Showing posts with label Rosh Hashannah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rosh Hashannah. Show all posts

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Kitchen Cleaning For A New Year

Rosh Hashanah is upon us and that means a new year, along with sweeping out the old. For other this transitional time, it means evaluating the summer foods and ingredients. Get rid of the old,  and prep the pantry and fridge for fall ingredients.

Summer is all about the barbecue sauce. If it's still warm where you are,keep on grilling. The stuff can last anywhere between six to twelve months, depending upon its' composition. However it can also be used instead of ketchup for burgers and fries.Yet it can be added in meat loaf ,meat  balls and hamburgers. It gives the meat a sweet tang and a spicy bite, which takes ground beef out of the ordinary .Another idea of what to do with barbecue sauce is adding it to shredded pork for pulled pork or leftover roast chicken  for a take on the first.This makes a great Saturday lunch, perfect with potato chips or a scoop of potato salad.Barbecue sauce also can be a key ingredient in homemade baked beans.If you bought jerk sauce for spicier outdoor fare, you can still use it  in a variety of dishes.Like barbecue sauce it has a shelf life of anywhere from six months to a year. Add to a chicken stew for some bite and excitement or even to tomato sauce to create a Caribbean version of arrabiata  sauce.

If you have a garden, then you know about end of the season overage.Luckily tomatoes can be  turned into sauce that can easily be stored in freezer.It can also be turned into salsa and even jam.What is great about tomato jam or jelly is that it also uses green tomatoes,This is perfect if you're cleaning out the garden and have a few stragglers.Summer's herbs, especially basil can still be used or ground into pesto.If you've made several containers of the sauce, remember that it can be added to tomato sauce and even mayo.Try a pesto flavored potato salad or hummus for a different take. Make an Italian BLT with pesto mayonnaise and subbing in pancetta for the bacon.Pesto also highlights seafood and fish, Consider serving mussels with the sauce or add it to a tuna and white bean pasta sauce. That sweet summer treat, ice cream, is probably sitting in the freezer.It has one of the shortest shelf life of any summer food - two to three months only.If eating it on a chilly day gives you the shivers ,consider serving it with a hot fudge or hot caramel sauce. Smuckers has some great toppings that can easily be warmed in the microwave. Another way to get rid of it, is adding a blob of it to hot coffee for a different take on a latte.Or put it between Nilla or chocolate wafers for mini ice cream sandwiches (for a bigger bite, use the monster cookies from your local bakery)

It's a new year and a new season. Get rid of the old summer ingredients and make way for the fall..There will be more room for what's ahead.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

A Mexican Flavored New Year

The Jewish New Year is  fast approaching .It begins this Monday with traditional foods celebrating the day, with recipes handed down from Eastern European ancestors. However the next generation adds their own spin, using the ingredients and flavors of their adopted country.

This was the subject of Priya Krishna's article about Mexican -Jewish cooking in today's New York Times Food section., She focused on Fany Gershon, the owner of La Newyorkina ,a sweet, shop, and Dough, a doughnut business. Her Mexican heritage shines through in her paleta's and doughnuts  ,redolent with Mexican cocoa, chipotle and cinnamon. It stands to reason that her family recipes also have these flavors as well.As Ms. Krishna points out Jewish and Mexican cuisine couldn't be further apart but as Ms. Gershon pointed out both are very tradition rooted , very proud and very family oriented.Of course the traditional Rosh Hashanah  platter includes apples and honey to insure a sweet new year., a round challah to symbolize the circle of life , pomegranates to signify abundance and fish heads for fresh starts at the head of the year.The Mexican influences is spice added to matzoh ball soup, apple cinnamon challah and a guajillo pepper gefilte fish.

However she still needed help, especially when she threw her first New Year's dinner in New York.Ms. Gershon had to enlist the help of the New York Times  food writer, Joan Nathan., She was excited to learn that Ms. Nathan's recipes and her grandmother's weren't all that different. Over the years the dishes were honed and polished. The first night will be spent with friends at home while the second night she'll cook a Rosh Hashannah meal at her  husband's ,Daniel Ortiz de Montellano at his restaurant , La Publica in the  Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. There will be homemade challah (which kind of is shaped like her cat Leonard.), rich with apples cooked in sugar and cinnamon.Her chicken broth for the matzoh ball soup will include garlic , cilantro and white onions. She uses white ones because they "taste" like Mexico to her. Extra chicken is added to the pot because the leftovers can be used to fill tacos and enchilada. Her store, La Newyorkina will be serving honey , chile infused ice cream instead of honey cake and rugelach that 's spiked with chipotle peppers.

Family recipes are gems to be passed down. Yet there are outside influences that creep in and make them better. It is true for Mexican-Jewish cooking, a marriage of ancient cuisines.