arts & life

food

Rediscoverec c F :uorkl:lks
And Reimagined

Jessica Ritz

MODERN
JEWISH
COOKING

RECIPES & CUSTOMS FOR TODAY'S KITCHEN

Jewish Journal of
Greater L.A.

y family had one Jewish
cookbook when I was grow-
ing up. Apparently, Jennie
Grossinger was all we needed to get
us through preparing holiday meals. I
also remember thumbing through my
grandmother's endearingly stained and
splattered copy of the The Settlement
Cookbook, which I looked at for
quaint, socially outmoded amusement
rather than indispensable kitchen
instruction.
That's a total of only two Jewish
cookbooks I saw for the first several
decades of my life.
Times have changed. I may no lon-
ger have Jewish grandmas to show me
the ropes, but boy, do I have books.
The jumble of Jewish-themed cook-
books in my own kitchen includes
ones by Claudia Roden, Gil Marks and
Yotam Ottolenghi, to name a few, and
yet my collection barely scratches the
surface of relevant tomes that have
hit the market since I've had my own
kitchen and a family to feed.
Now that an artisanal deli has
become a must-have attraction in

ROAST CHICKEN
WITH FENNEL
AND ORANGE

EXCERPTED FROM MODERN JEWISH

COOKING BY LEAH KOENIG, PHOTOGRAPHS

BY SANG AN (CHRONICLE BOOKS; 2015).

With just a few simple
additions, regular roast chick-
en becomes extraordinary.
This version slips sweet fen-
nel and slices of bright orange
— both popular ingredients
among Mediterranean Jewish
communities — under chick-
en thighs and legs to soften
and soak up the juices while
the bird roasts. The result is a
super-flavorful meal in a pan:

46

September 3 • 2015

iN

any city worth its kashering salt, the
publishing industry is finally catching
up with trends in Jewish food. The
Mile End Cookbook became a hit when
the celebrated Brooklyn deli released
its recipes in late 2012. So far, 2015
has seen intriguing new additions,
with titles that pull deeply from the
historical well while hewing to current
sensibilities.
These authors would rather you
ditch the Lipton onion soup mix and
embrace from-scratch authenticity and
seasonality. So, a glance at a typical
"K" index means kabocha squash, kale,
karpas, kasha, kebabs and kreplach.
Food writer Leah Koenig's fresh take
and wide-ranging palate in Modern

Jewish Cooking: Recipes &Customs for
Today's Kitchen (Chronicle Books; $35)
is a personal and progressive contri-
bution to the genre. "I wrote Modern
Jewish Cooking for the next genera-
tion of Jewish cooks:' Koenig states
in the introduction. "My hope is that
it makes the dishes from the past feel
accessible and relevant, while leaving
room for experimentation and per-
sonal expression"
The Brooklyn-based author, who
regularly contributes to outlets such as
The Forward and Tablet, and wrote The
Hadassah Everyday Cookbook in 2011,

tender vegetables, caramel-
ized citrus fruit and a gor-
geously browned bird scented
with thyme.
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin
olive oil, plus 'A cup
2 navel oranges; 1 zested
and juiced, 1 cut into
1 /4-inch slices
1 Tbsp. dried thyme
3 medium fennel bulbs,
halved, cored and cut into
8 wedges each
2 small yellow onions,
quartered through the
root
Kosher salt and freshly

embraces a heterogeneous world-
view and makes broad connections
throughout the book's 11 chapters. Her
miso-roasted asparagus recipe isn't
like the proverbial needle scratching
the record, but rather part of a logical
gastronomical gestalt.
Modern Jewish Cooking is acces-
sible and aspirational enough to be
the perfect gift for Jewish millennials
who want to start getting their hands
dirty by making foods with memories
attached, along with dishes fit for a
meal at their favorite Brooklyn or
Silver Lake farm-to-table restaurants.
It helps that Koenig includes tips for
"stocking your kitchen like a grown-
up:"
But the book might also re-inspire
home cooks stuck in old habits. The
recipes are technically kosher, and the
final chapter focuses on Jewish holi-
days, but Koenig doesn't consider it a
"kosher" cookbook.
Kashrut laws notwithstanding, all
these titles jettison any stubborn food
purism. Koenig includes a recipe for
jalapeno-shallot matzah balls, a twist
that overlaps with the unconventional
ingredients in The Community Table:

Recipes & Stories from the Jewish
Community Center in Manhattan &
Beyond (Grand Central Publishing Life

ground black pepper
4 lbs. skin-on chicken
legs and thighs, trimmed
of excess fat

Preheat the oven to 425
degrees. In a medium bowl,
whisk together the 2 Tbsp. of
the olive oil, orange zest and
juice and thyme.
Arrange the fennel and
onions evenly on the bot-
tom of a roasting pan or
on a large rimmed baking
sheet, and top with a layer of
orange slices. Drizzle with the
remaining 1/4 cup oil and sea-

son with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle the chicken pieces
with salt and pepper, then dip
them into the oil-orange mix-
ture, turning to coat. Arrange
the chicken pieces, skin-side
up, on top of the fennel and
orange and roast for 30 min-
utes. Spoon the pan drippings
over the chicken, then con-
tinue roasting until the skin is
browned and an instant-read
thermometer inserted into
the thickest part of one of the
thighs reaches 165°F, 25 to 30
minutes more. Transfer the
chicken to a platter with the