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Joy of Kosher: Fast, Fresh Family Recipes – 200+ Easy, Authentic Dishes for Holidays, Passover, and Everyday Meals
Jamie Geller, “The Jewish Rachael Ray” ( New York Times ) and founder of the Kosher Media Network, including Joy of Kosher with Jamie Geller magazine and JoyofKosher.com, shares more than 200 ideas for fast, fresh family-friendly recipes, each with tips on how to dress them up for entertaining or dress them down for everyday meals. Accompanied by gorgeous full-color photos, Joy of Kosher includes original ideas for authentically kosher, foolproof, flexible recipes for scrumptious, nutritious, and easy dishes—all with no slaving over a hot stove or rabbi required. Enjoy such delectable dishes as Crystal Clear Chicken Soup with Julienned Vegetables and Angel Hair (Dress It Chicken Noodle Alphabet Soup), Garlic Honey Brisket (Dress It Honey Brisket Pita Pockets
), Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese (Dress It Mac and Cheese Muffin Cups)
, and Gooey Chocolate Cherry Cake (Dress It Red Wine Chocolate Cherry Heart Cake). Plus, Jamie offers a whole chapter on the art of making challah, 10 sweet and savory recipes, holiday menus, a special Passover section.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published September 17, 2013
28 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2013
I'm someone who has way too many cookbooks; it's a bit of an addiction for me which makes me feel a bit embarrassed when I review them. With that said, my household chores can be pretty monotonous and having a new cookbook every once in a while is a way for me to change it up. I end up donating some of my lesser-used cookbooks to the library after a while so my collection doesn't get unmanageable. So I may be profligate, but at least my bad habits end up benefiting others.
Now that I've apologized, I'll say that reviewing this cookbook is a bit more embarrassing because it makes me feel like a groupie. In addition to the recipes, there are many inserts of what I might describe as beautifully photo-illustrated blog posts by the author about her day-to-day experiences with her family. I could sort of take or leave these inserts; some will find them charming, others may feel like they're a little silly and beside the point. For me, it's really about the recipes.
In any case, although I felt guilty buying this for myself as a gift (even though I made sure to donate two old cookbooks to the library and got a good price on Amazon -- just so you know!), I ended up feeling happy I did. Jamie has definitely evolved as a cook since her first two cookbooks, which relied heavily on convenience ingredients and processed foods. These recipes, in contrast, feel more like cooking from scratch but as advertised, are non-fussy recipes designed to "get you out of the kitchen" which is a goal I can get behind. It felt great to prepare an entire Shabbos (two multi-course meals prepared in advance) from this book and feel like each recipe took about five minutes of hands-on prep, and then I could move on. Most of the food actually tasted pretty good, too.
Another thing I liked about this cookbook was that each recipe had a "Dress it up/dress it down" option and most had suggestions to "make it a meal." Surprisingly, this feature ended up being a major selling point for me. It was actually nice to be able to choose between fancier and simpler versions of each recipe (I usually went with the simpler versions, which were still pretty good). It was also nice to have the guesswork taken out of menu planning; although I sometimes see it as a creative challenge, more often I get tired of trying to think of which side dishes to pair with which main dishes and Jamie's ideas for rounding out meals were nicely simple and doable.
When I reviewed Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, I paraphrased a movie quote to describe food options: "cheap, fast, tasty, healthy -- pick two." The recipes in this cookbook tend to be fast, and are mostly pretty tasty. They're not necessarily cheap or healthy, though, which is something to keep in mind if those qualities are important to you.
Overall, I'm happy I bought the cookbook (and, as the old Frusen Gladje commercial used to say, enjoying the guilt). I don't think it's one of the ones that I'll end up donating to the library in a few years, although you never know.
Now that I've apologized, I'll say that reviewing this cookbook is a bit more embarrassing because it makes me feel like a groupie. In addition to the recipes, there are many inserts of what I might describe as beautifully photo-illustrated blog posts by the author about her day-to-day experiences with her family. I could sort of take or leave these inserts; some will find them charming, others may feel like they're a little silly and beside the point. For me, it's really about the recipes.
In any case, although I felt guilty buying this for myself as a gift (even though I made sure to donate two old cookbooks to the library and got a good price on Amazon -- just so you know!), I ended up feeling happy I did. Jamie has definitely evolved as a cook since her first two cookbooks, which relied heavily on convenience ingredients and processed foods. These recipes, in contrast, feel more like cooking from scratch but as advertised, are non-fussy recipes designed to "get you out of the kitchen" which is a goal I can get behind. It felt great to prepare an entire Shabbos (two multi-course meals prepared in advance) from this book and feel like each recipe took about five minutes of hands-on prep, and then I could move on. Most of the food actually tasted pretty good, too.
