Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes and Customs for Today’s Kitchen

Food columnist and cookbook author Koenig (The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook) continues to “breathe new life into Jewish cuisine” with her latest interpretations of classic dishes. In 175 recipes, Koenig revisits the Jewish table with an “artisanal sensibility” and innovative spirit, reinventing traditional foods but never eclipsing Jewish culinary heritage. Eleven chapters of recipes feature modern breakfast favorites like granola, scones, and coffee cakes, along with savory French toast with za’atar butter and blintzes filled with roasted garlic and potato. Rustic soups include creamy sorrel soup with harissa, and borscht with 20 cloves of garlic. Vegetable sides and salads are focal, and there is an entire chapter on vegetarian mains. A chapter on traditional Jewish pastries showcases mandelbrot, macaroons, almond cakes, and hamantaschen. There are essays on various Jewish culinary heritages, keeping kosher, must-have modern kitchen appliances, types of vegetable oils, frying techniques, spice storage, and the new Israeli cuisine. Koenig also outlines major Jewish holidays and the Shabbat table with accompanying menus. Fans of Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem will find much to treasure in Koenig’s work. Her recipes, designed for the upcoming generation of Jewish cooks, are also a contemporary portrait of the global flavors and simple, fresh ingredients that are shaping the modern kitchen. (Apr.)