Many a Friday I have a certain kind of Shabbat dinner in mind, the one with the dazzling menu hatched in an overly optimistic imagination, its many courses cycling through my head like some sort of culinary flipbook.
But then the errands, the housecleaning, the deadlines, the unexpected phone conversations, the doctor’s appointment, the business trip—in short, life—get in the way. Since friends have been invited, there’s no turning back, but a plan forward seems out of reach.
That is, until I roast a chicken.
It’s not just because at this point I’ve committed the recipe to memory, or that people ask for it more than anything else I make, or that it’s been the centerpiece of Jewish Friday night dinners for centuries. In my case, I make it because it’s dead simple and because once in the oven the plan for a meal seems to magically arise, ushering in the kind of Friday night I had envisioned from the get-go.
I can prepare the chicken in 15 minutes or less, slide it into the oven, then use the roasting time as a countdown for preparing the rest of the meal. How much can I get done in the 90 minutes it takes for the chicken to turn a deep golden shade and perfume my kitchen with the aromas of garlic, lemon and herbs? A lot, it turns out. A salad, a side, a fruit salad—dinner is served.
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With
holiday season here, we find ourselves yet again in the kitchen
preparing daily feasts for our families and friends. Whether we are
cooking traditional foods or new recipes, we sometimes get lost in the
idea that the more complicated the recipe, the tastier and more
impressive it is. In my own cooking, I find that it’s usually the
simpler recipes using fresh and seasonal produce are the most delicious
and healthier to boot. Let’s put the healthy back into the new year and
cook fresh, seasonal foods and this butternut squash gnocchi is
healthful and delicious.
Sukkot
and Simchat Torah in South Africa falls at a beautiful time of the
year. A time when, blossoms appear on trees, days get longer and warmer
and whales can be seen in the waters off our coastline.
Yom
Kippur is a fasting holiday and Jewish law prohibits any work until the
end of the day, which makes for a rather unique culinary challenge:
What can a hungry person do when cooking isn't allowed? In America, it's
customary to break the fast with a comforting, easy-on-the-stomach meal
featuring dishes that can be prepared ahead and either reheated or
eaten at room temperature. While there are no rules about what can and
cannot be consumed, it's common to serve dairy-focused dishes—rather
than meat-based ones—because many people find them easier for empty
bellies to digest. A typical spread includes bagels with smoked fish and
cream cheese, baked casserole-style dishes like strata and kugel,
blintzes, and assorted cookies and cakes. We recommend preparing a few
different options, and we've gathered tons of classic and creative
recipes to help you plan the ultimate post-fast feast. So, browse our
picks for bagel toppings, egg dishes, kugel, blintzes, and sweet treats.
And don't forget the bagels!
Have
a sweet and prosperous new year with our collection of recipes for Rosh
Hashanah. You'll find traditional Jewish holiday favorites including
honey cake, brisket, roast chicken, matzo ball soup, tzimmes, sweet
roasted carrots, and noodle kugel.
This
succulent beef brisket is braised in red wine until tender; the meat is
generously flavored with shallots and garlic to produce a savory sauce.
This easy recipe serves 6, just the right amount for a small- to
medium-size holiday dinner.
Traditional
High Holy Days dishes such as brisket, tzimmes, and kugel may
rightfully have their place at the Rosh Hashanah table, but if you're
adventurous and looking to serve something different, what better time
to do so than at a celebration of the start of a new year? We turned to
London chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi for Rosh Hashanah
inspiration, with a menu featuring recipes from all three of his
cookbooks, Ottolenghi, Plenty, and Jerusalem. Ottolenghi's refreshing
and unpretentious approach to Middle Eastern cuisine suggests new ways
of cooking symbolic and traditional foods and ingredients: You'll find
honey, apples, fish, and pomegranates all in play. Add a myriad of
spices, herbs, and other Middle Eastern staples—couscous, harissa,
eggplant, dried rose petals—and what you get is an intensely aromatic
and flavorful meal with which to begin your new year.
Like
many Ashkenazic Jews, I grew up believing that my mother made the best
brisket in the world. Fragrant, savory, and unbelievably tender, it was
the stuff of holidays, of memories--of sneaking back to the fridge at
midnight, long after the guests had gone home. When I decided to become a
vegetarian at age 17, I did so with the acute and sorrowful
understanding that I was saying goodbye to one of my favorite dishes.
The
classic Italian Jewish Friday night rice dish is a simple
saffron--flavored rice that recalls the classic risotto alla milanese.
Some cooks make it in the manner of a risotto, adding broth in
increments. Others prepare it as a pilaf, adding all the liquid at once
and cooking it, covered, on top of the stove.
For
almost three thousand years there has been a Jewish presence in the
region of the world now associated with Turkey. At one time the Ottoman
Empire encompassed lands from the Persian Guld in the east to Hungary,
Bulgaria, and Greece in the northwest, and from Egypt and palestine in
the south to the Caucasus mountains in the north, with Istanbul
designated its capital. I first tasted this wonderful combination of
flavors on the island of Santorini in the Adriatic Sea. As bright as the
iconic sun-drenched, white stucco walls and blue domed rooftops are on
this island, this dish is vibrant with color and flavor to match its
surroundings. Enjoy this dish any time of year but especially when
watermelon is at its sweetest!
In
the midst of the dog days of summer, slaving away in a hot
kitchen—roasting or baking meats and preparing other rich dishes—just
doesn’t appeal to the home chef. For vegetable and general summer
cooking inspiration, who better to turn to than Yotam Ottolenghi and
Sami Tamimi, the famed London duo behind the burgeoning Ottolenghi
restaurant empire in England’s capital and the authors of several
cookbooks, including Jerusalem and the upcoming Plenty More (due out in
October; both books published by Ten Speed).
Prep Time : 15 min
You
will go to picnics and barbecues this summer, and there will be that
person who brings the laziest contribution this side of a bag of
Doritos: the store-bought tub of hummus. Maybe a sack of wet baby
carrots to go with.
I
am a southerner. My husband is an Isreali. On the outset, many people
think it is a strange pairing, but in fact, our backgrounds share much
in common. We are both from communities made up of tenacious people of
faith whose circumstances inspire ingenuity and who are intensely tied
to the land.
2 Tbsp olive oil
“I’ll
have what she’s having.” Those five words, uttered during the infamous
orgasm-at-Katz’s-Deli scene in When Harry Met Sally, are arguably among
the most legendary to emerge from 1980s cinema. But my favorite line in
the movie comes from a different scene, when Harry (Billy Crystal), on a
stroll through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, coaxes Sally (Meg Ryan)
to repeat after him in a goofy, zayde-inflected accent: “Waiter, there
is too much pepper on my paprikash.” The line itself means very little,
spoken mostly as a means to a flirtatious end. But there is something so
utterly charming about Crystal’s impish delivery—something so
irresistibly New York, and undeniably Jewish—that I fall for Harry’s
shtick every time.