Smart, sometimes surprising meal solutions for holiday week fill compilation from ‘Jewish TikTok Mom’ Melinda Strauss
Passover Egg Noodles, shown in chicken soup from “Eat Jewish” by Melinda Strauss, uses crepelike egg ribbons instead of flour-based noodles. When I was growing up, one of the most reliable meals you could count on was the Passover Seder.
In our family, my maternal grandparents almost always hosted it for our large family. The dishes never changed from year to year, and they were always something to look forward to — juicy brisket, crispy potato kugel, chewy chocolate macaroons and a moist, citrusy orange sponge cake made with matzo meal. “Eat Jewish: Over 100 Recipes That Blend Jewish Heritage, Modern Flavors, and Family Traditions,” by Melinda Strauss . Strauss, known as “Jewish TikTok Mom,” identifies herself as a Jewish content creator, educator and cookbook author. She started out her career in recruiting, but once she had her second child and her family moved to Long Island, N.Y., she stayed home with her daughter. While her daughter slept, Strauss started playing with food and posting her recipes and photos in a Facebook album. “It went very quickly from that to my friends saying, ‘You should start a blog,’” she recalled. “This was 15 years ago, and I was like, ‘What’s a blog?’ and thought OK, let’s jump in and start one.” She called it Kitchen Tested. It wasn’t always specifically Jewish food, just whatever she was in the mood to make. The “educator and content creator” part evolved after 10 years, when she said, as she started shifting into an account of other parts of her life, she began sharing her personal growth and evolution. And when she joined TikTok to supervise her young daughter, the world opened up. “I joined, and I just started sharing random things because I didn’t have any followers,” Strauss recalled. “And over time, you know, because I would mention being Jewish, I would mention turning off my phone , and people started asking me questions, so I started answering them. And that’s really where the growth from being a smaller food blogger, but still, like well-known in the Jewish world, to this growth to the hundreds of thousands of followers. Suddenly, where I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, people really want to learn about Judaism.’ So my focus became Jewish education, and some of that is through food. Because, as you know from my book, it’s teaching the world about Judaism through food. And that’s Jews and non-Jews.” Melinda Strauss, cookbook author of “Eat Jewish,” is known on social media as “Jewish TikTok Mom” and educates about Judaism through food. With close to 2 million followers, Strauss — who considers herself modern Orthodox and keeps kosher — decided it was time for a cookbook. And she’s a clever original. “Eat Jewish” is filled with recipes that opened my eyes to new, very accessible possibilities like Yeminite Green Schug, a spicy condiment featuring cilantro, parsley, chiles and garlic, and Boyikos, simple cheese biscuits that highlight mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. “Eat Jewish” also includes Strauss’ twists on the familiar, especially for Passover. She includes great recipes for Potato Kugel, Chicken Soup With Matzo Balls, and Macaroons. But there’s a great sounding Hamburger Farfel Stuffing, a Spaghetti Squash Casserole and Pistachio Meringues. Because traditional flour noodles are forbidden during Passover, Strauss turned to a family favorite, Passover Egg Noodles, which are kind of like a thin, crepelike omelet sliced into noodles. This doesn’t contain flour, however. It’s just eggs, chicken or vegetable stock, potato starch and chopped, fresh herbs. But instead of using the traditional technique for making them, Strauss simplified the process. “They’ve been around forever, but they’re a pain in the neck because you have to make all the crepes, and then you have to roll them and slice them,” she said. “And I was like, I don’t want to make crepes. I hate making crepes. So I tried it instead in a sheet pan and I bake the whole thing. It’s one big, long egg sheet. You roll it up and you slice it.” Strauss primarily adds the noodles to chicken soup, but a friend’s cookbook includes a recipe using them to make a whole kugel. Strauss and her family also just like snacking with them. I admit it: I was gobsmacked when I came across her Passover Bagels. It wasn’t merely the notion that you could enjoy bagels during Passover, but when I looked at the ingredients, they were the same as the matzo meal popovers my family has made for generations — just shaped into a bagel. Brilliant. So what’s the ingredient difference? Strauss uses oil. Our nonkosher family uses butter, which Strauss acknowledged was perfectly fine for a dairy meal. The technique is simple but, as Strauss said in the context of all her recipes, you have to read and follow the recipe or it won’t work. You start by boiling water and oil. Then add matzo meal, sugar and salt, turn off the heat, and stir well with a wooden spoon. Then — this is the key direction — wait a good five minutes for the mixture to cool before you add the eggs — again, key — one at a time. You don’t want to scramble the eggs when adding to a hot mixture, and adding one at a time makes the dough fluffier. Here’s where Strauss’s creativity comes through. Instead of placing balls of the dough on a sheet pan to bake into rolls, she takes those balls and pokes a hole in the center with her thumb and shapes the dough into a bagel. Then she bakes them.“And it’s such an easy travel food, too,” Strauss said. Finally, dessert. I’ve made my share of macaroons and chocolate-covered matzo. Love them! But when I saw Strauss’s Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks, I was drawn to the flavor profile, which also includes maple sugar and vanilla extract.These picks for Easter brunch come with egg hunts, live music and carrot cake Now, don’t be put off by the thin batter, Strauss said. You can’t make individual cookies, but you can pour a long strip down a parchment-covered baking sheet and bake it, then slice. Recipes excerpted and adapted from “Eat Jewish” by Melinda Strauss . Text and images reproduced by permission of the publisher, Rock Point, an imprint of The Quarto Group, New York, N.Y.San Diego’s USS Boxer stops in Hawaii en route to transporting Camp Pendleton Marines to Middle EastSpring festivals are popping up all over San Diego County: Here’s a guide to 22 events — most are free Spring festivals are popping up all over San Diego County: Here’s a guide to 22 events — most are freePadres Daily: No real offense yet; Buehler’s good and bad; Márquez’s move; set for City Connect ‘Character of our community is diminished’: Borrego Springs group asks for short-term rental regulationsWalker Buehler roughed up while Padres’ batters do little in loss to Giants
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