Hi I’m Amy Kritzer and welcome to What Jew Wanna Eat! Your source for home cooked (sometimes) kosher goodness. My first cookbook came out September 5th, 2016! I also own ModernTribe.com; check it out for funny Jewish gifts and modern Judaica. Woo hoo!
I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, but needed a new goal, a challenge, to get back to my culinary roots. So, I called up Bubbe Eleanor and pleaded for her to send me her best recipes. Stat!
Growing up, I loved cooking with my Bubbe- braiding challah bread, rolling out rugleach, the works! Bubbe is not one to dally, and imagine my delight when a few days later I had hundreds of glorious recipes in my mailbox. Brisket, latkes, rugelach, challah, kugel and more! Mazel! So I stocked my kitchen with schmaltz and matzo meal, and have made it my goal to try one recipe a week, with my own personal twist on each.
I loved cooking these recipes so much, I quit my corporate job and went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin. Now I spend my days teaching speaking about Jewish food and my journey, developing recipes for brands, and working on my store ModernTribe. My recipes have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, The Today Show and others. In 2012 I was a finalist in Daily Candy’s Start Small, Go Big Contest and was even on an episode of Guy’s Grocery Games in 2017! After Austin, I spent a short stint in San Francisco where I met a NJB who whisked me away to Puerto Rico for a few years! We got married, moved back to the Bay Area and had a baby 🙂
What is Jewish food? Good question. And a little tricky. Cuisine that has evolved through the cooking traditions of Jews around the world, influenced by kosher living and traditional holidays. It’s diverse and everchanging and that’s what makes it fun! As Jews have spread around the world, they have picked up ingredients and recipes that altered Jewish cuisine. Today, when I asked people I’m speaking to, what is Jewish food, I get answers from latkes to Chinese food on Christmas and I love that. Just because we consider food Jewish, does not mean it isn’t also Russian or Iranian or Polish too. No matter your religion, I hope you enjoy these tasty recipes! My modern interpretations of classic recipes bring new light to old favorites and I love bringing ingredients from other cultures to create a whole new unique cuisine.
Check out my Work With Me page if you are interested in working with WJWE! You can follow WJWE updates on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!
L’chaim,
Amy
Photos Courtesy of Tim Kyle PhotographyÂ
Photo courtesy of Johnny Sullivan
WJWE Intro Video:
Sweet Noshings Launch Party!
Passover with Bubbe!
I can’t tell you how excited I am to find your blog! I’m half Jewish, on my mom’s side. So her and my grandmother were just amazing cooks and always made delicious meals of all kinds. Unfortunately when they passed away I was not left with a single recipe! I’m so excited now to try some of yours out…..the latkes are callin my name! 🙂
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for reading! If you have any meals in particular you want recreated, I would be happy to seek out a recipe and try my best to replicate.
Amy
I just looked up your “Passover” zucchini kugel muffins. Why do they have flour in them if they’re for Passover?????
You can use matzah meal in place of flour!
I know that matza meal is used instead but it’s your Passover recipe and it shouldn’t have “flour” in it!
Your Passovet recipe shouldn’t have “flour” in it at all!! I know to use matza meal instead
It’s not just for Passover. You can enjoy them all year long with flour or matzah meal.
If your mom is Jewish, then you are 100% Jewish according to Jewish law.
Just want to say that I love the premise of your blog. I wish I had my grandma’s recipes, but I’m stuck recreating Jew food on my own.
Thank you! It looks like you have no trouble creating amazing recipes all on your own 🙂
Well this is going to be fun 🙂
Thanks, Anna! I have been reading your blog for years so hope you enjoy mine 🙂
Love your nutella rugelach recipe. I came across our guest blog. Good luck and I look forward to your recipes.
Thanks, Ada!
wow- i just discovered your blog- this is awesome!
my husband is jewish and as a wedding gift, his mom/dad/sister typed out every single recipe in the family, most of which first had to be translated from hebrew. it’s a huge mix of hungarian and israeli food from every holiday/special occasion. they even took pictures as they went along as illustrations.
i am SO grateful that they passed these traditions and knowledge and stories on to us to start our own family holiday traditions. i know that i am really going to enjoy following your blog and your jewish cooking adventures. thank you for sharing w/ us!
Thanks so much for reading, Molly! What an amazing and touching wedding present! I hope in some way, my blog becomes a virtual cookbook for my future kids and grandkids. So many recipes get passed by word of mouth or on scribbled pieces of paper, and I treasure the recipes my family has passed down. I am excited to share them with you!
Every Jewish mother/grandmother should do what Molly’s in-laws did! even if you are not interested in them, someone down the line will be. I say families should video tape their mothers and grandmother’s making their favorite recipes, such as gefite fish or stuffed cabbage. Often old recipes are given with “a pinch of this and that”. To see your ancestors live doing their recipes and talking is an heirloom
for generations to come. And a great Chanukah gift!
Great idea to video tape it, Ilene! Thanks for commenting.
