Kosher Blog

Jerusalem Pita Menu

Download PDF of Jerusalem Pita Menu.

Please refer to original posting for comments.

Night Five: The Dough-Nu-Matic

On night five, I took out my automatic donut machine (Doesn’t everyone have one?) and worked on it until my results were just right. I think that they came out very nice:

I don’t know if this is the slowest donut machine ever, since I haven’t taken a thorough survey, but it takes 72 seconds between donuts. See the machine in action, here. Seventy-two seconds per doughnut, and the manual says that the included recipes make about 18-dozen donuts. That’s 4 hours and 20 minutes to finish a batter recipe. Whoa!

And if you’re wondering what happened to night four - I was recovering from consuming too much fried foods on nights one through three.

Night Three: Vegetable Pakoras and Dreidel Chips

* 1 cup chickpea flour
* 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 3/4 cup water
* 1 quart oil for deep frying
* 1/2 head cauliflower florets
* 2 onions, sliced into rings

1. Sift the chickpea flour into a medium bowl. Mix in the coriander, salt, turmeric, chili powder, garam masala and garlic.
2. Make a well in the center of the flower. Gradually pour the water into the well and mix to form a thick, smooth batter.
3. Over medium high heat in a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. Coat the cauliflower and onions in the batter and fry them in small batches until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Continue reading Night Three: Vegetable Pakoras and Dreidel Chips »

Day Two: Jelly Doughnuts at a Bris

(weighed about 5 pounds, each…)

Night Two: Apple and Pear Fritters

Fruit Fritters

Vegetable Oil for Deep Frying
1 cup flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk (for pareve, use soy milk)
2 eggs, separated
6 apples/pears
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

In a broad pan, 2 inches of oil to 375F.
Combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.
Mix together milk and egg yolks.
Beat egg whites to soft peaks.
Whisk milk/eggs into dry ingredients.
Fold in egg whites.
Core and slice fruit.
Dip the fruit into the batter and fry until the batter browns.
Turn over to brown second side.
Drain on paper towels.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately.

Jerusalem Pita opens Tuesday

Jerusalem Pita, Coolidge Corner’s long-awaited Mediterranean grill, will open tomorrow, December 23, at 12pm for lunch and dinner. Owner Rada Roda will be offering up turkey and chicken shawarma, grilled rib steaks, and lamb chops, as well as appetizers and an Israeli salad bar — plus beer and wine.

Regular hours are as follows:
Sun - Thu: 10am - 10pm
Fri: 10am until 2 hours before Shabbat
Sat: Open 1.5 hours after Shabbat (during the winter)

From the looks of it, my expectation that it would be another Rami’s clone was unwarranted — the wider menu and better hours are very exciting. The Kosher Blog wishes them the best of luck (and we’ll report back once we’ve sampled the fare.)

Jerusalem Pita
Under the supervision of Rabbi Aaron Hamaoui
10 Pleasant Street, Brookline, MA 02446 (map)
617-739-2400

Night One: Potato Latkes

The KosherBlog Master Recipe, of course…

Kosher in Austin

I’m in Austin, Texas for a few days, so I thought I’d report back about the kosher resources here. With my GPS fired up, I ventured out to the H-E-B Supermarket on Village Center Drive (about 7 miles northwest of downtown), which features “The Kosher Store.” It’s basically a kosher market within a supermarket, complete with freshly cut meats, dry goods, dairy, frozen foods, wines… plus a deli and grill. I showed up after the grill was closed for the night (7:30pm), so I had a pastrami sandwich with potato salad. I didn’t care for the potato salad, but after a long day of traveling on an empty stomach, I inhaled that sandwich without a second thought. I also did a little shopping, and found that everyone at the store was very friendly and helpful.

There’s also a proper kosher restaurant in Austin — Madras Pavilion on Research Boulevard, also several miles outside of downtown. It’s vegetarian, and serves both northern and southern Indian foods. In our group of six, three of us enjoyed the “dinner for three,” which was a kingly meal of mulligatawny, papadums, fried lentil cakes, masala dosa, three kinds of curry, two kinds of rice, chapati, a variety of chutneys and sauces, and ras malai for dessert. There was plenty of food to share with our fellow diners, and we left with two full take-out trays as well. We had a few Indian cuisine aficionados among us, who were unanimous in their praise for our meal — definitely a highlight of our trip.

Broiled Pizza

If you liked my earlier post about pizzas made during a self-clean cycle, but didn’t want to void your warranty, why not try this method, using a pre-heated cast iron pan and your broil setting?

Kosher Wagyu Beef

Oh my! The NYT article says it all - Wagyu, the American version of Kobe beef, is now available with a Hechsher from Le Marais. I’m drooling. At $29 to $85 a pound, I’m gonna have to sell a kidney…