Blogger Spotlight

Today the spotlight is on Alessandra Rovati from Dinner In Venice our favorite Kosher Italian food blog.

What is your earliest cooking memory?
Making gnocchi while my mother was at work and I was at home with the chickenpox (I must have been about 8). Our housekeeper was a nice older lady who never tried to stop me from experimenting in the kitchen. Apparently, my mom knew what was going on as soon as she walked into the building – and we lived on the fourth floor! – because the traces of flour went all the way down to the street, at least that’s what she told me….

Crostata Di Ricotta

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
Probably the “Mezzaluna”, my Italian double-handed knife… I am constantly chopping fresh herbs and that’s what gives me the most control.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
Having grown up in Venice, I have to say risotto: hundreds of years ago Venetian Jews were already famous for their risottos “all’onda” (creamy and not too dense) and everybody still loves them now. It’s actually the Venetian Shabbat rice that is thought by many historians to have inspired the famous ‘risotto milanese’ with saffron. I find the constant stirring required for making this dish well more relaxing than yoga, especially because I get to taste something yummy!

Who is your cooking inspiration?
l have always liked eating in people’s homes more than in restaurants, because there is something intimate about food (after all, you put it into your body!). For this reason, most of my inspiration comes from family and friends – my mother first, for her “scientific” approach to cooking, and her obsession with olive oil (she is from Tuscany!), even in the early 70′s when a lot of people in the Veneto region cooked everything with butter or seed oil. Also, because there are only about 450 (Italian) Jews living in Venice, we don’t use a caterer for most holiday community-wide meals, but rely on a handful of volunteers. I was always impressed by a couple of the older ladies who could easily pull off a meal for hundreds while also taking care of their own family meals, and basically with no staff…

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:
When making pasta, always add a ladleful of the cooking water to the sauce: it acts as both a thickener and an emulsifier and makes it taste creamy even if you didn’t use much fat.

When making pasta for Shabbat, make an oilier sauce, use more sauce, and add more cooking water. That way, when you reheat it, it won’t dry out. You should also keep it very ‘al dente’ and reheat it only for the time it takes to make it lukewarm, or it will become mushy.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Main Image – Tagliolini in Lemon Sauce

Crostata di Ricotta

Alessandra Rovati

Alessandra Rovati was born and raised in Venice, Italy, and has had a passion for food since a very young age (she is said to have feasted on garlic and chili-marinated herring at 15 months). Alessandra writes about Kosher and Jewish Italian food and teaches cooking; she also posts free recipes and how-to’s, offering a glimpse of Jewish Italian culinary history, on her website, Dinner in Venice.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

In December of 2010 I was working at an uninspired corporate job that I wasn’t passionate about, so I started What Jew Wanna Eat (WJWE) as a creative outlet. I called up my Bubbe Eleanor, and of course she was kvelling when I told her about the idea! She sent me dozens of her favorite traditional Jewish recipes. To add my personal touch, I twisted each recipe a bit to make them my own such as pumpkin hummus or dark chocolate mandel bread. Before I knew it, WJWE turned into so much more! I quit my job and now am in culinary school, teaching cooking classes and food writing on the side. I love it!

What is your earliest cooking memory?

Definitely baking rugelach with my Mom and Bubbe! I remember rolling out the dough, sprinkling the cinnamony sugar mixture inside and then waiting for them to bake as the scent of homemade baked goodies filled the house. And then I would get kicked out of the kitchen for the cleaning part- I was never good at that! Usually I made things messier. I wish someone would clean for me now…

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

I love my Kitchenaid mixer, but lately I have been into my food scale! It helps make baking more accurate, and once you get the hang of it, it is actually quicker than measuring things out in cups. I swear!

Mexican Potato Latkes

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

I really love playing around with my challah recipes. I made a pumpkin challah in the fall that I turned into an awesome bread pudding, and cannot wait to play with some spring flavors in the next few months! Maybe an herbed challah? Ooh that may be a keeper!

Who is your cooking inspiration?

Definitely my Bubbe! Not only is she an awesome cook (her brisket is to die for!) but she encourages me in all my endeavors and is just so proud of me! I get all verklempt just talking about her!

