Who doesn’t love a good secret? Let’s face it. Deep down inside, we all want to be in the know, to get information that wasn’t meant to be leaked to the general public and to be part of that special club that always seems to have advance notice of everything that goes down. When it comes to food, we all long to get our hands on those coveted restaurant recipes so that we can share them with our family, our friends and enjoy them ourselves from the comfort of our own homes.
With the release of the second volume of their Secret Restaurant Recipes book, authors Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek once again take us into some of the best kosher restaurants, this time focusing on recipes that are so approachable and easy to prepare that you can incorporate them into your daily repertoire instead of saving them for special occasions. And with 324 gorgeous pages, featuring over 100 recipes that cross the globe from Bangkok, Beijing, Vancouver, Panama, Melbourne, Brazil, Vienna and even the Legends Club at Yankee Stadium, the dishes are guaranteed to make everyone drool.
Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes (to be referred to from here on as ESRR) has its finger on the pulse of the kosher restaurant scene – food that is upscale yet casual. The book includes input from Elan Kornblum of Great Kosher Restaurants Magazine (already featured in these pages) who lists smokehouses, burgers, coffeehouses, ethnic cuisine and artisanal breads as being extremely popular. A helpful section at the beginning of ESRR offers recipes for basics such as techina and pesto, a guide to the best items to use in order to prepare stunning desserts and, bless their little hearts, instructions on how to smoke your own meats for those of us who don’t own a smoker.
Scattered throughout the book are lots of helpful tips. Barbeque master Ari White, owner and chef at The Wandering Que, offers his at-home grilling tips and Joseph Mutterperl of South Side Sandwich Shop and Smokehouse in Lakewood gives advice on how to build an epic sandwich. Ever wondered how to keep a wrap from unfolding? Check out page 169 which advises wrapping it immediately in parchment or waxed paper. And be sure to read all of the fascinating bits and pieces that accompany each recipe, including interesting tidbits about each of the featured restaurants. I almost wonder if there is a really dedicated foodie who will take ESSR and plan a worldwide tour in order to sample all of the insanely delicious recipes in the book, something that would no doubt prompt some great pictures on social media.
(Warning, recipe descriptions coming up. If you don’t want to get very hungry or be tempted to cheat on your diet, you might want to stop reading right here. But we both know that you are going to continue because with a book this tempting and so appealing, you can’t possibly stop reading now.)
With so many great recipes paired and stunning pictures you may just find yourself tempted to lick the pages of ESSR. (Don’t try it, they probably don’t taste very good.) I actually read it backwards, starting with the desserts and there wasn’t one that didn’t appeal to me. I found myself wanting to fly to Chicago to sample Shallots Bistro’s strawberry shortcake made with sugar biscuits instead of boring sponge cake or heading to Brooklyn for a serving of Chagall’s passion fruit sabayon, made with coconut milk, fresh blueberries, Merlot, star anise and, of course, passion fruit juice. Both Glatt A La Carte’s peanut butter sundae, a molten chocolate cake topped with gooey peanut butter sauce, and Pizza da Solo’s dessert pizza, oozing warm Nutella, made me instantly ravenous. Several beverages also caught my eye, including the creme brulee freezer from Crawford’s in both Brooklyn and Cedarhurt, a s’mores milkshake from Teaneck’s Lazy Bean and a rum punch flavored with pineapple, coconut, mango and passion fruit from Doghouse, also located in Teaneck. Best of all was realizing I could make them all right here in my own kitchen – which is what makes this book such a great asset to my collection.
Sadly, we can’t live on desserts alone, no matter how much we might want to, and ESSR is also filled with serious food like Reserve Cut’s innovative sushi pizza and the adorable kani poppers from Brooklyn’s Sushi K Bar. Several other appetizers are on my must-get-my-hands-on-them-and-eat-them-now list: maple chickpeas from Ditmas in Los Angeles, Wolf and Lamb’s beef fry apricots and picture-perfect stuffed mushrooms from Brooklyn’s Cafe Renaissance, while the warm pretzels from C&R Kitchen in Philadelphia are the perfect snow day or Motzei Shabbos food for those long winter nights. A variety of fish recipes are proof-positive that when it comes to restaurant fare, amazing and diet-friendly don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Some of my favorites were bourbon salmon from Surfside’s Harbour Grill, Avenutra-based Fresko’s dynamite salmon, topped with avocado and shredded kani and grilled mahi mahi from Va Bene in Manhattan. Looking for a meatier entree? Cook up a batch of crispy wonton chicken coated in wonton slivers served with Asian pico de gallo and guacamole from Prime KO on the Upper West Side or chili strip steaks from Chef Isaac Bernstein, whose restaurant kitchen is actually located in Brooklyn’s landmark Pomegranate Supermarket.
