Tag: kosher recipes

Dairy Made Easy Cookbook Review & Giveaway

Leah Schapira & Victoria Dwek turn out new cookbooks faster than I develop recipes. Their latest addition to the Made Easy series is a fantastic collection of dairy recipes, just in time for Shavuot!

Like Starters & Sides Made Easy, Passover Made Easy, and Kids Cooking Made Easy, the Dairy edition is layed out in the same attractive, easy-to-read style. Even their cookbook-making skills seem made easy. They’ve mastered a template that provides a small soft-cover book that’s beautifully styled, easy to flip through, and filled with tips and tidbits, all without seeming overwhelming. The beautiful pictures draw you in and the down-to-earth recipes make you want to open your pantry right then-and-there to whip up one of their quick and easy dishes.

Besides for 60 easy-to-make recipes, you’ll also find a comprehensive cheese guide, a Make It Light section, a Make it Pareve Guide, and bonus serving ideas. Leah and Victoria fill each page with great tips, like how to measure frozen fruit, how to soften butter quickly or how to bake pizza without a pizza stone. They also share their thought processes and family anecdotes in a fun and friendly way.

What do I not want to make from this cookbook? It’s filled with mouthwatering recipes for breakfast, great starters & sides, soups, salads & sandwiches, and of course pizza, pasta and dessert (hello 180 calorie cheesecake!).

Some of the recipes I look forward to trying are the granola thins, arancini, sweet chili home fries, stuffed sole, French mushroom soup, hasselback baguette, honey pomodoro pizza, cajun creamy penne, cheese buns, peanut butter creme brulee and strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

In honor of the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, I’m giving away a free copy of the Dairy Made Easy cookbook! To enter, simply leave a comment below with your favorite Shavuot dish. You can also follow Busy In Brooklyn via any of the channels below for an extra entry. Just be sure to leave a note in the comment letting me know where you follow.

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Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be chosen at random at 10:00 AM EST on Monday, May 26th, 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Starters & Sides Made Easy Review & Giveaway

Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek know a thing or two about food. Leah is the author of Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking and co-founder of CookKosher.com, and Victoria is the managing editor of Whisk Magazine. The pair are always surrounded by good food, so they decided to join forces and write a cookbook together. Passover Made Easy was their first collection of favorite triple-tested recipes, and now, the two have done it again. They have moved on to create a series of “Made Easy” cookbooks including Starters & Sides as well as Kids Cooking (review coming soon).

There’s something nice about a cookbook series. It’s familiar and you know what you’re gonna get. In the case of the “Made Easy” series, that’s great graphics, building block recipes, plating ideas and great kitchen tips. I especially love the friendly “conversations” that Leah & Victoria have throughout the book. They are set out in speech bubbles, making you feel as if you’re standing in the kitchen with two friends.

Starters & Sides Made Easy starts out with an elaborate spice guide to help guide you through the different herbs, spices and blends. It continues with building block recipes and chapters on vegetables, grains, meat & chicken, fish, dairy and sweet. The book finishes with ideas on how to convert some of the dishes from starters to mains. Each recipe is accompanied by a beautifully composed photo of the dish.

Some of the recipes I look forward to trying, include broccoli stuffed artichokes, sticky red potatoes, Yemenite yellow orzo rice, crispy beef, falafel cigars,  silan chicken salad, tangy tilapia nuggets, parmesan sticks, and whiskey sweet potatoes.

My only issue with this book is the size. I know it sounds weird but it sticks out of my cookbook shelf because it’s wider than most cookbooks.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Busy In Brooklyn is giving a copy of Starters & Sides Made Easy! To enter the giveaway, you must:

1. Share you favorite Chanukah dish in the comments below.
2. Follow Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook, Twitter. Pinterest, and/or Instagram (one entry per media channel you follow – please specify which ones you follow in the comments).

Winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, December 4th, 8:00 PM.

BONUS RECIPES FROM STARTERS & SIDES MADE EASY:

RELATED POSTS: Passover Made Easy Cookbook Review

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The Holiday Kosher Baker Review & Giveaway

Anyone who reads my blog knows I’m not the biggest baker (understatement) so I was a little intimidated going in to this book of heavenly pastries. The Holiday Kosher Baker is written by Paula Shoyer, a graduate of the esteemed Ritz Escoffier pastry program in Paris. Shoyer is a regular contributor to countless kosher websites, and has appeared on The Food Network’s Sweet Genius. She is the author of “The Kosher Baker: 160 Dairy Free Desserts from Traditional to Trendy.”

The Holiday Kosher Baker begins with a kosher baking encyclopedia – literally everything you need to know about baking equipment, tips, techniques and tools. It continues with recipes categorized by the Jewish holiday, including, Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. Most of the recipes are accompanied by a beautiful picture, as well as detailed instructions even a novice can understand. And of course, you’ll be sure to find invaluable baking tips along the way.

There’s something for everyone in The Holiday Kosher Baker. Easy one bowl recipes for non-bakers like me, and fancier multiple-step recipes for those who like to patchke in the baking department. There’s also low sugar, vegan, gluten-free and nut-free recipes for those on a special diet. The book is truly a holiday baking manifesto, complete with over 45 Passover recipes as well as traditional and contemporary holiday desserts.

