In the joyofkosher Kitchen

Panko are Japanese bread crumbs.  A long time secret of Japanese  cuisines, panko is now a pantry staple for creating perfect crispiness in any dish.  Panko is a culinary superstar.  The large flaky crumb has a coarser texture than traditional breadcrumbs and delivers a lighter crunchier coating.  Whether frying, baking or broiling, panko has become the bread crumb of choice in my house.

Panko is made from the soft tender centers of bread, but not all panko is created equally.  Usually with new foods we have to wait to get a kosher certified product.  With panko we did not have to wait long thanks to Chef Jeff Nathan, who brought us kosher panko back in 2004 and his panko is as good as any other on the market.  But Chef Jeff didn’t stop with just panko, he created two flavored varieties, Italian and Fine Herbs.  The flavors are strong so you want to make sure to use them in the appropriate settings, but once you experience how it elevates the basic chicken schnitzel with flavor and texture, you will never want to go back to regular bread crumbs.

Now, this year, Chef Jeff debuts a new panko for gluten free consumers that is also Kosher for Passover.  Made from a mixture of tapioca starch and potatoes, these crumbs are not quite as flaky as the original, but make a very good substitute for those in need of gluten free or to enjoy on Passover.  The crumbs adhered well to the chicken and created a nice crispy crust when fried or baked and that is really what you are looking for when breading your chicken – -especially when you can’t “bread” it at all!

Use panko to coat your next meal, try Panko Crusted Fish Sticks or share some of your favorite panko recipes with us.

Trinigourmet.com is a food blog that is dedicated to helping food lovers around the world add a dash of ‘Caribbean Glam’ to their tables. I started the site in 2006 after a car accident made me unable to continue my work as a life and business coach. A chance online conversation with an old college friend brought into sharp focus the rich culinary heritage of my country. I now realized I had a new mission. To spread the word of the dishes and approaches we here in Trinidad & Tobago, too often take for granted. Within 24 hours of that conversation I registered the domain and got cooking! I’m thrilled that in seeking to preserve and elevate visual depictions of our region’s culinary heritage we’ve introduced readers around the world to a cuisine that still remains largely under promoted and increasingly vulnerable to dilution and misrepresentation.

Okra Rice

I was an extremely late bloomer when it came to moving around a kitchen. Growing up, as an only child, I spent most of my time in the kitchen watching my mother cook. She was a prolific recipe collector with a passion for international cuisine, something that definitely rubbed off on me. However, the kitchen was very much her domain and the message was clear that though I was free to watch, I was also expected to stay out of her way. What attempts I did make as a child and a teen were usually inedible – dry omelets, soggy pizzas, fallen cakes. The list goes on!

It’s going to be a battle between my food processor and my Silpat. I have extremely passionate emotions about both. If I had to pick one though the food processor would win. I didn’t get one until my mid 30′s and had no idea how liberating it would be!

Creole Vichyssoise

That’s a wonderful question. If there’s one complaint that friends and family have it’s that I don’t repeat many dishes. This is because I’m always trying new things, whether it’s for the blog, or my own recipe development. Still there will always be those favourites that we turn to for comfort reasons or because they are tied to certain times of year. I love the simplicity of a well-roasted chicken. It can be customized in so many ways, through changes in glazing and stuffing, and is wonderful for a potluck, shabbat, or yom tov spread.

Without a doubt Mario Batali has probably had the greatest influence on my culinary point of view. His seasonal approach to using the freshest ingredients, and his emphasis on allowing the essence of a main ingredient to shine in as unmasked a form as possible has really shaped my improvisational abilities, as well as how I interpret and re-interpret the dishes that I have grown up with. I have also become consumed in recent years with Julia Child. Even though I attended her alma mater (Smith College) her work had never reached Trinidad. In recent years I’ve been able to see her shows on PBS and the Cooking Channel and got a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. All of which have been positively life changing!

I love to add a touch of island flair to dishes by using coconut milk in lieu of dairy. Not only does it add another layer of flavour, it complements both sweet and savory preparations and is pareve as well!

7.  Tell us a little more about your being Jewish in Trindad?

My own background is via the Jewish Jamaican community through my mother who is Jamaican. I enjoy finding kosher ways to express
Caribbean dishes, as well as infusing traditional Jewish dishes with Caribbean approaches. You can see an example of that in this video I
did with Daniel Saks of the US Jewish band DeLeon.

There aren’t many ways to express Jewish life in my country, so kosher eating is one of the few avenues I have to do so on any regular basis.

Here is an article I wrote on the background of the Trinidad Jewish community. We are a very low-key group.

Okra Rice

Creole Vichysoisse

Main Image – Chicken Stir Fry

Sarina is the founder of TriniGourmet An award-winning blog that helps food lovers around the world add a dash of Caribbean Glam to their tables. Caribbean food that just happens to be kosher.

