Kosher Cooking in Season: The 1 Ingredient for a Perfect Passover

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil is kosher and delicious for Passover and every other day of the year

By: LAURA FRANKEL

One sure sign that spring has sprung is the plethora of Passover products that start appearing on grocery store shelves. Each year I look forward to checking out what new foodstuffs have been invented. Usually these products are meant to counterfeit their non-Passover counterparts. Each year I hold my own personal contest to see what the strangest and most Passover-y thing will be. Last year I was thrilled and simultaneously disgusted by Passover soy sauce. I saved the bottle and put it in my cabinet just to remind myself of how scary things sometimes are in the world of food.

Well, that soy sauce is so last year. I found something that trumps all the ersatz foods out there. The new crop of Passover substitutes includes a product called Mac & Cheez. There is neither Mac (pasta) even of the Passover kind nor is there any cheese or Cheez. The product is pareve and the pasta is made from tapioca. It is nutritionally empty; there is not one vitamin in it. I bought a box and put it right next to my soy sauce and there it shall stay as a reminder of how bad faux food can get.

On the other hand, there is something really great that we can use for Passover. It is delicious, all natural, minimally processed available at just about every supermarket in the country. I’m talking about extra virgin olive oil. According to the OU (Orthodox Union), all extra virgin olive oil is kosher all year round and that includes Passover. So, the savvy Passover shopper is buying great olive oil this year.

Olive oil is the fruit oil obtained from the olive. Commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, soaps and fuel for lamps, olive oil is grown and used throughout the world but especially in the Mediterranean.

Olive oil is produced by grinding or crushing and extracting the oil. A green olive produces bitter oil and an overripe olive produces rancid oil. For great extra virgin olive oil it is essential to have olives that are perfectly ripened.

Purchasing olive oil and knowing how to use it can be confusing. Add to that, the kashrut factor and it is no wonder that consumers and home cooks are bewildered by the array of products on supermarket and specialty market shelves.

Using Olive Oil

Here is a summary of olive oils and their uses:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

This oil comes from virgin oil production only and contains no more than 0.8% acidity. Extra virgin olive oil accounts for less than 10% of oil in many oil producing countries. The superior fruity flavor makes this oil best used for vinaigrettes, drizzling on soups and pastas for added richness and a fruity taste for dipping breads and vegetables. Extra virgin olive oil does not require hashgacha or supervision from a kosher authority (even for Pesach) as it is cold pressed.

Virgin Olive Oil

This only comes from virgin oil production only and has an acidity less than 2%. This oil is best used for sautéing and for making vinaigrettes. It is generally not as expensive as the extra virgin olive oil but has a good taste. Virgin olive oil requires kosher supervision to be considered kosher.

Pure Olive Oil

Oils labeled as Pure olive oil or Olive oil are usually a blend of refined and virgin production oil. This oil is perfect for sautéing. It does not have a strong flavor and can be used for making aiolis and cooking. Pure olive oil requires kosher supervision to be considered kosher.

Extra virgin olive oil is the highest quality olive oil. It is typically more expensive than other olive oils. Extra virgin olive oil is not typically recommended for high heat cooking. Every oil has its smoke point. A smoke point refers to the heat temperature at which the oil begins to break down and degrade. An oil that is above its smoke point not only has nutritional and flavor degradation but can also reach a flash point where combustion can occur. You can observe this when you have a very hot pan and hot oil and food are added to the pan and they produce a bluish and acrid smelling smoke or worse yet, catch fire.

Extra virgin olive oil has a very low smoke point of 375. I use my best extra virgin olive oil for making vinaigrettes, adding luxurious fruity flavor to pasta dishes, garnishing foods and dipping breads. When I am high heat sautéing or frying, I tend to reach for pure olive oil or a different type of oil.

Buying Olive Oil

Extra virgin olive oil has a long list of health benefits from reducing coronary artery disease, cholesterol regulation and possibly reducing risk of certain cancers. This makes the decision for using extra virgin olive oil a no-brainer.

The bigger decision is which oil to buy. Most of the world’s extra virgin olive oil comes from the southern Mediterranean countries. I favor an organic, unfiltered Spanish oil. I also like estate grown products as I know that a farmer fretted over the olives and the weather. Many mass produced oils are made not from a single source or farm and the flavor can be uneven and harsh.

When cooking for Passover and for every meal, I recommend whole, natural ingredients. I never go to the dark side of cooking with products that are loaded with laboratory made ingredients and faux flavors or colors. For this holiday and everyday—let’s keep it real.

