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Rosh Hashanah Recap, 2009

September 20, 2009

We had a wonderful holiday, and we got a chance to host a night of Rosh Hashanah for the first time! J. and I love having our families over for the holidays, and I am lucky that he is an eager partner in all the planning and execution. And the clean up — which was not helped by us losing hot water for several hours this morning. (It’s back now, and everything is washed and put away.) I like everything about hosting a holiday: brainstorming a menu, writing a shopping list, doing the shopping, cooking, setting the table, and so on. And the best part of all is having my whole family together, happy and full and celebrating.

I was too busy getting dinner on the table and enjoying my family to photography the dishes while they were hot and first put out. So you’re getting my leftovers!

Top left is the chicken soup GG made. My recipe for Jewish Chicken Soup is based on hers. Below the chicken soup is a Tomato Salad with Honey Vinaigrette (I just omitted the white beans, which I didn’t think would go with the meal).

In the top row, center is a recipe I made up, Slow Cooker Sweet Potato & Fig Tzimmes. Tzimmes is a traditional Jewish slow-cooked stew of sorts, often made with carrots and fruit, sweetened with honey. It’s popular at Rosh Hashanah, when we try to eat sweet foods for a sweet new year! I made a ridiculous amount, but everyone liked it. J. even had it as leftovers. I peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes 6 sweet potatoes (about 5 lbs. or 8 cups once cut up). They went into my slow cooker’s crock, which I’d coated with non-stick spray. Then I poured 2 cups of orange juice, 1 lb. of small figs (remove any stems), 1/2 c. honey, 1 tsp. salt and 1 heaping tsp. cinnamon on top. Cooked on low for 8 hours. After 6 hours, it’s delicious and creamy. Plus your whole house will be perfumed with the honey and cinnamon. Leave it in for the extra two hours, and it changes color to a deeper gold, and the caramel notes are much more pronounced.

Below the tzimmes is J.’s smoked brisket. Incredible. This is the first time he smoked a whole brisket, with the first and second cuts still attached to each other. I am very partial to the fattier second cut, and kept popping little bits of the leftovers today. J. actually put the brisket onto the smoker around 12:30 AM on Saturday morning — you should have seen the two of us on our patio tending to the meat in our pajamas! It finished earlier than we expected, though, so we didn’t actually wind up needing such an early start. We both got a kick of the craziness of that dedication to cooking, though. The results are well worth it. Also, cooking the brisket outside means my oven was free for anything else I needed to bake (Hershey’s Best Brownies and Honey Cookies) and we didn’t heat up the house by having the oven on all day.

The mushrooms & barley at the top right was perhaps the favorite side dish. So easy: prepare pearled barley according to the package directions (I used half veggie stock, half water). Meanwhile, saute 1 medium onion, sliced thin, in olive oil until it is soft and golden. Add in about two pints of sliced baby bella mushrooms, and saute for an additional 7 minutes or so, until they are tender but not soggy. When both the barley and mushrooms/onions are done, stir them together. Salt and pepper to taste. This is fantastic comfort food — warm, creamy, familiar. I’d call it a haimish dish, unpretentious and homey. I think everyone had seconds.

And finally, round challah. We eat round challah on this holiday to symbolize the cyclical nature of life, and the cycle of beginning a new year. We had a raisin challah, too (again, sweet for a sweet year). Not pictured is a lemony smoked chicken, the brownies and cookies I mentioned above, a picture-perfect apple pie my dad made, and a fruit salad from my mom.

Are you full? Even though we ate leftovers for lunch and dinner today, there is still some food left. Dinner tomorrow!

Filed under: Holidays,J. Cooks