Herbivoracious is the not only the name of a new cookbook with 150 original Vegetarian recipes, but also a fabulous food blog both by Michael Natkin. Michael became a vegetarian at the age of 18 and taught himself to cook. His ideas of a vegetarian lifestyle is not one that compromises taste. He is inspired by global cuisine and is inventive in the dishes he prepares. Michael is an Ashkenazic Jew and he grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, he is married to a Sephardic woman now and they both identify strongly with the Jewish community. I had the pleasure of meeting Micahel and learning more about him and how we can all benefit from his vegetarian teachings.  Visit his blog, Herbivoracious and Buy the Book.

When and why did you decide to go vegetarian?

About 30 yrs ago. I had a girlfriend who was vegetarian and she was teaching me to cook. I loved food. Then my mother was sick with cancer and she was trying everything including a macrobiotic diet, but she couldn’t cook the food herself, so I learned and cooked for her.

Before then I had been eating meat and fast food all the time. Once I started to eat vegetarian with my mom I just knew it was right for me. It is not quite an animal rights thing, I just have an empathy to animals.

Why didn’t you go all the way to vegan?

At the time I had never really heard of vegan. It is probably something I have started to think of only in the last several years, but am not ready to do. I do choose organic and when possible I buy directly from a farmer.

Kouftikes De Prasa Sandwiches

Tell me about your Jewish heritage?

My family is Ashkenazic and I grew up in Louisville where there was a small Jewish community, but we had 4 shuls. To be honest, I didn’t feel a strong attachment to religion, but I respect the value and I love the community. When I met my wife, even though she is Sephardic, our shared Jewish background really helped us connect. We recently joined a small community shul.

Has it influenced your culinary identity?

The sephardic stuff has! My wife’s grandmother is 93 and she still cooks all the traditional foods. I have three or four Sephardic recipes in the book. We also went to Israel five years ago and I just loved the food. I can’t wait to go back.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about vegetarian food?

A lot of people think gray, baseless, tasteless food. My food is healthy, but it is the farthest thing from my mind. I cook for pleasure and I know eating a variety of foods will take care of health. I design recipes to be big and bold and hearty and I uses dishes from all over the world in inspire me.

Chanterelle Banh Mi Bites

What advice would you give someone considering going veg?

Don’t put pressure on yourself to do it all at once. If you try and do it cold turkey and you don’t know what to cook you will fail and be unhappy. Start going meatless a few nights a week, build up a repertoire of recipes that are tasty and satisfying and slowly work your way to a vegetarian lifestyle.

What has been your most memorable coking experience?

I have worked or rather interned (we call it staging) in three professional kitchens to learn techniques and how to work in that space. I have always dreamed of opening my own restaurant. The first time I put on my whites in a professional kitchen, that was the most memorable experience.
And I hope to make my dream come true in a few months with my own small restaurant, showing how a blog materializes in a restaurant. There won’t be a menu and I will only be open a few hours a day to serve food, it is very exciting.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

I strongly remember my mom teaching me to make meatloaf. I think the tactile experience, mixing it with my hands really helped me enjoy the food. I believe we should experience food with all our senses and when cooking it is important to follow the recipe but also listen, look and taste to make it our own.

What is your worst kitchen disaster?

We had a fruit fly problem in our house and I had to find a place to put the fruit bowl. I don’t like putting it in the fridge so I stuck it in the oven, forgot about it and preheated it for another meal. Oh well, we ended up with cobbler.

What is your favorite ingredient and why?

This really keeps changing, but I love brown butter. You basically melt butter over medium heat, it takes 7 to 10 minutes and then you can use it in all sorts of recipes, I like to use it in corn bread. It has a nice nutty aroma.

Tip: add non fat dry milk powder to butter as it is browning, then strain it. It adds protein so it creates an ultra power brown butter.

Here are some vegetarian versions of traditional recipes from around the world:

Kouftikes de Prasa

Chanterele Bahn Mi Bites

Indian Fry Bread

It’s an interesting twist of fate that Marnie cooks mostly Syrian foods nowadays—she wouldn’t have predicted that growing up as an all-American Ashkenazi girl in New Jersey. Her father and extended family were all in the food service business—catering, prepared foods, baked goods, and deli were the backdrop of her life. Though her mother came from American stock, she was a versatile and broad cook. Marnie fondly remembers her mother’s foray into Oriental cooking and the many Sundays she’d return home bearing bags of food to cook and entertain. “As a kid I found my mother’s cooking style motivating and exciting.”

When Marnie married, her kitchen IQ gained a boost under the direction of her Moroccan mother-in-law. Her status as a successful wife and kitchen pro were confirmed when Pesach during her first year of marriage arrived. After preparing and serving alongside her mother-in-law, her husband’s family couldn’t tell who had cooked what—the ultimate compliment.

Marnie’s generous style is somewhat compromised these days due to a recent move to a house whose oven can only accommodate one 9 x 13 pan! Before her move, Marnie went professional, preparing privately ordered Shabbos meals and mouth watering Syrian mazzah (hors d’oeuvres). Until she can return to cooking for the masses, she’s busy caring for and feeding her young family and trying to get them to be more adventurous eaters. “I’m ‘The Frustrated Gourmet!’ Everyone loves my food but my kids won’t eat!”

