My Brother Bobby’s Salsa

Last week Tuesday I attended the International Restaurant and Food Service Show held at Manhattan’s Javits Center. There I met my friends Bobby and Valerie Groper from My Brother Bobby’s Salsa. The company started in 1993 and recently moved into its own state-of-the-art processing facility in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Bobby and Valerie Groper in their booth at the International Restaurant and Food Service Show

My Brother Bobby’s Salsa makes four delicious products:

• Fresh Bruschetta Topping
• Original Red Salsa
• Hot Tomatillo with Corn Salsa
• Tropical Black Bean Salsa

Everything is kosher certified by the OK, under the leadership of Rav Don Yoel Levy. All products use top quality, natural ingredients and no preservartives.

I used the Bruschetta Topping to make a succulent, super easy, Bruschetta Bread:

Bruschetta Bread

My version of Bruschetta Bread...

Ingredients

• 1/2 loaf Italian bread, sliced open
• olive oil
• 2 slices Natural & Kosher Cheddar
• My Brother Bobby’s Salsa Fresh Bruschetta Topping

Directions

1. Brush olive oil over white surface of the Italian bread. Put in 350 F preheated oven for about 2 minutes.
2. Melt cheese slowly in a pan over a small flame.
3. Cover surface of bread with melted cheese.
4. Top the cheese with bruschetta topping
5. Sprinkle any leftover melted cheese over the topping.

It barely took more than 5 minutes and was a real treat. You can use any other flavor of cheese to melt, with shredded cheese you’ll even get better and faster result. Your bread loaf need not even be covered with sesame seeds, I used it because it was what I had handy, same goes for the cheese. Frankly, gentle reader, it was a very filling lunch.

Now I have to try the rest of My Brother Bobby’s Salsa products.

CS

The World of Kosher Cheese – part 2b

Aside from Pomegranate‘s great selection of specialty cheeses, they have the biggest display of prepackaged cheeses I’ve seen anywhere.

Lots of choices!

From such small producers as Karen’s Bracha’s Cheese Co’s, Twisted Mozzarella with Zahatar; or Susan Gourmet’s selections of foreign styled cheeses to major producers such as Anderson International Foods cholov Yisroel Natural and Kosher line, their non-cholov Yisroel Les Petites Fermières to Fresh and Healthy, to Tnuva, you’ll find them all here.

Closeup of various cheese shelves

Sugar River Cheese Co.’s choices are among SYR’s favorite American made cheeses, Les Petites Fermières’ imported Camembert and Brie are her favorite imports. I’ve tried some of Fresh and Healthy‘s Capriccio collection and liked them all. The Cheese Guy also has some delicious cheeses but the company’s hechsherim vary by the cheese, be sure to check to make sure the individual hechsher is acceptable to you. Cholov is another company that produces an all time favorite like the Chevrai line of goat milk cheeses.

As a foodie, and expanding on Elizabeth Bland’s own blog, I could spend a whole day going and admiring the cheese choices with the same fervor, with the same passion, with the same delight with which I could through a museum filled with masterpieces! But… if you are a regular reader of this blog you already know that, of course.

Whether you are new to the world of cheese, whether you are connoisseur, whether you like raw milk, cow’s milk, or goat’s milk cheese, Pomegranate‘s got them all.

CS

And the Winner Is…

We received 21 entries. Next time we’ll give you more time, there will be more contests and give aways during the year. We promise.

Here is what the contest winner will receive from N&K:

Stack 108 slices stack White American, 16ozs. Mozarella chunk, 8ozs. Muenster chunk, 8 ozs. Cheddar chunk, 6ozs. Muenster slices, 6ozs. Swiss slices, 6ozs. Processed Pepper Jack slices, 8ozs. shredded Pizza Cheese, 8 ozs. shredded Chef's Blend, 12 Mozarella Cheese Sticks

Some recipes were great, some were very easy to prepare, some however showed very little imagination or creativity. It was not easy to choose a winner… We deliberated, debated and agonized before reaching a final decision especially between #2 and #3 below.

The top three choices are:

#3

Tikvah’s Cheesecake

Crust: any graham cracker pie crust

*Cake*

2lbs unwhipped cream cheese
1.5 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoon Lemon juice
1 pinch salt
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F
Beat cream cheese & sugar until soft. add rest of ingredients and mix.
Pour on top of crust and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove and let stand for 10 minutes.

*Topping*

2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
spread on top and bake again for 10 minutes

keep in oven with oven off for 2 hours to prevent cracking. refrigerate and serve cold

this can also be made into cheese snacks baked in cup cake holders. For cheese snacks no crust is needed. Also cute idea for mini cakes is to put a sandwich cookies on bottom of pan & then the batter in the cup cake holder

Submitted by: Tikvah V. from Flatbush

#2

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

3 eggs (2 whites split separately, 1 whole)
6 tablespoons margarine
1 cup sugar (split in 3/4 & 1/4)
3 tablespoons vanilla
½ cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 package cream-cheese (8 oz)

In a small mixing bowl beat marg. & 3/4 c. sugar until crumbly.
Add 1 whole egg & 1 egg white & vanilla. Mix well.
Add flour & cocoa. Beat until blended.
Pour into spritzed 9″ square baking pan.
In a milchig mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and 1/4 c. sugar until smooth. Beat in 1 egg white.
Spoon-drop this mixture over the brownies to pretty much cover the top.
Cut through the batter with a knife to swirl it together.
Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until set & edges pull away from side of pan.
Cool on a wire rack.

