“The
Healthy Jewish Kitchen”
A glamour shot of roasted carrots
with little stems and grill marks, and a smear of green cream looks so
appealing on the cover Paula Shoyer’s
new cookbook, the notion the tasteless carrot squares and peas we used
to eat in the ‘70s never crossed my mind. These peas and carrots are her fresh
take and a vision of how eating better can be an adventure.
The
very first recipe is a salad for
breakfast. Israeli herb and almond salad, with dill, parsley and cherry
tomatoes has a lemon dressing and apparently appears in some version on every
Israeli hotel breakfast buffet, goes with yogurt or eggs for breakfast and
alongside any grilled fish, chicken or steak for lunch or dinner. To make your
salad a meal, add chickpeas, feta or tuna. Flip through for Japanese lamb chops with jalapeno, tamari
soy and ginger. Grilled corn with cilantro pesto, chocolate quinoa cake and
watermelon, peach and mint gazpacho
are some other flavors to make at home and feel like you’re dining at a
trending restaurant.
This
book’s subtitle is “Fresh, Contemporary Recipes for Every Occasion.” Shoyer
writes that the opportunity to create this book came after a time of loss and
grieving for her. I’d say she turned her outlook around by focusing on healthy
flavors and how they can join people together at the table. It’s a long-lasting
approach to wellness.
From
the shelves
Have you been reading this column for
15 plus years? I still recall some lessons learned from some of the books on my
shelves, but this Lent, I’m paring down and will share some joy from books I
reviewed long, long ago. Here are two “wordy” tidbits from Webb Garrison:
Bring
home the bacon
Biscuits
as we southerners know them were once twice-cooked dry rounds of bread designed
to not go moldy on a ship. To “make no bones” is a phrase stemming from the
hesitant caution of choking on bones found in one’s food and bringing home the
bacon was the prize in a 1445 newlywed game.
In
England, a flitch of bacon was given to a couple, questioned by six bachelors
and six maidens, determined to have the best first year of marriage living in
the greatest harmony and fidelity. These tidbits are from the foodie section of
“What’s in a Word?” Webb Garrison’s stories of 350 everyday words and phrases.
If you’ve lived high off the hog or
jumped aboard the gravy train, you may wonder who did those things before you. In
Garrison’s book “Why You Say It,” phrases such as this are explained. This may
be a rehash, as we’re going over it again. This phrase evolved from English
squires who couldn’t afford to waste meat. Landlords served a hash of shoulder
meat after the best parts were removed. If boarders complained, they may find
leftovers the next day, in some other form, according to the book.
