pastry, or something else entirely? What combination of cheese?

I haven’t decided on a recipe yet, but I’m leaning toward large borkeas made without phyllo since phyllo can be tough to handle, and I’m willing to be adventurous with the filling.

Please share your suggestions, philosophy, and recipes!

***

I’ve also decided to try out Thomas Keller’s recipe for quiche, but haven’t decided whether to do his roquefort and leek quiche — so long as Gourmet Food Store can get me kosher roquefort in time — or something like his “Caesar Salad” quiche (a parmesan-infused custard with baby romaine lettuce on the side).

Inexpensive, homemade PVC cheese press

There are a wide variety of tasty soft cheese that can be made without a cheese press, but, truth be told, those just aren’t as exciting (or delicious) as hard, aged cheeses. The only problem for the amateur cheesemaker is that retail cheese presses are, simply, expensive. New England Cheesemaking Supply’s top-of-the-line cheese press, while impressive, is $239. If you’ve never made a pressed cheese before, and you’re not sure if it’s your thing, the purchase of a good press can be quite a hinderance.

If you have $20 (maybe less) burning a hole in your pocket (and a few tools) you can put together a nifty, nice-looking press made out of PVC piping. My design (note: not yet field tested) is a bit different from most cheese presses out there, in that I use actual weights to press down the curds, rather than a spring-loaded setup with a pressure gauge. The basic premise: the base sits on a counter, supports a cheese mold (and drip pan if desired) and has vertical rods affixed to its four corners. A sliding platform runs along the vertical rods and, when loaded with weights (you know, the big round ones you see at the gym), it presses down on a follower into the curd-filled mold below.

You will need the following equipment:
• Hacksaw for cutting PVC piping
• PVC pipe primer and cement
• Coarse sandpaper
• Ruler/tape measure

You will need the following Schedule 40 PVC supplies (cost me all of $11.64 at Home Depot):
• 1 1-inch Cross
• 1 3/4-inch Cross
• 4 1-inch Tees
• 4 3/4-inch Tees
• 4 3/4-inch Caps
• 27″ 1-inch PVC pipe (minimum)
• 100″ 3/4-inch PVC pipe (minimum)

To use the press, you should also buy:
• Mold with follower
• Drip pan
• Something to sit between follower and bottom of sliding platform

With your hacksaw, cut the 1-inch pipe into four equal pieces (6 3/4″ each). Cut the 3/4-inch pipe into four 6 13/16″ pieces and four 18″ pieces, leaving a bit of pipe left over. Measure and cut carefully, but you needn’t be meticulous.

With your sandpaper, sand all pipe ends a bit to remove the prickly bits.

Insert the four 1-inch pipes snugly into the 1-inch cross, so you end up with a big X. Insert each of the four exposed ends into the perpendicular hole of a 1-inch tee so that you end up with the four open tubes which will slide up and down the base’s vertical poles.

With one “arm” connected

Fully assembled sliding platform

If you wish, prime and cement the pieces together for permanence.

Now, do the same with the 3/4-inch PVC pipes and fittings, but put the longer, 18″ pipes into the top of the tees, and put the caps on the bottom of the tees.

Fully assembled base, showing vertical pipes and bottom caps

Slide the platform onto the vertical rods, and there you have it.

Since I designed the press to be 1-foot square, I’ll probably cut notches into the corners of a heavy ceramic tile and lay it onto the base as a stable surface to hold a cheese mold. I’d also like to cut a hole into the sliding platform’s cross so I can insert a small piece of 1″ piping, which will anchor the round weights I intend to load on.