Customer Reviews

Mother and Daughter Jewish Cooking: Two Generations Of Jewish Women Share Traditional And Contemporary Recipes

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Jewish women have been cooking and handing down their recipes since Rivka cooked a savory dish with which Jacob tricked Isaac. Evelyn Rose is the food editor for the UK Jewish Chronicle and author of the cookbook nearly every Jewish home owns: The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook. Her daughter, Judi, who lives in NYC, is a producer for the BBC and is currently preparing a series on Thai cooking. Mother passes traditions and tips and lore onto daughter in this book. In addition to recipes and tips (tips on frying onions, soaking beans, chopping, preparing rice, and baking skills), folktales are also passed down to the new generation, such as how it took Evelyn ten years to coax the Rose family pickle recipe out of her husband. The Roses also include some holiday menus at the back of the book which makes it easier for you to add their recipes to your holiday presentations. For each classic Jewish recipe, the authors also present updated hybrids. For example, recipes include classic chicken soup, followed by a contemporary szechuan chicken soup with soy, ginger, or lemongrass. Hungarian Goulash soup is followed by a Spanish red pepper soup. A traditional Jewish lentil soup is paired with a Cream of Watercress; chopped chicken liver is followed by liver pate with pears and a citrus and red currant sauce; or maybe you'd prefer a vegetarian mock-liver zucchini pate. Traditional Sephardic cheese puffs are followed by contemporary French petites gougeres. A traditional Tunisian baked omelet (badinjan kuku) is followed by Israeli cream cheese pancakes. The Roses provide a recipe for a lokshen kugel that can be made with wheat and egg free asian noodles (did you know that lakcha means noodles in Turkish?), as well as an excellent recipe for a traditional Anglo-Jewish halibut in lemon sauce, and a kosher Valencian seafood-free paella. Gefilte fish is hybridized with Gefilte Fish Provencale, Marmite due Pecheur, and Normandy style fish with cider and apples. There are a dozen chicken dishes, including a lemon chicken; an orange, raisin, and honey chicken; and spice roasted chicken with apricot and bulgher stuffing. As for salad recipes; to name a few, there is Moroccan carrot-raisin; fennel, almond and black grape; Manchester style potato; cucumber; and melon, cucumber and strawberry. The desserts are to die for, need I say more? Okay, let me mention three: A traditional Queen of Sheba Flourless Chocolate Gajeau, a contemporary Viennese Apfelschnitten, and a classic Jewish Apple Pie. A very good resource for the Jewish and non-jewish cook.

Mother & Daughter Jewish Cooking contrasts the different cooking methods and experiences of a mother/daughter team: while mother Evelyn strives to preserve Jewish traditional recipes, adapting them to the healthier diet of today; daughter Judi uses modern ingredients and international influences to spice the results. The result's a cookbook packed with innovation and new ideas.

I really looked forward to this book, since the recipes I had encountered from Evelyn Rose all seemed delicious. What a disappointment this book has turned out to be. I found most of the recipes to be labor-intensive, overly rich, and not very appealing. In the back of the book are some menu suggestions that are helpful, but I'm baffled as to why some holidays have extensive suggestions, while others are completely neglected. This is not a cookbook for someone who wants to create elegant meals that allow you to actually enjoy your guests and the holiday at the same time.