Displaying My Barbecuing Skills

My wife who, among a few other cyberspace activities, manages Kosher Cooking Carnival (here's the latest), found some lamb chops I bought almost a year ago while going through the freezer.  But Pesach is in a fortnight and so, everything that is chametz or from last year's hechsher is deemed as "to-be-eaten-or-otherwise-disposed-of" which means they have to be cooked.

So, she challeneged me to display my skills at the barbecue.

Here I am:-

(photo credit: Batya Medad)

Will let you know how they turned out.

Maybe my wife will, too.

^

Definitely Not Kosher

Found a question, not very kohser but with a good ending:-

Q. After two years of endless nagging, my kosher boyfriend has finally decided to come over to the dark side and, at least for one night, temporarily abandon his dietary restraint. Can you recommend a moderately priced place that serves such good pork and shellfish dishes that he’ll convert permanently?

Oh no.

Can any good come out of this?

Let's read the answer:

A. Great food can change minds and alter people’s lives for the better, it’s true. But so can faith, for those who have it. Helping you use food to persuade someone to abandon his religious principles cannot end well for me. (Nor for him, if his mother finds out.) The laws of kashrut are clear: No pork. No shellfish.

And so I cannot possibly recommend a visit to Momofuku Ssam Bar, where those two banned proteins often combine into Korean-inflected Continental deliciousness, and where a fellow might be introduced to the pleasures of cured hog’s jowl, served with Honeycrisp apple kimchi and a Lebanese yogurt cut with maple syrup.

Nor could I nod to the Spanish-style Casa Mono, where you can find a delicious chilled lobster with ham (a combination the great Calvin Trillin would call a double-trayf special). For you there can be no suckling pig at the Italian gem Maialino or pig’s trotter at the British pub the Breslin or barbecued oysters at the American bistro Marc Forgione in TriBeCa or clams in black bean sauce at the terrific Oriental Garden in Chinatown.

That said, if you want to skate close to the edge, where the ice is thin and crackly, Chinese is probably your best bet. As my hero Arthur Schwartz, formerly the restaurant critic for The Daily News and author of “Jewish Home Cooking,” put it: “The Chinese cut their food into small pieces before it is cooked, disguising the nonkosher foods. This last aspect seems silly, but it is a serious point. My late cousin Daniel, who kept kosher, along with many other otherwise observant people I have known, happily ate roast pork fried rice and egg foo yung. ‘What I can’t see won’t hurt me,’ was Danny’s attitude.”

But proceed with caution. The Torah calls Jews a holy people and prescribes for them a holy diet. If they choose to abandon it, so be it. But you ever argue with a rabbi? I’m not meshuga. Take this boy to the Prime Grill for a kosher steak and tell him you love him.

There's hope yet.

A Disappointment: A Cookbook With A Bitter Taste

My wife, among her several blogs, started off the Kosher Cooking Carnival.

So, when I spotted this title (here)

The Settler's Cookbook

I figured one of our number (there are over 300,000 of us in Judea & Samaria and another 200,00 in East Jerusalem neighborhoods which the Arabs, et al. consider to be disputed as well), although my term for a civilian Jewish resident in a community in Judea and Samaria is revenant, was making a culinary contribution to the world.

However, it turns out that the author is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

And she's quite political. Here she comments on Gaza, writing:

So that’s that then is it? Gaza is done and dusted? Very satisfying, I’m sure, for the Israeli leadership and their devoted allies at the BBC.

And why does she use the term "settler"? Here -

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s family history is one of constant displacement and repeated relocation, in which the feeling of being settled has come not from putting down roots, but from taking up a pot and creating a feast that tastes and smells like home.

Well, my wife can comment on the recipes, but I'd just like to say that I am not a "settler" because I have come home, land of my fathers and mothers, where my kings, priests, prophets and heroes walked and achieved deeds of religion, culture, philosophy, morality and economic values.

Yasmin's food might taste good, but her politics leave a bitter taste in my mouth.


P.S. She's also known as Yazzmonster