The 30-Minute Kosher Cook contains creative and lively dishes to make in about half an hour. Pizza dough transformed into a crisp cracker bread flavored with rosemary is a perfect example.

Judy Zeidler provides a varied repertoire of ethnic dishes adapted to kosher dietary laws, with particular emphasis on Italian recipes, including a paper-thin frittata seasoned with sage. (She likes using fresh herbs.)

This home cooking features lighter food focused on vegetables, grains, fish, and poultry, though Zeidler does include meat recipes like Stir-Fry London Broil with Swiss Chard and Ginger. Dishes range from the simple inspiration of Coconut Sorbet to the sophisticated Swedish casserole of gravlax or smoked salmon and potatoes.

Friendly with many chefs around Los Angeles, Zeidler shares Michel Richard's recipe for chicken poached in a ziploc bag with wine and vegetables and a blissful Tiramisù from Drago Ristorante in Santa Monica, California.

Everyday dishes such as meat loaf, simple green beans, and cauliflower are not overlooked. Nor are traditional Jewish favorites. The sweet potato and noodle kugel, a pudding-like dish, and the flourless Hazelnut Sponge Cake for Passover are irresistible.

To reduce time spent in the kitchen and at the store, Zeidler recommends items to keep on hand in the pantry, the refrigerator, and the freezer. She also helps by interspersing advice among the recipes. You'll learn when to use lemon juice versus vinegar on salads, and what cuts of meat are kosher (flanken is, flank steak is not).

Zeidler delivers on her promise of 30-minute recipes. And whether you're a novice cook or an accomplished home chef, there's something to learn from her great tips and flavor combinations. --Dana Jacobi

From Publishers Weekly
Assuming that her readers are already familiar with kosher cooking, Zeidler (The Gourmet Jewish Cook; Master Chefs Cook Kosher) sidesteps the specifics of ritual meal preparation and offers easy-to-prepare dishes that will please hungry family members in a hurry. Key to quick kosher cuisine, she says, is a well-stocked and organized pantry and refrigerator, plus learning how to perform a number of kitchen tasks simultaneously. Most of Zeidler's dishes are lighter than traditional kosher fare, with only a handful relying on meats (which usually take a longer time to cook). Vegetable dishes include Mashed Potatoes and Green Cabbage, Potato Latkes with Chopped Olive Spread, Spinach with Anchovies and Pine Nuts, and Balsamic Glazed Carrots. Zeidler offers a surprising assortment of entrees: Halibut with Kumquats and Passion Fruit; Chilean Sea Bass with Tomato-Fennel Stew; Skillet-Grilled Lamb Chips with Mushroom Sauce. There are also recipes for traditional Jewish favorites for cooks with a bit more time, such as Classic Challah Bread, Holiday Sweet Potato Kugel, Poppy Seed Hamantaschen and Passover Hazelnut Sponge Cake. Home cooks do not need to keep a kosher kitchen to enjoy Zeidler's recipes. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
With more than eight recipes for haroseth alone, The New York Times Passover Cookbook will be invaluable for anyone who hosts a Passover seder?or even takes a dish to one. Amster has put together an impressive and delicious collection of recipes from the Times food section and from cookbooks by three of its well-known writers: Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, and Molly O'Neill. Chapters are organized by course or special dish, and there are moving reminiscences of special Passover seders, as well as a good general introduction by Joan Nathan, an authority on Jewish cooking. Recipes range from the traditional to the contemporary, with dishes from chefs such as Wolfgang Puck alongside family recipes passed down for generations. Highly recommended. Cooking teacher and author Zeidler offers an appealing collection of simple but sophisticated kosher recipes, with a few more complicated holiday dishes she couldn't bear to leave out. Some are adaptations of top chefs' recipes, such as Alain Ducasse's Fennel "Caviar"; others were inspired by Zeidler's yearly sojourns in Italy. There's no reason that the audience for Zeidler's latest book should be limited to kosher cooks; her Gourmet Jewish Cook (LJ 9/15/88) has been a staple for years. For most collections.Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
The 30-Minute Kosher Cook delivers what no other kosher cookbook has before -- 130 delicious recipes, all prepared in half an hour or less. Judy gives great tips on the quick-fix pantry, how to stock your freezer and what should be in your refrigerator to make cooking quicker and more enjoyable. There are chapters on Appetizers, Soups and Stocks, Salads and Vegetables, Pastas and Grains, Poultry, Meat, Fish, Dessert, and of course, a special section on traditional Jewish holiday favorites.The focus here is on light cooking using fresh and healthy ingredients, all prepared in no time at all. Learn to make Quick Basic Pizza Dough so you can then prepare Tomato, Onion, and Rosemary Focaccia or Grissini (Italian breadsticks). Prepare Warm Mushroom Salad with Wild Greens, Turkey Kebabs with Honey Glaze, or Cinnamon-Buttermilk Coffee Cake -- each within half an hour! The 30-Minute Kosher Cook is your one-stop shop for speedy, delectable kosher fare for the Jewish holidays or any day of the week.

