 This is a cookbook that nobody should be without. Whether you are a new bride or a seasoned cook, Jamie Geller brings fresh ideas to your table.
Joy of Kosher contains just 100 different original recipes. Each recipe holds is a tip on how to dress it up (make it fancier) or down, cut down the preparation time (time savers), variations, make it parve, and pair it (what it goes with). That adds up to a lot more than 100 recipes.
Not just a kosher cookbook, Joy of Kosher is a Jewish cookbook. In her chatty relaxed prose style, Geller focuses on our Jewish lives and our values: family, the kitchen, Jewish holidays and foods associated with the Jewish experience, for example ideas for Mishloach Manot on Purim. The "dress up" recipes, she says, are fit for entertaining important guests like a queen.
Exactly which queen is dining at your house? The Sabbath Queen of course.
Speaking of Shabbat, Joy of Kosher has a lovely section on Shabbat Challah called 1 dough 10 sweet and savory recipes. This section starts with a page on the spiritual significance of challa.
This does shed a new light on challah, for those of us who greet the shabbat with a 20 shekel loaf from the makolet.
You won't find specific
holiday recipes in this book. You will find holiday menus that point to recipes in the book, that are specifically appropriate for each chag. For Rosh Hashana, for example, Geller points to her favorite sweet recipes, for Sukkot fresh fruit recipes, etc. At the end of the book find pages of tables pointing to year round recipes with substitutions for Pesach. That's an idea.
Jamie puts a lot of emphasis on the presentation of the foods, and likewise, a lot of thought went into the presentation of this book.
The layout makes it especially easy to follow with clear titles and the tips are presented in colored frames on the page. Gorgeous full page photos of the foods and whimsical shots of of Geller's family, entertain you throughout the book.
And as to presentation,
I loved the presentation tweaks, that she gives for each recipe. A little creativity in the presentation of dishes, we are shown, makes an old recipe into a new fancy dish. My old boring parve chopped liver recipe will look great in bread rounds. There's a picture to go with this idea. Geller also offers
great ideas to liven up the old faithful frozen gefilte fish loaf. That is a challenge.
The tips are endless, the instructions and ingredients are clear. A picture is worth a thousand words, and you'll find many pictures. We recommend this book highly. A great read.
About Jamie Geller:
Jamie Geller is the founder of the Kosher Media Network, including Joy of Kosher, Jamie Geller magazine and JoyofKosher.com,
This book is available through:
eLuna.com and through JoyofKosher.com.
Books can be ordered from eLuna.com for delivery in Israel only. |
