Headache, fatigue and a metaphysical hunger for chocolate: the sure signs of sugar withdrawal, and during Pesach 2002, in post-industrial Wisconsin, I had to settle for potato chips and jelly.
Potato chips and jelly. Yep, you heard me. Picture an 18 year old New York-Jewish co-ed with a history of cookie eating and a mom who’s not so good at the whole care package thing. Now combine that with a supermarket kosher section that could fit 80,000 times in the space of this period. I needed something, man, and the matzoh I’d horded from the Madison supermarket one hour’s drive away just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
You’ve heard about an orange on the seder plate, but what about a floating orange God head that teaches you about Rosh Hashanah? My Jewish Learning has taken the custom of “eating a new fruit on Rosh Hashanah” to the next level, with this wacky video. Enjoy!
Here is part 2 of Chef Laura’s Italian Rosh Hashanah menu. Find part one – an apple cake with apple cider honey zabaglione – here. Yes, yes, we’re featuring two soup recipes in a row on The Jew & The Carrot – but what is fall without an abundance of warm, creamy soups?!
Autumn in Tuscany looks a lot like the neighborhood pumpkin patch I remember visiting when I was a kid – with pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and colors piled high. This versatile vegetable stores well for winter, is easily canned and is frequently featured in savory dishes. And this luxuriously textured soup is a perfect example of cucina povera, which is the practice of using what is readily available and seasonal.
This morning, Google let me know that it was fall – with the second “g” and “l” in Google turned into gracefully falling red leaves. I felt a bit stunned, and a bit embarrassed that I had to rely on the computer to remind me of the changing season. Then again, unlike spring which teases and flirts for weeks before settling into place, fall has a way of sneaking up and surprising me – in the sudden smell of crisp leaves and crackling fires in the air, and in the way the high holidays suddenly appear on the calendar even though I already knew they were coming.
Sometimes this suddenness feels unsettling – as if I am Philippe Petit tiptoeing across a tight rope when suddenly the wind picks up. But because of this sudden energy, fall also has a way of sweeping me off my feet in a more metaphorical (and significantly more pleasant) way. There’s a certain rapture that rushes in, clearing the stagnant summer air and demanding that I pay attention and enjoy. I think I actually tend to feel most alive during the early weeks of fall. Knowing that winter is slowly lumbering near, I get all the more energized to actively soak up the last rays of warm sunshine, eat the last red tomatoes, and enjoy the last few days of sandal weather before I shroud my feet, once again, in socks and shoes.
I also feel a renewed urge to cook! And with a whole new palate of flavors to choose from at the farmers’ market, how can I resist? Below, find a recipe for Delicata Squash Soup with Apple Croutons – the perfect celebration of fall, and a lovely alternative to Rosh Hashanah chicken soup.
You won’t notice it on the supermarket shelves or the tables of Jewish America this autumn, but both apples and honey are embattled, and by the same mysterious foe. I’m talking Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and if you think that name sounds like it’s describing a symptom more than a disease, you’re right. CCD, like the similarly vague Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Restless Leg Syndrome in humans, are all named for their symptoms because we don’t know their cause. All we know is that bees are disappearing, abandoning their hives and scattering to the winds, not making honey, not pollinating the flowers and trees, and those minute defectors could cost us far out of proportion with their size.
Rosh Hashana is all about prayer for the New Year; we sing it, we say it, we blow it and of course we eat it. The apples and honey aren’t just seasonal and don’t just taste good, they embody our hopes and wishes for the New Year. The blessing recited over this tasty combo gives focuses our attention towards a sweet new year “May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors, that we be renewed for a good and sweet year.” This approach to eating is what I like to think of as culinary prayer, a form of you pray what you eat whereby imbibing sweet foods will help fill you body and soul with that same quality.
In my menu plan for Rosh Hashana there is a carrot salad with pomegranate seeds and pomegranate molasses, a honey nut cake (somewhat controversial but you have to read on to find out why), stuffed dates, pumpkin pastries and a bean salad. Not merely culinary fancy – though I’m hoping it will taste good – my menu is based on an ancient series of food omens that women have cooked through the ages. It’s true, long before your grandmother was making brisket, the rabbis of the Talmud were already making menu suggestions.
Rosh Hashanah is one week away. In case your entire meal isn’t already pre-cooked and waiting in your freezer (I know mine isn’t), here are some delicious, healthy holiday recipes to try. Instead of suggesting an entire menu as we have in the past, we offer you an array of holiday-inspired recipes for you to mix & match as you create your perfect feast.
Below, find some of the best seasonal and Rosh Hashanah recipes from The Jew & The Carrot’s archives, plus plenty of new recipes. To help you menu-plan with ease, all recipes are tagged:
The various ethical, environmental, and cultural issues surrounding honey have been considered and discussed here on The Jew and the Carrot, both in posts and comments. Leah has explored whether honey is “kosher” for vegans, and wondered if there’s “any ethics-based diet that *doesn’t* have a little bit of hypocrisy clouding up its ideals.” Michael Croland from HeebnVeganexplained that the issue does little to promote veganism, and pointed us in the direction of this Satya Mag article on the subject. Meanwhile, Rabbi Shmuel has suggested that we should critically re-examine the Rosh HaShanah custom of dipping apples in honey, and explore alternatives such as maple syrup, while Rabbi Debbie Prinz joined the conversation with a lip smacking guest post on how we can integrate chocolate into our Rosh HaShanah celebrations.
Rather than continue the debate on whether honey is vegan, eco-kashrut, or even just kosher (Leah notes that she has always “puzzled over how eating a food created by a decidedly non-kosher creature could be considered okay for the Tribe”), I’m offering a number of delicious, vegan, kosher, and organic ideas and recipes for a sweet new year.