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

I love making homemade whipped cream for dairy dishes, but it can be tricky! Start with using a cold bowl and whisk or mixer and beat the cream until just before stiff peaks form, and then beat in the sugar and extract to a stiff peak. You can have fun with the flavors from basic vanilla to lemon and more!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
Even though Hanukkah is months away, I must share my Mexican Potato Latke recipe- it is the most popular one on my blog by far! And my Jerusalem Artichoke Salad (Pictured above) is also a keeper- I make a big batch in the beginning of the week and nosh on it for lunch!

Amy is a food writer and recipe developer from Austin, Texas. In her spare time, Amy enjoys country music, theme parties and cowboys. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

Real Food Digest is about inspiring people to cook more at home from natural unrefined ingredients and the impact this approach has on our health and the sustainability of the environment. Real Food Digest is also about reconnecting to the roots of our Jewish tradition – our holidays are based on an agricultural calendar and many of our customs have a connection to nature.

My husband persuaded me to start blogging a few years ago to share recipes, cooking advice, and green living tips that my friends kept asking for.  It’s been a great way to connect to others who care about the quality and ethics of our food, teach others what real food is all about, and learn from an amazing online community.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

Watching my mom cook. Her priority to have a home-cooked meal for her children every night even while working full time is so admirable.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?  

A sharp chef’s knife.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

Chicken soup – I make it almost every week in my slow cooker. It’s full of minerals and nutrients plus I get a few meals out of it; soup, chicken salad, and enough stock to freeze for preparing rice and other dishes throughout the week.

Who is your cooking inspiration?

My local farmers. I use to create weekly menus from my favorite cookbooks, but now that I go to the farmer’s market every week I get inspired by the amazing fresh produce I bring home each week and plan my menus around what’s in season.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:

Don’t be afraid of using fats!  I love using butter or ghee and coconut oil in my cooking – they add a ton of flavor, keep you satisfied longer (and keep those sugar cravings away), and actually help our bodies absorb the nutrients in our food. Vegetable oils and non-dairy spreads are highly processed. We’re taught to fear fat in our diet but many traditional societies using saturated fats from animals and plants (like coconuts) demonstrated robust health until the introduction of industrialized products like vegetable oils and refined flours.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Slow Cooker Ginger Chicken Broth – a nutrient rich and easy dinner.

Apple Macadamia Nut Crisp – a no-fuss recipe that works well for Shabbat entertaining and a great Passover dessert since it can be made without flour.

Lisa’s blog Real Food Digest is a compilation of her favorite recipes, kitchen tips, healthy living resources, and nutritional information. She strives for nutrient dense foods that serve as a foundation for optimal health; foods that offer the body a line of defense against our toxic environment and assists in the prevention of chronic diseases. Most importantly, however, it needs to be delicious.

Most of all, Real Food Digest is about connecting to avibrant online community passionate about real food – minimally processed, without artificial ingredients or pesticides, not genetically modified – and properly prepared.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:
I have always been a food enthusiast. I love cooking my own recipe creations along with the traditional foods from my family which is from Iraq/India. My blog is a way to document my recipes, and a place to give my readers easy, healthy and accessible recipes. To come up with a “clean” recipe you often have to do a lot of recipe testing. It can take a great deal of time to perfect a recipe, and be quite expensive. As a busy mom working full time I do not have enough time to test and perfect every recipe. This is where my blog is unique. I post a new recipe each week, and I also ask for feedback from my readers. If I receive enough feedback on a recipe I will revise the recipe and post a new “Final” recipe. In addition to posting a recipe every week, I write a food related article as well. This is where I share some insights as a busy home cook and food lover. Topics range from spices, to food book reviews, to the essentials for your pantry, to cheese.

