Acceptable vs non-acceptable hecshers

In order for something to be kosher, it has to have a hecsher, or "kosher approval" stamp, on it.


The gold standard:



Also acceptable:




But, beware the somewhat questionable:

Brief Interviews With Hideous Recipes

Dahl and paneer, courtesy of Mrigaa Sethi.

Dahl
Directions
Boil some dahl (lentils) and water (roughly 1:3 ratio) with turmeric and salt, and once it's turned into a nice loose porridge-like consistency, after about 15-20 minutes, heating ghee, cumin, garlic, and hot paprika in a small pan and tossing it over the dahl makes the whole thing BLOOM! Et voila. Eat with rice and yogurt (see if you can find an organic brand, without stabilizers), and you have a delicious, quick, and protein-rich meal.

Paneer
Directions
You'll need a cheesecloth, and you can find one easily at most food stores. Make sure it's a fine mesh, not one with giant holes.

Bring your desired volume of whole milk (half-gallon? quarter-gallon?) to a slow boil, and as it begins to rise, pour two tablespoons of vinegar into it. The milk and the whey will begin to separate immediately.

Add another tablespoon of vinegar if you think you need to -- eyeballing is a valuable skill in all cooking! -- and once you have this fluffy, beautiful white stuff, drain it into your cheese cloth, squeeze out the water, and wash out the vinegar. This is paneer.

You can cook the paneer as-is, with cumin, turmeric, triumvirate of spices, chopped onions and tomatoes.

If you want a block of paneer instead, tie up the cheese cloth tight and place a weight (I use a pot full of water) on it. In two or three hours, you'll have a solid brick.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men No. 1

My father used to say that only in India would people understand why, if you put a little bit of cheese into an enormous vat of meat, you have to throw the whole thing away. It's because the country's Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Muslims get the concept of religiously-mandated eating. Also helpful: so much Indian food adheres to the regulations of kashrut. And given the recent opening of a fleishik Indian restaurant in Teaneck, not to mention the many vegan yogurts and milk products that make it possible to cook chicken tikka masala, it seems that kosher Indian food is having a bit of a renaissance.

To that end, I interviewed Mrigaa Sethi, a cook, writer, and teacher who grew up in India and Thailand. Mrigaa came to the U.S. for college, and presently lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She holds degrees from Emerson College and the M.F.A. program at New York University, and she is one hell of a cook. Lucky for us, she shared tips about cooking Indian food with ease and a few of her favorite recipes. This is part 1 of 2 installments.

Who taught you to cook?

My mother, of course! Though if you ask her, she'll say having me in the kitchen still makes her crazy! She gets anxious watching me wield a knife with my left hand!

Seriously, though, at home I was never expected to learn these things -- none of that "you must learn to cook for your husband" stuff. But after a year away at college in America, trekking out in the snow for mediocre $13 curries, I came home and seemed to pick up my basics in just a couple of months. These days my mother imparts recipes and ideas over the phone, or even via G-chat.

Can you could suggest some typical and simple Indian recipes?

There is an impression out there that Indian food is laborious and technically complicated, but it's not -- unless you hate chopping vegetables.

It doesn't get any more basic than dahl (lentil soup). It's the anchor of every meal. In India, dahl is even used as a symbol of any kind of food, a la "All I want in life is dahl and roti and someone to love." The yellow (split mung) dahl is easy, versatile, and absurdly flavourful.



My other answer is paneer (or Indian "cottage cheese" -- it's only the appearance that's similar, so don't substitute). People recognize paneer from restaurants, but it's possibly even easier to make than dahl.



Top three ingredients any amateur cook of Indian food needs in her kitchen.

I could write a whole cookbook around the blessed triumvirate of cumin (zeera), turmeric (haldi), and hot paprika (deghi mirch) -- if you don't want the whole thing turning bright red, however, replace with coarsely ground red chili powder. I'm still amazed at the range of flavours and dishes these spices are able to churn out. They really enhance the individual properties of whatever produce you're working with.

Technically speaking, is there anything absolutely vital to do when preparing Indian food? I've read that sauteeing the spices separately, then adding to the main dish, is key. True?

That's a great tip!

Have you got others?

1. Grind your own garam masala. Super easy in a coffee grinder -- just clean it out by grinding stale bread before and after, and wiping down with a damp cloth.

2. Sometimes my mother toasts cumin seeds until they're nearly black (tread with caution!) and grinds them coarsely (with a rolling pin, say).

3. Add a generous sprinkle of toasted cumin to some beaten yogurt with grated cucumbers and salt. Homemade raita -- a savory yogurt, with variations (cucumbers, boiled potatoes, onions and tomatoes), added to one's plate at the table.

3. After-you-turn-off-the-stove additions: cilantro, green chillies (get the tiny, short, bird-beak looking ones from an Asian market), or even a teaspoon of vinegar, in some cases.

