Cooking the Chronicle – Oct. 4
Each week when the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle arrives in my mailbox, I blow right past the cover stories, letters to the editor, and the iconic Murray Avenue Kosher ad, searching for an answer to the most important question of the week. What is Jessica Grann cooking?
It just turned 5785 and this year I have decided to take it one step further. I am going to Cook the Chronicle, recipe by recipe, for the year with my daughter. This may seem ambitious. I am, in fact, due with twins at the end of November. And I have a three year old who dumps more food on the ground than in any bowl or mixer. But I also found my first maternity leave incredibly monotonous, so I hope this little project will prove itself both entertaining and delicious.
The first edition of the new year was published featuring one of Grann’s family recipes for Zucchini bread. (“An old family recipe: Zucchini bread,” Oct. 4). Does every family have a recipe for this classic loaf? Mine sure does.
Personally, I love a good parve recipe and appreciated that Grann recommended beating the eggs until bubbly, and then slowly incorporating the oil. In my experience, the key to making baked goods less, well, parvey, is to really emulsify these two ingredients well. The only thing that felt off to me was that two medium zucchinis (on the low end of the 2-3 recommended) easily made double the needed veg. But I figured the zucchini was like vanilla extract—you measure with your heart, right?
Bread baked well, came out of the pan easily, and I agree with Grann’s mother. It is better the next day.
My favorite part of the whole process was when my daughter, who was in charge of dumping in spices, smelled the cloves and said “Imma, it smells like havdalah.”
More to come next week!