What is your earliest cooking memory?
My earliest cooking memory is cooking with my Grandma. She used to babysit me while my parents were at work. She always had me in the kitchen with her and used to let me help with whatever she was making, from cookies to meatballs. My grandma used to love watching cooking shows like The Frugal Gourmet and Julia Child and I used to love watching them with her. I also have a lot of memories of my dad and aunt cooking for huge parties and me sneaking around the kitchen trying to see what they were doing.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?
It is funny that you ask this question because I have an entire post dedicated to kitchen gadgets. I have never had a huge kitchen, so to to be on my list it has to be compact and also inexpensive. I have four listed on my blog, but if I have to pick one it would be my immersion blender.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
All of my recipes are kosher. It is hard to pick a favorite! If I had to pick I would say my chicken soup or pasta sauce.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
My Auntie Seemah. She lives in Israel and is the best cook I know. She lived in Canada when I was growing up and we visited her often. My favorite food memories are of the food she made us. She makes a lot of traditional Iraqi/Indian foods and she does it the old fashioned way. Everything she makes is a labor of love. I can only hope to be as good a cook as she is one day. She cooks like everyone else in my family – without recipes and by instinct so it is hard for me to replicate her cooking. Whenever I see her we spend time in the kitchen together and I try to take lots of notes on everything she makes! In addition to being an amazing cook she is also an excellent baker. I am not an excellent baker so I really admire her for that as well.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:
A recipe does not have to take a long time or be difficult to be delicious. If you keep some essentials in your refrigerator and pantry you are able to whip up delicious and healthy meals in no time. My other tip would be to use fresh ingredients whenever possible.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
I am sharing my family’s chicken soup recipe which I call “Not Your Grandma’s Chicken Soup“. This is a perfect example of Iraqi/Indian/Jewish cooking and was the first post on my blog. It is a different spin on a traditional chicken soup, but so delicious and easy to make. Everyone who has tried the recipe has loved it. I am sharing my Quinoa With Black Beans which is a healthy and easy vegetarian dish. Lastly, I am submitting my Lamb Kababs. We love kababs in my family because they are so versatile and can be made with any kind of meat. They are also an easy, quick and tasty dish.

Micky is a busy mom, home cook, foodie and blog writer.  She strives to provide easy, delicious and health conscious recipes to readers on her blog, www.testmyrecipes.com.  In addition to posting recipes, she also writes food themed articles.  Micky comes from a long line of fantastic and creative cooks and  loves to share her take on her family’s recipes along with her own creations. She firmly believes that food can bring people together and be the basis for lasting memories.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:
I fell obsessively into photography as a hobby around the time my daughter turned one. Take it from experience, it’s not a practical time to start learning and practicing with an infant turned wild toddler. She would not glance at the camera without trying to pull the lens out. So I gave in (a little) and gave her a break. A while later, I somehow found myself reading “top 100 mom blogs” on babble.com, and felt an instant connection to the food blog format. I love cooking, I love photographing, and in my imagination I’m a witty, sharp writer (clearly very far from the truth). It seemed the perfect medium for me to express my creativity. Soon thereafter The Kosher Spoon was born, connecting me to my fellow talented Jewish women and giving me the opportunity to shoot things that sit still and look pretty.

What is your earliest cooking memory?
Growing up, my mother’s kitchen was the place the family (and neighbors and friends) would congregate to eat, drink, talk, laugh. But it was exactly that, my mother’s kitchen. None of us even considered cooking or baking, the kitchen was perpetually off limits. Until one time when I was about eight years old, I convinced my mother to let me bake a chocolate cake from one of those boxed mixes. I even promised to clean up after myself. She reluctantly agreed and and with much excitement I put together the three ingredients and poured the batter into a pan. The minutes passed, and I occupied myself with other things. My mom took the cake out of the oven and as it was cooling I knew I didn’t want to be the first one to taste it. I convinced my brother to take just one bite. Poor thing, he couldn’t even swallow it. He spat it out with such an exaggerated gag that it sealed my decision to never step foot in the kitchen. That resolve held up well for 14 years (save for a few necessary stints) until I got married.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?
I think every kitchen needs a sharp set of knives. After trying out many brands (from wusthof to cutco), I seriously think that the pure komachi 2s are impressively better than the higher end brands. I reach for my pk2 santoku knife with great excitement as I chop and dice onions. Really try them, they’re only like $8!
I also really love my oxo salad spinner but you said only one thing, right? Because it really is handy when you’re koshering greens. Just saying.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
I love making (and eating) Moroccan fish. This dish bursts with my favorite flavors: garlic, paprika, and cilantro. I never get tired of making (and eating) it and I can’t go through a Shabbat without it. It’s almost like Shabbat without challah. Yes, this dish holds a significant place in my heart. And I have yet to blog about it. Stay tuned!

Who is your cooking inspiration?
My mother continues to be my cooking inspiration and resource in so many ways. She has taught me so much of what I know (long distance, nonetheless) and I love sharing ideas with her. I just have to make sure to quarter the amount of oil in her recipes. She’s a true “it’s-tasteless-unless-it’s-bathing-in-cups-of-oil” Sephardic woman.
But for a more holistic approach to food, I can’t stop reading Avivah’s blog, Oceans of Joy. I love her healthy yet down to earth approach to nutrition and education. I wish I can implement all her practices, but i’m working on it. Slowly, really slowly. She is also just a great source of inspiration.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:
One of the first times I made challah, it didn’t rise. My husband’s aunt, a prolific challah baker who can make world peace with her sweet creations, suggested I place a whole garlic on top of the dough while it rises. Of course, I didn’t listen, that was absurd. Until one Friday afternoon the challah dough didn’t rise again. I had nothing to lose so I put garlic on my dough. I kid you not, it rose significantly. It’s my favorite kitchen trick!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
I made an Asparagus tart for the RCCS cookbook that has given me the most hits on my blog, so I had to share.

I’m also sharing my Crunchy Corn Chicken Fingers that my whole family loves, especially since they feel that they are schnitzel-deprived.

And my Red Lentil tacos that were a fun experimental project.

Sina Mizrahi is a wife and full time mommy living in California who is passionate about Torah and motherhood, and loves all things creative and beautiful. Her goal is to present simple, nourishing recipes your appetite can savor and your eyes can relish, along with some inspiration sprinkled in (somehow) on her blog The Kosher Spoon.

About my Blog:

I started Kitchen Vignettes as something like a memoir. Like when Proust nibbled the famous madeleine cookie and it evoked enough memories for him to write a book. There are so many foods, so many different recipes that call up my memories, whether it is for some traditional dish that my mother or grandmother cooked or a special dish I ate in a restaurant or while traveling in a foreign country or while I was experimenting with an ingredient for an article I was writing or even some concoction I remember seeing or tasting at school when I was a kid. So, many of the blog posts on Kitchen Vignettes are just that: little reminiscences that speak to why I am choosing a particular recipe to share. I believe that when people read about food memories it also evokes their own memories. And that may make them want to cook whatever dish it is that I’m writing about. And that makes me feel terrific, as if I have accomplished something not just for me but whoever is reading the blog. And I hope it gives them some good time with their own memories.

My First Cooking Memory:

I am not sure whether I actually remember this or whether my Mom told me the story so many times that I think I remember. But my earliest cooking memory, real or imagined, is of me, a long, long time ago, age 5, standing on a chair at the kitchen sink, with a big adult-size apron around me, cleaning a chicken. We were away for the summer and my mother ordered a chicken from a local, unfamiliar butcher. The chicken wasn’t eviscerated (this was a long time ago!) and she threatened to throw it away. But I knew she had planned to make fried chicken that night and her fried chicken was so good I couldn’t imagine throwing away that wonderful chicken that was going to be that wonderful dinner. So I said that I’d rip out the insides and so she said okay, and so I did, and then she let me help dip the chicken in seasoned flour, which was great fun! Then I watched her fry her wonderful fried chicken that we all enjoyed for dinner.

My Favorite Kitchen Gadget:

My favorite kitchen gadget, oh I actually have two. First I love my microplanes. I have several sizes for grating different ingredients. A microplane does a perfect job getting the outer peel off of an orange or lemon because it makes ultra-thin, teeny shreds or pieces that blend with other ingredients more easily and allows the peel to be more evenly distributed. (These gadgets are also ideal for grating cheese.) I also like my small citrus juicer (two parts; you put a reamer on top of a plastic pitcher, press the fruit through a strainer and pour out as much juice as is needed). I obviously use a lot of citrus in my cooking! I find it adds a fresh vitality to a variety of foods.

What is my Favorite Kosher Dish to Cook:

I don’t think I could pick a favorite kosher dish to cook. There are too too many. I can say that I make Mujadarah (called Bulgur Wheat with Lentils, Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms in my book, “Hip Kosher”) very often because it is one of my children’s, in-law children’s, grandchildren’s and husband’s (and my) favorite things to eat. But when I serve that I usually also make Spinach Pie (also in the book), which we also love and before that dinner we often have Carrot and Parsnip Soup, another well-loved, well-used recipe (from the book). Of course I hate to brag but everyone says my Challah is worth an academy award, and I make it almost every week and in fact I double the recipe because an 8-cup of flour recipe will barely last the weekend. If I had to pick a favorite kosher meat recipe I suppose it would be Chicken with Dates and Toasted Almonds (also in “Hip Kosher”) because it is bountiful in flavor, a hint of both sweet and spicy and I can make it ahead and heat it up when I need it. It’s winter now and I am feeing cold, so this dish, which is braised, is particularly warming. In the summer, when it’s hot I would probably choose Bulgogi, a Korean dish for the grill that makes you re-think what you can do with cheaper cuts of meat like flanken. As you can see, none of these dishes sounds exactly kosher, but everyone who knows me knows that I am not a traditional cook. My mission is to show the world that anyone can make modern, culturally diverse, globally-influenced food that may not be traditionally Jewish but is definitely kosher!

Who is my Cooking Inspiration:

I have two cooking inspirations. My Mom, who always let me “potchky” in the kitchen and never worried about the mess. She taught me the basics of course and was insistent on the judicious use of herbs and spices, which is probably why I like to experiment with different flavors. My other inspiration is Julia Child, the best cooking teacher there ever was, no-nonsense but fun. A woman who understood that cooking should be enjoyable and inspiring, not an intimidating chore. And some of her best recipes translate beautifully in the kosher kitchen (I bet she never knew that!).

Here’s the best tip I can give any home cook:

Always keep certain stock items in your kitchen: lemons, an orange, canned beans, packaged (or frozen) stock (vegetable, chicken and beef), sun dried tomatoes, dried mushrooms, imported olives, dry pasta, condiments such as Harissa and Hoisin sauce, spices and so on (there are 4 pages of suggestions in “Hip Kosher”) because these ingredients give you flexibility and open up a world of possibilities for your meals. I encourage everyone to experiment with new flavors, even if only to see how they fit into old, tried-and-true recipes: for example, instead of making pasta with tomato sauce, use olive oil and a can of beans, some cut up sun dried tomatoes and peas. Or add some Harissa to vegetable soup. This is how tasty new recipes get invented.

My best advice?

Don’t let the kitchen scare you. Cooking is fun. Do what you can. Enjoy what you cook. Don’t try to be Julia Child or the Iron Chef. Be you.

What recipes are you sharing with us?

Roasted Moroccan Spiced Chicken Breasts
Chicken (or Turkey) Couscous Salad with Grapes, Oranges and Cashews
Baked Goat Cheese with Dried Cranberries and Honey

Ronnie Fein has been a freelance food and lifestyle writer since 1980. She has her own food blog, called Kitchen Vignettes. Ronnie is the author of Hip Kosher and operates the Ronnie Fein School of Creative Cooking in Stamford, Connecticut, where she lives with her husband. She has two married daughters and four grandchildren.

What is your earliest cooking memory?
My earliest cooking memory is probably about my mother preparing our family meals. I used to sit on the kitchen floor, obviously getting in her way, and stare at her while she was cooking until she would let me join her. My fondest memory is snapping fresh and plump peas out of their shells: that was fun!

