Days of Awe...at my food.

September 6, 2015 12:41 PM

I would like to make an amazing Rosh Hashanah dinner. What should I make?

I would like to make a very impressive New Year's meal for my friends and family. However, finding non-boring Jewish holiday recipes can be something of a challenge. What are your favorite Rosh Hashanah recipes? I am a pretty high-level cook, so I'm all for interesting and complicated, but also your grandma's super secret best kugel.

I'm looking more for savory than sweet, as dessert is pretty well covered, but if you have an amazing dessert I absolutely must know about, please do share it.

Early l'shanah tovah, mefites!

posted by ariadne's threadspinner to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

Best answer: This is an amazing pomegranate chicken (or seitan) recipe. The sauce is incredible!
posted by eleanna at 1:09 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If your family is ashkenazi my suggestion is to look at sephardic recipes as something new and exciting in the savoury foods area.

my favourite passover dessert is apple cider sour cream bundt cake, the linked recipe is close enough to something I would make but I tend to just kind of wing it. Also I would use 1.5 cups of sour cream instead of just 1.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:15 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

slightly oddball suggestion but my family makes the ashkenazi haroset in joan nathan's book on occasion. it is traditionally served at passover but it is such a delicious fruit salad that we serve it again at rosh hashanna - which is, after all, a holiday with apples.

6 peeled apples, coarsely chopped
2/3 c chopped almonds
3 tbsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
grated rind of 1 lemon
4 tbsp sweet red wine

put everything in a bowl. mix it. there are those who chop it further, but we leave it like this.
posted by sciencegeek at 1:26 PM on September 6, 2015 [4 favorites]

I know you said you have your dessert pretty well covered, but Smitten Kitchen's Honey Cake is fantastic.
posted by damayanti at 4:04 PM on September 6, 2015

Shiz you not, the best brisket is Coca-Cola brisket. Use the Cooks Illustrated recipe. It is unbelievable.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:54 PM on September 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another, less traditional but thematically appropriate dish is fesenjan and it is so delicious. Pomegranates are on point for the holiday.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:56 PM on September 6, 2015

This tomato - pomegranate salad is the best salad.
posted by Mchelly at 6:34 PM on September 6, 2015

A lot of traditional Ashkenazi food for Rosh Hashanah is deliberately sweet, for symbolic reasons.

Carrot tzimmes is doubly symbolic: the Yiddish word for "carrot" is "mehren", which sounds like "increase [wealth, prosperity, etc.]", and the Hebrew word is "gezer" which sounds like the word for "decree". The Rosh Hashanah prayers say that "repentence, prayer and charity remove the evil decree"; by eating diced carrots you're symbolically destroying one.

I really like carrots when they're caramelised. This recipe looks OK, but I would cook them in a casserole dish on a low flame until they're lightly browned. So good.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:32 AM on September 7, 2015

This Brisket with Portobello Mushrooms and Dried Cranberries is awesome.
posted by cecic at 6:43 AM on September 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

You may well already be familiar but I just wanted to pass along a link to SE's roundup of Rosh Hashanah mains for inspiration. I haven't made a single one personally but they're usually quite reliable.
posted by ftm at 8:34 AM on September 8, 2015

My cousins request this for all holidays. I think we've had it on Thanksgiving. Forgive me for more Joan Nathan, but y'know, it works.

Moroccan Carrot Salad.

we tend to add a bit more garlic and I like to toast the cumin a bit to release more cuminy goodness. I put in about a half tbsp ground cumin, then roast the other half tbsp (approx) and then grind it up in a mortar and pestle.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:44 PM on September 8, 2015