A Rosh Hashanah Meal Made with Traditional Jewish Foods for a Blended American Family

Our second son was married four years and our lives became forever changed by his decision to marry someone outside our Christian faith. He married a beautiful young woman from Israel who had been born in Argentina to Jewish parents. Her family immigrated to Israel when she was a young girl and she came to the United State to teach and study in 2002.

This marriage has opened up our entire family to a different culture and religious faith. We have begun to learn about what it means to not only be Jewish but an Hispanic Jew in a world that has often persecuted both. She has taught us about immigration issues and how the world views America, both good and bad.

Besides the serious aspects of welcoming our new daughter, we have had the joy and fun of learning so many new traditions and blending all of our diverse traditions into a family heritage isn't always easy. One example is the month of September. For our family previously, September was about the last glory of summer. We went camping, hiking, spent lots of time outdoors. We harvested our gardens and canned and worked to get ready for winter's push into Indiana.

But for our daughter in law, September was filled with high holy days that had to be observed in specific ways and patterns. The Jewish High Holy Days begins with Rosh Hashanah and continues through the next 10 days to Yom Kippur. These two holidays are comparable to our Christmas and New Year and are considered to be the most important religious Jewish Holidays. Unlike Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not linked to a natural or historical event. It is a purely religious celebration in which a Jewish person is to spend time fasting, praying, reading scripture and sharing traditional faith observances

But then like our Christian holidays, celebrating with family gatherings, special meals and special food are a significant and fun part of the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Slowly as a family we have attempted to honor our daughter in laws special Holy Days by becoming a part of them, by acknowledging and understanding the significance to her and our granddaughters who are being raised Jewish. And one of the easiest things we can do is to share in the joyful celebration of Rosh Hashanah as the start of the Jewish High Holy Days of Setember, their New Year time.

Rosh Hashanah

This year Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 18^th, 2009 with a focus on genuine repentance by an individual. No work is permitted to be done during Rosh Hashanah, so any special foods served at the meal must be prepared ahead of time.

"May you be inscribed in the Book of Life" is the common greeting heard during this High Holy time as the Jewish people believe that during this 10 day time of repentance, God hears and records our sins and forgives us for them. He then inscribes our names in the Book of Life. Each year, Jews come to the synagogue to repent and be continually renewed in their faith. On Yom Kippur, the Book is closed and sealed and those Jews who have fully repented are blessed with a Happy New Year.

A visit to the synagogue to hear the traditional sounding of the Shofar might begin the High Holy Days and then returning home after synagogue to share the Rosh Hashanah evening meal.

Evening Rosh Hashanah Meal

Simple foods that have been prepared ahead are served to the celebrants. Having special candleholder with candlelight adds a lovely spiritual feel to the evening meal. Challah bread that was baked early in the day and fresh apple slices with bowls of honey are a traditional Jewish beginning to the meal. These sweets signify the prayer for a sweet New Year to come.

The Jewish food tradition draws foods and recipes from many different cultures; Russian, Middle Eastern, Spanish and German are just a few countries were Jewish people settled and flourished. Many of the family meals of Rosh Hashanah will reflect that cultural heritage.

If you spend some time learning a bit about the traditions of Rosh Hashanah you too can create your own unique Rosh Hashanah family dinner that can be prepared earlier in the day but that uses traditional elements of Rosh Hashanah.

Main Dish for Rosh Hashanah Meal

The Jewish tradition of having fish for Rosh Hashanah is based on the belief that eating a fish head will increase fertility for the coming year. This has been adapted through the centuries to eating fish.

Rosh Hashanah Grilled Fish Club Sandwiches

Ingredients: 2 lbs. of salmon fillets and halibut fillets. Marinate the fish fillets for about 2 hours in a marinade of 4 T. olive oil, about 4 T. lime juice, some herbs of choice. I like basil, coriander, oregano, dried red pepper and some cumin; about ¼ to ½ t. of each.

Grill the fish over hot coals, searing well on both sides and then remove from the grill and refrigerate till cool. Slice and gently shred grilled fish into two separate bowls, one for the halibut and one for the salmon.

Prepare the following club sandwich ingredients

Mix 8 oz. of cream cheese with about ½ c. mayonnaise, and 2 T. finely minced green onions or scallions.

Slice a green pepper into thin strips and slice fresh garden tomatoes into thin slices.

Slice red onion into thin slices and arrange the green pepper, the tomatoes, the red onion around the cream cheese mixture on a platter. Place a small dish of capers and perhaps some marinated artichokes.

Slice Challah bread that was either prepared ahead of time or purchased at the bakery in ½ inch slices. I slice it ahead of time and let it sit out to "dry" a bit before assembling sandwiches. You can also toast it in the oven.

Assemble sandwiches by spreading slice of Challah bread with the cream cheese mayo dressing, layer cold salmon and halibut fish, top with the garden ingredients of pepper, onion and tomato and sprinkle some capers over all. Top with another slice of bread. Enjoy!!

If chicken is a preference instead of fish. You can grill chicken and use it in the club sandwiches above, perhaps adding a nice honey barbecue glaze to the chicken before you grill it.

Phyllis Glazer has a wonderful recipe for Honey Chicken, in her cookbook, The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking by Phyllis Glazer. Mrs. Glazer's book is almost certainly an essential to someone attempting to embrace Jewish foods for those special holy days.

My son jokes at times that he can't keep up with Jewish holidays, there's a holiday for everything! The Jewish people believe in commemorating and they certainly have some wonderful holiday traditions. This Honey Chicken again focuses on the idea of a sweet New Year and the Jewish love of honey from their hallowed land of milk and honey.

Cold Relish Tray for Rosh Hashanah

Prepare a cold relish tray that was prepared early in the day before sundown with lots of sweet red pepper strips and carrot sticks. Again the sweet vegetables to add sweetness to the coming New Year. Jews from the middle east commonly eat root vegetables for Rosh Hashanah.

Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Apple slices with honey are a traditional Rosh Hashanah food, as well as root vegetables. So I combined these two in my own version of Stuffed Acorn Squash.

Ingredients:

Acorn Squash, cut in half, washed and cleaned, rub with olive oil and lightly salt and pepper, place face down on a baking sheet and roast in the oven till fork tender.

While squash is roasting, prepare the stuffing,

Stuffing ingredients:

2 apples, unpeeled and diced. I like Braeburn or McIntosh,

3 T. minced onion and 3 T. diced celery

3 T. raisins and 3 T. walnuts or pecans.

Preparation:

Mix the ingredients together and combine with about 3 T. butter, melted, about ½ t. cinnamon, dash of dried red pepper (just a dash!), and ¼ t. cloves. Put stuffing in small baking dish and cover. Bake alongside the squash until squash is tender.

Remove squash and stuffing from oven. Stuff the squash with the stuffing and place back in oven right side up to finish baking. I sometimes brush additional butter over the top before reinserting it back in the oven.

Rosh Hashanah Dessert

For dessert that evening, more fresh apple slices dipped in honey. If you haven't tried this simple delicious treat, the kids will love it. But if you want more sweetness, a traditional Jewish Apple Kuegel , Honey Shofar Cookies or Honey Cake will finish the meal off sweetly! There are recipes for these in the resource section below.

I created an apple honey cake, based on a traditional apple cake our family always made each fall and I substituted honey for part of the sugar to increase it's "sweetness and Jewish" focus!

Indiana Jewish Amish German Apple Honey Cake (it's called a multicultural cake!)

Ingredients:

1 c. of butter (2 sticks), ¾ c. packed brown sugar, ¾ c. honey, 3 large eggs, 1 t. vanilla, 3 and ½ c. flour, 2 t. baking powder, 1 t. soda,1/2 t. salt, 1 t. cinnamon, ½ t. nutmeg, ½ t. allspice, 2 c. of Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped in ½ inch pieces, ½ c. chopped walnuts or pecans and you can add ½ c. raisins if you like them.

Directions:

Step one: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9 by 13 cake pan or 10 inch bundt or tube pan. In large mixing bowl beat butter till creamy and add in eggs, beating well after each one. Beat in honey and vanilla. In smaller bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and all spices.

Step two: Add dry ingredients to butter sugar mixture. Mix in apples, nuts and raisins. Mixture will be thick.

Step three: Spread batter in prepared baking pans and bake for about 1 hour until wooden toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool and then remove from pan and place on serving dish.

Step four: You can enrich the cake even further at this time by melting ¼ c. of butter with ¼ c. of honey and pouring it over hot cake as a glaze. Sprinkle chopped nuts if you like on top.

Apple cakes are a part of many food traditions and a wonderful fall recipe for any holiday!!

The web is full of great Rosh Hashanah recipes and sites. Check some of them out today for planning your own fun Rosh Hashanah celebration. Many families have developed their own favorite food traditions through many years. For our blended Jewish Israeli, Argentinian, Irish, German, and Hoosier mix, our Rosh Hashanah foods are reflecting all of those.. We're truly a melting pot of many cultures here in America.

Rosh Hashanah Online Recipe Resources:

Challah Bread Recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Famous-Challah-90765

Grilled Halibut: http://bbq.about.com/od/fishseafoodrecipes/r/bln40308.htm

Jewish Layered Apple Cake is amazing!!! http://recipes.holidays.net/view_recipe.php?id=482

Honey Shofar Cookies http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/roshhashanah/recipes/shofarcookies.html

Stuffed Acorn Squash http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1926,148182-225207,00.html

Rosh Hashanah Resources Online

The Shofar http://www.thejackonline.org/culture/celebrate-the-good-year-with-rosh-hashanah-the-jewish-new-year-1.1878658

Kid's Activities for Rosh Hashanah http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/roshhashana/roshhashannah.php