Cooking made really easy

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Leah Schapira’s new cookbook, Fresh and Easy: Ordinary Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals (Art Scroll/Shaar Press, 2011) is a eye-capturing hardcover featuring more than 170 easy-to-make recipes – easy being the keyword.

Schapira, co-founder of cookkosher.com, an online kosher recipe exchange, writes in an introduction, “I hope that this cookbook will keep cooking from turning into a chore. Since we’re going to cook, we might as well enjoy it!” Fresh and Easy definitely will help make cooking less daunting and the results more consistently tasty.

The name for the book is well chosen. The ingredients for the vast majority of recipes are truly ordinary, with a few exceptions. (For example, I have no idea where I would buy cholent bean mix.) Most of the ingredients are really fresh, with a few more exceptions, such as frozen french fries, instant coffee and non-dairy whipped cream. And, the meals produced are extraordinary if you take into account how little time and effort they take to make. But, without exception or qualification, all the recipes are easy and built to withstand almost any amateur chef.

The contents are not only laid out in categories like soups, salads, side dishes, main dishes, desserts, etc., but also there are several full meal menu suggestions (including for Passover, for quick and easy meals, and food for larger parties, because the leftovers will freeze well). In addition to brilliant colored photos on almost every page, each section has information on when various fruits and vegetables are in season, or what flavors complement each other if you’re going to experiment (for example, blueberries and lemon, rice and nuts, eggplant and garlic). There are notes added to many of the recipes, pointing out things like when it’s best to use real lemons rather than store-bought lemon juice, or that waiting a little bit before cutting a layered plum crisp will help ensure that you slice clean-cut pieces.

The recipes are substitute- or even omission-friendly, adaptable if you want more/less spice, salt or oil, or a different or additional vegetable. And they’re durable, in the sense that, even if you burn the butternut squash with grapes and shallots because it took much less time than the suggested hour to cook (because I cut the pieces thinner than the recommended 1/2 inch and then forgot to check the oven at, say, 45 minutes, just in case), it still tastes very good.

Fresh and Easy lies open flat, so there is no struggle to juggle ingredients and chopping while reading it. There is a typo here and there, but nothing crucial to the cooking from what I could tell, and there are some odd photo choices, such as the leek pancakes featured with a bunch of green onions (i.e. not leeks), but again, nothing major. Overall, this is a great basic cookbook for novices and people who don’t have a lot time to spend in the kitchen.

Since it’s the Chanukah issue, here are a few parve ways in which to enjoy oil, courtesy of Fresh and Easy.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH WITH GRAPES AND SHALLOTS
1-2 large butternut squash
1 cup red grapes
5-6 shallots, peeled
3 tbsp honey
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Peel the squash. Cut off the bottom and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Slice each squash crosswise into 10-12 rounds, each about 1/2-inch thick. Three slices will have a hole, but the rest should be nice and pretty.

Spread the butternut squash, grapes and shallots on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine the honey, oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle or smear it onto the vegetables and fruit. Bake for one hour.

Serves four to six.

GARLIC FRIES
3 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, with peel, cut into wedges
hot water, to cover
1/3 cup olive oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
6 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste
1/4 tsp chili powder, or to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice potatoes into evenly sized wedges. Soak potato wedges in very hot water for 10 minutes. Drain and dry well. Combine oil and crushed garlic in a bowl. Toss the potato wedges with the garlic mixture. Add cornstarch and spices to the bowl and toss well until evenly distributed.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread the wedges on the sheets. Bake for 40 minutes.

Serves four.

LEEK PATTIES
3 large leeks (or four smaller ones), white and light green parts only
water as needed
2 tbsp oil
3 eggs
1 tbsp breadcrumbs or matzah meal
salt
pinch of sugar
oil, for frying

Cut the dark green part off the leeks and discard. Slice the leeks in half lengthwise and wash thoroughly. Cut the leeks into strips and dice.

Place leeks into a pot with enough water to cover. Add two tablespoons oil. Bring to a boil to eliminate raw oniony flavor. Remove from heat.

Drain very, very well, pressing out excess water.

Add the eggs, crumbs, salt and sugar. Form the batter into patties. If the batter is very loose, add a bit more breadcrumbs.

Pour a thin layer of oil into a skillet over medium heat and bring to frying temperature. Slip patties into the hot oil and fry until browned on one side. Flip the patties over and brown the other side.

Serve cold or at room temperature. Yields 20-24 patties.

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