The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook Read Free Page B

year, the Deli caters hundreds of parties, bar mitzvahs, weddings, board meetings, seminars, and political events. It’s a big part of our business, and, in compiling recipes, we’ve included many items from our catering menus that are not offered in the restaurant itself.
    Abe, ever a Zionist, made many trips to Israel and loved its cuisine: so we’ve presented such traditional Middle Eastern fare as baba ganoush, hummus, tahini, tabbouleh, and the best falafel you’ve ever had.
    Other wonderful recipes (all fully tested by us) were provided by Lebewohl family members and friends.
    Julia Child once offered this bit of culinary comfort: “Don’t be afraid of cooking.… What’s the worst that could happen?” What’s more, she added, “It’s important to remember you can fix almost anything.” We agree with Julia, and we’ve worked hard to make our recipes easy to understand so that cooking will be fun, not frightening. Hopefully, you won’t even need to “fix” anything.
    What’s Kosher? What’s Pareve?
    The Jewish ritual dietary laws of kashruth—which include detailed instructions for the proper selection, slaughtering, cooking, and eating of all foods—were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai along with the TenCommandments. A covenant with God, kashruth teaches reverence for life and perpetuates Jewish identity among a dispersed people.
    The Second Avenue Deli is a kosher restaurant. In accordance with one of the most fundamental tenets of kashruth—which forbids combining any dairy foods with meat or poultry—we specialize in meat, fish, and poultry dishes. We serve no dairy items—no milk, butter, cheese, or derivatives thereof—and use no dairy items in food preparation. Our delicious mashed potatoes, for instance, are whipped with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, flavored with onions), not cream and butter.
    Frequently throughout this book, you’ll see the word
pareve,
which means “made without milk or meat products.” Fish, eggs, grains, herbs and spices, fruits, vegetables, and nuts are all pareve—neutral foods that can be eaten in combination with meat or dairy. At the Deli, our nonmeat dishes are all pareve. Hence, in our kitchen, even traditionally dairy items, such as blintz crêpes, are prepared with nondairy creamer and margarine instead of milk and butter and filled with potatoes or fruit, not cheese (though we do have faux cheese blintzes made with Tofutti cream cheese). And they’re served with applesauce, not sour cream.
    Because you’ll be preparing these recipes at home, where even the most observant Jews are set up for both meat and dairy preparation (with separate dishes and cooking and eating utensils), we’ve also included some of our favorite recipes that are strictly dairy, such as cheese blintzes, challah bread pudding, and a matzo-apple kugel that contains butter and cream cheese. Wherever possible, we also offer pareve versions of dairy fare (especially desserts). That’s because even though observant Jews can eat dairy, they have to wait six hours after a meat meal to do so; and we think six hours is a long time to wait for dessert!

THE JEWISH PANTRY
Step into Our Kitchen

    I N THE OLD DAYS —and up to a few decades ago—the kitchen was the heart and hearth of a Jewish home, the stove the place you were most likely to find your mom. Coming home from school, you’d toss your books on the table, fling your coat on the banister post (though you’d been told a million times to hang it in the closet), and head straight to the kitchen, lured by the tantalizing aromas and warmth of cooking food and Mom’s two daily questions: “So, how was your day?” and “Are you hungry?” A little nosh from the stove—a preview of the coming night’s dinner—was a frequent after-school treat.
    Today, Mom is more likely to be in the