Among Marnie’s signature recipes are her lehme b’agines (small, sweet and savory meat pizzas), creamy garlic, tangy citrus, and creamy cumin salad dressings and her legendary chicken nuggets. “I put so much love into it—it has to be good. It’s a Kabbalistic concept; what you put in is what you take out. If you put love in your bread, your children will be eating love. They feel it and it’s there—whether they taste it or not.”

Rainbow Orzo Salad

Mediterranean Quinoa

We recently met Victoria, the Itsy Bitsy Balebusta on Twitter, her joy and passion for food came across immediately.  Her tag line, adventures learning how to make a home and take life with a grain of salt (& a bit of chocolate too!) and her sharing her love and memories of her grandmother is inspiring.  Victoria lives in Montreal.  It is so wonderful to welcome her to the JoyofKosher Kitchen where we get to find out more about this young up and comer.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

Last year when my grandmother fell ill, I wanted to do something to recognize and celebrate the amazing women in my life. I come from a vibrant Portuguese family where food is the central aspect to all get-togethers. When I started keeping kosher my family was absolutely incredible and did all they could to help makeover all of the recipes so that I could continue to share and pass on traditional family recipes. This blog is my small way of celebrating the amazing women who have made me who I am today. Each recipe I share helps me to preserve and share memories in the hope that these dishes will bring others together to create memories of their own!

What is your earliest cooking memory?

I can remember standing next to my grandmother in the kitchen at an early age, watching her prepare breakfast and allowing me to pour milk into the sauce pan or sprinkle the cinnamon as a final touch. My earliest cooking memory that really stands out would have to be in grade ten when I was taking a cooking class at school and attempted to recreate the meal at home for my family. After a lengthy grocery-shopping trip I sent my family to sit in the living room while I prepared the meal – tomato galette and a zucchini casserole. My brave little brother made his way through half of the meal before asking if he could please make a sandwich instead! Even though we all ended up having sandwiches that night, it didn’t ruin my love for cooking and helped give me a sense of humor when preparing meals for my family!

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

For years I dreamed of owning my own KitchenAid stand mixer. A month before she passed away, my grandmother Avo Lina, made it happen (making me promise that I’d make plenty of challah and cake!). It proudly sits on my kitchen counter now and every week while I’m making dessert and challah I like to think she’ll always be a part of all the prep.

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

My favorite kosher dish to cook would be kugel! Broccoli kugel and potato kugel are definitely my favorite. They’re fun to make with very little prep or clean up and are versatile. I also love to make schnitzel! I love trying new spices in the breading as well as different ways of preparing the chicken – to date one of my favorites is to coat the chicken with barbeque sauce and then into the breading infused with whichever spices come to hand!

Who is your cooking inspiration?

My parents are my cooking inspiration. I’ve always loved and admired how they take such pride in preparing meals for the family together. Their attention to detail, creativity and passion to bring us all together over a warm cooked family meal has taught me a lot

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

My favorite cooking trick is roasting chicken in chicken soup broth with seasoning spices. No matter what the chicken recipe, if it calls for roasting I do this first and then add the necessary ingredients called for. I find this keeps the chicken moist and tender. I also always run eggs under warm water for 30 seconds before adding them to my batter. I find this produces fluffier results!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Today I’ll be sharing two quintessential Portuguese family recipes. The first is Bacalhau, which is a traditional Portuguese dish incorporating codfish and potatoes. Its form and texture is akin to lasagna but its flavor is distinctly European. My mother takes great pride in preparing it the same way her mother did and I am proud to do the same in my own kitchen now!

Bacalhau

No meal is complete without dessert, so I’ve also chosen to include my grandmother’s Chocolate Almond Bar recipe. It’s a quick dessert to pull together and has always been one of my favorites. My grandmother would prepare these bars for me, wrapping them in parchment paper and placing them in a tin. The smell of them baking, brings me back to being in her home!

When life gets messy I find the best way to step back and regroup is by creating a messy kitchen! There’s nothing like mixing bowls and measuring cups strewn about & the smell of warm Challah or cupcakes baking! I cook & bake to preserve the memory of & celebrate the incredible Balebustas in my family! Next to them, I’m still an itsy bitsy balebusta, learning what it takes to make a home & how to take the batches life gives us with a grain of salt (& lots of chocolate!). You can find out more about me at http://itsybitsybalebusta.blogspot.ca/p/about.html

Chef Seth Warshaw’s food is fueled with the intense desire to discover new flavors and deliver them on the plate. Now, this inspired chef shares his signature dishes with Joy of Kosher readers.

It’s 1pm on Palisades Avenue in Teaneck. Chef Seth Warshaw is pulling up to the white stucco front of his restaurant, etc. steakhouse. He’s just come from Restaurant Depot, where he and his partner Yissachar Dov, or “Novy,” went through the cases, picking their own produce. There were no haricot verts there today, but there were beautiful sugar snap peas. There’ll have to be some adjustments to the side dishes—a different vinaigrette to complement the extra sweetness.

Gnocchi

Soon, the rest of the kitchen staff has also arrived and the prepping begins. The vegetables are chopped, the butcher is breaking the meat down into steaks, the gnocchi is being rolled. Tonight, there’s fresh pasta on the menu, so the dough is being kneaded and passed through the pasta machine.

