Peas Love & Carrots , The Cookbook
By Danielle Renov.

Original Article

Copyright 2020 by ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, photos by Moshe Wulliger

Feature by Roberta Scher Contibuting Editor, KosherEye.com

It is not often that I read a cookbook cover to cover in one sitting, but I couldn’t put this one down.  First, there is the beauty of the book, then the photos by Moshe Wulliger, then the clever &meaningful chapter headings, and the crisp clean fonts. It is simply a pleasure to read, and to cook from!. The recipes, there are 250, are creative , mostly simple and easy to follow.
Even the “tips” (86 of them) are chock full of information, many that a seasoned cook like me found helpful. Cinnamon and ginger are very compatible! Turmeric stains hand….Wear gloves! Peel your celery; no one likes to eat strings. There are 86 more tips/hacks just in the book’s introduction. And, most every recipe has a fabulous photo , and her tips & tricks. The recipes are approachable and delicious.

Danielle lives in Jerusalem, and is well known for her popular blog/website peaslovencarrots.test/, and her @peaslovencarrots on Instagram. (with over 50,000 followers) She was born and raised in Long Island into a mixed Moroccan and Ashkenaz family. She moved to Israel shortly after her wedding to Eli. Her love of food has attracted people from all walks of life, and levels of cooking. She particularly is known for wandering Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda Shuk, where she greets old and new friend, vendors and shoppers.

Treat yourself, or treat others. If you are searching for a hostess gift for Yom Tov, I highly recommend this cookbook. As Danielle says: All you KNEAD is Love, and I love this cookbook.

Enjoy these Sample Recipes: 
Pomegranate Braised Brisket
Apples & Honey Mustard Chicken

Recipe for Smoked Whitefish Toast with Radish Butter from Peas Love & Carrots by Danielle Renov

Original Article

SMOKED WHITEFISH TOAST WITH RADISH BUTTER

I am almost as excited to write this blurb as I was to eat the dish. Basically, this dish was on my cookbook recipe list for months. Then after whittling and whittling the list down, it was sadly removed. Everyone agreed that no one would ever make it and I was just including it for myself. Which I was. But also, the space in the book became a thing and I finally gave in. Then something crazy happened. On the first day of our cookbook photo shoot, Eric, my cute, younger brother, brought brunch over for everyone. Being extra nice, he of course bought an entire smoked white fish. Literally the one staring at you in this photo. All day long everyone picked at it, because it was delicious, and at the end of the day it got wrapped up and put in the fridge. The next day, someone opened the fridge and said, Danielle do you have any recipes we can use this in, it would be so sad to waste it. I couldn’t believe my ears and screamed very loudly (which if you know me, you know what my excited scream sounds like, so picture that), that in fact, I had the perfect recipe for this leftover smoked white fish! And that, my friends, is why you are lucky enough to have my favorite brunch recipe ever. Hashem always sends us exactly what we need at exactly the right time!

INGREDIENTS:
1 long, crusty baguette, sliced in half lengthwise
1 cup butter
6-8 small red radishes, grated
¼ cup grated fresh red radish
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 good quality smoked whitefish, flaked
¾ cup micro greens, to garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:
In a small bowl, combine butter, radish, salt and pepper.
Place baguette on a serving tray.
Spread inside of baguette with radish butter.
Add flaked whitefish to the baguette.
Top with micro greens; serve on a large platter with a serrated knife so everyone can help themselves to a piece and enjoy!

TIPS + TRICKS: If you don’t have a good crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside baguette to work with, you can lightly toast what you have to add that texture.

NOTE: Radish butter is also delicious as a dip for crudité. I know, dip vegetables in butter? That doesn’t sound right. Oh, but it is.

VARIATION: Replace smoked white fish with any variety of smoked fish or lox you like! You can even be wild and use herring!

Hear how Danielle Renov of @peaslovencarrots preps for Yom Tov, learn how to swap ingredients, and try a gateway Moroccan dish!

Love Peas Carrots Cookbook. My Book Review

Love Peas Carrots Cookbook

Order your copy soon before they all fly off the shelves!

I confess I chuckled to myself when I received the book and slightly flinched at its weight: somebody beside me actually had the temerity of writing a comparably massive book, which never fails to trigger joking comments laced with undisguised praise. (Something like, whoa, do we use it for cooking AND for weight lifting?). Being thrown back a whole decade in time felt so good! Yes, you gotta be a shtickle crazy to hunker down to a piece of work this size and caliber. But wait till you see it: it is nothing short of magnificent, worth all the time the author spent sequestered for the writing of her Magnum Opus.

