The Silver Platter: Simple to Spectacular, Wholesome, Family-Friendly Recipes
by: Daniella Silver and Norene Gilletz
May 6, 2015
336 pages
Review by: E. Broderick
You can spot a good cookbook by how dog eared and ratty it is. My copy of Daniella Silver and Norene Gilletz’s The Silver Platter has various substances spattered across its pages, numerous loose sheets tucked into the front cover, and a veritable office supply store’s worth of those small post it flags meant to signify important pages. It is one of my most used books, and I am super grateful to my sibling for gifting it to me when I was first starting out in the kitchen.
The Silver Platter has an interesting authorship set up. Daniella Silver, whose family includes some people with food restrictions for medical reasons, was interested in writing a wholesome yet still elegant cookbook. She approached a more senior member of her community, Norene Gilletz, who had already achieved some success in the cookbook arena. Under Norene’s mentorship, Daniella developed the recipes and Norene has placed helpful tips and tricks – called Norene’s Notes – throughout. I actually really enjoyed both that book origin story and the unique flavor each author brings to the book. Daniella clearly thinks about what goes into each recipe, and how malleable it is for people with different dietary restrictions. Meanwhile, Norene is out there trying to make the entire process easier and more streamlined. It’s a winning combination.
I suspect that at some point after it came out, this book was offered as the giveaway to various charity auctions if you bought a high enough ticket package. Quite a few people have it, but have not actually opened it up/plumbed it’s depths and this is a crying shame. Food restrictions abound these days and there’s something for everyone in here. Plus, a lot of the recipes are good for Passover – there’s four different quinoa recipes!
My list of favorite dishes from The Silver Platter is lengthy, but hopefully by telling you more about each one you get a fuller picture for the book itself. The rice noodle stir fry/pancit was a hit with my picky eaters. I like to make the chinese chicken and mushrooms when cooking for a kimpeturin (mother who recently gave birth) since it’s not the same chicken and rice everyone else sends, and the orange and soy marinated chicken flies off the plate. You don’t even need to fire up the BBQ – I make it on a grill pan all the time and it is incredibly moist and flavorful. I don’t cook a lot of meat, but the Best Roast Brisket recipe (that’s the actual name of the recipe) helped me through my first shabbat roast when I was having company and I’ve returned to it again and again.
Moving over to the desserts, the chocolate bark is super easy yet looks super fancy and you can start mixing in your own topping choices once you get a feel for it. The white chocolate and apricot cookies are stunning, and the Cookie Cake is so fun, and slides right out of the bundt pan as promised.
There are also a lot of salads and grains – did I mention the quinoa yet? – but salads are a weirdly innate skill for me and so it is not often I use recipes for them, but I do like looking at the photos for inspiration. The presentations are bright and effective. Almost every page fulfills the old adage about healthy eating – make sure your plate is colorful.
I’m not one for keeping books pristine. They are meant to be used, loved, and read. In this cake I have practically used this book to the death and it still holds up. If you’ve got picky eaters, food restrictions, or if you are simply looking to bring a little more variety to your table, the Silver Platter is a good place to start.