Mama Now Cooks Like This!: The Best of Susan Mendelson

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Mama is a better cook than she is a writer of cookbook titles: this one
only makes sense if you know that it is a sequel to Mama Never Cooked
Like This, published in 1980—more than a quarter century ago.

Mendelson, a West Coast cooking celeb well known for her Lazy Gourmet
catering company and radio show, is the author of nine previous
cookbooks. This is a roundup of favourite recipes from those earlier
works plus 60 new recipes, many drawn from the Lazy Gourmet repertoire.
The result is a very dynamic collection, with each recipe worthy of star
status. To the usual groupings of hors d’oeuvres, soups, salads,
entrées, sides, and sweets, there are chapters on vegetarian and
“family traditions” dishes. In this case the family traditions are
Jewish, with recipes for lox, latkes, blintz, knishes, challah, kugel,
gefilte fish, tzimmes, kuffels, and komish. Throughout the book,
there’s an indication when recipes are suitable for Passover. Pork is
not used in any of the recipes.

The collection is unusual in another respect—the emphasis on
vegetarian meals. For example, there are 37 recipes for meatless
entrées (including 16 fish-based) compared to only nine that call for
meat. Fruit, vegetables, and seafood also dominate the soup, salad, and
hors d’oeuvres sections.

The presentation of the ingredients and method is innovative,
exceptionally clear, and easy to follow. Measurements are given in both
imperial and metric and, with only a few exceptions, ingredients are
readily available in large-city supermarkets. For some specialty items,
access to Asian markets is required. It would have been useful to have
explanations of a few unusual ingredients, such as sambal oelek, sambal
badjak, and gyoza wrappers, and for some seldom-used cooking methods
(coddling, for example).

There’s no nutritional analysis given. A few full-page colour plates
illustrate 23 of the recipes. More would have been useful, especially
for the “family traditions” recipes, which might not be familiar to
non-Jewish cooks.

This is an exceptionally interesting recipe collection, reflecting
international and vegetarian influences, Jewish dietary traditions, and
a love of good food to be shared with family and friends.