arts & entertainment >> food
From Traditional
To Modern
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
W bile Adele Grossberg-Bark
returns to the traditional
Hungarian favorites she
learned from her grandmother long ago,
Aviva Kanoff has come up with some inno-
vative dishes of her own for seders and
the rest of the holiday.
In The No-Potato Passover:
A Journey of Food, Travel and
Color (Brio Books; $29.99),
Kanoff sought to create a low-
carb Passover cookbook and
introduces her own approach
in a selection of recipes for
soups and salads, sides, meats,
poultry, dairy and parve
entrees and desserts.
In The Rebbetzin Cooks:
40 Recipes for Passover and
Beyond (available on Amazon for 99 cents),
Grossberg-Bark recalls the tastes she first
experienced as a child in the Flint home of
her family.
Kanoff, 28, a New York artist as well as
personal chef, decided to challenge herself
with a first book.
"Because potatoes are such a staple at
Passover, the challenge became developing
recipes without them',' she says.
She abandons the much-used spuds for
Two new collections of Passover recipes
take cooks in very opposite directions
(plus something for the kids!).
colorful salads and vegetable side dishes and
"I decided on 40 recipes to represent
does a lot with quinoa and spaghetti squash
the number of years the Israelites wan-
to replace rice and pasta, forbidden for those
dered in the desert after escaping from
strictly following religious dietary laws.
Egyptian bondage."
As a visual artist, Kanoff prefers colorful
Grossberg-Bark, whose maiden name
recipes. "Maybe that's why I'm not as fasci- _ was Rosenbaum and whose second hus-
nated by white potatoes as I am by rainbow band (Nathan Bark) is a retired Reform
chard or golden beets:' she says.
rabbi, lives in Florida and is used to
In addition to coming up
sharing recipes.
with recipes, Kanoff matched
If anyone has dinner at
them with her own travel
her home and compliments
pictures from the places that
what has been served, she
inspired the cooking con-
sits down and writes out the
cepts.
ingredients and directions
With meatballs and spa-
for putting the selections
ghetti squash, for instance,
together.
she joins camera work from a
"Some of the recipes
visit to Italy.
can be used throughout
Kanoff, who is Orthodox,
the whole year:' explains
is a graduate of the French
Grossberg-Bark, who didn't
Culinary Institute as well as Hunter
get them in writing from
College, where she earned a bachelor's
her grandmother. She had
degree in studio art. Roasted cauliflower is
to work from memory and
among her favorite choices.
ingredient trials.
"Sometimes, the simplest things are the
"My grandmother, Lena
best:' she says. "The secret is fresh ingredi-
Krauss Feldman, made
ents:'
cooking an art," she says,
"Paprika is the key ingredient in
remembering the popular-
Hungarian recipes:' explains Grossberg-
ity of the woman's baked
Bark, 74, who moved to Detroit from Flint
goods at bazaars planned by Flint's
and graduated from Mumford High School
Congregation Beth Israel. "I believe her
and Wayne State University before teaching secret was using the sweet Hungarian
in Detroit, Southfield and Pennsylvania.
paprika instead of the more bitter ver-
From The No-Potato Passover; Brio Books;
2012 Hardcover; $29.95
eggs in a bowl, and dip salmon fillets in egg. In
a separate bowl or pan, mix walnuts, rosemary,
salt and pepper, and bread salmon in this
mixture. Fry salmon on medium heat for 5-6
minutes per side for thick fillets, 2-3 minutes
per side for thinner fillets. Mix all ingredients
for garlic aioli in a bowl, and serve on the side.
ROSEMARY WALNUT CRUSTED
SALMON WITH GARLIC AIOLI
Salmon:
6 salmon fillets (about 6 oz. each)
lemon juice
2 eggs
21/2 cups ground walnuts (or 2 cups
ground walnuts mixed with i/2 cup matzah
meal)
1 Tbsp. dried rosemary
salt and pepper, to taste
Garlic Aioli:
1 /2 cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 /2 tsp. imitation mustard
salt, to taste
Pour lemon juice over salmon fillets. Beat
66 March 29 • 2012
CAJUN
CARROT FRIES
8-10 large car-
rots, peeled and cut
into thin slices, like
"fries"
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 /4 tsp. cayenne
pepper
salt and black pep-
per, to taste
Preheat oven to 450
degrees. Grease and/or line a large cookie sheet.
Toss the sliced carrots with olive oil, cayenne
pepper, salt and black pepper. Arrange the fries
in a single layer on the baking sheet, bake for
15 minutes then flip the fries over and bake for
another 10-15 minutes, until crisp. Serve warm.
sions in main dishes."
Whether matzah ball soup, Passover
rolls, orange cake or cucumber salad,
Gossberg-Bark prepares them with what
she considers the same devotion and
enthusiasm as her grandmother.
"An uncle used to tell me to put the
recipes in a book:' she recalls. "After a
recent conversation with
my daughter, I finally got it
done."
In addition — and not to
leave out cooking with the
kids — A Sweet Passover
(Abrams Books for Young
Readers; $16.95), written by
Leslea Newman with illus-
trations by David Slonim,
offers a recipe for Passover
French toast — or, the "Best
Matzah Brie in the World"
(as told to the author by her
father).
The charming story,
about a girl growing tired of
matzah-dominated foods,
shares Passover traditions
and ends with the girl
making the breakfast treat
with her grandfather (the book's recipe
has detailed instructions so even novice
cooks can share the experience with their
children, too). El
From The Rebbetzin Cooks:
40 Recipes for Passover and Beyond
HUNGARIAN MATZAH BALLS
1 1 cups matzah meal
6 large eggs
1 /2 cup vegetable oil
1 /2 cup cold seltzer water
1 /4 teaspoon white pepper
1 /4 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 Tbsp. dry parsley flakes
2 Tbsp. kosher salt for water
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil to oil scoop
Combine matzah meal and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, whisk
eggs, oil, seltzer water, pepper, paprika and parsley. Slowly mix the ingre-
dients from the second bowl into the first bowl. Cover with plastic wrap,
and refrigerate 3-4 hours.
Fill two large pots 3 /4 full of water, add Tbsp. of salt to each, bring to a
boil and then to lowest heat possible.
Place vegetable oil in small ramekin, oil a medium ice cream scoop as
needed, and form matzah balls the size of a walnut. Carefully drop 10 or 11
matzah balls into each pot. Set burners to a light simmer, cover with tight
lids and cook 45-50 minutes. Check after 25 minutes to make sure water is
still simmering and matzah balls are expanding.
To make sure matzah balls are completely cooked, remove one with a
long-handled, slotted spoon, and cut in half. If the color and texture are
not uniform, cook for 10 more minutes and test again. When finished,
place matzah balls in colander and let cool.