Healthy Jewish Cooking - Softcover

Raichlen, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670893129 ISBN 13: 9780670893126

Publisher: Viking, 2000

Synopsis

A guide to Jewish cookery with a "light touch" reinvents the normally heavy ethnic cuisine, substituting ingredients and switching techniques to suit the more modern, low-fat, low-cholesterol kitchen. 15,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Raichlen, whose twenty books include the two-time James Beard Award-winning High-Flavor, Low-Fat cookbook series, the Julia Child/IACP Award-winning Miami Spice, and the bestselling The Barbecue Bible, is a cooking instructor and popular syndicated food columnist. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and CNN.

Reviews

Isn't healthy Jewish cooking an oxymoron? That's the typical response Raichlen, author of Barbecue! Bible and Steve Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking, got whenever he mentioned he was writing this book. It turns out that Jewish cooking can be low fat and flavorful: the Amazing Low-Fat Chopped Liver uses roasted mushrooms and hard-cooked egg whites to reduce fat and cholesterol while intensifying flavor. Middle Eastern dishes, such as Shish Kebab with North African Seasonings, and Moroccan Grilled Pepper and Tomato Salad, are well represented here. To make traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dishes lighter, recipes call for using broth instead of schmaltz (chicken fat) and no-fat dairy products, and for roasting and bake-frying. Raichlen also provides a wealth of meatless dishes, including a vegetarian version of chopped liver and a Portobello Paprikash. Raichlin emphasizes the innovative, such as Zucchini Kugel (usually a sweet noodle dish), without losing sight of traditional foods, like blintzes, Passover dishes, knishes and The Three B's Cholent, a Sabbath stew. While there are exotic touches such as Rhubarb Haroset and Tropical Tsimmis with ginger and fresh pineappleARaichlen's dessert section seems incomplete (where are rugelach and hamentaschen?). He isn't great at cutting down sugar, either, although some sinfully tempting recipes, like My Great-Grandmother's Chocolate Roll, list original ingredients as well as slimmed-down ones. But with homey anecdotes, food counts and preparation times, one hopes for a sequel to this heart-warming and user-friendly book. Photos by Greg Schneider. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Among prolific author Raichlen's 20 cookbooks are those in his popular "High-Flavor, Low-Fat" series, and now he has applied the calorie- and fat-lowering techniques he used there to his favorite Jewish dishes. He has also emphasized dishes that were relatively light to begin with (i.e., they did not rely on lots of schmaltz or butter). He covers all the basicsDkugels, knishes and blintzes, and egg and matzo dishes, for example, get their own chaptersDand added some innovations of his own. Purists may be horrified by such recipes as Amazing Low-Fat Latkes (they are baked, not fried!), and Jayne Cohen's The Gefilte Variations (LJ 2/15/00) offers a more imaginative and sophisticated approach to contemporary Jewish cooking. However, health-conscious Jewish cooks will certainly find Raichlen's latest of interest.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670893129
• ISBN 13: 9780670893126
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200