Easy Sauces with Mascarpone
The other night, we needed a quick meal so we decided on pasta, but I was tired of Barilla’s reliably tasty tomato sauces. I hunted around the pantry a while before realizing that in my refrigerator I actually had both pesto and mascarpone left over from an Italian-themed birthday dinner we hosted several weeks ago. I figured they’d be excellent parties to a simple sauce.
I don’t have the proportions down right, but mascarpone’s intensely neutral flavor, pure creaminess, and meltability makes a perfect base for a cream sauce. Plus, mascarpone has a shelf life of 60 days, so it’s more convenient than maintaining a supply of cream in the fridge for the occasional sauce.
I’m aware of at least three brands of kosher mascarpone commonly available in Boston-area stores: Vermont Butter & Cheese Company’s certified by Kof-K, BelGioioso’s certified by the CRC, and Polenghi’s certified by the OK.
After Pesach, I’ll work on an actual recipe to post here, but in the meantime, put a dollop on your hot pasta and mix in with pesto, or smoked fish, or some interesting combination of herbs and spices. Of course, report any surprising results!
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The “New England” Hot Dog Bun
Many newcomers to the Boston area are puzzled by some of our local culinary peculiarities, like the Hoodsie, a small cup of chocolate and vanilla ice cream served with what looks like a minature, whimsical tongue-depressor. Another such specimen is the New England Hot Dog Bun ( NEHDB ). Whereas a “typical” hot dog bun looks like a minature loaf, baked on all sides, and sliced down the middle, the NEHDB is sliced on both sides and down the middle, like you took a squat loaf of Wonder bread, cut thick slices, and then split them open.
What most people don’t know, and what I’ve graciously decided to disclose to the public at this time, is that the cut sides of an NEHDB are the secret to the perfect hot dog experience, and its something that even the most novice of cooks can accomplish in his own home.
In Mattapan (Boston’s one-time Jewish enclave), there is a fast food landmark called Simco’s By The Bridge, opened in 1935 by a Jewish proprietor. Here, in my treyf youth, I enjoyed the epicurean delight of the griddled bun:
Heat a pan on your stove and grease it (non-stick spray or a bit of margarine). Take an NEHDB and sear both cut sides in the hot fat until golden brown (like you were making a grilled cheese). Fill with the hot dog of your choice. It takes your frankfurter experience to a new level.
[Note that this griddling method also works very well with english muffins that have been cut in half (rather than pulled open), something I first enjoyed at Braintree's Olympian Diner. You get one very crisp, buttery side leaving the rest of the muffin soft and warm.]
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Organization Tip: Label Printer
When I bought my Casio KL-2700 label printer, I did so only because it was languishing on the Staples clearance table. The price was right, but I really had nothing much to use it with — until, of course, I graduated from college and maintained my own kosher kitchen. Now, it’s indespensible — whenever we get a new kitchen gadget, pot, pan, or Gladware container, we slap on a custom-made “milchig,” “fleishig,” or “pareve” sticker. The Casio-brand labels stay on pretty well through regular washing and oven use. However, the Casio devices don’t have the best input interfaces, so I’d recommend a Brother device instead.
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Shabbat Rice Help!
So, say I want to serve warm rice at lunch on Shabbat. How do I do it without a) having chewy, dried-out rice or b) mushy, formless rice? Suggestions most welcome.
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Kosher Search Tip
When searching specifically for kosher products or recipes on Google, add -”kosher salt” to your query to decrease false positives.
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Pizza for a crowd?
I love making home-made pizza, and it’s especially fun serving it to guests. But for a party of about 20 people, I’m stumped over how to serve it without being chained in the kitchen preparing these things all night. Can I parbake my pizzas and keep them in the fridge, inconspicuously popping them in the oven throughout the evening? Can I roll out several pieces of dough, flour them well, and stack them up for later assembly? The appeal of crisp, hot homemade pizza is too good to pass up — anyone have experiences to share?
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Soy Milk with ease
From the Money Saving Tips Dept.: So you don’t waste an entire half-gallon carton of soy milk when your favorite pareve recipe calls for half-a-cup of it, buy convenient juice-box-size 3-packs. Our local Shaw’s has several appropriately-sized products in its earthy-crunchy organic section. Eden Soy may be the only pareve brand in this size, so watch out — “Dairy Equipment” products (like Silk) may not be eaten or cooked with meat products, though they may be eaten immediately after meat meals.
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“How Not to Kill People”
Before dinner last Saturday, I was talking with a couple of friends (you know you’re reading this) and the topic of kitchen safety came up. One of my friends mentioned that he had seen a report that said that the kitchen has gobs and gobs of bacteria and it’s a wonder why people aren’t getting sick all over the place. The three of us kind of laughed it off by saying that we are careful cooks and none of us had ever killed anyone yet (at least not through cooking), and that some level of bacterial exposure is useful for our immune systems. In reality, though, we should mention kitchen hygiene and food safety, so here goes.
