A Rosh Hashana Dish's Journey

 All holiday recipes have stories.It;s no different with a Rosh Hashana dish that went from Spanish Morocco to Switzerland to Martha;s Vineyard.it represents a variety of heritages that have significantly contributed to thmelange of vegetables and spices.

Regular contributor and family cook book author  Joan Nathan wrote about this historic dish in yesterday's New York Times Food section. The recipe is legumbres para rosana and it  was Marina Pinto Kaufman's family recipe that goes back hundred of years to Spain.Her family lived for centuries  in Tetouan in what was then Spanish Moroccom after escaping the Spanish Inquisition that started in 1478. In Morocco recipes were a very important to the status of the cook and her family. Ms Pinto Kaufman herself was born in Casablanca in 1940 and later moved to Tangier as a child and then Geneva shortly after Tangier lost its' international zone status in 1956. She worked for the UN , coming to the US ,first in 1960 and then 1966, She met her husband Srephen. She started cooking when they married, devouring Jewish cookbooks, even finding a picture of her grandmother Myriam Abensur in Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food.Paula Wolfert was another influence in her life.

The dish itself abides to the traditions f the Talmud."every man should make a habit on New Year's of  eating pumpkin, fenugreek, leek, beet and dates"it states. The harvest foods are served raw or cooked and vary by country. Ms. Pinto Kaufman is a secular Jew continues the custom only with her cooking, tampering with it slightly to make it easier for the home chef.It;s a vibrant,colorful dish with bright orange sweet potatoes and yellow squash.There are also caramelized onions, zucchini, raisins, chickpeas and carrots.it's a distant cousin of the Ashkenazi, or Eastern European tsimmes which is also made with carrots and  sweet potatoes.The best part of the recipe is that can be made a day or two in advance and reheated for the main meal.it can be the perfect side to roast chicken, a brisket or Ms. Pinto Kaufmans' cumin flavored meatballs with peas.It definitely has a Moroccan vibe thanks to the addition of cardamon , ground cinnamon, coriander and sliced almonds.The dish is a bit labor intensive with the veggies being first boiled then roasted.Spices are added later.

Legumbres para rosana brings together religion, history and culture in one dish.It is bright and colorful. Make this dish for a New Year's feast.

CHicken Tenders An American Classic Explained

 CHicken tenders are ubiquitous in the American diet. They are everywhere from , dine in move theaters to school cafeterias. Yet how did they become into being and what makes them so popular? How did this simple chicken dish become a national treasure.

Regular contributor and Food section superstar Pete Wells wrote about this tasty treat in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. It is their  fiftieth anniversary and according to legend they were created in Manchester, New Hampshire in the Southern part of the state.There probably were dishes that featured this part of the chicken breast but it was a Greek family living in Manchester that turned it into a delicious dinner and snack.The children of one of the owners of PUritan Candy store Arthur Pappas (the either was co owner LOuis Canotas) took this little used part and turned it into something indescribable.It'ss basically the tenderloin of the chicken which came loose when the breast was being sliced .It wasn't;t a muscle used by the bird like the wing or the thigh, hence the tenderness.Charlie Pappas saw that this piece was often separating from the rest of the cut and that struck him with an idea. The rest is history.It was not what a typical Greek restaurant would serve.It was siaked in a kind of duck sauce and then coked. It soon became a popular item on the Puritan menu.

It caught on. Burger King was one of the first restaurants to serve it in the 1980's/ It needed a good Chick'n snack to compete with McDOnald's chicken nuggets and hit upon the chicken tender. It was so popular that the fast food chain had to pull ads across the country when restaurants fan out of it. Other places also cashews din on its' popularity, Soon chicken tenders were at birthday parties, weddings and eve bar mitzphas. that the Puritian hosted. The restaurant stills sells them with super Sized buckets containing a whopping 150 pieces.On a typical week Arthur Papps fries up four tons (!) of them, on a super busy week he fries up five tons. It's funny how the strips became so popular. Without breading and sauces , they meat has little flavor..This is sio mild that it won;t offend anyone which may be a reason for its popularity. Yet there are now variations of it , from coconut crusted tenders to it being dredged in Ritz cracker crumbs and even Capt'n Crunch before frying.One brew pub offers them with different sauces like Western apricot and Korean barbecue.

No matter how you have them, chicken tenders are good. THey're here to stay.These strips of white meat are as classic as apple pie and roast turkey on the American table.