Recipes:

Poached Halibut in Olive Oil

Parsley sauce with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Chocolate Mousse with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Go to the Kosher.com Ultimate Passover Guide

Go to Kosher.com for all your Passover Shopping

Author Bio:

- LAURA FRANKEL is the former chef and founder of the Shallots restaurants. Frankel has training and extensive experience in both savory and pastry kitchens. After Frankel had a family and began maintaining a kosher home she found that there was nowhere in Chicago serving the quality of food that she knew she could offer. She opened her first restaurant in 1999 offering kosher fine dining with a produce-driven menu. Frankel opened Shallots NY in 2000 in midtown Manhattan. – Read more…

Tampering with Traditional Fare

Quick & Kosher

I sometimes—ok, often—envy my friends who cook daring, exotic dishes and throw crazy things like fruit into veggie salads. Innovative stuff like that doesn’t go over so well in my house. I can prepare it, but Hubby will stare down at the unfamiliar thing on his plate with suspicious distaste. He’s a creature of habit, even more so a creature of tradition. Not only does he want to eat the same things, he wants it prepared in the most traditional way.  To him, it’s not really Shabbos without classic gefilte fish and chicken soup.  And even when its 99 degrees outside, steaming hot chulent and potato kugel better be on the menu.

Defending this bias with his favorite phrase “well, that’s how I had it growing up …” he will insist on chopped liver, even when there are a dozen other sides on the table.  Garden salad should be served sans dressing, with multiple bottled dressings standing alongside the salad bowl ‘cuz, “that’s how I had it growing up …”  (Never mind that when I was growing up, bottles on the table were worse than elbows.)  Even the salad itself should be boring, made with iceberg lettuce.  ICEBERG!  No colorful fruit slices, exotic greens, toasted nuts, or onions of any color except white, in this nostalgic salad of his childhood.

Listen, I will gladly love and honor  Hubby forever, but I go off when he begs for gefilte fish out of a jar, because “……”  You know.  Granted, he prefers my homemade version—as long as it’s plated exactly the same way as it was when he was growing up—but those jellied fishballs are his unerring default.  To tell the truth, I developed my own addiction to the taste—especially to the jelly itself—but eventually it seemed just too easy.  My grandmother probably went fishing for the carp herself , or whatever fish you use to make gefilte fish from scratch; how can I just open a jar?  Yet when I was a new bride—and all thumbs in the kitchen—I stocked up on this wondrous stuff, knowing that it could last unrefrigerated in my pantry until our 50^th wedding anniversary.  When friends and relatives would come over to our apartment, Hubby would say, “You have to see this,” and show off our cupboard filled like an aquarium with jars of gefilte fish.  Go figure.

But ever since I learned to cook, I got restless. More than restless; I got gutsy. I wanna try new tastes, new ingredients, unusual combinations.  So in this blog, I’m primed to tamper with tradition.  I love to explore genuine ethnic influences—Asian, Latin American, Italian, Middle Eastern, anything not Brooklyn.

Yes, you are my excuse to try out funky foods! Whenever I want to prepare something exciting, I tell Hubby I’m kitchen-testing it for the blog. It’s not that he won’t eat it: he’ll dutifully down the new cuisine with a smile on his face and even say something encouraging, like, “People out there will LOVE this!”  But he’s not fooling me.  I know he’d rather be eating a good ol’ burger and fries.

So let’s have some fun.  Here are recipes that take conventional fare—and add a few surprises!

Fish Bites/Fish Fusilli – Gefilte fish overhauled with feta cheese and fresh thyme.  These two videos show you how to turn it into an appealing dairy finger food for a party, or into a novel Italian dinner.

Fish Bites

Fusilli

Beef Sukiyaki with Noodles – the name says it all!  As far from standard kosher cooking as you can get.  Bring it on!

Mustard and Ginger Salmon – Even someone who’s been eating canned tuna every day for 15 years will go for this.  Incredible proteins, and those heart-healthy omega-3’s make eating fish a good lifelong habit.  This dish can be the first step to turning your kids on to fresh fish because it’s so tasty.  My four-year-old always coos, “Mommy, I love salmon and its soooooo healthy for you.”  OK, she’s imitating me—maybe even mocking me in her toddler way—but I’ll take this kind of nachas any day.

For a special Shabbos treat, try California Avocado Salad. Even my conventional Hubby loves this—providing I take out the onions, hearts of palm, tomatoes, and sesame oil.  Ah, now it’s just the way he had it when he was growing up …  But I love the full recipe and it’s a huge hit with guests. My neighbor, Adina Mulbauer, tosses in edamame (Japanese soybeans), which is a genius idea.  She buys them frozen and defrosts them in her microwave before adding them to the mix.