I made for my sister’s milchig sukkos party, as well as for shavuos every year. Big hit!
I got it from a magazine years ago, so I’ll post the pictures from their site, as they are pros at taking perfect pictures.

If you use reduced-fat margarine & reduced fat cream cheese, then here is the nutritional info:

Nutritional Analysis

1 brownie equals:
167 calories
7 grams fat (3 g saturated fat)
28 mg cholesterol
108 mg sodium
23 grams carbohydrates
trace fiber
4 grams protein

Diabetic Exchanges: 1-1½ starch, 1 fat

Submitted by: Faigy T. from Crown Heights

#1

Brachie’s Three Layered Cheesecake

*Crust*

1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
6 tablespoons brown sugar
6  tablespoons softened butter

*Cake*

3/4 cup ground filberts
2lbs cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
2 oz baking chochlate

*Topping”

1 bar white milk chochlate
1 1/2 teaspoons coffee
3 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon light corn syrup

*Method*

1. – Combine crust ingredients in mixer until smooth
2. – Press into 9″ springform pan. bake for 10 minutes in a preheated over to 375 and set aside
3. – Mix cream cheese until smooth adding vanilla sugar,sugar and eggs one at a time
4. – Remove 2 cups cheese batter mix with ground filberts and almond extract. Pour onto crust and level with metal beveled spatula.
5. – freeze for 1 hour
6. – Melt chochalate. Remove another 2 cups cheese mixture and add to melted chochlate. Pour over filbert layer leveling well.
7. – Freeze for 20 minutes
8. – Pour remaining batter onto chochlate mixture
9. – Half fill 9×13 pan w/ water. Wrap bottom of springform pan w/ heavy duty foil and place pan in water
10. – Bake for 2 hours in a preheated to 350 oven
11. – Let cool for another 2 hours w/o opening oven door
12. – Refrigerate for at least 6 hours
13. – Melt topping. over a small flame until dissolved
14. – pour over cake allowing it to drizzile down sides.
15. – can be decorated with chocolate curls or left just as is

This winning recipe was submitted by: Brachie S., from Lakewood

SYR

related posts

shavuos recipes – part 2 

shavuos recipes 

————–

shavuos recipes – part 2

shavuos recipes – part 1 

Naturally Kosher

I’ve spoken before of my predilection for cheese, so I was delighted to find a nice selection of cholov Yisroel cheeses from Natural & Kosher.

Cheddar, Pepper Jack, Muenster, Mozzarella and Pizza Cheese

I picked up their Mozzarella (slices), Pizza Cheese (slices), Cheddar (slices), Muenster (slices), Processed Pepper Jack (round slices),

Pizza Cheese (shredded), Mozarella Sticks, Chef's Blend (shredded)

Mozarella Cheese Sticks (for the grandkids), Pizza Cheese (shredded) and the Chef’s Blend (natural Cheddar & Pizza Style Cheese).

I found all of them very good (so did my grandkids!). I used the shredded Pizza Cheese to make myself a 7” personal pizza

'Twas delicious!

It was so good and easy I had to keep on making it for lunch for the next 4 days. Here’s my simple recipe:

CS’ Personal Pizza

2 Natural & Kosher Shredded Pizza Cheese
1 Package Roland Oven Roasted Tomatoes
1 Can of tomato sauce
2 packages (3 in each package) of 7” pizza crusts
Spices: oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper

Cover each Personal Pizza with tomato sauce, sprinkle with shredded cheese and spices; add the oven roasted tomatoes and sprinkle again, very liberally, with shredded cheese and spices. Preheat oven to 450F degrees, when ready to put it the pizza lower heat to 425F and cook for 8 to ten minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is all melted.

As I took the pizzas out of the oven, the aroma was strong and made our mouths water. I used to think I was the fast eating mouth in the west, but these set of 2 grandkids left me in the dust! The Mozarella Sticks didn’t last very long either. I guess they really must have like the pizza and the sticks.

It was fast and easy to prepare. Once upon a time I used to make my own pizza dough as well, I no longer find it necessary these days.

The dish used in the photo of the pizza is part of a set I picked up at Happy Home Housewares (1407 Coney Island Avenue,, Brooklyn, NY 11230; Telephone: 718. 692.2442). It is part of a set I use for milchig dishes, Attractively priced, it’s melamine, easy to clean and with a design based on Gianni Versace’s similar themes.

I’ve been using these cheeses for other recipes, like pasta sauces, omelettes, salads and so on. In each case the results were delectable. Naturally kosher, naturally delicious!!!

CS