Cook­book

Kosher Style: Over 100 Jew­ish Recipes for the Mod­ern Cook

  • Review
By – March 30, 2020

If heymish (Yid­dish for cozy”) was an Eng­lish word, then it would be the per­fect adjec­tive for Amy Rosen’s warm-heart­ed cook­book, Kosher Style. It is fun­ny and full of wit, as the intro­duc­to­ry pages end with, Ess, ess, mein kind! (Eat, eat, my child!).”

Before Rosen delves into her recipes, she pro­vides some intro­duc­to­ry sec­tions that give con­text to the book. The first is called On Eat­ing Kosher,” where the author explains the mean­ing of kosher style.” So what makes Kosher Style” kosher?” she asks. Absolute­ly noth­ing. Kosher style refers to foods that are tra­di­tion­al­ly served and eat­en by Jew­ish peo­ple — pri­mar­i­ly east­ern Euro­peans, or Ashkenazim.”

Rosen also pro­vides a Glos­sary of Jew­ish terms,” which includes, Feh — An expres­sion of dis­gust, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the sound of spit­ting, as in Did you see him in that tan leisure suit? Feh!” and Klutz — A clum­sy per­son, prone to break­ing your prized glass­ware. Every fam­i­ly has one” as well as, Kvetch- Both a verb and a noun, mean­ing to com­plain or whine…Every fam­i­ly has one.”

Uncom­pli­cat­ed Pantry” lists Mat­zo as A dry-as-the-Negev unleav­ened bread that is tra­di­tion­al­ly eat­en dur­ing Passover, also used in cook­ing: see mat­zo brei, mat­zo balls, mat­zo piz­za, mat­zo lasagna, mat­zo brown­ies, and so on to eternity.”

Rosen includes recipes for tried-and-true Jew­ish del­i­ca­cies, like home­made cream cheese in the chap­ter Brunch & Schmears” and chick­en soup (aka Jew­ish Peni­cillin) with an instruc­tion for a pris­tine broth in Soups & Such.”

While Nosh­es & Sides” has a spe­cial Warm Mar­i­nat­ed Olives” which is for, When you’re pressed for time but want some­thing ready to nib­ble on as soon as guests arrive…” the chap­ter, Eat! Eat!”! cov­ers delights such as Mia­mi Ribs,” Clas­sic Cab­bage Rolls” and Maple-Soy Brisket.”

From sim­ple and clas­sic to elab­o­rate and com­plex, these dish­es are accom­pa­nied by pho­tographs in full col­or that are admirably placed for total inspi­ra­tion, such as the pic­ture of the Veg­e­tar­i­an Chopped Liv­er.” Anoth­er heymish touch is the inclu­sion of the author’s bat mitz­vah invi­ta­tion of 1982.

A Lit­tle Some­thing Sweet” fea­tures the clas­sic NYC Egg Cream, which con­tains nei­ther egg nor cream, but tastes like a fizzy melt­ed Fudgsi­cle.” This recipe even includes the instruc­tions for mak­ing your own choco­late syrup!

The last chap­ter, Ten Menus,” fea­tures curat­ed menus for clas­sic Jew­ish hol­i­days or social gath­er­ings: Sun­day Brunch,” A Nosh for a Bris,” Dairy Break-Fast,” Swelle­gant High Hol­i­days,” and the thought­ful Dish­es to Bring for Mourners.”

At the end of the book, Rosen pro­vides an excel­lent index and thanks many, includ­ing Sein­feld, Israel, Cana­da, Amer­i­ca, Poland, Rus­sia, and as always, chocolate.

Danièle Gor­lin Lass­ner (wife, moth­er, grand­moth­er) retired after 35 years at Ramaz where she served as Dean of Admis­sions, For­eign Lan­guage Depart­ment chair and teacher of French and Span­ish. She owns hun­dreds of cook­books. She has trans­lat­ed sev­er­al chil­dren’s books from French into Eng­lish. She has recent­ly trans­lat­ed “ A Mem­oir of Sanc­ti­ty “ by May­er Moskowitz (Mazo Pub­lish­ers, Jerusalem, Israel) from Hebrew into Eng­lish. No mat­ter the lan­guage, food is a con­stant.”

Discussion Questions