I love to read cookbooks and magazines with recipes in them. The hobby seems a little odd since as an empty nester I rarely cook anymore and when I do, I often stick with my tried and true favorite recipes. In the last several weeks four new kosher cookbooks have come across my desk and I’ve enjoyed browsing through them and choosing recipes I might like to try. In a word, all four of these books are simply beautiful! All would make great Chanukah gifts or additions to your own library. Even though I haven’t had time to actually cook even one recipe from each of these new books, I thought it was a shame not to tell you what they are about. Bete’avon!
“GLUTEN-FREE GOES GOURMET”
By Vicky Pearl (September 2013, Moznaim Publishing Co.)
It seems more and more people are allergic to or otherwise intolerant to gluten. With this new demand for easy-to-follow delicious recipes and meal ideas nutrition expert and consultant Vicky Pearl combines the healthfulness of gluten-free with gourmet tastes that happen to be kosher in “Gluten Free Goes Gourmet.” This first-ever comprehensive kosher gluten-free cookbook features more than 100 original gluten, dairy and corn-free recipes. Pearl hopes that this book will educate many about the virtues of “eating healthy and well.”
“Gluten Free Goes Gourmet” has something for everyone for any occasion and runs the gamut from Dips & Drinks to Stellar Side Dishes, Magnificent Mock Dairy to Marvelous Meat & Poultry and Breads and Desserts. Recipes include: Chicken Soup & Knaidlach; Brisket & Chicken Rollups; Baked Salmon in Marinade; Mock Cheese Blintzes; Creamy Eggplant Dip; Broccoli & Carrot Salad; Potato Kugel; and Moist Honey Cake, to name only a few.
Roll Cake
Yield 12 servings
This roll cake tastes as extravagant as it looks. The cream recipe makes enough icing for one and a half cakes, so I like to double it and put away two-thirds for use later on. (Vicky Pearl)
INGREDIENTS:
Cream:
1 cup trans-fat-free margarine, room temperature (2 sticks)
7 ½ oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs
¾ cup agave, xylitol, or sugar
1 tablespoon coffee granules
2 2/3 tablespoon water (2 tablespoon + 2 teaspoon)
Cake:
3 tablespoon potato starch
2 tablespoon brown rice flour
2 tablespoon sweet rice flour
½ tablespoon. xanthan gum
7 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoon xylitol or granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS:
For the Cream
1. In a saucepan set over low heat, melt margarine and chocolate together.
2. In a bowl using an immersion blender or in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together eggs, agave, melted chocolate, coffee granules and water. Cover and refrigerate cream for 2 to 3 hours or until firm enough to spread or for up to 2 days. If you are using agave, you may need to freeze cream for at least 4 hours or overnight to achieve a spreadable consistency.
For the Cake
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 15x10-inch baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a bowl, stir together potato starch, rice flours, and xanthan gum. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gradually add xylitol. Reduce speed to medium-low. Add egg yolks. Add dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.
4 . Pour batter onto prepared baking sheet, spreading evenly.
5. Bake in center of preheated oven for 16 minutes or until well baked and slightly golden. Remove from oven and immediately invert cake onto a clean dish towel. Carefully peel off parchment paper and roll up cake, jelly-roll style.
6. Let cake cool completely, 15 to 20 minutes.
Assembly
1. Gently unroll cooled cake. Using a spatula, spread one-third of cream over entire surface. Roll it back up, jelly-roll style. Cut off ¼ -inch from both ends to trim cake; reserve or eat quietly!
2 .Frost surface of cake with another third of cream, freezing remaining third for another use. Chill before serving.
“Cooking Inspired”
By Estee Kafra’s (Feldheim Publishers; September 2013)
Food websites have become favorite destinations for home cooks to review and share recipes and cooking tips. Kosher recipes are especially popular whether Jewish or not and one of the fastest growing of the kosher websites is KosherScoop.com. Wanting to make cooking easier and more creative for home cooks, founder and cookbook author Estee Kafra has put together a collection of the best recipes from the site. “Cooking Inspired” is a sampling of the creative and reliable recipes that the site has become known for and will inspire home cooks to let loose their culinary creativity. More than 200 recipes are beautifully photographed and award-winning photographs are scattered throughout the book creating a visual feast for the eyes as well as the palate.
Recipes are divided into categories of inspiration such as: For the Five Senses, Family, Community, Roots, Nurture, Healthy Living, Holidays, Seasons, Special Occasions and Counter Cakes. Recipes are also easily identified as Gluten-Free, Passover-Friendly and seasonal.