The Terrors and Pleasures of Kashrut Certification

Check it. http://www.kashrut.com/Alerts/ has an ongoing list, culled from rabbis around the world, about incorrectly labeled products. Some are milk, though labeled parve. Some are non-kosher, though labeled kosher (hekshered).

A sample:

Due to recent changes, only several Maalox products remain OU certified. Check packaging before purchasing.

Williams-Sonoma Chipotle Almonds and Williams-Sonoma Sweet Spiced Pecans, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. San Francisco, CA contain dairy ingredients as listed on the ingredient panel but the dairy designation has been inadvertently omitted. Future packaging will be revised.

And you thought your life was complicated. Bet you never considered that Maalox could be non-kosher.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

The title of this post comes from a David Foster Wallace collection of short stories, which in early 2009 John Krasinski transformed into what seems to have been a relatively crappy movie.

It's been said before, but I'll say it again: Wallace was a genius. His essay, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" -- the title piece of his 1998 essay collection -- fundamentally transformed my approach to journalism.

Anyway, he killed himself in September of 2008, shocking the hell out of me and everyone I know.

In his honor, I'm incorporating a new feature to What Is This Kosher... Interviews with people cooking, brewing, shopping innovative kosher foods. They are not at all hideous, and they are not all men. First installment should be up this week.

Fresh Food and the Law

Not totally Jewish-related, but all farmer's markets in New York will now accept WIC. WIC, which stands for the Women, Infants and Children program, defines its mission as providing grants "for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk."

New York is the first state in the nation to make the change. Previously, recipients could only put $20 per year toward farmer's markets.

I'm all about the farmer's markets -- as previously discussed, the farmer's market at Steamboat Landing is one of the best things about Ithaca. But if I can't afford to shop New York's farmer's markets regularly -- and if I'm in pretty good company -- I'm not sure how anybody on WIC is going to swing it. The milk's delicious, but I mean, it's $8 a quart. At that price, you start to feel guilty for putting it in your coffee. I can barely deal as it is with Harlem prices, where organic milk goes for $5.49 for a half-gallon. Is it that much better for you? Or the cow?

The new legislation, signed in to law by David "I didn't sign up for this" Paterson, opens up a whole debate about the extent of freedom of choice to which people receiving government money are entitled. Theoretically, I'm for greater choice. But in this case, should we focus more on encouraging good nutrition and stocking supermarkets in low-income areas with fresh, affordable food, than on granting universal access to hydroponically-grown kale?

Gross non-kosher organic materials in our food supply, No. 1

Oh, hello! I'm Dactylopius coccus Costa, but my friends call me cochineal, or carmine for short. You might recognize me from such places as:





Circa 1980. Sources now tell me that m&ms are, in fact, kosher.

Who knows from this parve?

Parve. Merriam-Webster defines it as "made without milk, meat, or their derivatives." Meaning, it counts as neither meat -- a.k.a. fleishik -- or milk -- a.k.a. milchik. Parve is my best friend, the ultimate loophole.



So, OK, what's parve? There's the obvious: vegetables, fruit, grains (like pasta), juice, alcohol.

Then there are the foods that will trick you. The ones that, logically speaking, should be meat, but that are, in fact, parve: fish and eggs.


*Note: Mexican walking fish not actually kosher*

And then there ones that masquerade as milk, but that are parve, too: mayonnaise, margarine, all soy "milk" products, like yogurt, milk, and cheese.

The concept of parve is vital because anything that you make with parve ingredients can be served with either a meat OR a milk meal.

For instance:

• Mashed potatoes made with margarine - can be served alongside steak, brisket, roast chicken, etc
• Soy margarine or yogurt that takes the place of butter or buttermilk in baking, so you can serve cornbread (or whatever) with meat chili
• Dark chocolate (check to be sure). Melted, it can be mixed with parve margarine, flour and egg whites to make a delicious fondant - an amazing, loophole-to-end-all-loopholes dessert to follow a meat meal

Parve is generally denoted by a P on food products. If you don't care about the heksher, then check the ingredients yourself. Kind of amazing what you'll find -- like cochineal, a nice way of referring to the red bugs from whence red M&Ms get their color.

Macromamas' tasty treats

So I've got to give a shout out to the Ithaca-based Macromamas, which is hands-down the most delicious hippie food I've ever eaten. Totally macro, totally vegetarian, totally kosher.
The peanut lime noodles can't be beat. The recipe is secret, but here is what I've been able to piece together. I need to work a bit more on the proportions, but this should work:

Several pounds soba noodles, preferably whole wheat
3 tbs Peanut butter (smooth, not chunky; whatever kind of natural, organic brand suits your fancy)
2 tbs pickled ginger, finely chopped
2 tbs lime juice
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 tbs chili sauce
2 tbs sesame oil
3 carrots, grated
3 scallions, green parts only, finely cut
1 bunch parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. Combine wet ingredients, add to noodles. Then add carrots, scallions, and parsley. DEVOUR.