Cookbook Spotlight – Kosher by Design Cooking Coach
The new Susie Fishbein cookbook, the eighth in her Kosher by Design series, is more than just a cookbook filled with recipes and stories. It is more like a lesson book you might use in cooking school. This time around Susie wants you to learn to take off the training wheels. Of course there is always a need for amazing tried and true recipes, but it is time to free yourself form their constraints and learn how to cook with what you have in your pantry.
After a decade of demos and classes, Susie decided to give us a book with how to instructions on all the basic and some not so basic cooking skills. Even if cooking doesn’t come naturally to you, most of us have to do it, but the more comfortable and confident you are in the kitchen the more enjoyable it will be.
In this book, at the beginning of each section you will find the Game Plan. This section covers all the techniques you will need, including instructional photos so that you can see how it is done. You will learn everything from sharpening a knife to using your knives properly. Susie wants to make sure you know, “how important your knives are and how to keep them sharp.” But she doesn’t stop there. In the soup section you learn about sweating and cooling and this refers to vegetables not yourself. You will learn everything about types/cuts of meat, how to carve poultry and how to cook fish perfectly. She offers tips on separating eggs and teaches you how to temper chocolate.
“Once you learn a technique, you own it. If people who read this book come out with some new techniques that they could then apply to all of their cooking, not just a particular recipe, then my biggest goal, will have been met. If you learn the proper way to roast cauliflower for a cauliflower recipe, the same exact tips and techniques as far as spacing and pan selection, which affect results, apply to roasting any kind of vegetable,” explains Susie. After you read through and understand the techniques you can hone your skills with any of her tantalizing recipes. But, before you decide which recipes to cook, don’t miss the section called the Playbook. This section offers ways to use leftovers for many of the recipes to create other dishes, so you can cook one night and eat for two. Susie understands why some readers may be skeptical of seeing last night’s dinner again, “[leftovers] get older and more well done every time they are plopped in front of you. Nothing beats the taste and eye appeal of fresh food. I have given this a lot of thought and deal with it in the PLAYBOOK section of the book which tells people how to reincarnate their leftovers into completely new and unrecognizable dishes.”
To learn more about Susie Fishbein, read our In the Joy of Kosher Kitchen with Susie Fishbein article from two years ago when her last book came out. Susie is not giving away anything about her next project, but she does assure me that there is something in the works.
Enjoy a sampling of recipes from her new book and then go and BUY IT to get the rest of them unless you are lucky enough to be a winner – enter below.
Tomato Tarte Tatin with Playbook Tips










love those asparagus fries!
This is a great cookbook!
That tomato tarte tatin looks great!
The fries look awesome and the tartin is beautiful. I might add these to my Purim Seudah.
I always loved susie’s recipes!
Such a great and easy to read cookbook with wonderful meal ideas!
Amazing recipes, so little time…but the time there is…these recipes are worth it
This cookbook looks like it can teach me new skills and give me confidence in the kitchen.
I have many of her cookbooks and this one really intrigues me. It would be a great gift for me
Sounds so helpful! Would love to win.
I have always loved Susie’s cookbooks. I even got the Teens and Twenty Somethings for myself, even though I am well beyond the age limit.
Can’t wait to try the kosher recipes
I love the Turkey Shepherd Pie and the use of sweet potatoes as the top layer. The ingredients are healthy and the result is delicious.
My neighbour has this cookbook. I”m eager to try out some of the soups!
my mom got this cookbook and loves it- I am curious to see what all the hype is all about!
Love Susie’s cookbooks. Own every one, except this one! Make my collection complete, please.
It will be interesting to learn her tips since she is so successful.
I would weed out several of my large (and less practical) cookbooks for this one!
I love the green bean and asparagus fries… great twist on an otherwise unhealthy side.
nice
I love her cookbooks!
well done
Sounds like a good mix for both the experienced and not-quite-gourmet chefs out there.
Looks like a cookbook I would LOVE to have!
The cookbook looks wonderful!
Looks like a great cookbook
The Turkey Shepherd’s pie looks amazing!
i wud luv this cookbook!
I love ALL of Susies’s recipes. Would love to win this cookbook and bring it back to Israel with me!!!
Would love to try out some of these new recipes!
I keep borrowing my mothers copy, its an amazing cookbook. I want mybown!
I love Susie Fishbein’s books!!!! They are the only ones I ever use!
Love her cookbooks!
really like these cookbooks, and that plate of green bean and asparagus fries looks really good
Yum! Those pics look amazing! I’ve heard of the cookbook but I would love to get my hands on a copy.
Yum! Those pics look great!!! I’ve heard of this cookbook but I sure would love to get my hands on one of them!
Love Susie!
I have all the KBD cookbooks and really want to try this one!
wow, that really looks great! would love to win it!
Amazing cookbook! My daughter took to her home it so now I need to buy another!
The tomato tart tatin is gorgeous and actually not difficult to make. Also, fried veggies: what could be bad!
These recipes look great. Love the Yemenite beef soup recipe from this cookbook!
The Green Bean Fries look awesome. Got to get that cookbook.
I have two of Susie’s cookbooks and would love to have this one too!
i love susie’s cookbooks! the recipes are fantastic and the food looks delicious!
Love the look of that tomato
I love this cookbook, what a great review!
Love that tomato tatin! I am starting to read my copy now and I am loving it so far. Excellent review!
those “fries” look delicious!
Those fries look delicious!
The recipe for the Turkey Sheppard Pie looks great. I am so impressed that it is gluten free.