Many recipes in the book have direct links to cooking videos on KosherScoop.com, providing home cooks with step-by-step visual instructions.
Pumpkin Soupwith Parsley–Sunflower Pesto
Gluten-Free - fall
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Every year we go apple picking and schlepp home more apples than we know what to do with. We also always buy a small pumpkin for soup. This is what we made with last year’s pumpkin. Pumpkins may be daunting because of their size, but are really simple to work with if you follow this technique. (Estee Kafra)
1 tablespoon oil (or more)
1 large pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon dried thyme
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or 1 Tablespoon chicken soup mix, msg-free, mixed with water)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pesto:
2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup toasted sunflower seeds
1 very small clove garlic (or half of a big one)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Roasted sunflower seeds, extra-salted, for garnishing
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds with a large spoon. Rub the inside of the pumpkin with the oil and place face-down on a cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes. The pumpkin will have softened considerably. Scrape out the flesh and transfer to a large saucepan. (If it’s too hard to scrape the filling out, return the pumpkin to the oven and bake longer.)
Add all of the remaining ingredients to the saucepan. Pour in just enough stock to cover the vegetables.
Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook over medium heat for 45 to 60 minutes or until the sweet potato is tender. Use an immersion blender or ladle batches into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal “S” blade and purée. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pesto
Separate the leaves and small stems of the parley from the main stem. Discard the main stem. Place the parsley, sunflower seeds and garlic into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal “S” blade.
With the machine running, slowly pour the olive oil into the feed tub, combining the ingredients until the mixture is chopped and pasty. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Dollop the pesto on top of the soup and garnish with extra-salted roasted sunflower seeds.
(Recipe reprinted with permission from COOKING INSPIRED: Bringing Creativity and Passion Back into the Kitchen © 2013 by Estee Kafra, distributed by Distributed by Feldheim Publishers.)
Holiday Kosher Baker
By Paula Shoyer (Sterling Publishing Co., November 2013)
“The Holiday Kosher Baker” is a new and modern approach to Jewish holiday baking that includes both contemporary and traditional recipes, and more than 45 Passover desserts. It is organized into sections for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. Each holiday chapter contains easy, one-bowl recipes, as well as those that are fancier and involve multiple steps. This arrangement will help you find elegant desserts for evening and Shabbat/holiday dinners as well as the quick recipes you’ll need as snacks for your family and entertaining. Recipes for low-sugar, gluten free, vegan and nut-free treats are also included — something for everyone in the Jewish community. This is a must-have kosher baking cookbook for the holidays — and one that you’ll enjoy using throughout the year.
Shoyer presents traditional desserts to remind us of our grandmothers, but she has given her recipes a distinctively modern twist. Along with new versions of sponge cakes, blintzes, babkas, challahs and rugelach, you’ll find a chic Raspberry and Rose Macaroon Cake, a Salted Caramel Banana Tart Tatin, and an unusual take on upside-down apple cake.
PUMPKIN DOUGHNUTS
Makes 15
Pumpkin purée and classic pumpkin pie spices give these doughnuts a soft, comforting texture and taste. (Paula Shoyer)
¼ ounce (1 envelope; 7g) dry yeast
¼ cup (60ml) warm water
¼ cup (50g) plus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup (80ml) soy milk
2 tablespoons (28g) margarine, at room temperature for at least 15 minutes
1 large egg
½ cup (120g) pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3–3¼ cups (375–405g) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
Canola oil for frying
¼ cup (30g) confectioners’ sugar for dusting
IN A LARGE BOWL, place the yeast, warm water, and one teaspoon of sugar and stir. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, or until thick.
ADD THE REMAINING SUGAR, brown sugar, soy milk, margarine, egg, pumpkin purée, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and 2 cups (250g) of the flour to the bowl and mix on low speed with either a dough hook in a stand mixer or a wooden spoon. Add another cup (125g) of flour and mix well. Add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, and mix it in until the dough becomes smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl each time before adding more flour.
COVER THE DOUGH with a clean dishtowel and let it rise for one hour in a warm place. I use a warming drawer on a low setting, or you can turn your oven on to its lowest setting, wait until it reaches that temperature, place the bowl in the oven, and then turn off the oven.
PUNCH DOWN THE DOUGH by folding it over a few times and reshaping it into a ball. Then re-cover the dough and let it rise for 10 minutes.
