Kosher Cuisine with Marcy Goldman

The Big Brunch, Deli Style
Ratner’s Inspirations, Part 2

We are back! The online Clabber Girl deli is open again, inspired by the cuisine of Ratners. (See Archives July 2008, Kosher Cuisine)

In July, I spoke about the closing of Ratner’s Deli in New York (and Ebay listings for high priced vintage Ratner’s cookbooks), a restaurant renown for its kosher, vegetarian cuisine. In essence, Ratners was renown for making simple things with purity, consistency, quality, and a warm adherence to homey classics of the Jewish kitchen. It was a good reminder to me that as much as times change, comfort foods still appeal. Ratners was also known as the place for brunch – a reputation anyone would like to have. In summer, with the warm weather being as it is, brunch is a perfect time and occasion to host people. It is in the earlier part of the day, it calls for simple things and limited long-baked items, and is lighter food, overall.

Here are some Ratner’s and Me Co. inspired brunch dishes, to make a traditional deli-style brunch in your home, any day in July. I promise you good, staying food from my kitchen (and probably yours), which like Ratners, many other delis in your town or memory is open 24/7.

A La Ratners’s Blintze Souffle
Great for a brunch or any time – a nice summertime brunch offering. This uses your own blintzes (see Old Fashioned Blintz recipe that follows) or crepes or you can buy frozen ones as a quick fix. This recipe features its’ own blintz base. It is slightly eggier than the one that follows.

Old Fashioned Deli Blintzes with Seltzer Water
These are good filled with cottage cheese and sour cream filling, rolled and fried in butter and then served with sour cream and fresh fruit or as the foundation for a Blintz Soufflé. Make these 8 or 10 inches but make ‘em thin. A non-stick pan, crepe or cast iron pan is perfect. These are a touch less eggy than those for the Blintz Soufflé and feature the trick of seltzer water as a lighter touch, if you want to use it and make a non dairy blintz at the same time.

Vegetarian Chopped Liver
This tastes remarkably like the real thing. It is inspired from the kosher kitchen but it is an appetizer (or sandwich filling) that suits vegetarians too (or kosher vegetarians or those wanted a pareve appetizer)

Hungarian Cheese Bagel Spread
This paprika tinged cottage cheese spread depends on dry cottage cheese, aka hoop or baker’s cheese. If you cannot find it, drain ricotta or fine curd cottage cheese overnight through a paper-towel lined sieve set over a bowl. You can also use all cream cheese but it is not quite the same but still very, very good.

Orange Mango Juice Spritzers
This makes O.J. a bit more festive

Cream Cheese and Lox Cheesecake
A savoury cheesecake that uses lox in bits or lox spread, swirled through, for a delightful showstopper brunch main dish. Serve chilled, with bagels.

Marble Cake
This is a great slicing marble cake for a brunch.