Kosher by Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays & Every Day [Hardcover]

Susie Fishbein (Author), John Uher (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fishbein, editor of the highly popular and successful Kosher Palette, has produced a cookbook focusing on elegant kosher cuisine that is easy to produce by the modern at-home cook. She precedes each section with a description of a festival and its customs, and includes a suggested menu and kosher wine list. Interspersed with vibrant color photographs, the recipes make full use of the growing range of kosher ingredients available, and she has no compunction in saving time and effort by using store-bought sauces in some dishes, such as Tarragon Chicken. Traditional recipes also appear, but are usually given a new twist-the visually pleasing Tri-color Gefilte Fish once again utilizes a store-bought item but enhances both it and the conventional presentation by layering to make a terrine. Useful tips are added where needed, and Fishbein indicates when a recipe is parve (neutral) or dairy. She also offers a comprehensive Passover section that includes a chart of all the recipes that can be used for this festival, with its additional dietary requirements, as well as the steps needed to adapt many others. With kosher cookbooks becoming more sophisticated, Fishbein has produced a volume that straddles that delicate line between modern and traditional and between refined cuisine and everyday ease.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: Mesorah Publications, Limited; 1st edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578197074
• ISBN-13: 978-1578197071
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Kosher

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best cookbook around!, May 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Kosher by Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays & Every Day (Hardcover)

I received this book as a gift. It is so beautiful that I browsed through it a couple of times before I actually picked it up to find something to cook!
Of the recipes I tested and tasted: Sesame Noodles (I made it without the chicken, and it was a yummy side dish - no leftovers there!!), Lemon Bundt Cake (nice, but not "wow"), Chocolate Pecan Pie (now here's a great find - for all those pecan pie lovers out there, who think the traditional recipe is a drop too rich and sweet, here's one for you!! The chocolate adds the right touch to balance the sweetness in this recipe! Still is great with a cup of milk, but it won't leave you nauseous like regular pecan pie!), and the Challah Napkin Rings came out beautiful and tasty!
I'm planning my Shavuos menu now - first on the list are the Baby Blintzes, of course! (One look at the picture and I knew I have to make it!)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressed by cookbook, September 26, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kosher by Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays & Every Day (Hardcover)

I was skeptical about getting this book - just because a book has great pictures in it doesn't mean that the recipes are any good. This book is different. I haven't made a recipe yet that I didn't like. It also turns out exactly as pictured in the book. (I just made the white and dark chocolate mousse dessert and it looks incredible!) My sister-in-law told me that my Sunken Apple and Honey cake looks so good it should be pictured on the cover of a magazine! I highly recommend this book.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre recipes with intensive preparation, December 10, 2005

By 

Sarah Schwartz (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kosher by Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays & Every Day (Hardcover)

The recipes in this book are not in the least unique: there is nothing in these books not found in the standard modern cookbooks such as the New Joy of Cooking or Silver Palette. What differentiates these recipes is the superfluous use of packaged foods, such as boxed Italian dressing powder (which is basically salt and common spices), which actually makes them less friendly to the kosher cook since they may not be available supervised. Fishbein puts all her energy into the Design of the food, for instance suggesting that you buy individual pumpkins for each of your 16 sukkot guests in which to serve soup, or that you serve your Shavuot meal entirely out of flowerpots, or that you have different set of dishes for each of the holidays. These little tips do make amusing reading, but for that you can check the book out from the library.