Another thing I liked about this cookbook was that each recipe had a "Dress it up/dress it down" option and most had suggestions to "make it a meal." Surprisingly, this feature ended up being a major selling point for me. It was actually nice to be able to choose between fancier and simpler versions of each recipe (I usually went with the simpler versions, which were still pretty good). It was also nice to have the guesswork taken out of menu planning; although I sometimes see it as a creative challenge, more often I get tired of trying to think of which side dishes to pair with which main dishes and Jamie's ideas for rounding out meals were nicely simple and doable.
When I reviewed Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, I paraphrased a movie quote to describe food options: "cheap, fast, tasty, healthy -- pick two." The recipes in this cookbook tend to be fast, and are mostly pretty tasty. They're not necessarily cheap or healthy, though, which is something to keep in mind if those qualities are important to you.
Overall, I'm happy I bought the cookbook (and, as the old Frusen Gladje commercial used to say, enjoying the guilt). I don't think it's one of the ones that I'll end up donating to the library in a few years, although you never know.
October 28, 2015
I really like kosher cookbooks. I'm excited to make the Garlic Honey Brisket.
January 31, 2014
Jamie Geller, the "Jewish Rachael Ray" and founder of the Kosher Media Network, is the author of several successful cookbooks, magazines, a popular website, and a TV show. In the beginning, though, she was raised on takeout and it wasn't until her mid-twenties that she gravitated to Jewish observance. The "Bride Who Knew Nothing" was at first clueless about cooking; joining her husband's family meant celebrating more than 100 traditional holiday meals annually for the immediate and extended family. Thankfully, Jamie's experiences have benefitted the rest of us with the newest Joy of Kosher cookbook; you'll find dependable, delicious recipes that can be dressed up or down for the occasion, many using pantry staples that you already have on hand.
I learned about the "Joy of Kosher" empire fairly recently as I was looking for more information about "And Then There Was Cake," a fundraiser cookbook published by the Hebrew Academy of Montreal (the Joy of Kosher website has frequent kosher cookbook giveaways). I was hooked on the many delicious recipes and kosher cookbook giveaways on Joyofkosher.com and was excited to hear that a new "Joy of Kosher" cookbook was coming out as well.
As soon as I got my copy, I put a sticky flag on any recipe that looked interesting; my book soon looked like a colorful porcupine! I ended up trying Uputzi's Vegetarian Chopped "Liver" Pâté, Butternut Squash Mac `n' Cheese, Blue Cheese, Pear, and Arugula Pizza, Country Spinach, Tomato and White Bean Soup, Hearty Mushrooms with Herbs and Wine (phyllo cup variation), Cold Soba Noodles with Sweet Sesame Tofu, Gooey Chocolate Cherry Cake, Cran-Rosemary Challah and Sun-Dried Tomato, Garlic, and Herb Braided Challah. This is far more recipes than I normally try out from a review copy, but there were so many that appealed to me that I couldn't help myself!
The book opens with a compact equipment and ingredients list and a brief overview of "the kosher thing" (no pork or shellfish, no mixing meat and milk in the same meal, and processed foods require rabbinic certification) before jumping into a typical day in Jamie's life. Recipes are clearly labeled with kosher status (meat, dairy, or pareve), prep time, cook time, and number of servings. I also loved that every recipe comes with ideas on how to dress it up, dress it down, make a meal, and variations that allow you to get several results from a single dish. Each recipe also has a suggested kosher wine pairing as well. Instructions are simple and ingredients should be readily available at your local supermarket; this would make a great housewarming or wedding gift as it is approachable by any level of cook.
I loved all of the recipes I tried; for the bread recipes, I used Voilà! Hallah Traditional Egg Bread Mix and combined them with the various toppings / fillings from the challah chapter. My absolute favorite find was the Vegetarian Chopped Liver - I've tried other vegetarian chopped "liver" recipes in the past that were bland and forgettable, but this one is AMAZING. A puree of toasted walnuts, mushrooms (I used cremini), garlic, onion, thyme and chopped hard-boiled eggs, it is meaty and satisfying and is wonderful on bread, crackers, or as a sandwich spread.
I loved experimenting with the "dress it up, dress it down" variations (I tried the butternut squash mac and cheese both ways; I split the batch and made half in an 8x8 pan and the rest as the suggested muffin cups, which made perfect individual servings that I then froze for a quick and easy snack or light meal). There are nods to Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Israeli cuisine, Asian (I loved the cold soba noodles with sweet sesame tofu), Mexican (blackened tilapia tacos, skirt steak with salsa verde), Middle Eastern, kid-friendly recipes...in short, something for everyone (even vegetarians like myself will find plenty of quick, tasty recipes to try). The dessert chapters deserve special mention as well, with many impressive cakes and cookies (I loved the cardamom-scented Chanukah cookies, candied-orange cheesecake, gooey chocolate cherry cake, and the olive oil dark chocolate mousse shots).
