(Jewish Group) A new Jewish cookbook that everyone should own, just in time for the High Holy Days

[Behind the Aegis]

My first Jewish cookbook was Joan Nathan’s "Jewish Holiday Kitchen," and it became my kitchen bible while I was living in Israel from 1983 to 1991. It covered not just the food of Jewish holidays but also history and cuisine from countries around the world. It informed me of a vast Jewish culinary heritage and gave recipes for every Jewish occasion. I came to understand that there was a lot more to Jewish food than the matzo ball soup and gefilte fish of my youth, and I wanted to learn all about it.

With the coming Jewish High Holy Days, starting with Rosh Hashanah at sundown on Sept. 6 and ending Sept. 29 with the conclusion of Simchat Torah, I am immersed in the small trove of recipes that I have curated especially for this time of year. Many of them come from now-tattered cookbooks that fill my bookshelves.

From Edda Servi Machlin’s "The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews," I learned about Italian Jewish foods such as carciofi alla Giudia (deep-fried artichokes that look like a crispy chrysanthemum) and polpette di pollo e matzo (chicken-matzo meatballs). I learned about Sephardic cookery from Copeland Marks’ tome "Sephardic Cooking," and found recipes for dishes I had eaten in Israel like Yemenite jachnoon (baked bread-like rolls with whole eggs), borekas (savory pastries filled with cheese, spinach or potatoes) and koobeh (stuffed dumplings). I also learned about Middle Eastern cuisine from Claudia Roden’s "A Book of Middle Eastern Food."

Over the years, more of Roden’s and Nathan’s Jewish food books found their way to my bookshelves, as did Joyce Goldstein’s "Cucina Ebraica," where I found recipes for spinaci con pinoli e passerine (spinach with pine nuts and raisins), fritelle di zucca (squash fritters from the Veneto) and peperoni ripieni (peppers stuffed with eggplant), and her "Sephardic Flavors," from which I still make gayna al orno (roast chicken with apples and pomegranate).

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[dweller]

1. You had me

at chicken matzo meatballs … 😋

✌🏻

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I know right!?

I think I may get brave and try to make them.

[jpak]

3. Yum!

[wyn borkins]

4. Holidays Are Always About Food

I enjoyed reading nearly all of that, plus a good bit at your link; now two of your sentences held my interest above all that foody chit-chat:

"I am immersed in the small trove of recipes that I have curated especially for this time of year. Many of them come from now-tattered cookbooks that fill my bookshelves."

Thank you for this tasty bit of cuisine phraseology!