[Photograph: Robyn Lee] I'm going to 'fess up here. I don't fast the way you're supposed to on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of repentance that begins on Sunday night. Not that I don't have plenty to repent for—it's just that I've decided to repent while eating. But even though I don't fast I still look forward to a traditional (or even untraditional) Break Fast meal. On Monday night we were invited to break the fast with some good friends of ours who live in our apartment building. They'll have a fantastic platter of smoked fish, bagels, and cream cheese, which is the traditional break fast meal in my experience. But to kick it up a notch, Jewish-style, we're...
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[Photograph: Arthur Schwartz] I don't know how, why, or when Jews started making brisket for holiday meals, but it's one ritualized aspect of the Jewish culinary tradition I wholeheartedly embrace. My friend Arthur Schwartz has written many, many wonderful cookbooks, including Jewish Home Cooking. Arthur set out in a wonderfully obsessive way to come up with the definitive, most seriously delicious potted brisket recipe. He experimented with cooking first cut and whole briskets, using liquid and not using liquid, and here's what he eventually came up with. Over on his website Food Maven, he shares all of the great and gory brisket experiment details. And what better way to top off a belly full of beef than with two...
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Apples and honey for a sweet new year. [Flickr: ForestForTrees] When we wanted to find some seriously delicious recipes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, I immediately reached out to Joan Nathan, the queen (not named Esther) of Jewish cooking in this country. My wife and I have repeatedly cooked for both of our families from three of Joan's cookbooks: Jewish Cooking in America, Jewish Holiday Cookbook, and The New American Cooking. The finished dishes never fail to elicit oohs and ahhs, even from my brothers, who are certainly among the world's toughest lay food critics. Pay particular attention to Jim Cohen's Sephardic Brisket It will convince you that dried apricots and prunes are perfect complements to beef...
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As most serious eaters know, holidays are full of temptation for those of us trying to lose weight. I went to two Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) dinners this week, and they could have been my undoing. But in both cases, I had a plan going in that just might have worked. I tried to fill myself up with freshly picked farmers' market apples and bananas (from farms far away from New York) before I arrived at the dinners, and I think I might have succeeded. In a week that could have been disastrous weight-wise, the apples and bananas could have saved me. Something else might have helped as well, namely, since it was forgotten. Let me explain....
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