Passover Cookery : In the Kitchen with Joan Kekst

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Summary: Excerpted from Fullerton News Tribune 3-29-01
Review: "Passover Cookery" by Joan Kekst (Five Star Publications $24.95) is no ordinary matzo masquerade on parade. I'll be serving her Chicken Roulade with Scallion Sauce year round. Ditto her New York Style Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse. Her full page on the proper beating of eggs is alone worth the price of the book! (My aunt's lemon sponge cake swelled from nice try to mile high under her tutelage.) "Passover Cookery" is more than a collection of recipes. It's a Passover primer, with equal appeal to mavens and neophytes. Especially helpful are her Six-Week Countdown to Passover and sample menus. A welcome twist are Kekst's low-fat Passover tips. (Low fat? Passover? Think that's an oxymoron?) "If you over-indulge on a one-day holiday, it's not so bad," says Kekst, "but keep that up for a whole week, and you'll get in trouble," so the book features a variety of fruit desserts and sorbets as well as defatting options throughout. I caught up with Kekst as she was preparing for her family's seder (the festive Passover meal) as she has for the last 20 years since her mother-in-law packed away her Passover dishes, pots and pans, put them in Kekst's car and said, "It's your turn from now on." 37 family members will attend, but with four out of five of her children local, "I never peel a carrot or dice an apple. They all just fall in and out of my house and do their jobs."

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Summary: An excellent addition to your cookbook library!
Review: from Norene Gilletz, author of "The Food Processor Bible" and "MealLeaniYumm! 800 Fast, Fabulous & Healthy Recipes", ...

Joan Kekst truly understands that everyone recalls the aroma and nostalgia of childhood Passovers with their grandparents. Her user-friendly, comprehensive cookbook will help both the new and experienced cook capture and create traditional Passover flavors. It contains a complete "Countdown to Passover" guide to help busy cooks and their families organize holiday preparations into easy steps. Kekst also includes Sephardic and Ashenazic specialties, dishes that can be made in advance, foods that children will love, and low-fat/low-cholesterol and vegetarian recipe suggestions. You'll find delicious recipes for dishes like Passover Grilled Cheese "Sandwiches," Potato Knishes with Caramelized Onions, Boneless Stuffed Breast of Veal, as well as Spinach Moussaka that can be made pareve or dairy. A friend raved about Joan's Chocolate Chip Cookies, giving them the ultimate compliment - "These cookies sure don't taste like Passover!"

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Summary: A great cookbook!
Review: I love this cookbook. I have yet to be disappointed in any recipe I have made from it. I gave a copy to my best friend, who cooks all of our passover seders. They always have a large number of people at their seders, and the recipes in this cookbook worked well when doubled or quadrupled.

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Summary: For anyone facing the preparation of their first Passover
Review: Joan Kekst is a Cleveland food columnist, lecturer, kosher cooking instructor, and passionate cook who in Passover Cookery has compiled and indispensable guide designed for the novice cook seeking to prepare a memorable Passover dining experience. Every aspect of this Jewish holiday meal is covered including its requirements, customs, unique cooking ingredients, and the symbolic foods of the Seder table. Passover Cookery provides a six week "Countdown to Passover" guide to help busy cooks and families break down their holiday preparations into easy, worry-free steps for each week, resulting in healthy, tantalizing, and meaningful dinners for each of the eight days of this annual celebration. Passover Cookery is a "must" for anyone facing the preparation of their first Passover celebration, and has much of value for even the more experienced Passover kitchen cook.

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Summary: Guide to Passover Cooking
Review: Passover Cookery is the ultimate in clarity, order and completeness, not only for the neophyte, but is a wonderful reference and reminder for the experienced Seder maker.

The layout, with the ingredients to the left in a shaded area and instructions to the right, makes it easy to follow instructions. I especially appreciate beautiful colored photographs in a cookbook. They present a goal to be achieved.

For those of us who have been preparing Seders for over a quarter of a century, it offers new ideas and alternatives to the usual chicken and brisket. And for desert - sponge cake move over and make room for new, delicious desert delicacies!

If you are among those who are invited out for Seders, this is a most appropriate gift to bring your hostess.

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Summary: All you need to know about Passover preparation
Review: Passover Cookery is the ultimate in clarity, order and completeness, not only for the neophyte, but is a wonderful reference and reminder for the experienced Seder maker.

The layout, with the ingredients to the left in a shaded area and instructions to the right, makes it easy to follow instructions. I especially appreciate beautiful colored photographs in a cookbook. They present a goal to be achieved.

For those of us who have been preparing Seders for over a quarter of a century, it offers new ideas and alternatives to the usual chicken and brisket. And for desert - sponge cake move over and make room for new, delicious desert delicacies!

If you are among those who are invited out for Seders, this is a most appropriate gift to bring your hostess.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent addition to your cookbook library!
Review: Reviewer: Norene Gilletz, Kosher cookbook author of "The Food Processor Bible" and "MealLeaniYumm! 800 Fast, Fabulous & Healthy Recipes"

Joan Kekst truly understands that everyone recalls the aroma, nostalgia and 'taste memories' of childhood Passovers with their grandparents. Her user-friendly, comprehensive cookbook helps both the new and experienced cook capture and create traditional Passover flavors. In addition to wonderful recipes, it also contains a complete 'Countdown to Passover' guide to help busy cooks and their families organize holiday preparations into easy steps. Kekst includes Sephardic and Ashenazic specialties, dishes that can be made in advance, foods that children will love, and low-fat/low-cholesterol and vegetarian recipe suggestions.

Recipes include Boneless Stuffed Breast of Veal, Potato Knishes with Carmelized Onions, Spinach Moussaka, and Passover Grilled Cheese "Sandwiches." A friend raved about the Chocolate Chip Cookies, giving them the ultimate compliment - "These sure don't taste like Passover!" Passover Cookery is sure to provide many traditional and new food memories.

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Summary: Passover Cooking Made Easy -
Review: These comments appeared in a review by Debra A. Aleksinas. It was published in Republican-American - March 21, 2001

Cookbook takes ache from holiday.

Joan Kekst has now made cooking for Passover "a piece of cake" by collecting all the information cooks need in her new book, "Passover Cookery: In the Kitchen with Joan Kekst."..."Passover Cookery" immediately puts cooks on the right track with explanations of the holiday, its requirements, customs, unique cooking ingredients and the symbolic foods of the Seder table...More than simply an instructional cookbook, "Passover Cookery" depicts the pride and passion with which Jewish homemakers celebrate the eight days of Passover...The author provides a six week, "Countdown to Passover" guide to help busy cooks and their families break down their holiday preparation into easy, worry-free steps for each week. By following these steps, even first timers will find it easy to create a "Kosher for Passover" home, with healthy and meaningful dinners for all eight days of the holiday...The author also includes the Sephardic and Askenazic ethnic specialties, dishes that can be made in advance of the Seder, foods children will love, and low-fat, low-cholesterol and vegetarian recipe suggestions. A full description of the baking with egg whites as the leavening agent could make cooks' Passover baking rise to new heights."

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Summary: Guide to Passover Cooking
Review: These comments were published in Palisades Bergen News - March 21, 2001

"Passover Cookery" is a user-friendly guide for the novice, and an excellent resource for experienced cooks. Recipes are given each course of the meal and for the symbolic foods for the Seder plate; they're a mix of traditional and new recipes, both Sephardic and Askenazic.