Dinner service begins at 5:30, but it’s not until a little later that the restaurant fills up and the kitchen goes into overdrive. Then, you won’t find Chef Seth at the front of the house (though he loves saying hello to his customers)—where many chefs like to make appearances. He’s not expediting, “I tried that and I was bored. I opened a restaurant to cook. So I want to cook.”  Seth loves the challenge of using mostly seasonal, and sometimes exotic produce. The menu changes every other week, and every eight weeks, the menu turns over completely. It’s a challenge—but writing new recipes, the creating, putting new food on the plate—it’s Seth’s favorite part of the job. “And having someone tell you it was awesome,” he adds.

“I always had a desire to cook—it wasn’t necessary. My mom always cooked and was there when I returned home from school. But, when my friends came over, I loved cooking for them. In high school, we’d make weird concoctions, using staples like barbecue sauce and mayonnaise. We’d always be barbecuing late at night. My specialty was the “the mega muffin”—an English muffin with ketchup, mustard, relish—whatever was in the refrigerator—topped with American cheese and melted in the toaster.”

That’s hardly the refined fare that Seth turns out of the kitchen at the steakhouse today. But he’d get there. “Before I was married, my wife to be and I decided to make fresh pasta—we hung the pasta to dry all over the house—pasta was hanging from the ceiling, it was everywhere.”
The kitchen was fun, but Seth didn’t yet know it was his calling—until a six-week stint where he filled in for the restaurant manager of Mosaica, a kosher French and Moroccan steakhouse in New Jersey. “Chef Todd Aarons was there at the time—he turned me onto serious food. I loved it—the food, the grind in the kitchen, the service, the internal adrenaline rush, the challenge to always be changing the menu, and to be the best you can be—I was only at Mosaica for five or six weeks, but that stint made a tremendous impression.”

Seth now knew that food was his calling—but real life took hold again, and soon he was back in an office, working in a mortgage business. “I enjoyed it—I really did. But when I was home, I was cooking all the time. I’d make crazy food for my friends. We’d deep fry everything—even tempura deli sandwiches. Those were like a heart attack on a plate. Don’t try it, they weren’t that good. I also did some catering on the side—but as I was sitting behind my desk one day, I realized it wasn’t working. I needed to cook.”  Seth left his job and went to culinary school—the acclaimed Institute of Culinary Education.  Now he makes Fish and Chips where the chips are made from kale.

Bison Sliders

“Right after I completed culinary school—I broke myself in working at a restaurant called Fumio in Livingston. They let me run the show—I made the menu and learned to recognize my style in cooking. I figured out—not just how to prepare food—but how to prepare restaurant food. And then I opened my restaurant.”

Seth no longer cooks at home. His wife is back in complete control of the kitchen. “Now, it’s awkward to cook in my home kitchen. I don’t have my knife or cutting board. I don’t know where the pots are. And I don’t know why it takes so long for the pan to get hot.”  Indeed, the restaurant has become his second home. And, Seth admits, professional kitchens aren’t immune to the same mishaps and light moments that a home chef experiences. “We can forget the black rice on the stove—or someone can forget to put water in the pot with the potatoes, or the phone can ring and the balsamic reduction gets burned. Then there’s the most common—those toasting nuts that keep going from golden brown to black.”

Short Ribs

Which recipe is he most proud of? “I’m proud of all my recipes…and everyone likes something different. But I would say my favorite three are the short ribs, the gnocchi, and the grilled potato salad.”  I ask Seth about those short ribs, which contain Coke, Dr. Pepper, Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry Soda, and chocolate. “It was my friends idea to cook ribs in soda,” he says. “The amounts of each came about after a lot of testing and tweaking.” The flavors and nuances, yes, even in different sodas, balance each other in these prize ribs. They’re a symbol of refinement in the balance of ingredients and sophisticated taste combinations, but also a symbol of his beginnings in the kitchen, with his friends, cooking with whatever was in the fridge—even if it’s just cherry soda.

Here is a selection of Chef Warsaw’s Recipes for you to try at home:

 Stuffed Chicken Thighs

Gnocchi

Fish and Chips

Bison Sliders

Short Ribs

Originally printed in the Joy of Kosher May/June 2011 magazine.

It’s been a real surprise to see classic Israeli and Middle Eastern food take center stage in America’s supermarkets.  Packaged hummus used to be thick, grainy and not at all like the hummus I fell in love with in Israel.  All that changed a few years ago when Sabra came to market.  They introduced Israeli style Hummus and made it mainstream in the regular grocery stores.  Then hummus shops opened up all over New York City and random places around the country.  Remarkable.

Hummus has gone beyond the kosher, Jewish and Israeli market to broader mainstream appeal and with good reason.  Hummus is made of chickpeas, sesame paste, lemon, garlic and olive oil.  It is a healthy, protein filled, snack or lunch that is gluten free and nut free.    It doesn’t spoil easily and is delicious spread on crackers, pita, carrot sticks or even a bagel. For those counting, 2 tablespoons contains 50 calories, 3.5 g of fat, 4 g of carbohydrates, 1 g of fiber and 2 g of protein.

You can find hummus all across America now and Tribe Hummus has taken it to the next level.   Tribe Hummus makes their authentic creamy blend without any additives or preservatives.  They use the natural lemon juice to work its magic to keep their product fresh.  Tribe has three lines, Original Blended, Tribe with Toppings and Tribe Organic.  Some of their newer flavors include Spicy Chipotle, Kalamata Olive, Cilantro Chimichurri and Jalapeno, and I am working my way through them all!   Try Jamie’s Mediterranean Pizza with Hummus and Feta or try subbing hummus instead of mayo in spinach and artichoke dip.  Or you can just spoon it right out of the container like I do!

*** Giveaway ***

Tribe Hummus 2 winners will receive three coupons each for the tribe hummus of their choice.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tali Simon is a regular contributor to JoyofKosher with gorgeous photographs and tasty recipes.  She is a vegetarian from birth who lives in Israel.  She writes for many print publications including Bina Magazine.  It has been so much fun getting to know Tali through her writing and recipes and we are so glad to have her as part of our community. We can tell you she is a perfectionist so that means her recipes are spot on perfect, give them a try.  Today we chat with Tali to find out a bit more behind the recipes.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

The answer to this probably changes every week because I’m always trying new recipes or new versions of old ones. In general, though, I love making hearty soups, especially ones with unique flavors like this pumpkin black bean soup. I also love making Asian-inspired pasta dishes and salads, or anything with fresh sauteed mushrooms.

Who is your cooking inspiration?

I don’t come from a cooking/baking family, so I get my culinary inspiration from friends and other food bloggers (I read about 10 or 15 food blogs regularly). And I’ll always have a soft spot for Norene Gilletz, whose cookbook “Norene’s Healthy Kitchen” was a gift from my in-laws soon after we got married. That book really got things started for me in the kitchen.

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

One of my favorite baking tips is to press three of four extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie before baking. People will go for those over the regular ones (which only have chocolate chips inside) every time.

A vegetable tip I find really useful is to use a chef’s knife for slicing peppers open and cutting out the pith (the white stuff), but then switching to a serrated knife for chopping or dicing.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

Soba Noodle Stir-Fry

Cheese Blintzes – Gluten Free (I developed this recipe for Pesach, but they’re definitely good enough to eat year-round and gluten free.)

Tali Simon left U.S. News & World Report to move to Israel in 2010. She is now a happily settled writer, editor, and food blogger living near the Dead Sea. She loves to cook, and her skinny husband loves to eat. It works well. Catch up on Tali’s latest kosher vegetarian recipes at More Quiche, Please.

It’s finally here.  Chef Levana’s magnum opus.  Her masterpiece.  Levana has worked in the kosher food industry for over 30 years and has published four best-selling cookbooks.   The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen includes more than 350 recipes, 250 of which are gluten free and 250 can be made for Passover.  This cookbook has all the basics of healthy whole food cooking with tips and stories that make it a must have for every kosher home.

Caesar Salad

We have sat down with Levana many times in the Joy of Kosher Kitchen, take a look through our past interviews: .  Today we sit down with her latest and greatest cookbook.

Beet, Kale and Seaweed Salad

The book opens with a story about Rivka, a young woman who after years of health troubles, found a cure through whole foods.   Levana hopes to help and inspire other men and women out there going through similar health challenges.  Levana credits her whole foods approach to her Moroccan mother, whose mantra was “the cure is in the pot”.  Levana knows many of America’s health problems can be solved in the kitchen instead of the doctor’s office.

Soba Noodles with Roasted Roots

I love the first chapter of this book, The Pantry:  Edible Gifts to Yourself and Beyond.  Levana talks about a well-stocked pantry made up of your own artisanal condiments.  She helps us make our own preserved lemons, spice rubs, salad dressings, and even liqueurs.  Having ready made pantry staples makes it easy to add great flavor to simple foods at mealtimes.  There is no need to buy sodium and preservative filled salad dressings, when all you need are a few oils and vinegars to create diverse dressings for any salad and any occasion.

Moroccan Chraimi Fish

In addition to the recipes there are tons of fabulous tips all through the book, such as using soy or rice milk powder in non-dairy dishes  to obtain a rich and dense texture similar to cream.  I tried her own blend of Chai in my tea and as a self proclaimed Chai connoisseur I can tell you it was spot on.  I also tried her versatile muffin recipe with rave reviews from all.

Chocolate Oats Pots de Creme

Levana shows how to use a hammer to make cutting large dense vegetables like winter squash a snap.  She has tons of recipes of all kinds and even recommendations for gluten free baking.  Whole foods doesn’t mean you have to skimp on dessert.  Levana has creative recipes for brownies, biscotti and macaroons, even chocolate salami (I’ll have some of that).  This book has it all!

***Giveaway**** Levana is giving away a copy of her book to one lucky reader!!! She would love for you all to go “like” her on Facebook and to enter the giveaway please share this post on facebook, google plus or twitter and let us know you did it in the comments below. For a bonus entry make and review any of Levana’s 37 recipes on the JOK site and review them.

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older, and must be US residents. Contest ends  May 29th at 12pm  EST.  The winner will be picked randomly from qualifying comments.

