IN THE KITCHEN by Ann Harwood: A sampling of new holiday food recipes for the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur celebrations
The Jewish High Holy Days are almost upon us. Although I have my favorite Challah bread recipe embellished with honey and raisins, shaped into a ring to symbolize a full, sweet New Year I am always looking for new holiday foods.
I was chatting with a colleague, Fran Fox of Rocky Hill, about the approaching days, when she mentioned that she would be making her favorite holiday recipe a special honey cake made with ginger preserve.
Now I know Fran to be a serious and careful baker who is still studying to perfect her craft, so when she mentioned a terrific New Year honey cake, my ears perked up. "Well," I said, "would you be willing to share some of your holiday recipes for my newspaper column?" When she said yes, I made sure that she knew I was serious, as many bakers are not too eager to part with their signature dishes.
True to her word, Fran had several Rosh Hashanah recipes copied and tucked under my door in a jiffy. She is originally from Manchester, England, and came from an Orthodox Jewish family. Although she said she didn’t learn to cook until she was married and living in London, she has certainly learned well. And she loves to celebrate all the holidays with traditional foods.
For the first night of Rosh Hashanah her family will have a special dinner and serve apples and honey, again for a sweet and fruitful New Year. Her ginger preserve cakes will go to a festive Tashlich (a casting-away of the past year’s sins) gathering at the home of friends in Hillsborough.
The recipe for said cakes comes from Evelyn Rose, an expert on Jewish and kosher cookery, quite well known in the United Kingdom. She is cookery editor of The Jewish Chronicle, the U.K.’s national Jewish weekly newspaper. Fran Fox tells me that Ms. Rose’s books (mostly with a Jewish cookery bent) are available through Amazon.com and occasionally at Jewish book fairs here in the States.
The other two recipes Fran suggested are from one of my favorite books, "The World of Jewish Food," by respected food writer Claudia Rodin. Ms. Rodin tells us that Moroccan Jews traditionally served the golden split pea and pumpkin soup on the first night of Rosh Hashanah. She describes the Roman nut and raisin pastries as "meltingly soft," and "a very old specialty of Rome, where they are made for all the holidays and especially for Rosh Hashanah."
I thank Fran Fox for pointing me in the direction of some new holiday foods that I will be able to share at New Year festivities with friends on the first day of the holiday and for giving her ginger honey cake recipe to us all.
POTAKHE DE POTIRON (YELLOW SPLIT PEA AND PUMPKIN SOUP)
from Claudia Rodin’s "The Book of Jewish Food"
1¼ cups yellow split peas
1 large onion, chopped
2¼ quarts chicken stock or reduced-sodium canned chicken broth
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 tablespoons sunflower or other neutral-flavored vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or less to taste)
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon saffron
1 pound orange pumpkin (or butternut squash), cubed
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leafed parsley
1. Put yellow split peas and onion into large pot with stock. Bring to boil and simmer for ½ hour, or until peas are tender. Add salt* and pepper to taste, oil, cinnamon, ginger and saffron. Then add pumpkin.
2. Simmer until pumpkin falls apart.
3. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
*If you are using even reduced-sodium canned broth, wait to salt soup until end of cooking.
Note: This easily can be made into a vegetarian soup by using vegetable stock.
LEKACH FOR TODAY (HONEY CAKE)
from Evelyn Rose’s "The New Jewish Cuisine"
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup honey
½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup ginger preserve*
¾ cup hot water mixed with ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1. Plan to bake the cake a day ahead so that flavors have time to blend.
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 9x5x3 loaf pan and line bottom and both ends with one long strip waxed paper or baking parchment.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and spices into bowl. Put honey into larger bowl along with oil, sugar, egg, preserve, and half the flour mixture. Stir until smooth, then add remaining flour mixture and hot water mixed with baking soda, stirring until batter is thoroughly blended. It will be thin.
4. Pour carefully into prepared loaf pan and bake 1½ to 1¾ hours, or until top is springy to gentle touch and skewer comes out clean from the center. Place on wire rack to cool. Wrap in foil until ready to serve.
*Available in many fine supermarkets and gourmet stores, such as Bon Appetit in The Princeton Shopping Center. If you cannot find it, finely chop preserved ginger in syrup to make 1/3 cup.
PIZZA DOLCE ROMANA (NUT AND RAISIN PASTRIES)
from Claudia Rodin’s "The Book of Jewish Food"
3-1/3 cups flour
½ cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
5 to 8 tablespoons white wine, preferably sweet
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup slivered or coarsely chopped almonds
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped candied citrus peel
Confectioners’ sugar to sprinkle on
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets or use baking parchment or nonstick cookie sheets.
2. In large bowl, mix flour and sugar and work into soft dough with butter. (You may use food processor at this stage, then turn into a bowl.) Add just enough wine a tablespoon at a time to make dough hold together.
3. Work in nuts, raisins and citrus peel. Shape into little round cakes, about 2½ inches in diameter, pressing mixture firmly between your palms. Place at least 1 inch apart on cookie sheets and bake 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Pastries will still be soft and barely colored, but they firm up when they cool. Do not try to remove them from cookie sheets until they are firm. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