Time to Share

BTW, if you have any recipes for fabulous foolproof classics, I want them—for Hubby, of course. And if you have any funky fresh new dishes, I want them also—for me! Click this link and upload your own recipes—as many as you want.

Online Kosher: A Brave New World

Earlier this month, an article of mine talking about the amazing changes that have come about in online kosher food circles was featured in the Jewish Press.  Even in the brief time since I published Quick & Kosher – Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing in 2007, there has been a revolution in the way people cook, eat and learn about food. Food is now online.  But I have to say, I’m not really surprised. The Web has widened people’s horizons in all kinds of ways, why not food? With so much out there, though, it’s hard to know what’s what. As demand for reliable info has grown, online stores like Kosher.com have become lifestyle destinations. Websites are the new gatekeepers of kosher cooking, filling a role that was once the exclusive domain of bubbies and, later, kosher cookbooks. Now I know some argue that these changes will be “bad for the Jews,” but  I believe that the Internet will actually help us keep traditions while moving us forward into an exciting and tasty future.

If you haven’t seen the article, I hope you’ll check it out. You can find the article here.

What do you think? How has the Web changed the way you cook and eat?

December 25th Brunch with an Asian Kick

Quick & Kosher

Stuck for something to do this December 25th? Why not host an Asian-inspired brunch.

Chinese food and a movie are popular December 25th diversions. Instead of filling up on take out, make more of an occasion out of it by hosting an Asian-inspired brunch. Here are 5 recipes (plus dessert) to get you started. (If these don’t strike your fancy, there are plenty more on Kosher.com. Just search for the term “Asian.”)

Asian Shiitake Mushroom Soup

Asian Cabbage Salad with Garlic Sesame Dressing

Pepper Steak

Szechuan Braised Meatballs

Vegetable Fried Rice

For dessert try  fortune cookies, some parve coconut or mango sorbet or Honey Sweet Apple-Mango Cobbler.

How do you spend December 25th?

Grateful Chanukah Wishes from Our Soldiers in Iraq

Kosher.com sent some Chanukah care packages to soldiers serving in Iraq and we received this lovely note and some awesome pics.

Here’s what Staff Sergeant Xhevair Maskuli had to say …

Thank you!!!!

We all loved the goodies you sent.
The Challahs traveled very well, everyone was a huge fan.
The Ruggallah was another huge hit, as well as the Giant uncut Rugallahs.
We still haven’t dug into the Honey loaf and the Kokash, but they both look delicious.
The cookies got slightly crushed but were still nice.

I will send more photos when we get them.
Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
You really made our holiday here in Baghdad.

Sincerely,

SSG Xhevair Maskuli

Ultimate Kosher Thanksgiving Guide on Kosher.com

Kosher.com Dishes the Dirt on Thanksgiving

Need help with Thanksgiving? Our guide shows you how to shop and cook for the ultimate kosher Thanksgiving celebration.

Check out the Ultimate Kosher Thanksgiving Guide

Read our Kosher Turkey Buying Guide

Get Cooking Tips for the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal

Learn How to Deep Fry a Kosher Turkey

Plus, try these menus:

Kosher Cooking in Season Thanksgiving Menu

Quick & Kosher Thanksgiving Menu

Southern Style Kosher Thanksgiving Menu

It’s not too late to win a $250 shopping spree in the Kosher.com video contest.  Enter now >>>

The 18th NCSY Auction Sings Its Way Into Your Heart in a New Video

The grand prize for this year’s 18th Annual NCSY Auction is a year of free food delivered right to your door from Kosher.com, a $12,000 value. Read more …

Watch the fellas from NCSY sing (and dance) their way into your heart in this hilarious video.

In addition to the Grand Prize, there is also a Platinum Prize and sixty other great prizes that make up the main auction. The drawing will be held on Saturday Night, December 5 at Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, and will feature a hot meat buffet, live music, and interactive prize tables. For cost and ticket information and information about these events, or to place a bid, go to www.ncsyauction.com or call 516.569.6279.

Kosherfest: Discovering Stern’s Bakery

Check out this video of my visit with the great folks from Stern’s Bakery at Kosherfest 2009. They’ve been baking fabulous breads and treats since 1954. The vanilla rugelach were really yummy! Watch now …

Kosher.com Donates a Year’s Worth of Free Kosher Groceries to NCSY’s 18th Annual Chinese Auction

Kosher.com Donates a Year’s Worth of Free Kosher Groceries to NCSY’s 18th Annual Chinese Auction

Grand Prize Winner to Receive Shopping Spree Worth $12,000 at the World’s Largest Online Kosher Supermarket

Cedarhurst, NY – - November 17, 2009 – Kosher.com, the world’s largest online kosher supermarket, will be providing the Grand Prize at NCSY’s 18th Annual Chinese Auction, it was announced today. The Grand Prize winner will be able to shop online at kosher.com and receive a year’s worth of free kosher groceries, delivered to their door, valued at $12,000. The drawing will take place on Saturday Night, December 5, 2009 at Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, with tickets on sale throughout the month of November.