Understanding that some nights sandwiches rule, ESSR has recipes for barbeque short rib sliders from the legendary Tierra Sur at Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, California, sharing space with the equally delicious Reuben, a hot dog topped with pastrami, sauerkraut, cole slaw and non-dairy Swiss cheese from Miami Beach’s House of Dog and the morning scramble burger from Boeuf & Bun in Crown Heights – loaded with eggs, beef fry, sautéed mushrooms and potato sticks.
A variety of fully loaded salads are a great choice for either lunch or dinner. In the mood for something hearty? The Portobello steak salad from Lakewood’s Entree combines lean steak with hearty mushrooms in a citrus vinaigrette, while Baltimoreans have been devouring Serengeti’s peach glazed chicken salad bursting with fabulous flavors. If you don’t want to wait six hours to drink your next coffee, then whip up the terrific haloumi salad from Espresso Cafe in Philadelphia bursting a happy marriage of fried cheese cubes and mushrooms sautéed in white wine and nestled on a bed of Romaine lettuce.
Once again Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek have proven themselves to be the dynamic duo of the kosher food world and have compiled a collection of recipes that just beg to made. Be sure to get your hands on Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes, published by ArtScroll, for a crazy good collection of foods that are high style but not high maintenance. And if you decide to do that ESSR world tour? Let me know. I might just want to join you.
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Dynamite Salmon
Yields 1-2 servings
Pareve
Venezuelan Jew Abraham Getzel sought to bring South American flair to Aventura, fusing his native cuisine with dishes that have Mediterranean and Asian influences. The result is the modern Fresko, with “fresco” being Spanish for “fresh” and the “k” in the spelling representing kosher. And while many lunchtime diners say they love Fresko for the salads and shakes, this Dynamite Salmon is the most frequently ordered dish come dinnertime.
Ingredients:
1 (8-oz) salmon fillet
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp sesame oil
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ sliced avocado
Teriyaki sauce:
⅔ cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1 cup soy sauce
½ tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
⅓ cup sugar
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
Ground black pepper
Dynamite:
½ cup mayonnaise
2 oz kani, shredded
2 oz wakame seaweed (optional)
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place salmon into a baking pan. Add ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce; marinate for 15-30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes.
Prepare the teriyaki sauce: Bring mirin to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for about 10 minute; mirin should become syrupy. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar. Add garlic, ginger, and black pepper; simmer 5-10 minutes, until thickened. Refrigerate in a tightly sealed container if not using immediately.
Prepare the dynamite: Mix mayonnaise with kani and wakame (if using).
Place dynamite on the plate; top with salmon and sliced avocado. Drizzle with teriyaki sauce.
Home Cook: Although you’ll only need a little bit of the sauce for each serving of this dish, it’ll keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. When you always have the sauce ready to go, serving dishes like this becomes almost effortless.
In the sushi world, the term “dynamite” refers to a sushi roll that includes mayonnaise. Here, it’s translated into a main dish.
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Smoked Hot Wings
Yields 3-4 servings
Meat
Izzy’s is the latest establishment to bring smoked meats to the forefront of kosher trends. The restaurant is a 25-seat spot where the barbecue is authentic Texas-style. Walk up to the counter to place your order and wait until your name is called. Every order comes on a tray along with house slaw and pickles. The smoked brisket or dinosaur ribs (perhaps the most popular dishes on the menu) are carved to order and sold by the pound.
Ingredients:
20 chicken wings
salt, for sprinkling
coarse black pepper, for sprinkling
oil, for frying
¼ cup sriracha sauce
¾ cup honey
Season wings with salt and pepper.
Ignite one side of the grill. Place wood chips into a foil packet; poke holes into packet. Place packet over the fire under the grates.
Add wings to the other side of the grill. Close grill lid; smoke for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a deep fryer. When oil is hot, fry wings until they float to the top.
In a saucepan, combine sriracha sauce and honey over medium-low heat. Mix and cook for 3-4 minutes. Brush over wings.