Recipes

From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor

This recipe began as Aunt Sally's conserve, which is a thick spread of fruits, nuts, and sugar. Take away the nuts and you have preserves. Omit the nuts and cut the fruit into smaller pieces, and you have jam. Cook the jam for a shorter time and you have a glorious, fruity sauce with a punch of citrus, begging to be poured over ice cream or cake.

I had never made conserve (or jam or preserves, for that matter) before I tried Aunt Sally's recipe. It became such a favorite that I included it in my Rosh Hashanah cooking classes as a sauce for my mother's Nova Scotia Honey Orange Sponge Cake (above). Talk about easy! I would begin the class by asking for a show of hands: "How many of you have never made jam?" followed by "How many of you can open a can?"

1 pound dried apricots, halved (cut larger ones in thirds)
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained
3 1/2 cups sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup broken walnuts (optional)