RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : Karen Selwyn The World of Jewish Entertaining
I bought a copy of Gil Marks' new cookbook, THE WORLD OF JEWISH ENTERTAINING and want to share my reaction. It's an interesting hybrid of his first book, THE WORLD OF JEWISH COOKING, and the Marlene Sorosky's FAST AND FESTIVE MEALS FOR THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS. My take on Marks' first book (which I love) is that it had a scholarly, approach to international Jewish cuisine and good explanation of procedures which yielded tasty dishes. My take on Sorosky's book (which I have only browsed through) is that it takes a fun and supportive approach to help cooks put tasty and appropriate food on the table for holiday and life cycle events. THE WORLD OF JEWISH ENTERTAINING is falls between the two books. The first chapter is titled "Guide for the Perplexed Host" and, among other things, suggests layouts for a buffet table and quantities of food for entertaining 20 people. It tells you to scale up in multiples of 20, but once a book is trying to be helpful, it might have been more useful if Marks had supplied quantites for more varied group sizes (e.g. Shabbat dinner for eight, Break-the-Fast for thirty, etc.). It's not a matter of simply doubling or halving quantities. Sometimes, for different group sizes one needs to add/delete/double certain dishes. The sections on Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Break-the-Fast, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Tu B'Shevat, Purim, and Passover are like the first book: the recipes are appealing, draw on Jewish cuisine around the world, and include brief but fascinating commentary. The exception is the section on shalachmones for food gift-giving at Purim. In his quest for originality and sophitication, Marks' makes some distinctly odd recommendations. Hamantaschen, of course, makes the list, but so do Fortune Cookies and Pecan Tassies, the consummate southern pastry treat. At least these are sweet suggestions. In the introduction, Marks recommends some truly eccentric schalachmones collections: a Japanese basket of sushi, rice wine vinegar, and Japanese horseradish or an Italian basket of pasta, sauces, vinegar, and sun-dried tomatoes. The recipes in the section on life cycle celebrations have a very different feel. All are kosher, but they mix Jewish cuisine with non-Jewish cuisine. A recipe for bourbon balls co-exists with a recipe for Israeli Orange and Avocado salad. A recipe for Beef Wellington co-exists with a recipe for Sephardic Pumpkin turnovers. And bringing up the rear is a chapter on recipes for baked goods where examples of Jewish cuisine are in the distinct minority. The recipe for Sephardic Leek Soup: Sopa de Prassa in the soup and Rosh Hashanah sections of the rfcj archives is from this book and it is a winner. Karen Selwyn
