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…

• This is the weekend to bake your Shlissel-Challah.
• Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking is a great cookbook. I hope to have a full review up soon.
• Speaking of reviews, I have a lot to say about the aforementioned Passover by Design, and Susie Fishbein.
• September 7th, 2008 is the date for the 20th annual ASBEE/Kroger Kosher BBQ Competition.

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

I was glad that Dalton was well represented and well reviewed. That’s hardly a new development, but I remain a fan of most of their wines and recently attended a tasting run by Alex Haruni, Dalton’s owner. In addition to all of their single grape wines, which are great, I recommend the Alma, a Cab-Merlot blend, that I have had a few opportunities to try. It is a very drinkable wine that will certainly go well with anything on your seder table. I was also happy to see Galil’s Yiron ‘03 on the NYT list. I have loved the Yiron for the past few years, so I like to see it get good press.

I also recently attended the annual Kosher Wine Extravaganza at the Jewish Center on the Upper Westside, run by Gotham Wines & Liquors. As I mentioned to a number of people there, an event like that, with hundreds of wines, is too overwhelming to write about cogently. And then I misplaced my notes. Anyway, a few of the noteworthy wines were:
- Tabor’s Adama line: I won’t say that I loved these wines, but I think it’s great that an Israeli kosher wine is giving consumers the opportunity to taste and compare the effects of terroir on wine. The line features volcanic, chalk and clay soil, among others. From the few that I tasted, the differences were very dramatic. Of course, there are other factors that might explain this and I’ll allow for the gimmick factor, but I welcome this addition to the market
- Recanati Cabernet Franc: I wish I had my tasting notes for this. This wine was specifically recommended to me and I really enjoyed it. It’s 100% Cabernet Franc and may be the first such wine from Israel. For those who want to expose their palates to something a bit different, it’s worth picking up a bottle or two.
- Chateau Leoville Poyferre: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about French wines, but that is one of the great things about an event like this. I could taste a number of French (and fairly expensive) wines. The Leoville is already wonderful and will be great over the next several years.

If I find my notes, I will add to this post, but for now I leave you with these and wish you a chag sameach!

• a Duet of Bigeye Tuna. Seared and spiced and tartar. With hearts of palm, avocado and tomato vinaigrette.
• Grilled Turbot on Oyster Mushrooms, with Roasted Fish Jus.
• 5 Spice Braised Veal Tongue. Apple Parsnip Puree, Cubed Beet.
• Roasted Blank Angus Filet. Carrot Puree, Cipollini Onions, Red-Wine Beef Reduction.

Our desserts were made by Solo’s regular pastry chef, and were amazing as always. I had the Jack Daniel’s Mousse and my wife had the Sticky Toffee Pudding.

The food was absolutely amazing. We found each course perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. The accompaniments were too small to qualify as side-dishes, but their flavor always complemented the entree. Chef Huynh spent much of the evening coming around to tables, posing for photos and signing autographs. I’m not ashamed to say I got my menu signed.

One can only hope that other well known fine-dining chefs give Kosher consumers a chance to sample their cooking.

• Evan Levy from Danville,CA, Southwestern Potato Kugel
• Joy Devor from Far Rockaway, NY, Fantastic Flounder Rolls
• Joe Carver from Philadelphia, PA, Falafel Pizza
• Julie Hession from Las Vegas, NV, Beef Tenderloin with Marsala Mushroom Sauce
• Greg Fontenot from The Woodlands, TX, Chicken in Balsamic Cherry Sauce
• Tracy Rapp from Memphis, TN, Southern Smothered Burgers

The rules for the cookoff were simple:

Recipes must be developed for a main course or soup, must be original, must be Kosher, must include at least one Manischewitz product and have no more than a total of eight ingredients, including any garnish (water, plain salt and pepper are not counted). Recipes may not include any branded products as ingredients which are competitive with Manischewitz products (including but not limited to Streits, Golds, Muellers and Pennsylvania Dutch). All ingredients must be listed, together with exact flavors/measurements/weights (in standard U.S. measurements). Complete preparation instructions must be given including specific types and sizes of any cooking equipment used. Recipe must be for an easy-to-make dish, able to be completely prepared and ready to serve in no more than one hour. Each recipe must be an original recipe, created by entrant that has not previously been published nor won a prize or award.

