Imagine the cuisine of today’s most popular contemporary kosher restaurants magically showing up on your dinner table. Nope, it’s not a dream that sadly vanishes when you open your eyes, it is an attainable reality, thanks to Ronnie Fein’s The Modern Kosher Kitchen. With over 125 exciting new recipes that elevate your cooking from “ho hum” to “omg, yum!” The Modern Kosher Kitchen may just be your new favorite cookbook. Packed with helpful advice and must-have items like fresh herbs, coconut and soy milks, frozen spinach, puff pastry and pizza doughs, Ronnie’s new book also introduces us to fabulous ingredients including freekeh, farro and kamut in a step by step, easy-to-follow volume that will have you cooking like a pro in no time.
If you think the name Ronnie Fein sounds familiar, you aren’t imagining things. The author of three previous cookbooks, The Complete Idiots Guide to Cooking Basics, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to American Cooking and Hip Kosher, Ronnie has also authored articles for the food sections of several Connecticut newspapers, writes for several kosher food websites, has her own blog titled Kitchen Vignettes and runs the Ronnie Fein School of Creative Cooking in Stamford, Connecticut.
It’s hard not to be intrigued by recipes with names like Thanksgiving Stuffing Soup (made with celery, onion, pears, roasted chestnuts and topped with seasoned diced bread cubes), Braised Chicken with Rhubarb Gravy and Vidalia Onion Fritters with Sambal Yogurt Dip. For those who prefer to stay on the safe side and stick to the more familiar, there are plenty of options as well: Mango Shooters, Roasted Potato Skins, Vegetable Pot Pie and Baby Fudge Cakes. As for me, I think I hear the Salmon, Cheese and Mango Waffle Panini calling my name.
The Modern Kosher Kitchen also devotes several pages to the difference between “Jewish food” and “kosher food,” noting that while we may all have a soft spot in our hearts for traditional Eastern European favorites, these much-loved foods are a far cry from today’s typical fare which is both less time consuming to prepare and substantially healthier. Sprinkled throughout the book are helpful suggestions and tips, which offer recipe substitutions as well as advice on how to tweak recipes so that they can become pareve (or how to upgrade certain pareve recipes to either meat or dairy). Accessible to even a novice cook who isn’t afraid to try an easy-to-follow recipe, The Modern Kosher Kitchen offers a wide array of enticing recipes that are inexpensive, easy to prepare, highly intriguing and serve as positive proof that kosher and contemporary can indeed go hand in hand.
The Modern Kosher Kitchen is available online at Amazon.com and at your local Judaica store.
* * * * *
Blueberry Soup
Makes 4 servings
When seasonal blueberries are in abundance I use them for pies and crisps, muffins and pancakes. But I also love their tart-sweet taste for soups such as this one, which I serve cold as a first course during the dog days of summer. The color, a rich, jewel-like magenta, is a wow. A good dish for company.
Ingredients
2 cups blueberries
1½ cups water
2 tbsp honey
1 cinnamon stick, 2 inches long
6 whole cloves
1 strip orange peel, 2 inches long
¾ cup plain yogurt, plus additional for topping, if desired
½ cup orange juice
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Mint sprigs, optional
Directions
Combine the blueberries, water, honey, cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for about 12 minutes.
Remove and discard the cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel.