Rosh Hashana

[Suvir Saran]

On the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, there is a ceremony called

Tashlich.

-

Jews traditionally go to the ocean or a stream or river to pray and

throw bread crumbs into the water. Symbolically, the fish devour their sins.

Shana tova!

Robert,

Thanks for that great post. I did not know about this ceremony. It is quite beautiful. We have similar ceremonies in India. It was fascinating to see the similarity.

Also I take this opportunity to wish everyone.

[Sandra Levine]

Tashlich is generally performed on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

[Jinmyo]

Here's some spam I found in my mailbox:

The Interactive Teshuvah Hotline (A Rosh Hashanah Joke)

Thank you for calling the Interactive Teshuvah Hotline here in heaven. Due to the approaching High Holidays, which is our busiest season, all of our telephone lines are temporarily busy. Please wait patiently as your call will be answered in sequence - and remember, patience is a virtue.

You will no doubt enjoy our musical selection of Yeshiva Rock and

the Best of Shlomo Carlebach, while you wait. Please note that these telephone lines will not be available on the two days of Rosh Hashanah, and on Yom Kippur.

For a voice recording in Ashkenazic English dialect, press 1,

for Sephardic, press 2,

for New York, press 3.

If you are uncertain, press 4.

This line is also available in other languages.

For Hebrew, press 5,

for Yiddish, press 6,

for Russian, press 7,

for others, press 8.

Please note that our service is not available in Arabic or French.

If you have never used the Interactive Teshuva Hotline before,

you will need to listen carefully to our simple sequenced instructions. This service is available for touch-tone telephone users as a supplement to your davening (praying) at shul over the Ten Days of Awe. It is not a substitute. Let us now begin.

To access your personalized account of all your known aveiros

(transgressions), including dates and affected parties, please

press 1 now. If you have not already apologized to the affected parties, please hang up now and call back when this has been done. For a personalized list of aveiros towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu, (Him) please press 2. Please note that in order to provide timely service to all callers, there is now a limit of 20 aveiros per person at one time. Politicians and Reform Party supporters

will require several visits to complete their inventory. Humour

columnists who frequently exceed their word counts or use big words should hang up now and try calling later, say, after the Millennium.

Please select the aveiros you have committed this past year. In

case you have forgotten, we offer a list of the most popular aveirot. To activate this function, please press the pound (#) key. Once you have chosen the proper aveirah, enter the code and press the pound key to enter it. As you enter your aveirah, our service will prompt you for your Explanation. If you

committed the aveirah because he/she did it, press 1.

If you did so by accident, but did not mean to, press 2. If you

have a good reason, but won't tell anyone what it is, press 3. If you did so knowing you were wrong, but didn't think you would get caught, press 3. If you blame your legal counsel for the aveirah, press 4. If you blame the influence of Freud or television, press 5. If you blame it on Rock n' Roll, Rap and/or drugs, press 6. If you want to blame someone else for the aveirah but can't think of anyone in particular, press 7.

At the conclusion of your aveiros, enter the star (*) key. For

those of you with 7 aveiros or less, we offer a Tzadik Express Line. Please press 1 to access this Express line now. This is only for real tzadikim: if you think you are a tzadik or tzadeket, you are probably not. Remember, no sneaking in with 8 or more aveirot. Please note that the same aveirah committed against

two individuals counts as two items.

Now that you have entered your personal aveirot, you may access

the Selichot component of our service. As our computer reads out each aveirah you have indicated, please enter the contrition code.

For example, a "1" means you are only mildly sorry for your

action, "2" means you are somewhat sorry, but have mitigating circumstances and a good lawyer, "3" means you are very sorry but will likely repeat it and have a great lawyer, "4" means you are very very sorry, and will not repeat it unless there are mitigating circumstances and you have Dershowitz on

retainer, and "5" means you are extremely sorry and will not

repeat the aveirah under any circumstances, since you have only your second cousin's son-in law who failed the bar twice. Please proceed with your Selichos sequence now....

Our computer has now processed your request for Kaparah

(atonement). Before we reveal the decision results, you may increase your score by pledging additional tzedakah to your favourite charity.

All major credit cards are accepted. Please enter your pledge

amount (in US dollars), followed by your credit card number and expiry date. Thank you.

