GUIDE x-2010

Empanadas, Creamy Gnocchi Pesto
Salad, Thai Chicken Burgers and 'bison
Vegetables.
More interested in traditional American
fare? Try Turkey Sliders, Peanut Butter and
Banana French Toast, Tater Tot Casserole
and Tie-Dye Cookies.

INA GARTEN: BAREFOOT CONTESSA:
HOW EASY IS THAT? FABULOUS
RECIPES AND EASY TIPS (Clarkson
Potter; $35)
In this, her
efoot cpntessa
seventh
easy is that?
cookbook in
the Barefoot
Contessa
series, Food
Network
favorite
Ina Garten
promises
readers her
easiest
recipes ever.
"Personally, I'm good for about two hours
making a dinner party and 30 minutes
for a weeknight meal; more than that and
I have better things to do:' she writes.
Still, Garten is no believer in three-
ingredient recipes you just throw togeth-
er. "These are tried-and-true Barefoot
Contessa recipes that are easy enough to
make but still have all that deep delicious
flavor that makes a meal so satisfying,"
she promises.
Garten uses ingredients easily found
in any well-stocked grocery store and
that are called for in the quantities they
come in ("If canned tomatoes generally
come in 28-ounce cans, you won't find
a recipe of mine that calls for 32 ounces
of canned tomatoes. What exactly are
you supposed to do with the rest of the
can?"). She also provides easy shortcuts
and techniques (Easy Parmesan Risotto
made in the oven instead of endless stir-
ring on the stove). Plus, the recipes in
this book — there are less than 100 but
all beautifully photographed — seem
mostly free of the quantities of butter
Garten often employs.
Whet your taste buds with a one-
dish Roasted Vegetable Frittata, Wild
Rice Salad, Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast
(perfect for Thanksgiving), Roasted
Salmon with Green Herbs, Garlic-Roasted
Cauliflower, Roasted Pear and Apple
Sauce and Easy Cranberry and Apple
Cake.
Garten harks back to her Jewish roots
with Jeffrey's Roast Chicken (an updated
version of his Friday night favorite),
French Toast Bread Pudding made with
Challah and New York Egg Cream.

•

DOME GREENSPAN: AROUND MY
FRENCH TABLE: MORE THAN 300
RECIPES FROM MY HOME TO YOURS
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $40)
With Julia Child a big hit at the cineplex
and on best-seller lists, Americans seem to
be renewing their love affair with French
cuisine. Many readers are probably famil-
iar with Joan Nathan's new cookbook,
Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search
for Jewish Cooking in France — she made
a stop at Detroit's Jewish Book Fair earlier
this month. Now, simultaneously releas-
ing a book on French cooking is another
renowned Jewish cookbook author: Dorie
Greenspan.
A James Beard award-winner for
Baking: My Home to Yours, which inspired
the online baking community Tuesdays
with Dorie, Greenspan shares the dishes
she and her French friends cook at home
— a mix of old
and new, simple
and complex.
A part-time
resident of Paris,
she includes
"recipes from
friends I love,
bistros I cher-
ish and my own
Paris kitchen.
This is elbows-
on-the-table food:' dishes you don't need a
diploma from the Le Cordon Bleu to make,
she writes.
The book's mouthwatering recipes
— the photos just about jump off the
page — include Savory Cheese and
Chive Bread; Spiced Squash, Fennel and
Pear Soup; Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans;
Chicken Tangine with Sweet Potatoes and
Prunes; Go-With-Everything Celery Puree;
Matafan (fluffy mashed potato pancakes);
Nutella Tartine; and Marie-Helene's Apple
Cake (which is more apple than cake).

PILAR GUZMAN, JENNY
ROSENSTRACH AND ALANNA STANG:
TIME FOR DINNER: STRATEGIES,
INSPIRATION AND RECIPES FOR
FAMILY MEALS EVERY NIGHT OF THE
WEEK (Chronicle Books; $24.95)
The editors of the beloved but now-
defunct Cookie magazine, a publication for
the "modern"
mother, have
joined forces
to help moms
(and dads)
get a fam-
ily dinner on
the table —
whether they
love to cook or
just endure it.

