Just in Time After 3,000 Years
Paula Shoyer’s Passover cookbook refreshes the seder options
By Suzi Brozman | sbrozman@atljewishtimes.com
Sick and tired of the same old Passover recipes? Want to surprise and delight your family and seder guests? Here’s your answer: “The New Passover Menu” by Paula Shoyer.
Shoyer broke onto the kosher food scene with her amazing books on kosher baking, “The Kosher Baker” and “The Holiday Kosher Baker.”
She is not only a traditional cook, but also has the distinction of having graduated from the Ritz Escoffier pastry program in Paris. She teaches French and Jewish baking classes around the country.
In “The New Passover Menu” she has distilled the best of both worlds, giving us delectable recipes that could be on the menus at the finest restaurants but meet kosher and Passover requirements.
Salmon gefilte fish loaf looks almost as good as it tastes. How about using chicken meatballs in your soup instead of (or in addition to) matzah balls? Banana charoset? Why not!
The holiday is 3,000 years old, but that doesn’t mean your menu has to be that old.
Beet and butternut squash salad with pomegranate arils reminds us that we can use a world of vegetables even if we swear off rice and most other grains for the eight days.
Shoyer has outdone herself with recipes for cupcakes, muffins and rolls that taste so good, you’ll make them all year. (Disclaimer: I was a recipe tester for the book and couldn’t wait for it to be published so I could try everything.)
The book is chock-full of glorious photographs to tempt you to cook and eat the recipes.
One of my favorites is coconut schnitzel with almond butter sauce. But it’s hard to have favorites when you can choose from Linzer tart, Peruvian roasted chicken with salsa verde, whole chicken with dried fruit stuffing and even Torrone candy.
The book from Sterling Publishing is $24.95. If your cookbook collection can’t handle another book, this one would make the perfect hostess gift for anyone generous enough to share a holiday meal with you.
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