Here are a few recipes to give a you a taste of what’s inside:

Caesar Salad

Soba Noodles with Roasted Roots

Moroccan Chraimi Fish

Mock Crab Summer Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce

Chocolate Oats Pots de Creme

Kale Beet and Seaweed Salad

This week we talk with Shulie Madnick from the blog, FoodWanderings.blogspot.com.  Shulie was born and raised in Israel by Indian parents, both greatly influence her cooking style.  Shulie currently lives in Washington, DC where she is a recipe developer, food writer and photographer and a cooking instructor.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started.

In November 2009 when my son was getting ready to graduate high school, I inaugurated my blog with Shakshuka, for every college kid’s hot plate in anticipation of his upcoming college days. One of the inspirations and motivation to start this site.

What is your earliest cooking memory?

Helping my mom in an assembly line sort of way with my sisters, I am the eldest of 6 kids.  One kneading, one forming perfect size dough balls and me rolling out dough with my mom tending the stove.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

I love my heat resistant spatulas!

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

Hmm so many but one I didn’t grow up on and I love is matzo ball soup. It’s sooooo goood!

Who is your cooking inspiration?

Dishes from growing up, farmers markets’ in season ingredients and food memories that trigger inspiration to develop new recipes like the Frozen Strawberry Yogurt.

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

In my daal (Indian lentil stew) I cook garlic cloves whole not minced. When sauteing garlic, minced, the risk is you will burn it or over caramelize and it will become bitter. This way you cook it whole and mash it at the end when garlic is cooked and soft and avoiding disasters.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

In addition to the Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, perfect for the season, and Majadra – Rice and Lentils – an ideal vegetarian dish. A staple in every household in Israel as well as the entire Middle East.

Shulie Madnick is a recipe developer, food writer and photographer and a cooking instructor. She writes about food at FoodWanderings.blogspotcom Follow her on Twitter: @foodwanderings and Facebook.

For a while now, I’ve been making my own herbal iced tea.  Stick a few fruit flavored teas in some water, put the pitcher by the sun and voila, flavored water everyone enjoys with no added sugar.  We barely serve soda at home, but recently the kids have been getting into seltzer.  It’s their special treat and since there are no calories or sugar, I’m happy to oblige.  But it’s starting to get a little boring.

Along comes Dr. Ayala, who recently introduced me to her line of herbal waters.  She is a mother and pediatrician who was looking for an alternative to the sugar laden beverages everyone  else was seeking.  In 2005, she started to blend her own unique blends of herbs with water.  When demand grew so did this company.

“Herbs have long been the cook’s best friend,” says Dr. Ayala, “they add great flavor and complexity and are also nature’s gift when we want to cut some salt and fat from a recipe.”

Can herbs also solve our sugar addiction?  Sugary drinks are the single largest source of added sugars in the American diet, and are closely linked to obesity.  Diet sodas came to the rescue, but have not proven to be a savior.  Diet soda consumption has not been associated with meaningful weight loss and may also carry metabolic risks.

“Herbs can do what artificial sweeteners can’t.  Herbs can fully flavor water, while adding no known health risks. We believe we have the simple, obvious solution to help kick the soda habit,” says Dr. Ayala.

Ambitious goal.  Since I like flavored waters and seltzers, I decided to give it a try.  When I opened up the box I was surprised by the flavors.  Lemongrass Mint Vanilla?  Lavender Mint?  Ginger Lemon Peel?  I’ve never heard of such flavors until now and my whole family was excited to try them.  The creative flavors are available in still and lightly sparkling varieties.

The water exceeded my wildest expectations.  The flavor combinations are so unique and so delicious.  My kids begged for more.  Dr. Ayala makes drinking water fun!

Currently you can order these OU-certified waters online by the case with free shipping at http://www.herbalwater.com/ or try and find them at many health food stores.

***Giveaway*** Dr. Ayala is giving away a gift set of 6 Herbal Water bottles 1 bottle of each of our still flavor plus our Food Pairing recommendation card.  In order to win, let us know in the comments below, let us know which flavors you think you would like or what other flavor you would like to see?

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older, and must be US residents. Contest ends  May 22nd at 9 am  EST.  Three winners will be picked randomly from qualifying comments.

(NOTE: The selected winner must provide an email address and a shipping address located within the 48 contiguous US states – no APOs, PO Boxes or shipments to Hawaii, Alaska, Canada or Mexico.)

The blogger spotlight is posted every Friday and gives us a little peek into the person behind the blog.  We are grateful to learn about all the wonderful bloggers out there and hope they continue to help us grow this kosher food community.

Today we shine our spotlight on Melissa Kaye Apter from LilMissCakes.com.  Melissa has become a favorite guest blogger of ours with her ever popular Peanut Butter and Jelly Hamantashen and Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies.  She has been baking from a very young age and clearly is also artistically talented (take a look at some of the cakes on her site).  Now it is time to find out more about Melissa.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:

My blog is a place I created to share my adventures in baking.  I am always baking for customers, family and friends and figured that I might as well share my tips, tricks, and recipes with those that are interested.

Blondies

What is your earliest cooking memory?

