Musings of a Kosher Cook

I like to read the Healthyish portion of the Bon Appetit website (in addition to the majority of the site at large) because I never know what I'll find.  One day it's an article on edible face masks, the next I'm getting ideas of how to add vegetables to my breakfast.  But an article posted earlier this month got the wheels turning.  Termed "The 2019 Healthyish Farmers' Market Challenge", the article encourages people to try 10 in-season fruits and vegetables, and provides recipes to give people ideas of what to do with this produce. The fruits and vegetables in the challenge are: Summer squash Peaches Corn Mint Peppers Eggplant Cucumbers Tomatoes Swiss chard Berries I thought this was a really cool idea.  While several of the recipes look delicious, I decided to accept the challenge, but use the produce in whatever applications I wanted, and not to restrict myself to the 10 recipes provided.   So, what have I made so far, and what'...

It's no question that foods have the ability to help us recall memories.  I was particularly moved, however, by the ability of a cookbook to have this effect on me.  This weekend, in a matter of a few hours over 2 days, I read all 368 pages of Zahav: A world of Israeli cooking, by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook .  Page after beautiful page, I was transported to my childhood and the food memories of it; allow me to explain. I was 4 years old when my sister Kayla was born.  Since both of our parents worked, they hired a nanny, Batsheva, to care for Kayla (I was already in school).  Batsheva was originally from Israel, of Morrocan decent and, I believe, had some family from Yemen as well.  She truly became an extension of our family; her kids were like our siblings, and Batsheva loved us as if we were her own children.  Kayla still keeps in touch with her 30+ years later!  One thing I remember most from those years is Batsheva's cooking.  I...

If you have ever baked bread (and I'm not talking about take-and-bake rolls from the grocery store, even though some of them are of pretty good quality, quite tasty and are the best option when you want fresh baked bread but have no time to bake it), you know the finished product is something to be shared with others.  I mean, plenty of people will make themselves some eggs, or a sandwich, or even a piece of fish or chicken or meat, then proceed to eat it all; most people do not bake a loaf of bread and sit down to consume the whole thing.  Due to the relative size of a portion of bread to the size of the loaf, bread was made for the purpose of sharing; it's no wonder that "breaking bread" is the term used universally for sharing food and dining together. With sourdough bread, which is undeniably the best kind of bread that ever was, is or will be, the sharing starts even before the bread comes out of the oven.  Unlike most breads which use dry or fresh yeast as the...