processor and other kitchen appliances our
grandmothers never dreamed of are used
extensively to speed up preparation and
cooking. A nutritional breakdown per serv-
ing is included at the end of each recipe.
Yamuna's Table
kosher kitchen to baking the perfect challah
and cooking for the Sabbath and Jewish hol-
idays. This national winner of the Tabasco
Community Cookbooks award is the clearest,
most practical explanation of the laws of
kashrut that I have come across. There are
more than 800 recipes, many traditional and
grandmotherly, others mainstream and con-
temporary; all are professionally tested, easy
to follow, and strictly kosher.
5.Our Food
by Anita Hirsch (Doubleday, 1992, $25). A
trained nutritionist who keeps a kosher
kitchen, Hirsch has modified the generally
heavy Ashkenazi cuisine most Americans re-
gard as kosher. She reworks the classic dish-
es form Eastern Europe, lightens them, takes
out much of the fat and cholesterol, and adds
fresh herbs and spices— all without giving up
on flavor or nostalgia.
To this traditional repertoire, she brings
dishes that introduce the ingredients and fla-
vors of the Middle East and Italy, adapting
vegetables, beans and cereals that are staples
around the world. The microwave, food
to tradition. Intricate, diverse cuisines, from
Japanese to Cajun to French to Vietnamese
are represented in 210 strictly kosher recipes.
9 .Classic Cuisine
of the Italian Jews II
by Yamuna Devi (Dutton Books, 1992,
$23). In her second book on Indian veg-
etarian cooking, this former cook for John
Lennon and Yoko Ono draws on the cuisines
of many traditions, combining Indian ingre-
dients with Western natural foods. She de-
parts from the use of ghee (clarified butter)
and the deep-fat frying popular in Indian food,
and delivers 200-plus cleverly lightened
recipes enriched by spices. Because this is a
vegetarian cookbook, almost every recipe is
kosher or may be easily adapted to kosher.
by Edda Servi Machlin (Giro Press, $2750).
This treasury of recipes is an exciting revival
of Italian Jewish cuisine. The second in a two-
book series, most of the recipes are authen-
tic originals of what Italian Jews have prepared
through the centuries. Machlin, who grew
up in the tiny village of Pitigliano, Italy and es-
caped to nearby hills during World War II,
simplifies the time-honored recipes using ap-
pliances and ingredients readily available to
today's kosher cook.
7.Faye Levy's International
Jewish Cookbook
by Mollie Katzen (Ten Speed Press, 1988,
$16.95). Katzen, author of two other previ-
ously published vegetarian cookbooks, began
to develop meatless dishes while
at college "because I was suspi-
cious of every meat dish
I couldn't be sure it was
kosher." The primary in-
gredients in each recipe
are fresh vegetables and
fruits, grains, tofu,
legumes, pastas, nuts
and dairy products. A list
of recommended gadgets
and appliances is included at
the beginning of the book, as is
a list of items which may be pre-
pared ahead and frozen. It is a top
choice for beginner vegetarian cooks.
(Warner Books, 1991, $29.95). Recipes
in this dazzlingly rich book of inter-
national cooking are well with-
in the scope of the novice
cook. The author of
13 cookbooks (some
national award win-
ners), Levy re-
searched this book
while living and cooking in
Israel, France and America.
She also draws on a diverse
Jewish heritage, and includes
recipes from her Polish mother,
Yemenite mother-in-law, Israeli hus-
band, and Indian-Jewish sister-in-law. The
book is an entertaining read, peppered with
family anecdotes, cultural insights and his-
toric lore. The more than 250 recipes cover
everything from holiday fare to elegant din-
ing. All recipes are kosher.
8 . International Kosher Cookbook
from the 92nd Street Y Kosher
Cooking School
by Batia Plotch and Patricia Cobe (Ballantine
Books, 1992, $22.50). This collection of kosher
recipes from around the world is the product
of a kosher cooking program started in 1978
at a New York YMCA. Like the class, which
teaches ethnic cuisine to kosher cooks, this
book beckons kosher cooks to experience a
world of different foods while still holding fast
1.0. Still life with Menu
1 1. Elements of Etiquette
by Craig Claiborne (William Morrow & Com-
pany, 1992, $15). Once you're past basic cook-
ing, use this handy manual for essential
guidance on entertaining and dining out. An
impeccable authority on food, Claiborne
speaks with conviction at a time when social
graces are falling by the wayside. "Elements
of Etiquette" explains everything from send-
ing and responding to invitations, proper body
language (Where do elbows belong?), time-
ly departures (before your host puts on his pa-
jamas), to simply wiping your mouth. El
Ethel G. Holman is a syndicated columnist and was the
1992-93 liaison between the International Association of
Culinary Professionals and the Julia Child Cookbook
Awards Committee which judged the best of more than 350
cookbooks published in 1992.
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