Dried Fruit
Veal or Turkey Roulades with Dried Apricot Rosemary Stuffing and Apricot Mustard Sauce
We used veal in the following recipe; however, turkey cutlets (slices of raw turkey breast) would also be delicious and have about half the fat grams. When the veal or turkey is pounded, the cutlets may tear. The holes can be sealed with wooden toothpicks, and as soon as the roulades are baked, the holes with close.
We suggest cooking the potatoes before the roulades, as they require a higher oven temperature. If desired, the potatoes may then be warmed up in the oven as the roulades finish baking.
Sweet Potato Rolls with Dried Tart Cherries and Cardamom
A touch of cardamom lends subtle spice to these innovative crescent-shaped rolls.
Polish Rugelach
This cookie is popular in most of Eastern Europe. It features a tender pastry and, in this rendition, a delicious not-too-sweet cranberry and walnut filling. The cookies are formed by rolling up triangles of the pastry into small crescents.
Peperoni Imbottiti
(BELL PEPPERS FILLED WITH CAPERS, OLIVES, ANCHOVIES, RAISINS AND PINE NUTS)
This classic starter highlights many of the distinctive flavors of southern Italian cooking. Pour a rich Taurasi-Campania's best red wine-during the meal, or if you prefer something lighter, try to find a red Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio from a top-quality producer.
Apricot Honey Cake
"One thing I cannot get out of my head" said Ben Moskovitz, owner of Star Bakery in Oak Park, Michigan. "Was the food better growing up in Czechoslovakia or were the people hungrier there? My mother made a honey cake for the holiday, and it was so delicious. Honey was too expensive for us, so my mother burned the sugar to make it brown. Here I use pure honey, but I still think my mother's cake was better and I know I am wrong. The taste of hers is still in my mouth."
Mr. Moskovitz's European honey cake follows, with a few of my American additions. Other European Jewish bakers interviewed for this book also bake with white rye flour and cake flour when we would use all-purpose flour. I have included both choices.
By Joan Nathan
Amy Oh's Very Best Cookies
By Barbara Moller
Dried Fig, Apricot and Cherry Compote
This recipe originally accompanied Gingerbread with Dried Fig, Apricot and Cherry compote
Also sensational over vanilla ice cream.
Sausages and Pork Chops Baked with Fruited Sauerkraut
Transforming cabbage into sauerkraut was one way the Germans preserved summer's crop for the hard winter ahead. A combination of rinsing the kraut of its salty brine and baking it with dried fruit mellows its bite. Smoked pork chops can be substituted; just omit the browning step. Offer some dark and light German beers to drink.