Based on your Aveirah Score, Selichos Score and Tzedakah Score,

you have been granted conditional atonement. This offer expires within one calendar year.

Thank you for visiting the Teshuva Hotline today, and remember,

we know everything.

[coughy]

The holidays are coming fast - any new ideas to liven up the dinner table?

[Jason Perlow]

If your family is anything like ours, nothing weird or innovative, because it won't be appreciated.

[Gifted Gourmet]

If your family is anything like ours, nothing weird or innovative, because it won't be appreciated

ain't that the all-time truth? I have tried to "sex up" (as the Brits now say) our high holiday cuisine to somewhat disastrous effects ... for example, the time I spent days preparing gravlax with a honey-mustard dill sauce on pumpernickle ( am I channeling Marcus Samuelsson??) only to hear, "Where's the gefilte fish and horseradish? It's not the same!" ...

I cringe at my family's lack of gastronomic adventurousness ... but then it's always at that precise time that the voices in my head begin singing to me "Tradition!" in Tevye's voice, with the full orchestration from the soundtrack, no less ........

or the time I foolishly substituted an exquisite potage with delicate quenelles only to be brusquely chided by the folks, "Where's our chicken soup with matzo balls??" I shrug my shoulders, wipe my tears, and think, "culinary Neanderthals all ... perhaps I was adopted and have the real DNA of Brillat-Savarin..." ....

but, that said, this year I will drag out my usual brisket, fully accompanied by the heavenly hosts of garlic and onion, and the requisite potato kugel and tsimmes, heavy honeycake, and my amassed throng, yearning to eat their usual Vilnaesque cuisine, will "Ooooh and ahhh" rather than kissing their fingertips and acclaiming my newly acquired culinary abilities ... but then who am I to challenge tradition at such a holy time of year???

[Jason Perlow]

Rachel made a really interesting Matzo Ball soup one year which had pureed squash in the broth... Golden Matzo Ball soup as I recall it was called. I thought it was delicious, but everyone else preferred the tried and true stuff.

This last passover we wanted to do a full blown Sephardic one, just so we could freak our family out, but we settled on just Sephardizing the charoset, based on Katieloeb's recipe. Theres a cool recipe for it on RecipeGullet.com .

For the most part I detest food during the Jewish holidays, because its the same heartburn inducing stuff for weeks in a row.

[coughy]

Our family is exactly the same - they like it just like last year - but if I make one more brisket or turkey i'll faint. any menu suggestions?

[Jason Perlow]

Our family is exactly the same - they like it just like last year - but if I make one more brisket or turkey i'll faint.  any menu suggestions?

My advice is to go with some interesting side dishes. Last year I beleive we made a few sephardic and middle-eastern side dishes to go with the traditional stuff.

[KatieLoeb]

This last passover we wanted to do a full blown Sephardic one, just so we could freak our family out, but we settled on just Sephardizing the charoset, based on Katieloeb's recipe. Theres a cool recipe for it on RecipeGullet.com .

Thanks for the props Jason! I'd suggest the same as everyone else. Just sneak in a few innovations here and there, like the alterna-Charoset, or a different Matzo ball recipe. I've made matzoh balls with finely chopped frozen spinach incorporated into the batter that made them green-flecked and very delicious. You'll get to exercise some culianry creativity, but hopefully will hear a lot less whining...

[ronnie_suburban]

If your family is anything like ours, nothing weird or innovative, because it won't be appreciated. 

Truer words were, unfortunately, never spoken...

I always try to work something new into the menu as an add-on, but if I take any of the standard issue stuff off the menu, it's met with a near shunning.

=R=

[SobaAddict70]

but hopefully will hear a lot less whining...

You're joking, right Katie? Spinach doesn't taste off-putting and I've never heard of anyone complaining of spinach pasta (equivalent for me per matzoh balls). But then again, I'm not Jewish...I can't imagine seeing someone complain about that. I mean, it's not like you're making spinach gnocchi balls.

Soba

[afoodnut]

Just curious... Jason, Katie, Ronnie, Gifted, Coughy, anyone else?

