jewish cooking of different countries/cultures

I thank Chanele for inviting me to join this group. I'm really interested in international cooking, but in earlier years i made big seders from edda servi machlin cuisine of the italian jews and The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece by Nicholas Stavroulakis. most of the guests weren't jewish but they enjoyed the food. I used it to introduce my friends to my favorite jewish holiday and as an excuse to sing dayenu and chad-gad-yo. A big hit was lamb with artichokes cooked in a clay pot. My Roumanian friend still talks about it. also- Maida Heater' s walnut torte can be made with ground wallnuts instead of flour if you want a pesadicke cake.from great desserts.a lot of viennese torten are flourless and use meringue or ground nuts or both. You can make a great dacquoise from beaten egg whites, chopped hazelnuts and a touch of sugar. Fill layers with whipped cream and strawberries-yum.

I must thank Chanale for inviting me to the group too.
Even though I am not of Jewish heritage, I do enjoy Jewish cuisine, at least the very little I know.
I have both the Edda Servi Machlin's books, one of which she gave me herself after a presentation of the same she gave at the place where I work.
Edda is a lovely lady, who was born and grew up in an almost totally Jewish old town in Tuscany: Pitigliano.
I also have another Jewish cookbook but, for the life of me, I cannot remember the title right now.

When I was in Venice recently, I visited the Museo Ebraico, which had scads of delicious-looking cookbooks in their shop. In consideration of my luggage, I bought only one: Dolci Ebraici della tradizione veneziana. It's bilingual (Italian/English) so that's all right; I just have to translate the European measurements. Thank goodness for conversion sites!

Welcome! This week, I'm making five dinners and one dessert from The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco - two of them use preserved lemons, which I've never made. I just found out the author lives just 15 miles from me! She gave a source for preserved lemons in the county, so just in case I botch the lemons, I have a back-up plan.

I really like The Scent of Orange Blossoms-I have made the " Holiday Potato and Meat pie -great! The Sweet Roasted Vegetables for Rosh Hashana makes enough for 10 or more! I had to get a really big roasting pan.

Today I just got a drizzle of honey- the lives and recipes of spain's secret jews by david m. gitlitz and linda davidson - it won the iacp book award and the nat'l jewish book award and it looks marvelous.

I wish I were closer to SD to get those preserved lemons, Chanale. And thanks for inviting so many wonderful people to the group!

A drizzle of honey is a good book, almigwin. Use it in good health!

I did some scans of privately published/community cookbooks last week and have loaded them into my library. Most of them come up under "kosher".

So far so good with A Scent of Orange Blossoms. The couscous with raisin-onion confit was delicious, but the fennel salad was a wreck, although I take the blame for that since I thought I was getting a sweet red onion when it was a very pungent one.

Along with the lemons, I also have kumquats preserving. I hadn't seen kumquats at the store for perhaps a year, so when I spotted them (organic and grown 10 miles up the road no less) next to the lemons, I bought 2 pounds on impulse. Unfortunately, I can't eat the only dish that uses them in the cookbook, so I'll have to search around for a way I can use them. They'll be good for 6 months, so I have time.

Can anyone reccommend a really good cookbook on Jewish food in Africa and/or India? I've seen a couple of essay-type books,but none that seem to have a wide variety of good recipes.

Try Indian Jewish Cooking by Hyman. It seems to me that I had another Indian-Jewish cookbook as well, but I don't have it cataloged and I am out of town.

Thanks Larson:ewisProject! I'll definitely look for that one.

I just made a plum tart from Claudia Roden's book of Jewish food, and the crust came out too tough to chew! I used margarine instead of butter, and probably worked it too much. Does anyone have any tricks for muerbteig (the tart crust with egg, butter, sugar, and brandy)? i have read that it is very easy, but i fail with it all the time.

Don't overwork the crust. Mix it just enough to blend it and then pat or roll it out. Overworking is the usual cause of toughness but don't substitute marg for butter unless you are very familiar with all of the properties of the marg.