My earliest kitchen memory is very vivid and clear to me.  I remember baking banana bread with my mom.  I must have been 5 or six years old, but I clearly remember mixing the batter by hand and licking the bowl.

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?

I absolutely cannot live without my stand mixer.  It kneads my challah dough, whips my egg whites, and gently blends my cake batter.  Doing all these things by hand would be quite the workout!

Oatmeal Cream Pies

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?

Although I am known as a baker, and technically dessert is my specialty, I also love to cook.  I love to cook everything and anyththing.  I guess I would say that my favorite Kosher dish to create is potato kugel.  Making a good heimeshe potato kugel is a real science!  I had been struggling to make the perfect potato kugel for years before I got it right.

Who is your cooking inspiration?

My mom is my kitchen inspiration.  Although she is a great cook and is always cooking new and exciting dishes, my earliest memories are of my mom and me baking for the holidays.  I loved baking hamentaschen for Purim and sugar cookies for Chanukkah.

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

My best kitchen trick is for baking perfectly even and round cookies.  To keep your cookies looking perfectly uniform, try using a small cookie scoop to portion your cookie dough out.  Not only will it speed up your baking process, but your cookies will look so professional!

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?

I would love to share my pareve recipes for Blondies, Oatmeal Cream Pies, and Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

Melissa is a classically trained pastry chef who uses her expertise to create delicious kosher desserts. She started her baking blog, Lil’ Miss Cakes Lil’ Miss Cakes, to share her easy kosher pareve recipes and over the top cookies and cake creations.  Yum!

I know vegan cream cheese has been available for a while now.  To be honest, I only bought it when I couldn’t find vegan sour cream that I like to use to make dips and dressings for meat meals.  I never even considered using it as actual cream cheese on a bagel, after all it’s not like I’m making sausage or kosher bacon for breakfast every day.

Galaxy Nutritional Foods reached out to me a few weeks ago to give their non-dairy cream cheese a try.  Galaxy, based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, is a leading seller of cheese alternatives and is sold in the produce section of most major supermarkets in the United States and Canada. I decided to sneak it by my husband (a self-proclaimed New York bagel snob) first.  I spread it on his bagel and waited to see what he would say.  And waited.  And waited.  He didn’t say anything because he didn’t notice!  I couldn’t’ believe it and tried it for myself and I couldn’t tell either.  This vegan cream cheese is made from a base of coconut and sunflower oils and soy protein and would make Philadelphia brand jealous.

It is smooth and creamy and really does taste delicious.  It is certified kosher by the OU.

It is available in Plain or Chive & Garlic.  If you are lactose intolerant, have a milk allergy or have chosen a vegan lifestyle this product is perfect for you.  Salami and eggs has a new non-dairy friend.

Tofutti brand also sells a vegan cream cheese that was also a winner in my informal taste test.

Even if you don’t agree with spreading it on a bagel, although you must give it a try, there are also so many fabulous recipes you can now make parve, like Cream Cheese Frosting for this carrot cake.

Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

or this enticing Snickers Cheesecake in the main image.

**Giveaway**  3 Winners!!!

Galaxy Nutritional Foods is giving away 2 coupons for a Free Cream Cheese to 3 lucky winners.  To enter make and review any Parve Recipe on this site (make sure to put your review on the recipe) and then let us know in the comments below by linking to the recipe you reviewed.  You may enter more reviews for more entries, NO LIMIT.

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older, and must be US residents. Contest ends  May 15th at 9 am  EST.  Three winners will be picked randomly from qualifying comments.

Today, our spotlight is on Amy Spiro of BakingandMistaking.com, she loves to bake and doesn’t mind sharing some of her mistakes for all of us to learn from.

Tell us about your blog and how you got started:
Well, my blog is called Baking and Mistaking, and as you can guess it focuses 90% on baking and desserts. I always loved making desserts and cookies and cakes and all sorts of sweet things, and I would constantly take photos of everything I made and send them to friends. One day my friend said “why don’t you just start a blog!” and the rest is history. Now I’ve been blogging for a little over three years, including a 6 month stint in a pastry course at the Jerusalem Culinary Institute!

Wow, sounds exciting how you decided to attend the Jerusalem Culinary Institute and what was it like?
I’d always had a semi-professional interest in food because I work as a food writer and journalist, and the timing was right for me to take the course so I figured, why not! We learned a lot of different techniques and recipes and traditional pastries from laminated dough for croissants and bourekas to pulled sugar for decoration and of course tackling the classic French macarons. I definitely have some great base recipes to turn to for inspiration and a starting-point for innovations, though I don’t make any of the very complicated stuff on a regular basis. For now I’m not working in a professional kitchen, rather I’m still an editor and food writer, for places like The Jerusalem Post, the New York Jewish Week and a variety of websites, but anything is possible in the future!

What is your earliest cooking memory?
Hmm, I’m really not sure. I definitely have vague memories of cutting out and decorating cookies at home when I was little. I remember one time when I was about 5 and I went with a summer camp to visit a challah making factory of some sort – and of course we got to make our own little challahs and take them home. Otherwise I’m pretty terrible at childhood memories!

