Rabbi Rebecca Joseph is a conservative rabbi, a cultural anthropologist, and a Tuv Ha’Aretz member! Her blog, The Parve Baker is filled with delicious recipes and (equally delicious) words of Torah. Over the summer, she will spearhead The Jew & The Carrot’s “Unboxed” segment – periodic posts that aim to demystify summer’s most seasonal produce.

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my cousin who lives year-round in a largely rural, but fast-developing part of Bucks County in southeastern Pennsylvania. Beth is a great cook and friendly with several local farmers. We stopped by Jim and Kathy Lyons’ Blue Moon Acres for organic micro-greens and spent a morning in the lavender fields at Carousel Farm with another organic grower, Niko Christou. At None Such Farm Market, which sells produce grown across the road and on other nearby farms, we acquired asparagus and rhubarb, the true harbingers of harvests-to-come in the Northeast.

A kosher chef walks into a kitchen…

It might sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but this summer, the stigma around “inferior” kosher cuisine might officially be put to bed. The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn is teaming up with Kingsborough Community College to offer the first professional kosher cooking program in the US (following the Jerusalem Culinary Institute) and the first accredited kosher cooking program in the world.

Thanks to our guest poster, Chana Rubin, RD for this article on planning and serving healthy Shabbat meals. Chana is a registered dietitian who lives in Israel with her family. She’s the author of the new book Food for the Soul: Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating (Gefen Publishing House Ltd, Jerusalem, 2007). Check out Chana’s first and second posts. And find out how to win a copy of Chana’s book below.

Three Tips for Healthier Shabbat Meals

1. Lighten up You can plan a delicious Shabbat meal around traditional foods that have been adapted to reduce fat and sugar. For example, if your family traditionally enjoys eating chicken on Shabbat, try removing the skin before cooking. (Your butcher may be willing to do this for you.) You can retain some of its moisture by cooking it in a tasty sauce or rolling it first in beaten egg and then in seasoned crumbs before baking. Chicken or meat soups may be prepared in advance and refrigerated so that the hardened fat can be easily removed. Better yet, choose a soup based on vegetables or legumes.

There has been a lot of talk about charoset on The Jew & The Carrot lately. Reader Maddie commented: “I’ve always anticipated the crunch of the matzah mixed with the tangy zip of the apples, cinnamon, and raisins….mmm, can’t wait!” Contributor Alix Wall’s family sculpts their charoset into a pyramid shape, reminiscent of the pyramids in ancient Egypt. What the blog has lacked however, is a good solid recipe for the stuff. I’m here to change all that.

In my kitchen, I’ve moved beyond the traditional Ashkenazi-style charoset many Jews grew up eating. Although the traditional recipe is quite good, there are too many opportunities to mix things up – Sephardic recipes that replace raisins with sticky dates and figs, or even unexpected variations and flavors. But really, why choose? I like to make several different types of charoset and do a charoset tasting with my guests. After all, the seder is supposed to be fun!

Try these three charoset recipes at your seder – you might just start a new tradition!

(cross-posted at Jewcy)

This challah recipe is spiced bread more than anything else. There’s no egg in it, which is what makes challah challah in my opinion, but we do braid it, so I call it faux-challah.  The dough is pretty sweet so we added lots of salt to make it a savory loaf, but it’s just as easy to make sweet by adding cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and raisins.

There are two sets of directions below – one from a Chabad rebbetzin, and one for those of you who might like something slightly more step-by-step.

Laura Frankel is not your typical kosher chef. For those of who have been reading her recent posts, she has little tolerance for fake foods and refuses to kowtow to clients who demand kosher versions of otherwise unkosher food. I recently had the opportunity to sit and chat with her about her thoughts on food and the nature of food in Jewish society.

As we sit down to our Rosh Hashana meals, all eyes go to the challah/apple ceremoniously (or should I say unceremoniously?) dipped in honey. The kids begin to sing that lifeless ditty to the tune of Oh My Darlin’ Clementine “dip the apple in the honey, make a bracha loud and clear. . . . “ (I can’t recall the rest because we banned that song from our house more than a decade ago). Much ink has been spilled (mostly by the honey lobby) perpetuating this custom of dubious and suspect origin in the name of sweetness for the upcoming year. In keeping with the spirit of the New Jewish Food Movement, perhaps we should critically re-examine this custom and explore alternatives. As a maple syrup producer, may I humbly suggest using maple syrup.

There is a farmer’s market that is set up every Wednesday, and now that I no longer am a member of a CSA, I try to visit this market weekly. It’s a nice break in the afternoon, and it’s exciting to see what is available and to think ahead to plan my meals. I discovered two years ago how much I like patty pan squash, and for some reason it isn’t being sold in my supermarket. So, I was very excited a few weeks ago when I saw it at the farmer’s market! It’s easy to prepare it – just steam them in a pot of water until it gets soft. It’s a delicious summer squash.

As Leah, one of my colleagues, posted last week, our staff is getting ready for our Food Cleanse which will be this weekend. Not only do we have to prepare the logistics of getting all of us and our food out to Fire Island, we have to adjust our eating habits and wean ourselves off of certain foods this week so as not to shock our systems when we start eating “Cleanse” meals. The main items that pose as a personal challenge include caffeine… carbs… and sugar. When our staff was informed of this information, some of us were afraid to react vocally and were a tad surprised. While it makes sense to engage in these changes, no one said the process will be easy!

I have been very fortunate to attend and organize several bridal showers for friends throughout the past few years. But to honest, they are all the same and somewhat… boring. Whether the bride is surprised or not, similar things happen. The same types of food are served – salads (while they are always quite delicious), pasta dishes, fruit, and cake – and we all watch as the bride opens all her gifts while she tries to look surprised (even though she’s the one that picked it out for her bridal registry and we bought her gifts from the registry!).

It’s that time of year again – CSA fever is in the air! I was a proud member of the local CSA in my neighborhood last year. Since the farmer didn’t allow for half shares, I split my vegetable share with another woman in my community and split the fruit share with a friend. Although, during the numerous heat waves last year it was a bit of shlep bringing all the produce back to my apartment, as my partner and I would alternate weekly doing the pick ups. Despite that, I greatly enjoyed this new experience. It encouraged me to try new vegetables and learn to appreciate seasonal fruit. A few particular vegetables which were new to me were kale, bok choy, and beets. I never really tried beets before, and now I really enjoy their sweet taste – and you got to love that color!

The final three hours of Pesach preparations are approaching… and I actually have some down time now to blog! I am happy to say that it’s been a group effort amongst my family members to get to this point in time. Between the shopping, shlepping boxes from our basement with Pesach dishes upstairs to our kitchen, preparing our kitchen, to cooking, and to preparing all the necessary items for the Seders, I feel lucky to have time now to post about my cooking preparations.

Despite the crazy weather which the North East is experiencing today, I am having a number of friends over for shabbos this week and was up late cooking last night. I made an array of different dishes, in addition to my friends offering to make a few dishes as well and helping me out in the process. I remembered that my friend’s mother had a good blend whole wheat/white flour challah recipe, so I decided to make it as well. It’s been some time since I’ve made it last, so I felt I was up for the challenge.

Following the holiday of Purim, I can be pretty sure that many people have a large volume of the following items in their house: candy, chocolate, and a variety of baked treats. I think that the mitzvah (Torah commandment) of sending Mishloach Manot (sending of portions” which often include wine and pastries; alternately, sweets, snacks, or any foodstuff qualifies) is a beautiful one which emphasizes building community and spreading sweet, warm feelings to one’s friends and family.