Dear Mr. Kimball,

Thanks to one of your never-ending e-mail solicitations, I was excited to discover that you’ve published a recipe for challah on the Cook’s Illustrated website this month. Upon reading it, though, I began to wonder whether you’re really based on Station Street in Brookline. Specifically:

Why settle for commercial mediocrity when you can bake this tender-crumbed, golden-hued loaf better at home?

With a simple two-step braid and glossy brown exterior, this eggy loaf looks as good as anything prepared by professional bakers.

Either you’re actually stuck in the midwest somewhere, or you’ve never gone any farther than ultra-nearby Stop & Shop — which sells a scary fluorescent-yellow loaf — in order to evaluate professionally baked challahs.

First and foremost, any aficionado knows that looks alone won’t get you far. Many a beautiful challah have been baked to a dark brown with perfectly scattered sesame seeds atop, only to reveal a hard, dry crust and bland interior with too fine a crumb. Perhaps the photo you provided doesn’t do your challah justice, but I doubt it would come close to any of the fine challahs sold at Cheryl Ann’s Bakery in Putterham Circle, Creative Pastries in Coolidge Corner, or Rosenfeld’s Bakery in Newton Centre — each with delicate crusts, dense interiors, and slightly sticky sides. (And make sure you get to Rosenfeld’s early Friday morning, so you can try their chocolate chip or onion challahs.)

And butter? As an avid reader of your magazine and owner of your cookbooks, I admire your scientific approach and commitment to perfection, but is it really challah if the recipe patently disregards the culture which birthed it? (For future reference, at least the option of vegetable oil or margarine to make a non-dairy loaf would be nice.)

At least you don’t call it challah bread, so thanks for that.

Best wishes,
The Kosher Blog

While it’s been debated here, whether or not the food in question is indeed Hungarian; the NY Times Food Section has an article on Hungarian food and the Satmar Hassisdic community in Kiryas Yoel - which Joan Nathan considers one of the few local communities serving the dishes. I guess she’s never eaten in my corner of Brooklyn. The names of the dishes are all in Yiddish (the lingua franca of Satmar Hassidim), but the recipes come from Szatmarnemeti, Hungary. Recipes included for delkelekh, letcho & stuffed, roasted chicken (I’m not aware of a Yiddish name for it). Sorry, no recipes for shliskes, kraut-pletzlach (cabbage noodles), goulash or holopches (stuffed cabbage).

I usually only make potato latkes once a year, for Chanukah, and every year I search online to find the right proportions of ingredients. Last year, I had had enough, and actually documented my process for posterity. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but at least it’ll be here for years to come. And it’s meant to be multiplied: I quintupled this recipe for a crowd — freezing/reheating instructions follow the recipe.
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I have a few friends I thought deserved some cookies about now, but until recently, I hadn’t decided what kind to make. Then I saw that this month’s Sugar High Friday theme is “Sugar Art,” and I took it as a sign that it was time to try Nancy Baggett’s edible tempera paint recipe and make some personalized cookies.

I didn’t want to post the personalized cookies for SHF, so I made some more generic ones, too. Here are some Chanukah cookies:

And some non-denominational cookies:

The verdict: The cookies are tasty and the art project was fun, but it would have been more fun with a kid, and I’ll probably wait until I have one before doing it again. (The cookies look like a kid made them, anyway.)

Here’s the recipe (adapted from Nancy Baggett’s All-American Cookie Book):
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I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for a while. When the NY Times printed the original recipe, I figured it was as good a time as any. Oysters Dunbar is a classic Creole dish, created by a restauranteur by the name of Corine Dunbar. This kosherized version doesn’t attempt to replace the oysters - the artichokes alone make for a tasty casserole.

Artichokes Dunbar
Courtesy of the Levin Family

1/4 stick margarine
2 large onions, chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large can of sliced mushrooms (16 oz)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 cans artichoke hearts, drained & quartered
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon, sliced into thin circles
bread crumbs to garnish

Melt the margarine and saute the onion until transparent. Preheat oven to 350F.
Add the flour to the onions and stir until you have a smooth paste.
Drain the mushrooms, saving the liquid. Add enough water to mushrom liquid to make one cup total. Add the liquid to the pan.
Add the spices and mix well.
Add the mushrooms and quartered artichoke hearts. Mix and turn flame to low. Allow mixture to thicken.
Transfer to a lightly greased, 8″x8″ square casserole. Sprinkle bread crumbs to cover and lay lemon slices on top. (We place the lemons in a 3×3 matrix as a serving guide.)
Bake for about 40 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Nextbook’s Sara Ivry offers this podcast on her trip to Kosherfest. I won’t say it’s trite, but here’s hoping she’s gotten over her Manischewitz fixation. (Read the memo.)

Honestly, I’d like to think that if I were covering an unfamiliar ethnic food show, I wouldn’t marginalize its participants by harping again and again on their stereotypical foods. “Who knew that latino food was more than chimichangas and extreme fajitas?” “I was excited to try General Gao’s latest creations, but I learned that Asians have actually been around for thousands of years, and actually make fresh, seasonally-inspired foods without MSG!”

Okay, maybe the podcast wasn’t that bad, but, yes, it’s a sore spot for me One need not invoke the ghosts of seders past (or Susie Fishbein’s mind-numbing minions) to show one’s readers that there is a mature kosher food industry, full of people who are serious about health, quality, and all-around good eating.

More encouraging is Linda Kulman’s contribution to Nextbook, one that installs chef/author Laura Frankel (of Chicago’s Shallots Bistro) alongside kosher cookbook pioneers Judith Cohen Montefiore and Edith Levy. Frankel’s new cookbook, “Jewish Cooking for All Seasons,” is chock-full of innovative, seasonally-inspired recipes suitable for the kosher home, absent the cliche ethnic food (and the cliche comments about it).