Hey Amy,
Pleasure to “meet” jew, and your blog…didn’t think they let our kind in Texas 🙂
It looks like some good stuff on here that I’ll have to try!
Cheers,
Andy
Hi Andy- nice to meet Jew too! There are actually a bunch of Jews here in Austin. And it helps I am blond. Thanks for reading!
oh my. I’m in Austin as well and I would give an arm and a leg to eat your cooking! Awesome blog
Thanks, Marcello! No need to give an arm and a leg. I accept cash.
I love your site, recipies and the brand you have developed. Congrats on the cooking school decision I think you will be doing awesome stuff in the kitchen for a long time. I can’t wait to impress my mother-in-law with your macaroon recipe.
Thanks so much, Kevin! I really appreciate the feedback and support 🙂
Hey,
Love your Nutella rugalach!
Listen I have Easy Hebrew Magazines and we would like to add your recepie to our next issue!
You can view it in http://www.hebrewtoday.com
What do you think??
I hope you already work on a cookbook. 🙂 Would love to have all these treats printed on paper… As Goethe said:
“Denn was man Schwarz auf Weiß besitzt, kann man getrost nach Hause tragen!” (Faust)
(“What one possesses in cold print, one may carry home with confidence” – I hope the translation makes sense…)
Thanks! I hope to have a cookbook one of these days 🙂
I just found your website and before even starting to browse, I have to tell you I love the clever name of your blog. (Kinda woody allenish. I mean it as a compliment.) Off to browse around!
Thanks, Dudette! That’s the ultimate compliment!
Amy,
What a very impressive web site you have whipped up. I could fit most of the recipes I have attempted on 2 hands (with a few digits left over). Perhaps I will try some of yours. My Mom always says that if you can read you can cook.
I will look in now and again to follow your culinary adventures.
Ciao (Chow?),
Brian
Thanks, Brian!
I am now doubly excited about your blog since I live in Austin too!
Aw yay thanks for reading, Teresa!
Wow, so brave! Love the story! I left my corporate job too to stay home with kids and now I love to cook so much I can’t go back to that job.:) Culinary school must be sooooo fun. Is it?
Aw thanks! Just took a lot at your blog- love it! Culinary school was amazing. I could never go back to the “real world”!
What an adorable and AWESOME name for a food blog! I’m part Jewish on my dad’s side, but we never really practiced it. { he wasn’t a hardcore Jew}. 😉 However, I’ll be searching your blog for my favs….latkes, sweet n sour meatballs, apple bread, Challah…
I’m glad I came across this today. !
Yay thanks. Dana! I’ve got all those recipes here!
My sister and I made some homemade sauerkraut using green cabbage purchased from a Whole Foods Store. We cut the cabbage, added sea salt, put it in a crock, pounded it to start the brine, covered it with a lid and set in a cool place to ferment. After 6 weeks, the kraut had made a good amount of brine, but turned a pink cast in color. We are hesitant to eat this kraut.
Earlier in the summer, we made some kraut using cabbage that had been grown in my garden. After 6 weeks it was perfect and very tasty. It did not develop the pink cast like the second batch did. Can you tell me why the second batch turned pink and is it safe to eat?
Our mother made sauerkraut for many years, and she did not ever have this problem. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you.
Pink sauerkraut (not from red cabbage) is from the growth of yeast, usually caused by too much salt or an uneven distribution of salt, or if the sauerkraut is not weighted properly during fermentation. Make sure to add salt as evenly as possible. If it smells yeasty, I would throw it out. I’d probably throw it out anyways just to make sure.
Hi Amy Pooh!! Great blog! xoxo Puta!
Hi love! Miss ya!
Hi. Just found your blog when I was looking to see who was going to IFBC 2014 (it is something I am thinking of…never been to a conference before…still feeling like a newbie in the blog world).
Love your blog. Very entertaining and great recipes!
Thanks, Sandra! I haven’t been to IFBC before but I love blogger conferences for meeting people and networking with brands. Hope to see you there! 🙂
Awesome blog and recipes! Happy to have found this…keep up the great work!
Thanks, Debbie!
The ads are awful, they make reading your blog unbearable. Sorry.
Sorry you feel that way, I really have way less ads than most blogs and they are all on the side. I try to make it as discreet as possible. Lox ain’t cheap these days!
I have a dynamite Mandel Broit recipie. It’s been in my family for three generations. I have been in the catering buisness for over 30 years (including 18 as a kosher caterer). I would be happy to share just drop me a line and I’ll pass it on.
I’m interested in your recipe ?
Do you have a recipe for carrot tsimmes with a kneddel top?
Hi Amy! I just discovered your site. I am excited to try your recipes. Where can I find that great apron? Would love to give it to my husband for Chanukah. Thanks!
Thanks! I made them and used to sell them on my store modertribe.com, but we are sold out and not restocking. Maybe you’ll find something else you like there instead!
Hi,
I presented the לביבות recipe to my Hebrew Class. Good Recipe! Hardest part was translating it all to Hebrew.
John Hunt
Awesome! Love to hear it.