What is your favorite kitchen implement / utensil / gadget?
Well, I have a digital scale which is really crucial to great baking results. I also love my whisk, and my microplane grater for zesting citrus fruits. Having a stand mixer makes everything easier but I’ve created some pretty impressive things in some seriously lacking kitchens, so just know that it isn’t a necessity!

What’s your favorite kosher dish to cook?
I’m a sucker for a great potato kugel. I have a very favorite recipe, which I am able to find in the cookbook since the page is so warped and dirty with food and dried out stains. The book opens right to it. But as long as it’s extra crispy on top and bottom and smooth and creamy in the middle – I’m sold.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
I definitely don’t have just one or even just 10. I have a stack of cookbooks about my height that I love to flip through, plus tons and tons of blogs I read every day for inspiration, and I even love watching the Food Network and Cooking Channel. Plus I get a whole bunch of food magazines – basically, I take inspiration from anywhere!

Please share a favorite cooking tip or trick with our readers:
Ah, where to start. Well, first off, make sure you have all the ingredients and tools you need for a recipe before you start. I’m sure you’ll roll your eyes at that one, but I’ve definitely dashed out to the store or a neighbor mid-cooking for an ingredient. Plus – as I said earlier, definitely invest in a microplane grater. It’s perfect on any kind of citrus fruit but it’s also great for putting a little bit of freshly ground ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon on anything.

Which recipes are you sharing with us today?
I’m sharing a recipe for Pink Lemonade Bars, which is a really delicious cookie bar with a jam and lemon filling that is a great way to have a taste of summer in the middle of winter. The other recipe I’m sharing is for a classic Linzer Torte, with a butttery dough made from ground hazelnuts and almonds flavored with lemon, cloves and cinnamon before becoming the base for a sweet slick of jam. Both very tasty options!

Amy is a writer, blogger, reporter and kitchen entrepreneur. I love to bake, I’ll try anything once, sometimes even twice if I’m feeling a spurt of patience (rare, but occasional) and I make plenty of mistakes along the way. Check out my blog, BakingandMistaking.com

Stephanie Pierson recently wrote The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes.  This book is the first of its kind, the first book solely devoted to this cross-cultural wonder, brisket.  The Brisket Book compiles everything you ever wanted to know about Brisket and more.  From cooking advice, to chef interviews to butcher wisdom and it’s remarkable history way beyond the Jewish history of brisket we are more familiar with.  With colorful photographs and every different kind of brisket recipe you can imagine this book is a must have.  Note: not all the recipes in this book are kosher, but most can be adapted with minor substitutions.  Here we find out more about the author and what inspired this book.

1.       What inspired you to write a book about brisket?

I was just in love with brisket and made brisket a lot. I realized 2 things: One, brisket is in just about every cookbook but never had a cookbook of its own. And Two, lots and lots of other people (check Chowhound boards and Serious Eats) are as passionate about it as I am.

2.       When was the first time you ever had brisket?

I first had it when I was in my 20s and had moved to New York from Baltimore. I could not believe how good it was and what I had been missing for all those years. My family – alas – had no brisket tradition.

3.       When was the first time you cooked brisket?

Right after I had tried it for the first time. I asked my close friend for her family’s recipe, which she was kind enough to share. And I could not believe how easy it was to cook.

4.       What is your favorite way to eat brisket?

I love all kinds of brisket – no surprise!!! But definitely barbecued. And of course, braised. It feels like someone loves you when they serve you brisket – and it makes me happy to make brisket for family and friends. Kind of corny, but there it is.

5.       What is your least favorite way?

I guess corned beef, hot. I could live without it. On the other hand, a corned beef on rye from a great deli. Yum!

6.       How long did it take to write this book and how much brisket did you eat?

It took about a year and a half and I ate so much brisket it is amazing that I do not weigh 400 pounds. (I did not ever eat the lean Weight Watcher’s brisket!!!) I cooked a lot of my own; went to bbq places; traveled to cook brisket with Cooks Illustrated, Joan Nathan, Nach Waxman; every trip I took I made sure to see how the local brisket was.

7.       After all of this do you still love it?

Now I love it even more – I can’t believe all the ways you can prepare it – also I have learned so much from chefs about techniques and their own lovely takes on it.

8.       You mention a vegan brisket, what is that and do you really feel comfortable calling it brisket?

Well, I do because it is very very good and seems – to vegans – to be a really excellent stand-in. And there is the fact that even people who don’t like meat seem to like brisket. Counter-intuitive but true!

Thank you for your sharing your love of Brisket and these interesting brisket recipes with us.

Brisket in Tahina Sauce

Cuban Creole Stew Beef Braised Brisket for a Scandinavian take.

Pictures and Recipes are all from The Brisket Cookbook by Stephanie Pierson.

***Giveaway*** One lucky JoyofKosher.com member can win their own copy of this fabulous book.  All you have to do to enter is make and review any Beef recipe on this site and then let us know in the comments below by linking to the recipe you reviewed.  You may enter more reviews for more entries, NO LIMIT.

Entrants must be 18 years of age or older, and must be US residents. Contest ends  May 9th at 9 am  EST. One winner will be picked randomly from qualifying comments.