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Looking Back, Looking Forward

By sweinberger
Published May, 1 2008 10:27 am
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My, my, my - it has been really quiet around here lately! That can happen when the primary writers for a blog are paid to do a job that isn’t to write about food. (Oh, how I wish I had that job!) On behalf of Jabbett and myself, I’d like to apologize for the lack of new posts. We’re hoping that circumstances will allow us to be more involved in the near future. Moving on….

Pesach 5768 was an interesting one, wasn’t it? Let’s see…

  • Early on, Manischewitz announced that there weren’t going to be any KFP Tam-Tams this year. Riots were narrowly averted.
  • In parts of the US, there were Matzah shortages. Even if there wasn’t a shortage in your area, the rising price of wheat probably affected your Matzah purchase.
  • MargarineGate ‘08! KFP stick margarine became a rare commodity, as Mother’s brand decided not to produce any this year, leaving Haolam 1 lb. blocks as the only option. Pesach bakers frantically searched for supplies of the treasured trans-fat. (I found a source, and immediately bought 14 pounds of margarine, which was shared among my family. 5 pounds are going in the freezer for next year.)
  • As with every year, KFP Coke flies off the shelves, since soda aficionados believe that cane sugar sweetened soda tastes better. I’m a die-hard diet-cola drinker, so I can’t say.
  • The Susie Fishbein Empire grows larger, as (possibly) the most popular Pesach cookbook ever, hits the shelves. 100+ reformulated recipes, 30 new recipes. More on that later. The NY Times interviews her. Non-KFP Celiacs buy the book for the wheat-free recipes.
  • I’m saying that Quinoa for Pesach has hit the mainstream, as Ms. Fishbein included 2 recipes with it in her book. I’ve had it on Pesach for a few years now. This year I tried to make Quinoa Sushi, but couldn’t get it to hold together. But Hadar brand KFP soy sauce (and teriyaki) was available to season it right. Naturally, it had no soy in it whatsover.
  • Chef Hung cooked for the Pesach Seders at Solo. Did anyone hear how that went?

And, looking forward…

Hopefully, I’ll be writing more in the near future. Until then, feel free to contribute your Pesach stories…

15 comments so far (Post your own)
1.At 3:33 pm on May 1st, 2008, Lawrence wrote:

I’m almost afraid to ask, but what’s in that “soy sauce”?

2.At 10:16 am on May 2nd, 2008, Ari K wrote:

Re: Chef Hung at Solo over Pesach.

I took my wife to Solo for her birthday this year as her birthday fell out on the last day of chol-ha’moed.

The special kosher for Pesach menu had a choice of appetizers and entrees, most of which were Chef Hung’s dishes. So far as I could tell (there were knife images next to Chef Hung’s dishes) there was only one entree that was not a Chef Hung dish, so I guess he really enjoyed the challenge of learning the can and cannot’s of pesach cooking.

We started the evening with Chef Hung’s “gefilte” fish cake which was a fish patty served cold with an Asian infused horseradish on the side and garnished with salad greens.

For our entrees, my wife had the brazed short ribs off the bone. The short ribs pulled apart with a fork, rendering a knife totally unnecessary. The dish was finished off with salad greens and lightly pickled veggies.

I had one of the steaks cooked medium, served with a brown sauce and carrot puree. This dish was finished off with salad greens and whole, mini caramelized onions.

We each paired our meals with a glass of Kinneret’s Cabernet Sauvignon.

For Dessert we shared a bittersweet chocolate sorbet, two scoops stacked alternately with meringues flaked with pistachio nut pieces, served in a blood orange compote.

All the food was amazing and having been to Solo a number of times prior, I really think that Chef Hung has elevated the quality of food. Not to say that Solo wasn’t great before (it was), I just think Chef Hung added another dimension of flavors to the dishes he came up with. I did not feel like I was eating kosher of pesach food at all. So I think Chef Hung’s stay through Pesach has been a great success and he’s certainly lived up to the challenge.

3.At 8:35 pm on May 3rd, 2008, TKS wrote:

NPR’s ‘Marketplace’ also ran a piece on the KLP margarine shortage: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89760897

4.At 11:30 am on May 9th, 2008, HealthyShabbat.com wrote:

How’d ya get KFP Nori for your quinoa sushi?

