By using your imagination and listening to the tried-and-true advice of the experts, you can create a stylish and sophisticated Passover seder that will have your guests wishing for another invitation next year.
Why is this night different from all other nights? For one thing, it\’s the food — or, rather, the food that\’s featured on television. But there\’s also plenty of food for thought in the form of Passover-related travel and Jewish news features.
On the day preceding the first night of Chanukah, I was too tired to make yet another trip to the grocery store for latke fixings, so we had warm bowls of soup, lit the Chanukah candles, and without much fanfare, my daughter opened her first present. But on the second day, I re-entered my kitchen and found one box of instant latke mix and a refrigerator drawer full of apples.
While some food writers automatically push the same old latke and brisket menu at Chanukah, Susie Fishbein offers a lighter touch by mixing in Mediterranean fare. And although she tweaks culinary tradition, she honors it. Fishbein believes in presenting beautiful food in unique ways.
Latkes are a simple form of potato preparation, as potato dishes go. But simplicity in cooking, as the food writer Richard Olney wrote, is a complex thing. I have had rubbery latkes, starchy latkes, undercooked latkes and latkes so greasy that two of them could run a diesel engine for a week.
Conventional wisdom on the subject maintains that if honey cakes are removed from the oven at exactly the right time –whatever that is — the dreaded dryness will be avoided.
Middle Easterners turn to the more exotic, like dates, quinces or pomegranates during the High Holidays. So if you\’re looking for some unique recipes this High Holiday season, you might want to turn to Faye Levy\’s latest cookbook, \”Feast from the Mideast: 250 Sun-Drenched Dishes from the Lands of the Bible\” (HarperCollins, $29.95).
When Jeffrey Nathan auditioned for his first job cooking for the captain of a Navy destroyer somewhere in the middle of the Pacific and substituted vanilla for Worchester sauce in the meatloaf, little did he know his destiny was a 375-seat upscale kosher restaurant in Manhattan\’s garment district named Abigael\’s.
For Rosh Hashana this year, I am sharing three chicken dishes that you can prepare for your family holiday meal. Every family has their own recipe for roast chicken, but if you\’re looking for something new and different to serve on Rosh Hashana, try one of these.
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