I Am Breathless, But Hardly Surprised

With her book, Author Danielle Renov lives up to the promise of the wildly popular Blog she founded, with the deceptively naive name, Peas, Love Carrots, which earns her tens of thousands of adoring fans and counting. She may even inadvertently have created her own impossible act to follow: Orson Welles’s manager famously warned him, after the publishing of his monumental debut film Citizen Kane at age twenty five, to be prepared: he may well never be able to top himself. Hmmm, good problem so far. It doesn’t hurt one bit that Artscroll Publishers outdid themselves with this splendid production. And special thank you to Danielle’s talented Publicist Carrie Bachman for everything!

Peas Love Carrots Cookbook Makes No Apologies

It is a decidedly meat-centered book. It doesn’t pretend to be a cookbook that gives equal time to soups, salads, sides, fish, poultry, beef etc. No, it is not that kind of a well-behaved book. Rather, it conveys unabashedly that author Danielle Renov winks at a specific group: she knows what your inner bon vivant loves and doesn’t dare fully confess to loving (We’re officially cowering in fear of the Instafam Eat the Rainbow Plant Food Brigade, right?). The emphasis is overwhelmingly placed on the Fleishik part of our mostly secret  dining fantasies: yes yes yes, salads and soups and fish are mighty good for you and all that jazz, we know, and including them guarantees you lifelong good health and fitness. And yes they are all included. But this point is not the primary concern of the book. The book is in fact brimming with those roasts and ribs and chops and stews and cutlets whose recipes so often elude you and come out less than perfect. This is likely the only book you will need to use to make all these dishes foolproof: You’ll look like a pro. Needless to add, vegan diners need not apply: sorry, darling vegan friends, not this time!

The Author is Determined to Introduce Herself First

And this is what makes the author every bit as interesting as her work. She is a brand. All the more remarkable than Peas Love Carrots Cookbook is Danielle’s first foray into formal writing and publishing. She comes down like a gentle ton of bricks:

• First and foremost, there is her extensive description of what food and cooking represents for her: much more than recipes well composed and well executed. A whole philosophy of life, a holistic way of life where food, hosting and thanking The Supreme Divine Source daily for all we own and all we are and all we do are inextricably intertwined. Nothing but blessings will follow for living our life in this supremely meaningful way. This fact alone presents a humble author who considers herself – and by extension urges us to consider ourselves – as but a small albeit vital part of the Grand Cosmic Equation.

• She coaches the reader thoroughly, and whispers in her ear that if she follows her simple wisdom and her numerous tips, she practically can’t miss. 86 things, no less, she wants you to know about food and cooking. And she’s just getting warmed up! The initial pantry and condiment chapter is gorgeous; each item in a subgroup gathered in a collective picture that makes it as effective as if you took a mini crash course on familiar and essential staple topics: stocks; dressings; marinades; salatim; condiments; mayos.

• She evidently has a plan and a method, but she never gets didactic: she is always in full charge, but is always guided by an infectious sense of humor that makes her and her recipes totally approachable and streamlined. Challah recipe: All you knead is love, haha, brilliant. None of her recipes uses any tricks or hacks. Nothing but the real thing. As significantly, she never caves in to social media’s tiresome fads and rules and tyrannies dictating what you should eat, how you should live, what you should deem important.

• Each side of her bicultural Moroccan-Ashkenazi heritage is fully and authentically represented, each getting its full turn in the same sandbox. Nonono, don’t try any wisecracks about Ashkenazi food being insipid to the Sephardis, or about fiery Sephardi seasonings ripping those poor uninitiated Ashkenazi palates apart. All is equally good and delicious and vibrant and proudly representative of the respective culture it hails from. Go Morocco! Go Poland!

• Her stunning photography. Like her philosophy of food, it borders on the mystical. It remains at all times narrowly focused on the philosophy of life and cooking she is determined to convey. The serene and spartan silver-bronze-steal minimalist color palette is as fascinating as it is rustic and timeless. Still life with dinner. And it is true of each single dish. The glowing chapter Fleishigs Magazine recently devoted to the book’s food stylist Frances Boswell and photographer Moshe Wulliger at the studio caused as much anticipation and excitement as sneaking backstage and visiting a theater set.

Peas Love Carrots Cookbook Desserts

Several recipes in this chapter look too much like my little Fanny’s Arts and Crafts projects. It is short and predictable. But it is the only weak link in this gigantic essential book, so I gladly give her a dessert pass. PS don’t worry, Sfenj and Biscotti are there!

Hatzlacha!

Dear Danielle, take your beautiful book everywhere, make it part of every kitchen, print and reprint! Oh yeah, next edition, please include number of servings in each recipe.

Peas Love Carrots Cookbook: Two Fav Recipes!

