Olive Trees and Honey: A
Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish
Communities Around the World Book Review by
Norene Gilletz
Vegetarian Dishes from Prize-winning
Cookbook are Right on the Mark!
The "mark" of a good chef is one who leaves
his culinary options open and Gil Marks
lives up to his name once again. His latest
book, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of
Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities
Around the World, won the prestigious 2005
James Beard Award in the vegetarian
category!
Olive Trees and Honey:
A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish
Communities Around the
World by Gil Marks
Order Now from
Jewish Recipes
Sample Recipes:
This outstanding collection of 300
vegetarian dishes has been woven together
with cultural and historical details that
will intrigue armchair travellers, history
buffs and cooks alike. Olive Trees and Honey
will take you on an exciting global journey,
allowing you to experience the way Jews have
been eating meatless meals for centuries.
Unique seasonings and condiments add
regional flavor to simple recipes, letting
you experience how Jewish communities around
the world prepared their food.
Gil Marks is a rabbi, historian, chef,
cookbook author, teacher and expert on
Jewish cooking. He has no professional
training, but his mother encouraged him and
his siblings to cook and experiment, even if
they made a mess. He told me that his
paternal grandfather once set the house on
fire while trying to make coffee in an
electric coffee pot - on the stove!
When I recently interviewed him by
telephone, Marks declared "Cooking is an
art, but baking is a science." He loves to
prepare fancy meals for friends in his
small, cramped upper West Side kitchen in
New York.
Olive Trees and Honey includes an exciting
array of vegetarian dishes for any occasion
on the Jewish calendar, from festivals to
everyday meals. For Passover, dishes include
Ukrainian Beet Soup (Borscht), Turkish
Sweet-and-Sour Artichokes (Anjinaras),
Turkish Leek Patties (Keftes de Prassa),
Moroccan Mashed Potato Casserole (Batata bil
Firan) and Calcutta Curried Vegetables (Subzi).
These are also suitable for year-round
enjoyment.
Marks writes about the versatility of matzo,
which is "ground to make matzo meal or
finely ground to make matzo cake meal.
Crumbled and ground matzo is used to create
an imaginative array of Passover dishes,
including stuffings, puddings, casseroles,
pancakes, fritters, dumplings, pastries and
cakes. Since matzo meal has an intriguing
nutty flavour, it is often used for binding
and breading throughout the year as well as
on Passover.
"The Bible forbids the consumption of
chametz (leavened grain) during Passover.
Among Ashkenazim, an interdiction emerged
against eating legumes (kitniyot) on
Passover as well as rice, millet and some
seeds: poppy, sesame, caraway, coriander and
mustard. On the other hand, Sephardim,
prolific rice and legume consumers, not only
rejected these prohibitions, but frequently
featured these foods at the Passover Seder.
The restriction of kitniyot on Passover
remains one of the major differences between
Ashkenazim and other Jewish communities."
World of
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