5.At 11:31 am on May 9th, 2008, Ari H wrote:

I don’t know what their soy sauce is but Susie Fishbein has a teriyaki sauce recipe made of Coca cola and chicken stock in her KFP book.

6.At 1:14 pm on May 9th, 2008, sweinberger wrote:

HealthyShabbat: I was surprised about that one too. I emailed the Star-K, asking if KFP nori existed. They told me “The nori sheets are just seaweed. If purchased before Pesach they are OK
for use on Pesach“. So I did.

Ari H: Water, caramel coloring and MSG, primarily.

7.At 3:33 pm on May 9th, 2008, GilaB wrote:

Why would buying it before Pesach make a difference? Either it’s KFP or not, no?

8.At 3:45 pm on May 9th, 2008, sweinberger wrote:

GilaB: Before Pesach, Chametz in miniscule amounts is battel - insignificant to the point of not existing. Not so on Pesach, where we avoid even the tiniest amount of Chametz. We are not talking about visible Chametz.

As an example, many people buy all their eggs for Pesach before the holiday, for fear that chickens may be fed Chametz on the holiday, and the eggs would be a “product” of that Chametz. Would those chickens have possibly been fed Chametz before the holiday? Of course, but before the holiday, a MahSheHu (literally “something”, an insignificant amount) of Chametz is nullified, and doesn’t exist in the eyes of Halacha.

I am not a halachic authority by any means, and I may have misstated some of that. Consult an Orthodox Rabbi for clarification.

9.At 10:53 am on May 13th, 2008, DeisCane wrote:

But nori doesn’t eat chametz. It’s a vegetable.

10.At 11:19 am on May 13th, 2008, sweinberger wrote:

I can’t argue with you there. It’s a chumra (stringency), for sure. If you buy it before Pesach, any unintentional or accidental chametz present is batel b’shishim - nullified if the chametz is 1/60th or less of the mixture. On Pesach, chametz isn’t nullified at all.

That was the answer from a competent Rabbinic source, and I would be negligent if I didn’t repeat it verbatim.

11.At 2:17 pm on May 13th, 2008, sp wrote:

Deis, its a chumra of the sort “we go crazy on pesach with chumras”.

It could be washed, wrapped, dried, stored… with chametzy things, does this matter in reality? Not so much. Is it consistent with general practice in regards to pesach things? yes.

12.At 2:37 pm on May 13th, 2008, sweinberger wrote:

sp: There’s no need to debate or denigrate the validity of Pesach chumros. If you feel that a stringency doesn’t or shouldn’t apply, don’t follow it - I won’t throw rocks at you. I eat quinoa on Pesach, so you can take my advice with a grain of (kosher) salt.

As I stated, I repeated the answer I was given, verbatim. In truth, this is more of a kula (leniency) than a chumra. I’m eating a packaged food-item without a KFP hechsher. Buying it before Pesach is a small measure of insurance that I’m avoiding chametz on Pesach. It’s a small price to pay.

I don’t think we need to discuss this any further.

13.At 1:00 am on May 14th, 2008, sp wrote:

I wasn’t denigrating, I was being serious. There’s a concept that we are supposed to crazy w/ humras on pesach. There doesn’t have to be a logical reason beyond that it makes us feel good on some level and we’ve created a tradition of doing it.

hence the craziness w/ quinoa (which I’d have no issue eating either).

14.At 8:38 pm on June 4th, 2008, Jessica Y wrote:

I am from Australia, and when my husband ordered the new Fishbein book for me, I was probably the first in Australia to get it. Whilst I always enjoy looking at her books because they are simply beautiful, I felt a little cheated that I had seen most of the recipes in her other books (which also include pesach conversion guides). All in all though, I always enjoy the books because they are art works in themselves.

15.At 1:47 pm on June 16th, 2008, startfresh.com wrote:

Jessica, I felt the same way. I was going to buy the book and then I saw an excerpt that featured a recipe from another one of her books. So i resisted. But as you say I do enjoy her books and I have used many of her recipes and food decorating ideas. I do cut the fat and sugat content of most of the recipes and the results are usually perfect.

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