200 offsite highend Kosher

[shroomgirl]

well, I got a call today asking for me to bid on a Kiddish (Brunch adn a Kosher offsite dinner....same day. Big bucks.

Brunch: Salmon pasta salad with asparagus, capers, cucumbers and buttermilk dressing

Green salad

Fruit salad

bagels, rolls, cream cheese, butter

Desserts....assorted bars, cookies and dipped pretzels.
Tea and lemonade

200 folks (50 kids, 150 adults)

Dinner cooked at the synagog then taken over to a building without a kitchen.....so Stations relating to dance.....
*Israeli-Falafel
pitas, set up
Hummos
Baba ganoush
pita chips
Tabbouli

Ballet_ Blini station with sour cream, salmon eggs and salmon
Crepe station with fruit
Pavlovas

Salsa_ Quesadilla wiht 3 salsas, med hot, corn/blackbean, mild
Chips
Cheese dip
Guacamole

Hula_ Tropical Green salad with hearts of palm, roasted pineapple, red pepper and Mango Dressing
Krab Rangoon with dip
Tropical fruit in pineapple boats

Belly Dancing....jelly bellys and desserts (not sure on cake)

Smoothy station

***So this is a big one for me, offsite and moving of food and cooking Kosher too.....for large quantities of people.

Equipment suggestions?

[cape chef]

Shroom, Super!!!!

hey let me think on this for a moment,But!!! take the butter out from the brunch (not kosher )
cc

[shroomgirl]

Butter is too Kosher....dairy CC....salmon is considered parve.
Both meals are Dairy.
A friend suggested buying new microwaves to reheat falfels and rangoons...the rest are on propane or induction burners. I don't have a microwave (as of the last 5 years) how do they do in reheating fried shtuff? Remember Kosher offsite equipment, microwaves are $50 new.

[cape chef]

Shroom, My apoligies....You are right.

When I saw Butter I reacted before reading the whole post.
Sorry
cc

[marmalady]

Congrats! Sounds like a great gig! I only worked two Kosher events and they were both glatt kosher, so we had to have the rabbi there - had to cover surfaces of the cooking kitchen with butcher paper, and buy new equipment and utensils - what a nightmare!

Microwaves are yucky for reheating fried food - they won't stay crispy, and turn to mush. Instead of crab rangoon, what about a 'crab rangoon salad' or something on a pita chip? I think the falafels would reheat okay, they just wouldn't be as crispy.

[Pete]

At the catering company I work at now, we reheat in in tall "hot boxes with sterno. I have found that this is the best way to reheat fried foods (not great but acceptable). I lay them out on a sheet tray, single layer, then take 6 sternos and put them about 4 notches down from this. The sternos really heat up the sheet tray (do not put paper down under the fried foods or it will ignite). I do not know if this way is completely kosher or not, though. It is tricky to do frying onsite as many pieces of portable equipment can't heat the oil fast enough on recovery.

[shroomgirl]

I don't want to fry in the new building, I do want to reheat to a crisp. What about heat lamps, or a portable confection oven?
This one is bringing in enough income for me to buy new equipment, within reason....$1500 or so.
No Kosher equipment rentals....I'm stepping out of the box on this one. I cook in the woods, I cook at a girl scout camp, I cook in the street....but white linen with no kitchen is definately a new venture. Staffing is coming along nicely.

[momoreg]

I think you'll get a lot more future use out of a portable convection, plus, as marmalady mentioned, fried foods don't fare well in microwaves.

The menu sounds like a lot of fun, and a lot of prep!!

I have a lot of experience with kosher (dairy and non), so please ask if you have any questions.

Also, I did a bellydance cake a couple of years ago. I gave the cake a border of fondant gold coins, attached by a gold royal icing chain. It was funky and fun, and easy to do.

[Isa]

Fogive my ignorrance but what is parve??

[marmalady]

I'd go for the portable convection oven if you can afford one - it will do the job, and I think in the long run you'd get more bang for the buck with it. It's a quite dandy little piece of equipment! I've used them at several jobs. Just be sure you get one big enough to handle larger items.

Isa - To my knowledge, parve is a term used to denote that a food has been prepared in accordance with the Jewish dietary laws; however, there are different 'degrees' of parve, and that's where it gets totally confusing! At one of the glatt Kosher events I worked, my boss had gotten butter that had the 'parve' stamp on it, but the rabbi who was supervising said it wasn't the right one - she had to make a drive 25 miles the day before the event to get the right kind of butter!

Maybe some of our Jewish friends on-site can clarify this a little better!

[momoreg]

Parve simply means that it is neutral; neither dairy nor meat.

Butter would never fall into this category, but margarine may, depending on how it's made.

Other things that are parve, for instance, would be starches, vegetables, and fish (surprisingly).

Glatt kosher only refers to a degree of supervision with meat. So you couldn't call a dairy meal glatt kosher.

Marmalady, you're not totally off the mark: What you are describing is kosher supervision in general. Kosher has many different organizations that supervise. Some are more strict than others. So if a rabbi doesn't approve of the organization that supervised, he may demand that it have a different mark on the package. Some kosher symbols you may be familiar with are the O-U (with the U inside the O), and O-K. There are others as well.

[kuan]

Can't you keep the food hot in a warmer? Fried foods do quite well uncovered in a warmer. If you can, you might be able to rent a food warmer and have it delivered to the synagogue with enough time for you and the rabbi to make sure it's kosher for the event. You can do this in conjunction with the party planner.

If you decide to go with other pieces of rental equipment, I think the same applies.

Kuan

[shroomgirl]

Remember it takes place SAT....so no cooking pre party, it will have to be heated either after dark at the Synagog or at the party location a few miles away....again in a new building that has no kitchen!!!
So all cooking takes place prior to Sat, then gets reheated Sat night....or cooked in the case of blinis, crepes. Alot of logistics involved.
I've been teaching a kosher student privately for about 3 years....3 sets of pots and pans/2 dish washers.....parve, dairy and meat. I don't find it confusing at all, just ground rules for creating....though the extreme low-fat drives me around the bend.

[Isa]

Thanks Momo & Marmalady, I think I understand.

[shroomgirl]

I ran it by a buddy that used to cook on the road for the Grateful Dead umpteen years ago. ....boy does he have stories. anyway he said make the rangoon out of fillo and put black and plain sesame seeds between the layers.....this sounds like a much better winner to me than frying and fussing with reheated wrappers. I still have not heard back on the bid, so cross your fingers for me.