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
I’m very fond of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, mainly because it allows me to save time and energy when kneading homemade bread, which is something I love. There’s nothing better than a crunchy bread made from scratch fresh out of the oven.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
I am an Italian Jew of sephardic descent: my favourite kosher dishes, therefore, have middle Eastern or North-african flavours. My signature Shabbat dinner recipe is “lubia bel kemun”, a spicy stew with cumin that is simply perfect accompanied by cous cous.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
Being very young – I’m only 22 – I must say that my inspiration comes first of all from my family: to me, my mum and grandmother are simply the best cooks in the world. On the other hand, I’m also inspired by celebrity chefs who still keep their food simple and homely, such as Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers.
I once wrote a whole post with my cooking tricks. Shoud I name just one, very special trick, here it is: add a slice of apple in the oil when you’re frying, and a pinch of coarse salt. The first will save you and your kitchen from the horrible frying smell, the latter will prevent oil spatters on the stove. I know it sounds weird, but it really works: give it a try!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
Being, as I said, of both Italian and North-African origin, I’d love to share two recipes, one Italian – Homemade Pasta,  and one Libyan – Pumpkin Tershi, plus the one I’ve mentioned before, Lubia Bel Kemun.

 
Jasmine lives in Milan, Italy, and writes about Italian and Jewish food on Labna. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started: A dear friend, fan of my demos, suggested I change my website to a more interactive format, and proceeded to not only do the whole format conversion, but to give me a whole tutorial about how to use the blog. It was as if I was learning Chinese. To think I finally got it!

What is your earliest cooking memory? Definitely, cooking with chestnuts. My first encounter with raw chestnuts was brutal. In fact, it was the reason it took me a few months instead of just a few days to establish myself as a talented cook with my new entourage. At seventeen, I was fresh out of my childhood home and living in a dorm on the university campus in Strasbourg, France. Looking out of my window one Sunday morning, I admired a chestnut tree growing right on the campus grounds. Until then, I had always enjoyed chestnuts roasted from the street stands. I had a sudden urge for the delicious nuts and decided to go down and get some. “How hard could it be to roast them?” I wondered. I put them in a pot, covered the pot and put it on the stove of the dorm kitchen. I decided they would be ready in about half an hour, ample time for a bath.

After about fifteen minutes, I heard what sounded like a mob pounding at my door. Seized with panic, I managed to get dressed at lightning speed and opened the door with great trepidation. The mob was led by the custodian of the dorm, who appraised me with a scornful look. The chestnuts, I was told, had burst out of their shells and out of the pot. The whole dorm had heard the “explosions”. “For crying out loud,” the custodian said haughtily. “Don’t you know you have to make a slit in the chestnuts before you cook them?” How would I know? No one had ever told me, at that tender age, about boiling chestnuts, and a slew of other valuable things in life. Now I know!

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget? Without hesitation, I would say the food processor. I simply couldn’t live without it!

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook? As you know I develop all my recipes, for my cookbooks and my demos, so they are all my babies: Do I need to choose between them? OY! Let me just give you a hint: I absolutely love to cook all those dishes, of which I speak abundantly in my latest cookbook, that take minutes, costs pennies, and taste like a million bucks: My chapter on grain soups, and my chapter on Chicken One, Two and Turmeric, with all fish adaptations, and all meat adaptations, bear out my point in full!

Who is your cooking inspiration? My mother is my first and most enduring inspiration. She is the artisan I admire the most, for her streamlined, inexpensive and super healthy cooking, as well as for all the other crafts she is so extraordinarily talented at.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers: It sounds ridiculously simple, maybe even frankly a little reckless, but I would be happy to be challenged about it anytime: Cooking from scratch wins the race!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Caesar’s Salad
Soba Noodles with Roasted Roots
Moroccan Chraimi Fish 

About Lévana: Lévana Kirschenbaum was co-owner of Levana Restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (alas, recently closed after thirty two years), and the pioneer in Kosher upscale dining. She is a cooking teacher and cookbook author, and gets countless devoted fans for her fearless, practical and nutritious approach to cooking. She gives weekly cooking demos, and gets cooking demo engagements around the country. She has published “Lévana’s Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone”, “Levana Cooks Dairy-Free!”, and a book-dvd set based on her demo series called “In Short Order”. She is launching a line of all-natural spelt desserts, called, what else, Lévana. Her weekly cooking demos take place at her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side: Get ready for dinner and a show! Go onto her website to find out more about her demos, cookbooks, desserts, and entertaining stories at www.levanacooks.com

Click to Pre Order Lévana’s newest cookbook ” THE WHOLE FOODS KOSHER KITCHEN: Glorious Meals Pure and Simple”, coming out March 15th 2012.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started: I started Busy in Brooklyn just one year ago after my husband encouraged me to share my love of cooking and entertaining with the world. I post about my cooking, crafting and coping experiences. You’ll find lots of easy, fun and exciting recipes as well as basic cooking tips and tutorials. I never imagined blogging would be so fulfilling. I feel honored to have become part of the kosher blogging community.