In light of today’s challenging economic times, the items at this year’s auction are affordable necessities crucial to the Jewish family, as opposed to the luxury items that were auctioned off in years past. Given this theme, Kosher.com was a natural fit, as kosher food is the bedrock of the Jewish home and family.

“We are excited and thrilled to play such a significant part in NCSY’s 18th Annual Chinese Auction by providing this year’s Grand Prize,” said Jamie Geller, CMO of Kosher.com. “Our site is the ultimate destination for all your kosher food needs. We have a full service butcher department, fresh bakery, and prepared foods alongside everyday groceries and our prices are supermarket competitive. While most people still need to shop at many different stores in order to get all their kosher food items, at Kosher.com, we have over 15,000 items available for purchase with just a click of the mouse. And, with free delivery in the New York Metro Area, including parts of New Jersey, and FedEx delivery nationwide, there really is no easier, more cost effective way to buy kosher groceries!”

“Kosher.com’s mission is to deliver kosher food to everybody everywhere and NCSY’s mission is to bring the concept of kosher food to everybody,” said Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, Regional Director of New York NCSY. “NCSY reaches out to people everywhere, bringing them closer to Judaism and making it easier for them to do everything from keeping kosher to observing the Sabbath. We teach the importance of keeping kosher always, in the home, outside the home, on the college and high school campus, and on vacation. But while it’s easy to preach in our backyard, it’s particularly challenging for teenagers and college students to keep kosher in those far-flung locations. The Kosher.com grand prize is a fantastic Grand Prize, and it helps us accomplish our goal of helping people observe a kosher, Jewish lifestyle.”

In addition to providing the Grand Prize, Kosher.com will be lending NCSY its14′ tall shopping cart, to promote the upcoming auction. The giant shopping cart on wheels features a V8 engine, steering wheel and pedals accessed from a child’s seat that can hold three adults. The overgrown shopping cart measures 7′ wide, 16′ long and 14′ tall, and will be helping NCSY Auction organizers sell tickets in Brooklyn on Sunday, November 22 from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. on the corner of Avenue J and Coney Island Avenue.

About Kosher.com
The new Kosher.com features over a dozen departments offering more than 15,000 kosher products for delivery, with more products being added daily. The site serves as the only ultimate destination for the best kosher has to offer, coupled with a wide variety of kosher recipes, kosher cooking tips, content and multimedia that are highly informative and helpful for the kosher consumer. Focused on the U.S. Market, Kosher.com offers nationwide delivery via FedEx as well as free delivery in Manhattan, Riverdale, Washington Heights, Brownstone Brooklyn, Bergen County and surrounding communities, with plans to expand its free delivery service to customers in Connecticut and beyond. More information is available at http://www.Kosher.com.

About NCSY 18th Annual Chinese Auction
The grand prize for this year’s auction is a year of free food delivered right to your door from Kosher.com, a $12,000 value. In addition to the Grand Prize, there is also a Platinum Prize and sixty other great prizes that make up the main auction. The drawing will be held on Saturday Night, December 5 at Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, and will feature a hot meat buffet, live music, and interactive prize tables. There will also be viewing nights, where people can see the prizes and bid, in West Hempstead, New Rochelle, Queens, and the Five Towns throughout the month of November. Tickets can be purchased and items can be bid on by mail, fax, phone and online, at a viewing night, or at the main event. For cost and ticket information and information about these events, or to place a bid, go to www.ncsyauction.com or call 516.569.6279.

This Week on Kosher.com …

	Fresh or frozen turkey this Thanksgiving? Here’s what you need to know about kosher turkey buying.
	Cooking Kosher on a Budget shows you 10 rules for saving money on your weekly grocery bill.
	The return of cold weather begs for cozy comfort foods. Nutritious Delicious and Kosher expert, Bonnie Taub-Dix, offers 6 tips that show you how to keep warm with out packing on the pounds.
	In Your Kosher Questions Answered, author and challah expert, Tamar Ansh, offers her techniques for getting that fresh taste right out of your freezer.
Plus, try these recipes:
	Honey and citrus flavors provide a note of contrast in North African Spiced Turkey with Avocado-Grapefruit Relish
	Pair turkey cutlets with roasted fennel and a rich pomegranate pan sauce for a simple, yet elegant, dish. Serve with a nutty-tasting bulgur pilaf for a delightful meal.