Got that? The contestants had 1 hour to prepare their dishes, followed by presentation to the judges. The winner was Joy Devor, a housewife and substitute teacher from Far Rockaway, NY. It was a busy week for her - her daughter got married 3 days earlier.

I’m going to attempt to predict some of your questions:

• I didn’t get taste all of the entries. There was a catered fleishig lunch, so by the time the entries were done, I couldn’t try them all. The ones I tasted were quite good.
• 2 of the contestants weren’t even Jewish. Julie and Greg. So what? Last year’s winner wasn’t Jewish either.
• Yes, many Manischewitz products are sodium laden, and have trans-fats in them. The winning entry was primarily stuffed with Tam-Tams (a big trans-fat offender). Understandably, no one mentioned it, although Evan sheepishly admitted to me that he had no idea the potato latke mix had trans-fats, and that at home he makes the whole recipe from scratch.
• Julie’s recipe was made with sliced prime-rib, not tenderloin.
• Everything was Bishul Yisroel. Rabbi Chaim lit all the ovens and burners. He was also responsible for making sure that the dishes were served from Dairy to Pareve to Fleishig, for the Kosher judges. And sharp cheeses were replaced with less-sharp cheese, so that the Kosher judges wouldn’t have to wait six hours.

Manischewitz products may not be the best that kosher food has to offer, but they have an important place in the kosher food landscape. And I’m still planning on entering this contest, one of these days. I just haven’t come up with my perfect recipe yet. You can see my pictures from the event here.

For those who have not yet tasted their wines, Domaine du Castel is doing great work that has been recognized globally. Robert Parker recently did a survey of Israeli wines (both kosher and non-) and the wines did very well, with many scores in the 80s and 90s. (articles: Israel21c; HaKerem 1, 2). Of course, the value of objective numeric scores for wine is highly debatable and Robert Parker has been at the head of that controversy since he started publishing Wine Advocate. The point, though, is that Israeli wines are increasingly on the world wine map and that can only be a good thing for quality.

I will hopefully have the time soon to write up my notes from the recent Galil Mountain Winery tasting that I attended as part of the Kosher Wine Society. They remain some of my favorite Israeli wines.

I look forward to the upcoming Pesach wine articles and events and will post what I can.

First, came the article about Ilan Hall (winner of the 2nd season), facing off against the executive chef of the University of Michigan Hillel, Emil Bloch, in a “Dorm Room Challenge“. After a little searching, and I found that this wasn’t Ilan’s first time cooking for a Hillel event. In April 2007, he was at the Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern University, cooking for the students. To be honest, I didn’t like him very much as a contestant, but I think that doing these sort of events is a really nice gesture.

Next, the New York Times is reporting that Hung Huynh, the winner of the Top Chef title in the 3rd season, will be doing a one month stint as the executive chef at restaurant Solo in NY, starting March 2nd. You may recall the KosherBlog review of Solo, after KosherFest 2006. I’m making my reservation now….

• On February 27th, I’ll be attending (and reporting on) the Manischewitz Simply Kosher Cookoff finals in NYC.
• The deadline for the OU Kosher Essay Contest is March 7th
• The leap-month gives us some extra time to prepare, but Purim is coming! (March 21st) I hope to get at least a few Purim-food posts up.
• Save the date! The 20th Annual ASBEE/Kroger BBQ Competition will be on Sunday, September 7th. Can we get a KosherBlog delegation?

That’s all I have for now. To keep things lively, here’s a question: Hamentashen are the definitive Purim food (IMHO). What foods do you consider integral to the holiday? And I specified “foods” - not “refreshments”. And no “but it’s made from grains” objections.

Among the suggested topics in the essay contest are: describing your favorite OU certified candy, snack, food or drink; how eating kosher makes you feel better about being Jewish; writing a letter to a non-observant friend about keeping kosher; describing the kosher experience of walking the supermarket aisle; and how someone stranded in Montana can eat while keeping kosher. Applicants can also make up their own topic. Prizes will be $50 gift certificates to Eichlers.com, a leading Judaica website.

To avoid the apparently inevitable “my hashgacha can beat up your hashgacha” conversation, I remind you that Kosher Blog recommends that you check with your local rabbi regarding any questions about appropriate kashrut. This, in my opinion, is not the appropriate forum for that discussion, since such decisions are not universally applicable and we prefer to avoid the lashon harah that often accompany these arguments.