Their cookbook is a playbook of tricks,
inspiration, plans and 100 go-to recipes.
Chapters include information on how
to stock your pantry, fridge and freezer;
weekly meal plans that work — including
Sunday dinners that "keep on giving and
weekend prep tips that make weekdays
a snap; smart ways to create multiple
"dishes" out of the same ingredients for
those picky eaters; ideas and flow charts to
help make a delicious meal from random
ingredients; and inspiration for casual
family entertaining.
Roast a squash on the weekend and end
up with Rigatoni with Squash, Cheddar-
Squash Muffins and Curried Squash
Soup for weekday meals. Try easy fare
like Wagon-Wheel Pasta & Goat Cheese,
Lemony Chicken with Potatoes and
Gremolata (an herb mixture), and Ice-
Cube Tray Sushi. Welcome guests with a
big pot of Smoked Salmon Pasta.

AMANDA HESSER: THE ESSENTIAL
NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK:
CLASSIC RECIPES FOR A NEW
CENTURY (Norton; $40)
Amanda Hesser spent six years going
through the New York Times' archive of
recipes — going back 150 years — in the
creation of the Times' newest cookbook,
a compilation of 1,000 of the paper's
best recipes, including dishes from such
Jewish cooks as
Nigella Lawson,
Rose Levy
THE ESSENTIAL
Beranbaum
and Mark
Bittman.
Hesser began
by querying
Times readers
for their favor-
ite recipes from
the paper and
tested every
dish.
With 18 chapters of both classic and
modern recipes, as well as suggestions for
50 full menus for special occasions and a
wide array of cooking tips, this cookbook
is informative as well as entertaining
("Nora Ephron suggested I write the book
from a personal point of view rather than
that of an arm's-length editor"). Hesser
also acknowledges "my friends Esther Fein
and Jennifer Steinhauer, [who] made sure
this WASP included all the right Jewish
foods."
Among them: Russ and Daughter's
Chopped Chicken Liver, Matzoh Ball Soup
(from none other than Wolfgang Puck),
Lathes (from Mimi Sheraton), Joyce
Goldstein's Pickled Salmon, Brisket in
Sweet and Sour Sauce and Maida Heatter's
Rugelach.

COOK
BOOK

MARGOLIN HEBREW ACADEMY:
SIMPLY SOUTHERN: WITH A DASH OF
KOSHER SOUL (Wimmer Cookbooks;
$34.99 + $5 shipping)
Five years ago, a Jewish day school in
Memphis set out
SIMPLY SOUTHERN
to chronicle the
walva,paiavafKushe... s
history and reci-
pes of Southern
kosher cooking.
A team of volun-
teers recruited
by Editors Dena
Wruble and
Tracy Rapp
prepared about
500 individual recipes before settling on
300 dishes ranging from time-honored
Southern meals, including Fried Chicken
and Macaroni and Cheese, to traditional
Jewish fare with a distinctly Southern
twist, such as Latkes with Parsnips and
Chives. Stories and anecdotes about Jewish
life in the South accompany the recipes.
"Our community has been known for
our Southern hospitality and great food:'
said Rapp. "But there really wasn't a com-
prehensive Southern kosher cookbook out
there. We don't have kosher restaurants
here she added. "Everyone cooks."
Recipes to try: Lemon Asparagus Soup,
Tomato and Watermelon Medley, Crustless
Spinach Quiche, Sweet Rice Pudding, Spicy
Skillet Beef Crumble and Mama's Sweet
Potato Pie.
To purchase, go to
www.simplysoutherncookbook.net or call
(866) 715-7667.

PAULA SHOYER: THE KOSHER BAKER:
OVER 160 DAIRY-FREE RECIPES FROM
TRADITIONAL TO TRENDY (Brandeis
University Press/University Press of
New England; $35)
When a job transfer relocated her family
to Switzerland,
Paula Shoyer,
owner of
Paula's Parisian
Pastries Cooking
School in the
Washington,
•
D.C., area, dis-
covered heavenly
pastry shops on
every corner and
kosher cater-
ers baking delicious parve (non-dairy)
desserts. Enrolling in a cooking school in
France, she learned to bake all the tradi-
tional buttery French desserts and then
set out to scientifically convert all of them
into kosher parve desserts that would taste
as delicious as the originals.
"In 2010, we are spoiled with the avail-

New Recipes on page GG34

jik4

November 18 • 2010

GG33