DUST A COOKIE SHEET with some flour. Sprinkle some flour on your counter or on a piece of parchment paper and roll the dough out until it’s about ½ inch (1.25cm) thick. Use a 2½-inch (6cm) round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out circles and place them on the prepared cookie sheet. Reroll any scraps. Cover the doughnuts with the towel. Place the cookie sheet back in the oven (warm but turned off) or warming drawer. Let the doughnuts rise for 45 minutes.
HEAT 1½ inches (4cm) of oil in a medium saucepan for a few minutes and use a candy thermometer to see when the temperature stays between 365°F and 375°F (185°C and 190°C); adjust the flame so the oil stays in that temperature range.
COVER A COOKIE SHEET with foil. Place a wire rack on top of it and set it near your stovetop. Gently slide no more than four doughnuts, top side down, into the oil and fry for 1½ minutes. Turn the doughnuts over and cook another 1½ minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, letting excess oil drip off, and place on a wire rack to cool. Repeat for the remaining doughnuts. Dust with the confectioners’ sugar and serve. Store covered at room temperature for up to one day and reheat to serve.
(Reprinted with permission from “Holiday Kosher Baker” © 2013 by Paula Shoyer, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Photography by Michael Bennett Kress.)
Joy of Kosher
Fast, Fresh Family Recipes
By Jamie Geller (William Morrow, October 2013)
Jamie Geller, hailed as the “Jewish Rachael Ray” by the New York Times hasn’t always been kosher. Raised on take-out, it wasn’t until her mid-20s that she gravitated to Jewish observance. When she married her husband, she was dubbed the “Bride Who Knew Nothing” and was clueless about cooking. Joining his family meant celebrating more than 100 traditional holiday meals annually, complete with six-course homemade kosher dinners for the immediate and extended family. Determined to show everyone that she had what it takes and spurred to confront her culinary clumsiness, Geller didn’t just learn how to cook — she founded the Kosher Media Network and created cookbooks, magazines, a popular website and even a television show.
In her new book, Geller stresses that if she can put really good food on the table, anyone can. From sharing her stories of struggling in the kitchen to her triumph when hearing the highest praise of all, “More please, Mommy,” Geller takes her tied-and-true family meal recipes that come out right every time and makes them worthy of entertaining by including a “Dress It Up” option or an everyday “Dress It Down” option for each. The book is stocked with more than 100 authentically kosher recipes.
Cranberry Chestnut Challah StuffingKosher Status: Meat
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 50 minutes
Total: 1 hour
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
In the dead of winter, my folks would drive us up to New York City from Philly. We’d catch a few Broadway shows and shop like crazy. We snacked on little bags of hot roasted chestnuts bought from a street vendor wearing fingerless gloves. The aroma of fresh roasted chestnuts in winter is my New York. So when I noticed bagged roasted and shelled chestnuts in a store recently — wham! I instantly saw Times Square … snow … funny gloves. There was no snow and no hot aroma when I opened the bag, but once baked in the oven with my stuffing, they were divine. (Jamie Geller)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
4 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 cup roasted and peeled chestnuts, quartered
1 cup dried cranberries
1⁄4 cup finely chopped fresh sage or 1 tablespoon dried
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh
parsley or 2 teaspoons dried
8 cups 1⁄2-inch cubes white or whole wheat challah
2 cups chicken broth, such as Manischewitz All Natural Chicken
Broth
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat.
Sauté the onions and celery until softened and the onion is translucent, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the chestnuts, cranberries, sage and parsley and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in the challah, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Remove from the heat. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until lightly browned, 10 minutes more.
Quick Tips
You can find bags of roasted and peeled chestnuts in the snack aisle at the supermarket. This recipe doesn’t require day-old or stale bread, although it’s a great use for any leftovers on hand. Challah, hot dog and hamburger buns, even sandwich bread — use it all out, mix ’n’ match it, cube it, and make stuffing or Spiced Apple Challah Kugel (page 94).
Make It Pareve
Use vegetable broth in place of chicken broth.
Make It a Meal
Serve with Sour Mash Whiskey–Glazed Whole Roasted Turkey (page 168).
Pair It with Weinstock Red by W
A robust red wine would overwhelm this dish, so go for the soft fruity flavors in Red by W to complement the red berry flavors of the stuffing.
(Reprinted with permission from “Joy of Kosher
Fast, Fresh Family Recipes” by Jamie Geller, William Morrow.)