There are suggested holiday menus at the back with a very thorough guide of how to adapt the given recipes for Passover, a (brief) food glossary, and a more comprehensive Hebrew/Yiddish/Yinglish glossary.
Jamie herself sums it up best: "Food is an expression of love. And it doesn't matter if you've never eaten kosher, always eat kosher, or go "kosher casual." What's important is that food brings us together, and we all want to share our best, most delectable meals with the people we love. And when it's kosher, we're also pulling in thousands of years of love and tradition."
I learned about the "Joy of Kosher" empire fairly recently as I was looking for more information about "And Then There Was Cake," a fundraiser cookbook published by the Hebrew Academy of Montreal (the Joy of Kosher website has frequent kosher cookbook giveaways). I was hooked on the many delicious recipes and kosher cookbook giveaways on Joyofkosher.com and was excited to hear that a new "Joy of Kosher" cookbook was coming out as well.
As soon as I got my copy, I put a sticky flag on any recipe that looked interesting; my book soon looked like a colorful porcupine! I ended up trying Uputzi's Vegetarian Chopped "Liver" Pâté, Butternut Squash Mac `n' Cheese, Blue Cheese, Pear, and Arugula Pizza, Country Spinach, Tomato and White Bean Soup, Hearty Mushrooms with Herbs and Wine (phyllo cup variation), Cold Soba Noodles with Sweet Sesame Tofu, Gooey Chocolate Cherry Cake, Cran-Rosemary Challah and Sun-Dried Tomato, Garlic, and Herb Braided Challah. This is far more recipes than I normally try out from a review copy, but there were so many that appealed to me that I couldn't help myself!
The book opens with a compact equipment and ingredients list and a brief overview of "the kosher thing" (no pork or shellfish, no mixing meat and milk in the same meal, and processed foods require rabbinic certification) before jumping into a typical day in Jamie's life. Recipes are clearly labeled with kosher status (meat, dairy, or pareve), prep time, cook time, and number of servings. I also loved that every recipe comes with ideas on how to dress it up, dress it down, make a meal, and variations that allow you to get several results from a single dish. Each recipe also has a suggested kosher wine pairing as well. Instructions are simple and ingredients should be readily available at your local supermarket; this would make a great housewarming or wedding gift as it is approachable by any level of cook.
I loved all of the recipes I tried; for the bread recipes, I used Voilà! Hallah Traditional Egg Bread Mix and combined them with the various toppings / fillings from the challah chapter. My absolute favorite find was the Vegetarian Chopped Liver - I've tried other vegetarian chopped "liver" recipes in the past that were bland and forgettable, but this one is AMAZING. A puree of toasted walnuts, mushrooms (I used cremini), garlic, onion, thyme and chopped hard-boiled eggs, it is meaty and satisfying and is wonderful on bread, crackers, or as a sandwich spread.
I loved experimenting with the "dress it up, dress it down" variations (I tried the butternut squash mac and cheese both ways; I split the batch and made half in an 8x8 pan and the rest as the suggested muffin cups, which made perfect individual servings that I then froze for a quick and easy snack or light meal). There are nods to Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Israeli cuisine, Asian (I loved the cold soba noodles with sweet sesame tofu), Mexican (blackened tilapia tacos, skirt steak with salsa verde), Middle Eastern, kid-friendly recipes...in short, something for everyone (even vegetarians like myself will find plenty of quick, tasty recipes to try). The dessert chapters deserve special mention as well, with many impressive cakes and cookies (I loved the cardamom-scented Chanukah cookies, candied-orange cheesecake, gooey chocolate cherry cake, and the olive oil dark chocolate mousse shots).
There are suggested holiday menus at the back with a very thorough guide of how to adapt the given recipes for Passover, a (brief) food glossary, and a more comprehensive Hebrew/Yiddish/Yinglish glossary.
Jamie herself sums it up best: "Food is an expression of love. And it doesn't matter if you've never eaten kosher, always eat kosher, or go "kosher casual." What's important is that food brings us together, and we all want to share our best, most delectable meals with the people we love. And when it's kosher, we're also pulling in thousands of years of love and tradition."
November 10, 2013
I like it! the dress up/dress down thing kind of irritated me though
January 3, 2016
Compelling! The stories! The pictures! The food! If this was to be Jamie's final cookbook, I would be okay...just knowing this one was an absolute delight!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews