The dia­logue between Leah Schapi­ra and Vic­to­ria Dwek in the intro­duc­tion of Starters and Sides sets the jovial and light­heart­ed tone of this cook­book, which con­tains seri­ous­ly deli­cious recipes. For the authors of Passover Made Easy, this is the sec­ond in their ​“Made Easy”; series. Schapi­ra is the co-founder of CookKosher​.com, a pop­u­lar online kosher recipe exchange, and the author of Fresh & Easy Kosher Cook­ing. Dwek is the man­ag­ing edi­tor of Whisk, a week­ly kosher food magazine. 

Out­stand­ing dish­es include ​“Green Mashed Pota­toes,” ​“Za’atar and Rose­mary Baked Olives” with instruc­tions for prepar­ing the toast­ed bread sticks, ​“Teriya­ki Mush­rooms,” ​“Kish­ka and Zuc­chini Tow­ers,” Bar­be­cue Noo­dles,” ​“Salmon with a Pock­et” stuffed with pep­per and mush­room slices, and ​“Sweet­breads with White Wine Pars­ley Sauce.” Herbs and their impor­tant role in recipes are high­light­ed. ​“Tangy Meat Piz­zas (Lehme Bagine)” are pre­pared here with ketchup, which was not a sta­ple in Alep­po; thus the admis­sion, ​“That …doesn’t mean that authen­tic is always best.” 

A high­light for me in the Dairy sec­tion was the recipe for ​“Cheesy Onion Rolls,” which freeze well. Desserts include a refresh­ing ​“Man­go and Pineap­ple Sal­ad with Cit­rus Sauce.” Each recipe begins with ​“Ahead,” for tips on stress-less food prepa­ra­tion, and also includes ​“Build­ing Blocks,” for ways to expand on a recipe, as well as ​“Plate It,” for great ideas on pre­sent­ing the dish­es in an appeal­ing way. The accom­pa­ny­ing pho­tos enhance the dish­es dra­mat­i­cal­ly. These are inno­v­a­tive, cre­ative recipes and a first-rate read. Excel­lent index.

Relat­ed Content

• Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cui­sine by Helen Nash
• Ency­clo­pe­dia of Jew­ish Food by Gil Marks
• Jew­ish Cook­ing for all Sea­sons by Lau­ra Frankel