About this item
Here, at last, is a fresh, new way to think about Jewish food. In The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen, Amelia Saltsman takes us far beyond deli meats and kugel to a world of diverse flavors ideal for modern meals. Inspired by the farm-to-table movement, her 150 recipes offer a refreshingly different take on traditional and contemporary Jewish cooking.. Amelia traces the delicious thread of Jewish cuisine from its ancient roots to todays focus on seasonality and sustainability. Guided by the Jewish lunar calendar, she divides the book into six micro-seasons that highlight the deep connection of Jewish traditions to the years natural cycles. Amelia draws on her own rich food history to bring you a warmly personal cookbook filled with soul-satisfying spins on beloved classics and bold new dishes. From her Iraqi grandmothers kitchri - red lentils melted into rice with garlic slow-cooked to sweetness - to four-ingredient Golden Borscht with Buttermilk and Fresh Ginger and vibrant Blood Orange and Olive Oil Polenta Upside-Down Cake, Amelias game-changing approach is sure to win over a new generation of cooks. Youll find naturally vegan dishes, Middle Eastern fare, and new ways to use Old-World ingredients - buckwheat, home-cured herring, and gribenes - in fresh, modern meals.. Whether youre Jewish or not, observant or not, Ashkenazic or Sephardic, this yearlong culinary journey through the Diaspora will have you saying, "This is Jewish food? Who knew?"
About the Author
Writer, teacher, and award-winning author of "The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen: A Fresh Take on Tradition" and "The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook: Seasonal Foods, Simple Recipes, and Stories from the Market and Farm," Amelia Saltsman is passionate about helping everyday cooks make the connection between small-farmed foods and real-life meals. In her warm style, Amelia streamlines today's desire for healthier, sustainable foods; the need to get dinner on the table; and the longing for rich holiday traditions into one seamless whole.
Amelia's name is synonymous with intuitive, seasonal cooking, and as the Los Angeles-born daughter of a Romanian mother and Iraqi father who were raised in Israel, her food reflects the bold, diverse flavors of her eclectic background. Amelia's books have made numerous "best" lists, including The Washington Post, Cooking Light, and KCRW's Good Food, and she has been featured in such diverse outlets as Parade Magazine, Yahoo! Food, Food52, Fit Pregnancy, Vegetarian Times, US Airways, USA Today, Jewish Chronicle of London, The Jerusalem Post, and Los Angeles magazine. Her work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Food52, The Kitchn, Cooking Light, Huffington Post, Jewish Journal, National Geographic Traveler, and more. Amelia is a frequent guest on KCRW's Good Food and has appeared on Hallmark's Home & Family and Good Day L.A. Known as an energetic and inspiring teacher, she teaches at such venues as Google's corporate offices and Rancho La Puerta.
A long-time champion of local family farms, fair food, and farmers' markets, Amelia is committed to raising the food literacy rate: knowing how, where, and by whom our food is grown; knowing how to cook a simple, healthy meal; and understanding the historical, local, and global impact our food choices have on our families and communities. Amelia served ten years on the California Certified Farmers' Markets Advisory Committee and Direct Marketing Task Force; contributed to The Sage Encyclopedia of Food Issues; and empowers people to confidently "read" their farmers' markets.
"Great taste and good farming practices go hand in hand," says Amelia. "When the raw ingredients taste good, it's the most obvious sign that our food has been grown sustainably and locally, and that it's at its freshest and most nutritious."
In her newest book, "The Seasonal Jewish Kitchen" (Sterling Epicure, 2015) , Amelia traces the global thread of Jewish cuisine from its ancient roots to today's focus on seasonality and sustainability. "Her recipes capture the aliveness of ripe, seasonal ingredients, the importance of farmers, and the diversity of flavors in Jewish food," says local-foods pioneer Alice Waters. "It's as if the canon of Jewish cooking has been waiting for