Brisket Pomegranate Braised Brisket

1 (3-3.5 lb/11⁄2 kg) 2nd cut brisket

RUB

• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp sumac
• 1 Tbsp ground mustard powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

MEAT

• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 3 medium onions, halved and sliced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 (11 oz/330 ml) bottle
• hard apple cider 1⁄2 cup tomato sauce (not marinara)
• 1⁄2 cup pomegranate molasses (syrup)
• 2 cups beef stock (or 1 beef bouillon cube dissolved in 2 cups hot water)
• to garnish (optional)
• 1⁄4 cup pomegranate seeds

In a bowl, combine all rub ingredients.

Rinse brisket and pat dry very well.
Rub the spice mixture all over both sides of the brisket.
(The spice rub makes more than you will probably need. Freeze the rest for another brisket.)
Place spiced brisket into a ziptop bag; refrigerate overnight.
(If you’re short on time, just let spiced meat come to room temp for 1 hour. Then continue with the recipe.)

Remove from the fridge; allow brisket to come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.

Heat a large Dutch oven or ovenproof pan over high heat.
Add oil and brisket.
Sear both sides of the meat for 4-5 minutes per side until nicely browned. Remove from Dutch oven; set aside.

To the same pot, add onions, salt, and pepper.
Cook for 4 minutes until onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic; cook for 1 minute.

Add hard cider, using a wooden spoon to stir it in and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add remaining ingredients.
Bring mixture to a boil; return brisket to the Dutch oven.
If you used a pan, pour the sauce and onions over the brisket.

Cover the pot tightly. Bake for about 11⁄2 hours.

Remove from oven; turn brisket over. Return to oven.
At this point, cooking time will vary based on the size of your meat. I suggest giving it another 45 minutes, no matter the size, and after that checking it every 30 minutes until it is soft and tender.
Mine took 3 hours total for a 4 pound brisket.

Remove from the oven and allow brisket to cool completely in the sauce. (Taking the brisket out of the sauce while it is hot will result in a dry brisket.)

If you want to shred the brisket, wait 45 minutes after you take it out of the oven and, while it is still warm, use 2 forks to shred it in the pot, where it can stay in the liquid.

To slice brisket, allow it to cool completely, then remove from sauce and slice against the grain. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, optional.

Savory Stovetop Turkey

• 1 large whole deboned turkey breast
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 1⁄2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 1⁄2 tsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp neutral oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1⁄2 cups dry white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1⁄4 cup duck sauce

In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika. Season turkey breast with mixture on all sides.

Heat a pot over medium heat. Add oil; place turkey top side down and sear for 4 minutes on each side.
Remove turkey from pot; set aside.

Add onion; cook for 12 minutes.�Add garlic and tomato paste to the pot. Cook for 2 minutes until fragrant.�Add wine, bay leaves, and vinegar, stirring to scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan.
Cook for 2 minutes; add chicken broth and duck sauce.�Return turkey to the pot, spooning some of the mixture over the top.
Bring mixture to a boil, cover pot, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 11⁄2 hours, basting every 20 minutes or so.
Serve hot and enjoy.

Tip: If making in advance, slice turkey when it’s cold, return to sauce, and reheat gently.

Hatzlacha!

Dear Danielle, take your beautiful book everywhere, make it part of every kitchen, print and reprint! Oh yeah, next edition, please include number of servings in each recipe.

It’s Hard Not to Love ‘Peas Love & Carrots’

Original Article

There are a few things you need to know about “peas love & carrots, the cookbook.”

The first is that “peas love & carrots” is the brainchild of Jerusalem resident Danielle Renov who, with her children fast asleep and her husband out of town, decided to dip her toes into the seemingly endless waters of Instagram one fateful night approximately five years ago. Taking on a name that had just popped into her head, Renov decided to share a personal stash of original recipes on social media and the rest, as they say, is history. When Instagram debuted its stories feature a short time later, Renov was quick to hop on board doing demos, building relationships and amassing an impressively large base of fans who found her to be both likable and relatable.

Which brings us to the second thing you need to know about “peas love & carrots.” Yes, this is a cookbook with more than 250 recipes, but “peas love & carrots” is so much more than just a collection of appetizing recipes and gorgeous pictures. Peppered with generous servings of humor and a full commentary on every dish, reading this book is like chilling with a close friend, one who gets you and understands what real life is all about. That sense of approachability and feeling of connection are the secret behind Renov’s popularity and the many anecdotes, tidbits and, of course, cooking tips in the cookbook are filled with heart, which is what “peas love & carrots” is all about.