About the Author
Judy Zeidler is a teacher and authority on kosher cuisine. In addition to her cooking column for the Los Angeles Times, which is syndicated nationwide, Judy is the host of the Jewish Television Network show Judy's Kitchen and author of The 30-Minute Kosher Cook. She and her husband are co-proprietors of the Broadway Deli, Capo, and Zeidler's Cafi.

Excerpted from The 30-Minute Kosher Cook : More Than 130 Quick and Easy Gourmet Recipes by Judy Zeidler. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
FENNEL "CAVIAR" FORGET CHOPPED liver. Instead, serve this fresh fennel pt with its unexpectedly delicate anise flavor. The recipe is courtesy Alain Ducasse's lovely bed-and-breakfast, La Bastide de Moustier, in Moustier, France. One of my tasters confessed that she ate the whole bowlful of this "caviar" herself ( she didn't even stop to make the accompanying toast rounds. MAKES 2 CUPS; OR ABOUT 16 SERVINGS 2 medium fennel bulbs 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 shallot, minced 2 tablespoons minced yellow onion Pinch of fresh minced thyme Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Toasted rounds of French bread Cut off the feathery tops of the fennel bulbs, and remove any tough outer layers. Cut the fennel into 1/4-inch dice, to yield about 3 cups. In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and saut the garlic, shallot, and onion about 4 minutes, or until soft. Add the fennel and saut until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme, salt, and pepper, and let cook for 5 more minutes. Transfer to a wooden board and chop until well blended, or place in a food processor and pulse once or twice for a finer consistency. Spoon into a covered bowl or crock and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with toast rounds. Copyright (c) 1999 by Judy Zeidler

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The 30-Minute Kosher Cook delivers what no other kosher cookbook has before — 130 delicious recipes, all prepared in half an hour or less. Judy gives great tips on the quick-fix pantry, how to stock your freezer and what should be in your refrigerator to make cooking quicker and more enjoyable. There are chapters on Appetizers, Soups and Stocks, Salads and Vegetables, Pastas and Grains, Poultry, Meat, Fish, Dessert, and of course, a special section on traditional Jewish holiday favorites.

The focus here is on light cooking using fresh and healthy ingredients, all prepared in no time at all. Learn to make Quick Basic Pizza Dough so you can then prepare Tomato, Onion, and Rosemary Focaccia or Grissini (Italian breadsticks). Prepare Warm Mushroom Salad with Wild Greens, Turkey Kebabs with Honey Glaze, or Cinnamon-Buttermilk Coffee Cake — each within half an hour! The 30-Minute Kosher Cook is your one-stop shop for speedy, delectable kosher fare for the Jewish holidays or any day of the week.The 30-Minute Kosher Cook delivers what no other kosher cookbook has before — 130 delicious recipes, all prepared in half an hour or less. Judy gives great tips on the quick-fix pantry, how to stock your freezer and what should be in your refrigerator to make cooking quicker and more enjoyable. There are chapters on Appetizers, Soups and Stocks, Salads and Vegetables, Pastas and Grains, Poultry, Meat, Fish, Dessert, and of course, a special section on traditional Jewish holiday favorites.

The focus here is on light cooking using fresh and healthy ingredients, all prepared in no time at all. Learn to make Quick Basic Pizza Dough so you can then prepareTomato, Onion, and Rosemary Focaccia or Grissini (Italian breadsticks). Prepare Warm Mushroom Salad with Wild Greens, Turkey Kebabs with Honey Glaze, or Cinnamon-Buttermilk Coffee Cake — each within half an hour! The 30-Minute Kosher Cook is your one-stop shop for speedy, delectable kosher fare for the Jewish holidays or any day of the week.

Author Biography: Judy Zeidler is a teacher and authority on kosher cuisine. In addition to her cooking column for the Los Angeles Times, which is syndicated nationwide, Judy is the host of the Jewish Television Network show Judy's Kitchen and author of The 30-Minute Kosher Cook. She and her husband are co-proprietors of the Broadway Deli, Capo, and Zeidler's Cafi.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Assuming that her readers are already familiar with kosher cooking, Zeidler (The Gourmet Jewish Cook; Master Chefs Cook Kosher) sidesteps the specifics of ritual meal preparation and offers easy-to-prepare dishes that will please hungry family members in a hurry. Key to quick kosher cuisine, she says, is a well-stocked and organized pantry and refrigerator, plus learning how to perform a number of kitchen tasks simultaneously. Most of Zeidler's dishes are lighter than traditional kosher fare, with only a handful relying on meats (which usually take a longer time to cook). Vegetable dishes include Mashed Potatoes and Green Cabbage, Potato Latkes with Chopped Olive Spread, Spinach with Anchovies and Pine Nuts, and Balsamic Glazed Carrots. Zeidler offers a surprising assortment of entrees: Halibut with Kumquats and Passion Fruit; Chilean Sea Bass with Tomato-Fennel Stew; Skillet-Grilled Lamb Chips with Mushroom Sauce. There are also recipes for traditional Jewish favorites for cooks with a bit more time, such as Classic Challah Bread, Holiday Sweet Potato Kugel, Poppy Seed Hamantaschen and Passover Hazelnut Sponge Cake. Home cooks do not need to keep a kosher kitchen to enjoy Zeidler's recipes. (Feb.)

Library Journal