We spend plenty of time talking about different foods and complements to those foods, but all of this is for naught if we end up killing our dinner guests. Tuesday’s New York Times (which always includes the coveted Science Times section) had a useful article meant to raise awareness of the effects of poor kitchen hygiene. The recommendations, which are called Fight Bac! and can also be found at the USDA, are as follows:1. CLEAN
Basically, wash your hands, utensils, counters, cookware, cutting boards, etc., when using them, especially between food items like raw meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and ready to eat items. Also wash fruits, vegetables, and especially melons and the like before cutting them to avoid contaminating the flesh from the skin.
2. SEPARATE
No, I’m not talking about fleishigs and milchigs. Avoid cross contamination between raw and ready to eat foods. This means not putting cooked food on platters or boards that have been used for raw foods, not using marinades that haven’t been boiled after holding raw foods, etc.
3. COOK
Please cook foods thoroughly. Most people do not use meat thermometers, although we pretty much all should have them. (Alas, I have one for most of the year, but have to wing it on Pesach.) It is important to cook food to the proper temperature.
4. CHILL
After cooking, you should store your leftovers (and not-made-yets) at the right temperature too. In general, it is recommended that your refrigerator be no warmer than 40 F (4 C) and the freezer should be no warmer than 0 F (-18 C). Keep foods either warm enough or cool enough, which means that warm foods should be chilled quickly for storage. Also, you should not defrost meats at room temperature — use the refrigerator or cold water.
I hope you find this helpful and are as successful as I have been at not killing people (at least with food).
(And in case you’re interested with where I got the title of this post: I was talking with a former college roommate of mine the other day about taking classes pass/fail (he’s in law school now and isn’t going to the class he’s taking pass/fail). I mentioned that some med schools (like perhaps this one) have pass/fail classes. His response was “That’s cool. No, wait, no it isn’t. Oh, well, I guess it is, as long as you don’t take ‘how not to kill people’ pass/fail.” Maybe you had to be there.)
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More Pesach Strategies
Some more thoughts on Pesach strategies:
* We have a wooden island in our kitchen which we use for food preparation and eating informal meals. For Pesach, we’ve purchased a 36″ x 48″ plexiglass sheet ($17) from Home Depot to cover the island’s surface, plus four clamps ($2.97/ea) to hold it in place. That way, we’ll have a sturdy, easy-to-clean work surface that we can use year after year.
* Rather than meticulously detailing your vehicle, we suggest buying a new car to rid yourself of pesky automotive chametz. I’ve just swapped my crumb-laden 1993 Ford Explorer for a 2004 Chevy Malibu. Better gas mileage, tighter turning radius, and ready-made Kosher for Passover.
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Do-It-Yourself Pesach Strategies
This year, we have the auspicious responsibility to host our family’s seders, as we’ll be the only ones with an entirely Kosher-for-Passover home. Since neither of us have ever done an honest-to-goodness, spic-and-span, soup-to-nuts Pesach on our own, we’re at the mercy of of our shul’s annual Pesach guide and Blu Greenberg’s How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household (a treasured gift from my high school Spanish teacher). Unfortunately, all the usual family guests will not be able to attend due to Pesach’s mid-week calendar appearance… fortunately, it makes our first do-it-yourself Passover a little easier to coordinate.
For one, we don’t have a huge dining room table (seats six comfortably). Plus, we don’t know how much of anything we need to buy, or exactly which pots, pans, and other utensils we’ll need. As such, we’re convinced we need to start out on the right foot this year to make life easier in the future. We’ve adopted the following strategies:
1. Detailed Inventory of All Passover Kitchenware
It’s hard to maneuver our one extra closet, so we’re assembling a detailed list of all our stuff, and we’ll keep track of how much we use each item and what additional items we might want for next year.
2. Detailed Inventory of All Passover Food
Slightly more elaborate is our food inventory. I’ve set up an Excel spreadsheet listing every Peasch foodstuff we purchase, where it was purchased, in what quantity, and for what price. After Pesach, I’ll add information on how much was actually used/enjoyed, to aid next year’s shopping.
3. Bargain Shopping
We bought quite a bit of our Passover kitchenware at Target last week, and tonight, I explored an old family favorite, Cirelli Foods of Middleborough (formerly of Brockton). Cirelli’s is a “foodservice distributor” which runs a wholesale store open to the public. My family has always used it for bulk party food and supplies but they also have a full line of (relatively inexpensive) commercial kitchen tools. I visited tonight with my mother to get Pesach supplies, and made out well with foil trays, plastic serving platters, heavy-duty plastic containers for freezing bulk food (brisket, chicken soup, etc.), salad tongs. For the rest of the year, they have great, bulk Kosher food products like cakes, pies, cookie dough, dairy and “non-dairy” items, egg substitute, snacks, soda, alcohol, fresh produce, condiments… perfect for large families, parties, barbeques… and without the traffic and membership fees of the mainstream Wholesale Clubs.
4. Pre-Preparation & Freezing
A week or two before the holiday, we’ll kasher our kitchen (not entirely sure how yet), and, with the help of our mothers, we’ll prepare in advance everything we can. Right now, it may just be all our chicken soup and brisket, but even that will help ease the pre-yomtov rush.
5. Chol HaMoed Shopping
One thing most people don’t seem to remember is that stores are open during Chol HaMoed. You don’t need to stock up like crazy before the holiday, because you can always run out for a box of Matzah should the need arise.
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