Last week, I got to meet one of my favourite kosher cookbook writers.

We’ve spoken a few times, but, as she’s based in Johannesburg, this was my first opportunity to meet Sharon Lurie in the flesh, so to speak.

Sharon (pronounced Share-on) now has one of her four children residing in the UK, and is a more frequent visitor to our shores. The clever folk at Radlett United Synagogue invited her to share some of her Rosh Hashanah recipes.

She, in turn, invited me to join them, and, on arrival, rewarded me with the hugest hug. The lovely maven of meat is every bit as warm and full of personality as her book  suggests.

The room was packed with a mass of chattering women — many, English-based South Africans, who’ve been fans of her recipes since Cooking with the Kosher Butcher’s Wife, her first book, was published in 2012. They may have even been customers of her husband’s butchery, which has been in their family for four generations.

Another dynasty of butchers was also present – Stephen and Michelle Grossman (on the left and centre of the picture above), owners of Silverman’s butchers, who had provided all the meat that Sharon (on the right) prepared with the help of Silverman's head chef, who was in the kitchen toiling away all evening. Michelle was Sharon’s co-host.

Fortunately, I have the appetite of an elephant, because I’d made the error of eating dinner with my children before the demo. I should have known that a Jewish audience would not expect to go home hungry, and no one did. Sharon and her team must have been cooking for days!

We kicked off with some gorgeously orange carrot soup with a ‘techina’ [sic] swirl and a slice of pinwheel leek and potato perogen. “I’ve made a carrot soup as carrots are one of the simanim” she shared. “And the pinwheel perogen represent the circle of life” she said as she deftly demonstrated how to roll up the potato and leek-slathered puff pastry.

Simanim are the symbolic foods  eaten at Rosh Hashanah. Eating each one is said to mean certain things for the new year to come, and you make a blessing over each one. They include fish (particularly the head), honey, spinach, carrots, cabbage, pomegranate, apples, leeks and dates. Carrots for example are said to represent coins and prosperity in the new year.

Her Yomtov challahs were loaded with cinnamon smothered apples and raisins. Huge baskets of warm chunks of the freshly baked loaves were passed around as the audience keenly waited their turn to nosh.

Sharon continued demonstrating over the excited chatter around the room, showing us various meaty and parev salads: Biltong; Thai Steak; and her ‘It’s a date honey — Simanim salad’ (packed with apples, dates and pomegranates and covered in a sweet honey dressing).

The last salad – Smashed Mediterranean Malawach salad — was ingenious. Cleverly served in an edible basket fashioned from malawach pastry into which she layered up the salad ingredients before scattering crunchy falafel crumbs over the top. (Malawach is  a Yemeni bread that can be found ready-to-bake in freezer sections in kosher supermarkets.)

The meat was stand-out superb. Liquorice brisket, Sweet Treat chicken and corn kugel and 'Lekker' (meaning delicious)  Apple and Mint-Glazed lamb ladders were all melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Served in individual pots, I was too busy tucking in to remember to snap any of them.

Stephen Grossman took to the stage at times to explain which cuts he’d used and to outline the process which he’d perfected to produce the tender, smoked, lamb ladders. The smoked lamb can be bought from his stores, but only by special order.

The final dish was a Berimisu — her parev (and haimish) take on the very dairy, Italian classic, Tiramisu.  Fingers biscuits are dipped in kiddush wine and layered up with a creamy textured base of whipped non-dairy creamer and instant vanilla pudding and summer berries.

Having decimated the buffet of salads the chattering audiences departed with their recipes and signed copies of Sharon’s book.

If you get the chance to see her do a delicious demonstration, go! Your Yomtov guests will thank you for it.  

 Read about Sharon's latest book here.

Sharon will be giving another demonstration on the evening of 17 September. Ticket info available from lisa@zimmy.co.za