20 Friday, May 2, 1986 .....", • Bloom so Bloom • THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS • Registered Electrologists • Jewelers Twelve Mile Rd. S Southeast outheast corner Northwestern Come and let us remove your unwanted hair problem and improve your appearance. Behind Gabe's Fruits In The Mayfair Shops - Near 12 Mile Rd. bet. Evergreen & Southfield 559-1969 bruce m. weiss COOKING Cooking Videos Trend BY GLORIA KAUFER GREENE Mon: Sat. 10-5:30 Thurs. 10-8:30 Appt. OnlyAsk For Shirlee or Debby. 353-1424 I Protect Your Investment With Our Certified taglatab. Cold fur storage prolongs the life of your furs by keeping them soft and supple for years. Bring us your fur garment and we will include: • Free minor repairs. • Free fur appraisal. Let Us Restyle Your Old Fur Your older furs will be restyled by our remodeling department into modem, contemporary fashions. You'll be amazed by our creativity and pleased with our bit workmanship. 181 S. Woodward Ave., 1 BIk. S. of Maple, Next to the Birmingham Theatre • Free Adjacent Parking • 642-1690 • Monday-Saturday 9:30-5:30 New Studio Now &Jen In Harvard Row Mall '``' /' 411 , The BLIND SPOT 50%-70% OFF ALL NAME BRANDS • • • • Vertical Blinds Levolor Blinds Pleated Shades Wood Blinds 21728 W. Eleven Mile Rd. Harvard Row Mall Southfield, Ml 48076 Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting Daily 10:00-5, Thurs. till 8 Saturday 11 00-3 00 352-8622 If attractively illustrated food magazines and cookbooks tempt you to try your hand at their photographed dishes, then be wary that cooking videos will have you in the kitchen even be- fore the tape has run its way through. I recently had the opportunity to view one of the recent re- leases in this medium. Entitled Pasta: Beyond Primavera, it is Volume One of the Video Menus produced by Metropolitan Home magazine. For comparison, I also rented several cooking vid- eos which feature such culinary luminaries as Julia Child, Madeleine Kamman and Craig Claiborne. With the Video Menus (or at least the one I previewed), the instruction, not the instructor, is the main attraction. In fact, throughout the entire tape, we are never once shown the face of the demonstrator. The camera constantly focuses on her hands, the food, and the equipment she is using. However, each step is exten- sively explained using voice- over narration, with the demon- strator giving most of the in- struction, and a male announcer adding extra tidbits of informa- tion. The first time around it's in- teresting and even fun to watch Kammanas as she frustratingly tries to deal with a mousse that just won't budge from its mold, see Claiborne as he repeatedly- attempts to keep a piece of chic- ken folded around a rice mix- ture (and, one by one, picks up three stray grains of rice from the countertop) or watch Child doing a rather rough job of spreading whipped cream on a cake. For the most part, the impor- tant techniques in the videos are shown in "real time," acoid- ing the confusion that can occur when one scene moves too quickly to the next step or to the finished product. Just about all cooking videos come with recipe booklets or cards; a problem if you rent rather than buy the tapes, be- cause the printed recipes are not usually part of the rental pack- age. With most of the tapes, the ingredients are carefully dic- tated while the chef cooks; how- ever, Claiborne and Kamman occasionally neglect to give amounts, and Child .often refers to recipes that appear only in the booklet, but never on the tape. Once again, Pasta: Beyond Primavera is exceptional in that brief versions of all the recipes are shown "printed" on the sc- reen at the end of the tape. All in all, I think that cooking videos sre a marvelous way to learn precise techniques and special dishes. With prices that range from $25 upwards, they are definitely more expensive than most cookbooks and have far fewer recipes. However, the cost is comparable to that of many professional cooking classes. And you can learn at your own pace in your own home. The recipes below are adapted from the recipe cards that come with Pasta: Beyond Primavera, a tape which demonstrates how to make fresh pasta -- both by hand and machine — and shows how to use it in seven innova- tive ways—Although every dish is not suitable for the kosher kitchen, they can be adapted without too much difficulty. To order Pasta: Beyond Primavera, send $29.95 plus $2 postage and handling to: Video Menus Inc., P.O. Box 10856, Des - Moines, Iowa 50336, and specify VHS or BETA format. :(Note: The recipes are given in much greater detail on the video tape.) SPINACH GNOCCHI (Serves 8 to 10) 3 lbs. spinach, trimmed 3 lbs. ricotta % tsp. nutmeg 2 tsp. salt 2 egg yolks % cup grated Parmesan (or similar) cheese 1% cups ungifted all-purpose flour Wash spinach and cool( in the water that's clinging to its leaves for 5 minutes. Cool and squeeze out all moisture. Chop, in a food processor and , scrape into a bowl. Stir in ricotta, nut .