More Restaurant Secrets … now for every day of the week!
When Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek released their groundbreaking cookbook, Secret Restaurant Recipes, it made waves across the kosher food world, quickly selling out it’s first printing.
Wildly-popular and critically-acclaimed, Secret Restaurant Recipes has helped tens of thousands of readers enhance their holiday and special occasion meals by recreating popular restaurant dishes from around the world.
Over and over, readers had the same request for a follow-up volume: They wanted restaurant favorites they could make every day. And here it is: Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes.
Where Secret Restaurant Recipes focuses on upscale restaurants and fine dining, Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes shifts attention to the unsung heroes of the food world: favorite neighborhood takeout spots, pizza joints, and other casual dining establishments, all beloved by the neighborhoods that support them, as well as by visitors willing to travel for their fantastic fare.
Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes contains all the features that everyone loved about the first volume: cooking tips and advice from acclaimed chefs, mouthwatering photography accompanying every recipe, and, of course, instructions that recreate popular menu items from favorite restaurants.
In addition, Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes takes it up a notch with a great selection of family-friendly, quick and easy meals, a focus on food trends, including an entire chapter on sandwiches, and the authors’ “Home Cook” tips, which simplify and aid the process of recreating restaurant dishes.
Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes contains unique dishes such as Cali Love Panini from Holy Schnitzel, Sino Steak Sandwich from Essen New York Deli, and Chocolate Rye Cookies from Zak the Baker, as well as staple items such as Grilled Fish Tacos from Fish Plate, Potato Salad from Wandering Que, and Falafel from Pita Hut. Also featured are international dishes such as Gong Bao Chicken from Dini’s in Beijing, China; Lamb Pie from Lechem Basar in Israel; and Chicken Pad Thai from The Kosher Place in Bangkok, Thailand.
Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes also provides recipes for a wide variety of sauces and dips, such as Smoked BBQ Hummus from Joe Bob’s Barbecue; drinks, such as Crème Brule Freezer from Crawfords; and sweets, like the Churros from T-Fusion Steakhouse. Each one has been carefully tested and adapted for the home kitchen by Schapira and Dwek, who went behind the scenes of restaurant kitchens to watch and learn from the chefs.
Not just a book of recipes, Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes contains a wealth of information: how to get smoked flavor without owning a smoker, which trends are hot in the world of kosher food, how to assemble the perfect sandwich, the secret to a perfectly cooked steak, and so much more.
This beautiful 9″x9″ hardcover cookbook makes an excellent gift for Hanukkah and year round. Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes is a magnificent yet practical cookbook, featuring: shortcuts & easy to-find ingredients for home cooks, techniques and tips direct from restaurant kitchens, full-color photos for every dish, over 100 family-friendly recipes for any day of the week.
Recipes reprinted with permission from the copyright holders: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications
Gong Bao Chicken – Dini’s Kosher Restaurant
Owner: Chabad Beijing | Location: Beijing, China | Yield: 4 servings | Category: meat
At Dini’s, Beijing’s only kosher restaurant, the chefs cook authentic Chinese food along with traditional Jewish dishes and Western favorites that travelers expect (there’s a sushi bar too). The restaurant is named for Dini Freundlich, the local Chabad shlucha. Local Chinese residents also enjoy eating at Dini’s because they feel that kosher food is safer to eat; the Chinese term for kosher is “Jie Shi,” “clean food.”
1 lb chicken breast, cubed
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water
Pinch coarse black pepper
oil, for frying
2 Chinese leeks or scallions
3 Tbsp salted peanuts
Sauce:
2 tsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp vinegar
2 tsp hot sauce
4 tsp ketchup
Place chicken into a small bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch; top with water and black pepper. Mix to coat the chicken. Let stand for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok or sauté pan over high heat. When oil is very hot, add chicken cubes in batches; fry for 4-5 minutes. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.
Drain oil from the pan. Add soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, hot sauce, and ketchup. Cook until sauce thickens slightly, 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and scallions; toss to coat. Top with peanuts.
Tidbit: Dini makes her own version of hot chili sauce to use in the restaurant. She says it’s the Asian equivalent of Israeli red schug.
Home Cook: We’ve tested this with all different types of hot sauce and they’ve all been successful. Halve the quantity if serving this dish to children.
but authentic chinese would never have ketchup in it. that is the americanized version.