Are your families/friends with whom you celebrate the holidays open to innovative, "unusual" food at other times, and only insistent about what they're used to at the holidays? Do you have food centered gatherings with your preferred style of food with these same people at other times? Is it an issue of generations, with differences between what the young folk and old folk might prefer?

The holiday gatherings I host are far from what I think you consider traditional; the food I serve is probably best described as contemporary colorado southwestern mediterranean jewish; The friends/family with whom I celebrate enjoy good food at all times, and look forward to seeing what I'm going to come up with, including twists on "traditional," traditional, and innovative. Nary a complaint.

I'm part of the older generation of our gatherings; None of us are nostalgic for the Boiled and Burnt. It will be interesting to see how my daughter and the rest of her generation will think about the food when it's their turn to cook for the holidays, never having been exposed to the traditional style that I think most of you are talking about.

(I'm planning on including cooking holiday food as part of my "Cooking with Kids" class for the eGCI, so I'd like to hear your comments.)

Any thoughts?

Edit to add:

Rosh Hashana dinner we served last year; some "traditional," some not so.

Many with whom we celebrate are vegetarian. (24 people for Rosh Hashanah dinner.)

Apples with Honey;

Round Challah;

Halibut w/Tomato, Garlic, Cumin and Jalapeno;

Chicken w/ Apricots and Onion, Ginger, Saffron;

Rice Pilaf;

Green Beans, Carrots, and Leeks;

Roasted Eggplant, Pepper, Onion and Tomato;

Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber Salad;

Noodle Kugel w/Tofu; (pareve)

Peaches with Honey and Blackberry Wine;

Honey Cake

Edited August 9, 2003 by afoodnut (log)

[jackal10]

Me too, but I usually go to my brothers family . Very traditional. Would not have it any other way. Its part of the nostalgia kick. I extend it to traditions at Xmas and Easter...

Rosh Hashonnah is apple and honey: honey cake, challah with honey and dried friuts, traditionally round.

Sukkot is cinnamon biscuits

What do you see in the fast with, and what do you break it with?

[Gifted Gourmet]

what do you see in the fast with, and what do you break it with?

The meal prior to the fast is basically boiled soup chicken, noodles, challah, potato kugel, and a dessert (cinnamon apple cake is my usual) ..light on the salt so not to encourage need to drink water during Yom Kippur ...

after the fast is always something dairy (and lighter than the aforementioned meat meal) usually homemade cheese blintzes, potato soup, salmon with a buerre blanc, fancy cheesecake dessert with fresh berries ... my thinking is that after a fast, go for it!!

[Gifted Gourmet]

I'm part of the older generation of our gatherings; None of us are nostalgic for the Boiled and Burnt. It will be interesting to see how my daughter and the rest of her generation will think about the food when it's their turn to cook for the holidays, never having been exposed to the traditional style that I think most of you are talking about

and my only daughter grew up with highly traditional Jewish fare here at home and with my family ... and, as a child, she devoured those meals with gusto and laughter ... update now? She is a California vegetarian .... so, farewell to the heavy stuff we consumed and reveled in ... now it is tofu and ginseng and organic everything, which is great but, come on, deep down I know she'd kill for a slab of my greasy brisket and kugel! Hopefully, she'll long remember those festive meals of her youth .. while openly chiding me for serving those poor dead animals! punchline? she'll probably live a healthier, longer life .....than my grandparents.... who lived into their 90's ... go figure!!

[coughy]

Yom Kippur is a piece of cake compared to Rosh Hashana because we are with friends and not family. Every year I make a hearty mushroom barley soup, meat - either roast beef, grilled steak, or london broil also on the grill. I make mashed potatoes that I mix with sauteed onions and mushrooms and bake and a vegetable. Challah of course and we finish with a plain marble cake and coffee. Breaking our fast is with six families that take turns hosting. It is at our house this year and I am ordering all kinds of smoked fish (from Zabars) and I will make a dairy noodle kugel. I have a huge platter with all kinds of hard and soft cheeses, tomatoes and onions and various breads. Lots of great cakes, too!

