I started this because I found so many recipes I liked that could be made Kosher, that I don’t think many of my friends would have considered. I also have twists on some classic recipes that I thought they would enjoy, both in flavor as well as for finding newness in a tried-and-true favorite.

I want to make these recipes as simple as possible. There will be some things that aren’t as simple as I would like (sourcing Kosher smoked products is more challenging than I realized stepping into this project). But I want there to be as few obstacles as possible, so that my Kosher-keeping friends would be interested in giving them a shot.

Some of this is about me rediscovering my heritage and learning more about my religion. Despite 12 years in Yeshiva, I feel like I was never taught anything about Kashrut. I am learning a LOT right now. The more I work on this, the more I wish they had a home economics class for the Jewish household when I was in school.

Because my wife is allergic to wheat, many of these recipes will be gluten-free (not all wheat-free items are gluten-free). This made for a bigger challenge. Having said that, it does give me more scope for items that can be Kosher for Passover that don’t involve matzah*.

*People who know me well, know my abhorrence for matzah.

My reach here will be global. Growing up, my family had food influences from Argentina, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Lower East Side. My tastes have gone broader.

Having said that, I was an exceptionally picky eater growing up. Not a Cheerios & chicken nuggets kid, but, until I was away from home at 18 and a doctor said that if I didn’t start eating vegetables I would die, the only non-carb veggies I ate growing up were onions, peppers, cooked tomatoes, and whatever vegetables were in an egg roll. I wouldn’t eat beans or sweet potatoes. Soups and salads were things that happened to other people. I would eat cooked or smoked fish if it was white fleshed, but not salmon, lox, herring, tuna* or Gefilte. Mayo could not touch anything I was supposed to eat. Cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheesecake were all non-starters.

*I ate my mom’s tuna noodle casserole (which had mushrooms in it), only because I didn’t know what was going on with it; I just knew it was tasty. But you couldn’t give me a tuna sandwich, or anything where I could tell there were mushrooms in it.

When I started work on this, my wife asked me if the only thing to eat was soup, would I have rather gone hungry as a child, or would I have eaten it. My parents gave up on the “Sit at the table until you eat that,” because I would fall asleep at the table rather than eat something I didn’t like/want to eat. Every Seder, a bowl of matzah ball soup would be put in front of me in the hopes that this was the year I would break. It still hasn’t happened 50-plus years later.

The extent to which I would not eat food I didn’t like led the administrators at Camp Ramah to contact my parents because they thought I was starving myself. Other kids got care packages of candy bars. My parents sent care packages with rye bread, bread sticks, and cans of pineapple. Partially because they knew I would eat those, and partially to appease the counselors, since my parents were confident I wouldn’t die. I was eating, just not all the things everyone else was – I can still see the plastic-wrapped dishes of green beans on the cafeteria table as we pass the cubes of bread to each other so we can say Hamotzi, and my face just curls up in disgust.

Nowadays folks think I eat everything. That is such a no.

Both my first and current wives say I have a vegetable face – see the camp story above. I generally make vegetables “hidden” with other flavors so I can enjoy them, even when it’s a vegetarian dish. I will eat green beans now, but stir fried with garlic, ginger & soy. Or made into a vegetarian chopped liver. Or incorporated into my version of a tuna salad Niçoises (no olives, as those are an abomination – bless you if you enjoy them, please have mine). Or any number of ways. If they are served plain, I’ll eat them, you will just get the vegetable face.

So, be prepared for Brussels sprouts with pecans, brown sugar, and chili (someone once wrote a poem about them when I made this at a Dude Ranch). Chinese restaurant inspired orange cauliflower. A chiffonade of spinach in a bowl to go under a serving of stew. I’ve got to get my veggies in somehow, and maybe this gets them by some of the picky eaters in your life – maybe even you.

If I make a mistake in Kashrut, please politely let me know. I will pull or revise a recipe. I don’t have an ego about this, and I will thank you. If you’re mean about it, but correct, I will still pull or revise the recipe, but without thanks.

I am using a home kitchen, and these recipes are calibrated to my oven & stove (which are electric). There will be some variation against other people’s equipment, so use my timings as a guideline, and watch/test for doneness.

If you don’t like the flavor or changed herbs/spices for your/your family’s preferences, let me know your adjustments. I cook to my taste, and not everybody likes the same things. I might like your variation better than mine, or find I made an error in logging measurements or a missed ingredient, which would mess up a recipe. I handwrite recipes as I build them, and mistyping something like teaspoon for tablespoon, or bypassing an ingredient from a list when transposing could happen. I try to avoid it by proofreading and apologize in advance if there are any errors. I will post any corrections.

Thank you for reading this far, and thank you for joining me as I play with food for me and my Kosher Friends.

Sincerely,

Orlando Winter