Some of the mouthwatering recipes I look forward to trying include babka bites, honey cake biscotti, pecan sticky buns with butterscotch whisky glaze, sticky toffee pudding, everything rugelach, gingerbread cookies (recipe below), red velvet hamantaschen, root beer chocolate truffles and chocolate mille-crepes cake. I also have my heart set on some of Paula’s fantastic Passover recipes including carrot cake, rosemary nut brittle, florentine bars and moscato granita.

Paula’s exceptional baking skills are clearly evident in this book, as are the years of hard work she put into it. While the graphics and photos are nice, I’m a little puzzled by the layout. Instead of having one recipe per page, one recipe leads into another, making the text appear overwhelming.

Busy In Brooklyn is giving away a copy of  The Holiday Kosher Baker! To enter the giveaway, follow one, or all, of my media channels below. You will receive one entry per media channel that you follow. Leave a comment below letting me know where you have followed me.

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Winner will be chosen at random at 12:00 PM EST on November 18th, 2013.

The Modern Menu Review & Giveaway

While this cookbook may have been published back in March, it’s never too late to bring a fabulous collection of kosher, innovative recipes to your attention.

At first look, The Modern Menu is exactly what it appears to be – modern. The food is laid out perfectly sleek and contemporary, without any over the top garnishes or plating. It simply speaks for itself, and I love that.

Unlike traditional cookbooks, Kim Kushner brings her own style and pizzazz, arranging the cookbook by how the dishes make you feel – from vibrant and indulgent to gutsy and clever. “To my mind,” says Kim, “Less is more, simple is always best, and food should look as good as it tastes and taste as good as it looks.” A healthy philosophy and outlook that should be the motto of every cook in the kitchen.

Browsing through the cookbook, I can’t help but be inspired by Kim’s clean and simple dishes that are so fresh and appealing. I find myself wanting to bookmark every single page. While Kim emphasizes healthy from-scratch ingredients, her Middle Eastern inspired recipes are possible for the novice chef with a well-stocked pantry.  Her dishes remain light, but the flavors seem anything but. Kushner does not shy away from herbs and spices, adding surprising notes to every dish.

I look forward to trying many of The Modern Menu Cookbook recipes including the kohlrabi cabbage salad with maple lemon dressing, crunchy curry cauliflower with tahini and pomegranate, crispy miso marinated chicken, jalapeno and tomato chutney, chicken with pumpkin, figs and honey, tequila london broil with mango chutney, black sesame crusted char, sticky beef ribs, fig and pecan biscotti, plum crumb cake with star anise and individual halvah, gelato and sorbet towers.

If I could critique anything about this wonderful cookbook, it would be to say that some of the recipes require ingredients that may be hard to find. In addition, while I love Kim’s concept for arranging the book’s chapters, it’s slightly difficult to follow the sections when they are categorized this way.

Busy In Brooklyn is giving away a free copy of The Modern Menu.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment with your favorite light & healthy summer food/recipe.
2. Like Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook.

Winner will be chosen at random on August 2nd, 2013.

Related posts: cookbook reviews

The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen
{Recipes, Review & Giveaway}


Levana Kirschenbaum, author of The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen, is a cook after my own heart. She likes to cook healthy food, with minimal ingredients, in a short span of time. That’s not to say that this cookbook is filled with quick-fix dinners. It certainly is not. While it may include 15 variations of 3-ingredient chicken dishes (which I’m thrilled about!), it’s also got plenty of gourmet recipes that require an array of flavorful ingredients.

With an on emphasis on healthy, whole, minimally processed ingredients, Levana still manages to pull out delicious dishes that require little more than fresh produce, herbs and spices. Even her decadent desserts maintain a healthy perspective, without requiring a trip to the health food store for specialized ingredients.

The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen is extremely thorough. I now understand why Levana refers to it as her magnum opus, a comprehensive compilation of her life’s work. In the first chapter, “The Pantry”, Levana guides you in the building your pantry, making each and every recipe look so easy. From dressings to jams and sauces to liquors, this chapter lacks for nothing. While titled “Edible Gifts to Yourself and Beyond”, I find this section to be Levana’s gift to the reader. What greater gift is there to a cook than to be able to learn many of the basic recipes required to build a dish?

The cookbook continues with Soups, Salads, Fish, Poultry/Meat, Vegetable Dishes, Grains/Pasta, Breakfast/Brunch, Breads and finally Desserts. While the recipes mostly stay true to Levana’s Morrocan roots, her dishes span the globe, including internationally-inspired recipes like creole chicken with rice, pad thai, cucumber raita chai and tilapia nicoise en papillotte, among many others.

I love Levana’s addition of suggested menu’s, including feasts by cuisine (Moroccan, French, Italian, Israeli, Asian, Latin and Indian), dietary preferences (dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan) as well as themed menu’s (salads, chocolate, kids). You’ll also find three separate indexes – standard, gluten free and passover.

The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen has a little something for everyone. As for me, I’m looking forward to making the Kabocha sweet potato soup, baked snapper with raisins and pine nuts, chicken with apples, millet fritters, blueberry scones and Indian sweet potato pudding.

If I could critique anything about this cookbook, it would only be to say that I would appreciate more beautiful pictures!

Busy In Brooklyn is happy to be giving away a copy of The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen!

To Enter:

1. Share your favorite Rosh Hashana food/recipe in the comments below.
2. “Like” Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook!

Winner will be selected at random on September 13th, 2012.

BONUS ROSH HASHANAH RECIPES
from The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipes & photos excerpted with Permission from The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen Cookbook By Levana Kirshenbaum www.levanacooks.com

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