[Kenk]

These are some of my sugestions to try,

Slow Smoked BBQ Brisket

Stuff the matzo balls with a shitake mushroom stuffing

Avgolemono chicken soup (I love chicken soup with lemon mmmm)

Galactobouriko made with honey (filo and semolina greek dessert)

Lasagna

Chicken red thai curry

Deep fried artichokes

Veal rib chocolate chile mole

[marlena spieler]

For Rosh Ha Shana I make a sephardic-inspired ginger-marinated two grape chicken. Lets see, it involves rubbing the chicken with a paste of fresh and dried ginger and also cinnamon, bound together with olive oil, a few spoonfulls of white wine or orange juice, and as always, garlic. Leave for an hour or so. or overnight. or ten minutes. its a forgiving bird.

then stuff its little insides with grapes, surround with a few whole garlic cloves, and roast that guy for about an hour. are you going to shul? set the timer. or do it more slowly. it is forgiving unless you are observant and do not do any cooking once dusk falls.

for the sauce remove chicken, skim fat from pan, add orange juice and/or dry white wine, chicken broth, do the deglaze thing, along with the grapes from the inside of chicken, and about a cup each of red grapes and green grapes (all seedless). Cook cook cook til intense and flavorful, balance flavors with honey and lemon.

just before serving, carve chickx and add another handful of each type of grape to sauce. Sprinkle with a whiff of cinnamon to refresh.

anyhow for exact amounts, the recipe is in my Jewish Heritage Cookbook, though the addition of orange juice to the sauce is a new one and you gotta do it, esp for Rosh Ha Shana. if you have the book just write it in. if anyone wants exact amounts i can make a link, or put it up as recipe of the month for my website. which i think i'll do anyhow now that i mention it.......

actually i serve this for pesach too. its so sweet and spicy and modernly jewish.......(my modernly jewish family finds heavy briskety things kind of scary.......where did i go wrong?)

[marie-louise]

... the recipe is in my Jewish Heritage Cookbook...

Marlena, I just wanted to say I am a huge fan of yours. Your Jewish Heritage Cookbook is a beautiful and informative book. I read all cookbooks like novels, but the way yours weaves history and information in between the recipes makes it an especially good read! Also,your long out-of-print From Pantry to Table opened my eyes to all sorts of new flavorings at the time it came out.

[bloviatrix]

I just pulled out my notebook of menus an in 4 years of hosting Rosh Hashanna, I have yet to make straight chicken soup -- chicken gumbo, yes, but no chicken soup.

. . . but, that said, this year I will drag out my usual brisket, fully accompanied by the heavenly hosts of garlic and onion, and the requisite potato kugel and tsimmes, heavy honeycake.....

You can take these foods and update them. Instead of a regular, braised brisket, why not do it in a chimichurri? For potato kugel, carmelize some onions and layer them into the potatoes. Use duck schmaltz in your tsimmes and add a bit of rum and instead of honeycake do a pain d'espice. An excellent book to use as a resource in updating traditional foods is The Gefilte Variations by Jayne Cohen. Another book that's worth looking at is Adventures in Jewish Cooking by Jeffrey Nathan.

I'm lucky, my none of my guests expect traditional foods. But, then again, I think have a lot more leeway than many of you because everyone I host are observant jews and they see the "traditional" foods throughout the year. I think for many people who only eat "jewish" at the holiday, there's an expectation of the standard ashkenazic fare because this is the only time of year they see it.

A lot of what I serve depends on what's in the greenmarket. If there are still tomatoes around, and it's warm I might start with a chilled yellow tomato soup. As of now, I'm considering either gravlax as an amuse or maybe a tuna tatare as an appetizer. I might do a stuffed veal breast or a roast beef for a main. I haven't even considered sides, but since I have duck fat in the freezer, I assume I'll make use of it.

Rosh Hashanna is in 7 weeks and counting.

[jpr54_]

chicken soup with noodles

petcha

pot roast and vegetables

tsimmes

salad

homemade pickled cumber salad, beet salad

homemade applesauce

cake

kugel

[marlena spieler]

thank you, Marie-Louise!

thank you very much for taking the time to tell me, it means a great deal.

x

marlena

[JFLinLA]

I'm usually the "break-the-fast" gal. However, I hate coming home and having to cook so we get bagels and great fixings.

I do make a mean challah, at all times of the year.

[JFLinLA]

And, by the way, I just checked and there isn't one single brisket recipe in the eGRA.