Last but not least in my unofficial intro to Renov’s labor of love (with a side of peas and carrots, of course) is that this is as much a book about cooking as it is a cookbook. Think of “peas love & carrots” as Cooking 101 at your local community college, with kitchen newbies gently ushered into a new world with clear, step-by-step instructions. Renov’s “86 things I want you to know about this book + cooking in general” is full of practical advice such as putting on comfortable shoes when you cook and understanding the difference between kosher and table salt. Sticking to the “keeping it real” format that has earned her more than 62,600 Instagram followers, Renov discusses her fondness for cloth napkins and kitchen timers while making clear her aversion to celery strings and raisins, which she describes as the unfulfilled potential of grapes, adding, “They could have been wine. Now they are ruining noodle kugel for children everywhere.”

Ironically, while Renov had been amassing original recipes that gave voice to both her Ashkenazic and Sephardic roots for years, she never intended to publish a cookbook. But life has a way of just happening, and in her introduction, Renov explains that “peas love & carrots” was created as a thank you to both God and her followers. Clearly the demand for Renov to compile her recipes was there because the cookbook sold 42,000 copies in just four weeks, its first printing of 18,000 books selling out completely before they could even be delivered to ArtScroll’s warehouse.

I know it sounds cliché, but there really is something for everyone in “peas love & carrots,” with recipes ranging from easy weeknight dinners to more elaborate spreads for Shabbos or Yom Tov and everything in between. Renov starts with the basics, listing an impressive repertoire of homemade mayonnaises and a wide range of dips including pistachio olive and sesame-free almond techina. She goes big with a full-page recipe for sautéed onions that calls for 40 onions that slow cook for hours, correctly pointing out that just about everything tastes better with the addition of well-browned onions. Salads and dressings play a significant role in “peas love & carrots,” some amped up with proteins such as fish, chicken or cheese, while others feature just veggies in all their glory.

My favorites here? The sheet-pan pizza that lets you mix things up so that everyone gets their favorite slice without having to take out multiple cookie sheets, the baked hoisin-sriracha chicken egg rolls, made with leftover chicken and, because I love all things chocolate, especially when paired with flakes of Maldon salt, the dark-chocolate almond joy truffles. Don’t forget to check out some of Renov’s truly inspired creations including the tomato soup with cheddar cheese matzah balls (yes, you read that right), bar-b-cumin’d carrots with a touch of lime and the bourbon-braised short rib recipe that works equally well on full-sized roasts and is laced with a full 12 ounces of bourbon. I also have to give a special shout out to the no-boil, no-dishes corned beef that I tried out two weeks ago on a piece of meat that I was worried might have a little bit of a boingy texture, something that isn’t exactly a plus in a main dish. It came out perfectly textured and my reservations about using a full three tablespoons of dry mustard on the meat rapidly disappeared as everyone at the table devoured the corned beef. Learn from my mistakes and be super careful when you remove the meat from the foil, or you will end up with a saucy mess all over your kitchen counters that really isn’t all that much fun to clean up.

Be sure to take note of Moshe Wulliger’s stunning photographs and Renov’s chapter headings offering plays on words such as “an apron is just a capon backwards” before the poultry section and “they lived apple-y ever after” preceding the desserts. “peas love & carrots” will keep you smiling as you slice, dice and sauté your way through its 432 pages, its French Moroccan, Eastern European, Israeli and American flavors reflecting Renov’s heritage as well as her Five Towns upbringing and her current Israeli existence, offering a trip around the world, through time and into its author’s heart.

Sandy Eller is a freelance writer who writes for numerous websites, newspapers, magazines and private clients. She can be contacted at sandyeller1@gmail.com.

To make an unforgettable salad, add haloumi croutons

Original Article

In her first cookbook, Peas, Love and Carrots, author Danielle Renov (of the popular blog of the same name) says that in Israel, where she lives, this salad is so popular that it can be found in just about every Kosher dairy restaurant. Now that I know this exists, I’m pretty upset that we here in America have willingly accepted half-assed Caesars as our unofficial national salad, when we could be eating a whole-assed salad like this one. Why settle for stale croutons when we could be having cubes of fried cheese?

Haloumi and Sweet Potato Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette

Reprinted from Peas, Love and Carrots: The Cookbook (2020) with permissionfrom ArtScroll Mesorah Publications

For the dressing:

• ½ cup dried blueberries
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp coarse black pepper
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

For the salad:

• 2 large sweet potatoes (about 2.2 lb/1 kilo total), peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick sticks
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp coarse black pepper
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 3 cups arugula
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 (1lb/400g) block haloumi cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes

Combine blueberries and vinegars in a bowl or jar. Using a spoon, smush blueberries a bit to help them open up and release their flavor into the vinegars. Add remaining dressing ingredients to the bowl or jar; whisk well or shake to combine. Refrigerate until 15 minutes before you want to dress your salad.