Laura Frankel, chef and founder of Shallots, a well-known kosher Chicago restaurant, feels that fresh, high-quality ingredients are essential for good cooking. She likes to cook from scratch and use local seasonal produce along with fresh meat and fish. Her cookbook makes many of the dishes served at Shallots available to home cooks.
The introductory material in the book offers advice about selecting kitchen equipment, basic recipes for stocks, sauces, and spice mixes, and holiday and seasonal menu ideas. Chapters for each season feature soups, main dishes, and desserts labeled dairy, meat, or pareve. They include delicious soups such as spring vegetable soup with basil pistou, entrees such as pomegranate-glazed chicken and vegetable tagine, and desserts such as blackberry-lemon frozen custard and chocolate mousse puffs. She also provides recipes for spice blends such as Persian advieh, za’atar, and herbes de Provence. The recipes are easy to follow and include advice about what can be prepared in advance and how to store the food. This lovely cookbook will expand the repertoire of kosher cooks.