What is your earliest cooking memory? As a teenager, I used to help my mom prepare salads for Shabbos. I loved chopping up the vegetables, but I wasn’t too good at seasoning them. More than once, I rendered a salad entirely inedible by adding too much vinegar or salt. It’s funny because nowadays, salads are my favorite thing to prepare. I love coming up with original combinations of ingredients and thankfully, I havent spoiled one in years.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget? My favorite kitchen utensil would have to be a whisk. Hence the whisk in the Busy in Brooklyn logo! I love using whisks to emulsify salad dressings, mix up the dry and wet ingredients for cakes and of course to whip up eggs.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook? That’s a hard one, I love cooking everything! Specifically, I would have to say that my favorite dishes to prepare are around the holidays. I love coming up with new and exciting ways to incorporate traditional holiday ingredients and repurpose my leftovers from each meal.

Who is your cooking inspiration? My mother is an excellent cook. She definitely inspired my love for food. When I got married and started entertaining, I wanted to replicate the smells of her kitchen in my own home.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers: People have a really hard time peeling squash. If you’re using it to make soup or kugel, roast the squash whole at 425 degrees until fork-tender. You won’t need to peel it, and roasting it enhances the flavor and brings out it’s natural sweetness.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today? My wonton beef empanadas are a favorite. I love that they are baked and not fried and the fact that I whipped them up with all the leftover ingredients I had sitting in the fridge. I’m also sharing my recipe for poached pears. I’m not the biggest baker but I love to come up with delicious desserts that are easy and pretty to look at.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started: Kitchen Tested is a blog devoted to cooking original, experimental and adventurous recipes and making them accessible in your own kitchen. I’ll practically try anything, especially when I get recipes requests from readers, and I’ll tell you all about the highs and lows of my cooking experiences. My recipes are written in a step-by-step process, including pictures along the way so the readers can practically copy the recipe without questions. I started Kitchen Tested because I was posting pictures of my kitchen adventures on Facebook and was getting tons of requests for the recipes. My wonderful friend recommended that I turn my Facebook album in to a blog and with some help from my techy brother, Kitchen Tested became a reality.

What is your earliest cooking memory? Making chocolate cake in my E-Z Bake oven! I used to sit in the kitchen while my mom cooked and I would bake right along side her. I can still taste the moist chocolate cake baked under a light bulb. Yum.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget? I have a few: parchment paper, a microplane, The Fasta Pasta Microwave Cooker (trust me, this thing is amazing), glass mixing bowls, and a silicon spatula.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook? Wow, this is a tough one! I try to cook at least one new thing every week, but my favorite kosher dish has got to be Sauerkraut Brisket in my crock pot. Comes out perfect every time and even people who say they don’t like sauerkraut end up loving this dish!

Who is your cooking inspiration? I have two and I cannot chose between them because they each add something special to my life. My first is my Savtah, Adina Russak, who passed away years ago but still inspires me today. She was an incredible cook and she always made really unique and delicious food. Some of my most important food memories took place in her house: eating piles and piles of pistachios, tasting fresh homemade peppermint ice cream, chowing down on sweet and sour duck and eating watching her boil a whole tongue on the stove. My second inspiration is TV personality Andrew Zimmern. I guess he seems like an obvious choice for me since he eats bizarre food, but he always says “if it looks good, eat it” and I truly believe in that. He also says to “try everything twice” and I live my life by that rule. It’s not just about food either. No matter how scared you are to try something new, it’s always worth trying it at least once, maybe even twice.

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers: If a recipe calls for buttermilk but you are making something parve, just make your own non-dairy version! For a cup of buttermilk, just add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or hot sauce to 1 cup of soy milk and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes. Now you can make buttermilk fried chicken!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
Veal and Leek Pot Pie
Candied Jalapenos
Peppermint Sandwich Kisses

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