For many of us, apples and honey are an integral part of a Rosh HaShana celebration. But finding the right ‘apples and honey’ for your table is not always as simple as it sounds. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to dress up the tradition: from beautiful and funky honey pots, to a variety of honey options that go beyond the bear.
When it comes to honey pots, you can go with something traditional and very jew-y:
Thanks to Aaron Kagan for this guest post. Aaron is a freelance writer in the Boston area and maintains the blog Tea and Food.
The apple might seem too obvious a choice for a Rosh Hashanah post, but how much do you really know about this omnipresent fruit? For starters, why do we eat it on Rosh Hashanah?
True, apples are eaten with honey to ensure a sweet year, but more importantly they are eaten for the simple reason that they are in season this time of year in places that Jews have historically lived. Why we ate it growing up in Boca Raton is partly for tradition and partly because of the strange, industrialized relationship we have to seasonality. Thanks, California.
Another basic but commonly unknown fact about the apple is where it comes from. In other words, where did we Jews first encounter apples? Like people, all evidence points towards the apple making its first appearance in the Fertile Crescent, with the earliest evidence of cultivation occurring in what is now southern Russia. From there the fruit eventually spread in both directions, across Europe and Asia and ultimately to every continent besides Antarctica.
Thanks to Rabbi Debbie Prinz for this guest post. Rabbi Prinz is currently researching Jews’ historical and contemporary connections to the chocolate industry. Find more about her work at Jews on the Chocolate Trail.
A serious chocolate lover has to wonder why Judaism today has neither serious ritual celebrations nor customs using good chocolate, especially at Rosh Hashanah when we emphasize the sweetness we anticipate and long for in the coming New Year. On Rosh Hashanah, we greet each other with the phrase, Shanah Tovah u’Metukah! “a good and sweet year.” We taste this sweetness through the apples and honey we eat, through the raisins we add to the customary round challah, through the honey cake we bake, or through the taiglach (small donuts) we drown in honey. But, where’s the chocolate?
After all, chocolate induces a spiritual state that might open us to the meditative, contemplative and introspective mood we seek at the High Holydays. As the manager of a fancy French chocolate store in Manhattan confessed to me, she has a metaphysical response to eating an intense 99% cocoa French chocolate just before she studies from the mystical text known as the Zohar.
It’s that time again! Time to dust off the apple & honey plate, break out your favorite chicken or vegetable soup recipe, connect with friends and family, and take a moment (or as many moments as possible) to reflect on the past year, and look forward to the year to come.
As you prepare, The Jew & The Carrot is here to help you infuse this year’s Rosh Hashanah celebration with sustainable style. Our Healthy, Sustainable Rosh Hashanah Resources provides tips on how to:
Yesterday, I made two loaves of challah. It felt like a funny activity for a Sunday, I’ll admit. (I usually make challah in a flurried rush on Friday afternoon.) But I’d had a culinary brain flash the other day, that I felt compelled to try out:apple cider challah.
The idea was originally inspired by a beautiful loaf of apple honey challah my friend Ariela over at Baking and Books made last year. Lying in bed a few Sunday mornings ago, still heavy with dreams and sleep, I’d suddenly remembered that beautiful loaf of bread Ariela had made, which twisted the flavors of Rosh Hashanah into braided loaves. My thoughts then drifted to another favorite fall treat, apple cider – the one drink that manages to capture all of the sweet, spicy secrets of autumn.
Despite not being fully awake yet, my brain somehow managed to fuse these two thoughts together Sesame Street style: Cider………Challah Cider….Challah. Cider.Challah. Eureka! All of a sudden, I could hardly imagine a world without apple cider challah. (According to Google, only one other person has thought of it before.) So yesterday, I set about making my dream bread into a reality. It was such a treat to knead the loaves and let them rise on the counter without the pressure of the setting sun at my back. And as I bit into a warm slice, spread with a dollop of amber-colored apricot jam, I felt (almost) okay with the fact that fall is just around the corner.
Question to the Jewish text-perts out there: If you make challah that is not meant for Shabbat, do you still need to remove some of the dough as the Challah offering?
My kitchen is overflowing with apples. Yesterday, a bag full of sweet, crisp, big-as-my-head globes came home with my roommate from our CSA. They were promptly piled into a wicker basket on our kitchen table…atop the remaining apples from last week’s CSA.
Don’t get me wrong, I love apples – there’s nothing better than a Honey Crisp, Winesap, or Ginger Gold slathered with peanut butter or Nutella, baked into cobblers and glistening tarts, or raw when I’m running out the door. They’re simultaneously iconic (think Adam and Eve, keeping the doctor away, your elementary school teacher’s desk…) and humble-like weather-worn barns dotting the New England countryside.
But after the apple & honey (or maple syrup) overload of Rosh Hashanah, I’m ready to take a break – at least until it’s time to make apple sauce for latkes. Harvest season has other plans, however – post-Rosh Hashanah is exactly when things start to heat up in the New England apple world. So, instead of giving up on pile of apples that will continue to grow on my kitchen table for the next month, and find I decided to take my familiar apples into less familiar territory with a recipe for apple salsa. If you have other “unfamiliar” apple recipes, I’d love to hear them.
Bread, Community Agriculture, Cooking, Eco-Kashrut, Hazon, Holidays, Honey, Jewish Culture, Rosh Hashanah
The various ethical, environmental, and cultural issues surrounding honey have been considered and discussed here on The Jew and the Carrot, both in posts and comments. 
