Or everything you need in order to prepare a full festive feast in three hours or less (including, but not limited to, a menu and a shopping list.)
You’ve got your Rosh Hashanah services tickets. And Kol Nidre too. You plan to do Tashlich with your friends at the Hudson. You will fast on Yom Kippur, and you’re invited to not one but three break-the-fast bagel and lox meals. All in all, you’re a good Jew.
What about Rosh Hashanah dinner? Our own New Year’s Eve? You may have been too distracted to even think about it, too busy to prepare anything, but now it’s fast approaching and suddenly you miss your grandmother’s chicken soup with her handmade fluffy matzo balls and the aroma it filled the house with. And freshly baked challah. And chopped liver. And kugel. And the fish swimming it her bathtub until she kills it to make her gefilte fish. Honestly, you tear up thinking about those grey, jellied jarred gefilte fish.
This could never have happened if you lived in Israel, where the “where are you for the holidays?” question pops up in every conversation, even with the cashier at the supermarket (what a silly question! You did the Passover Seder at your parents, hence you’ll spend Rosh Hashanah at your in-laws. There’s a very clear system).
Still want to have a fancy Rosh Hashanah dinner or lunch, but have only a few hours? Haaretz is here to help and guide you hand in hand through three hours of shopping and cooking a full Ashkenazi feast worthy of your grandmother.
First, the menu. (Recipes are at the bottom of the page)
Pomegranate margaritas
Challah
Apple and honey
Gefilte fish with chrein
Matzo ball soup
Chicken in red wine and orange
Roasted baby potato in rosemary and garlic
Herb salad with pomegranate and pecans
Vanilla ice cream (vegan, if you’re keeping kosher) with apple and honey topping
Now, reality check.
You have two hours. You’re not going to bake your own challah.
It’s Rosh Hashanah and every supermarket has those, plus many bakeries make them especially for the holiday.
We will make some dishes ourselves and use some store-bought items and many tricks of the trade to quicken things up, while not compromising on taste.
Now let’s go shopping.
Shopping list for 6 people:
From the liquor store:
1 bottle red wine
Tequila
From the bakery:
1 challah
Produce:
6 Granny Smith apples
1 lemon
4 limes
1 beet
Horseradish root (about 4 oz.)
3 lb. baby or fingerling potato
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
2 yellow onions
2 parsnip roots
1 zucchini
1 bag (5 oz.) baby kale mix, or your favorite salad greens
1 bunch flat parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch mint
1 bunch green onion
Rosemary
1 garlic head
½ cup pomegranate seeds (or a whole pomegranate)
From the fridge:
32 oz. Pomegranate juice
8 oz. orange juice
7 eggs
From the dry pantry isle:
12 oz. honey
4 oz. candied pecans
4 oz. walnuts
6 dates
Vegetable oil
Olive oil
White vinegar
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
1 quart chicken broth
Kosher salt and Black pepper
Dry bay leaves
Cinnamon
From the Jewish section:
1 jar gefilte fish
1 box matzo meal
From the meat department:
3 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs and/or breast
6 pieces chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on)
6 pieces chicken drumsticks
From the freezer:
Vanilla ice cream (or vegan coconut-base vanilla ice cream)
Back from shopping and one hour has passed. Two more to go.
The full cooking routine is here before you.
You can find the full recipes below.
The cooking:
- Turn oven to 450 degrees. Grease a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Now make the chicken soup according to directions below.
- Next, liberally salt and pepper bone-in skin-on chicken on all sides. Arrange in one layer on the greased baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.
- Make matzo balls according to recipe and put in fridge. Boil salted water in a large pot to cook matzo balls in.
- Now make the chicken in red wine. Follow instructions 3 and 4 in the recipe below.
- Next prepare baby potato in garlic and rosemary according to recipe and roast in 400 degrees oven for about 40 minutes.
- You can now cook matzo balls in the salted water you’ve prepared earlier for 20 minutes. Remove them from water when they’re ready and keep in a covered dish until ready to serve.
- Shake the potato pan and continue to roast until 40 minutes are over.
- After an hour of cooking the soup, add salt to taste, cook for another 5 minutes and remove from heat. Discard chicken, or keep for another dish.
- Make the apple and honey ice cream topping according to recipe and set aside.
- Make the chrein for gefilte fish and keep in a tight covered container until ready to serve.
- After an hour of cooking the chicken in wine, remove lid and continue to cook for another 30 minutes until sauce is thick and glossy. Add salt to taste.
- Make herb salad and the dressing. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.
- Slice gefilte fish to small portions, arrange on a serving platter.
- Now for the fun part, set the dinner table, have a fork, knife, tablespoon and teaspoon for each guest. Set a kiddush cup (or a glass of wine), Shabbat candles and the challah. Slice 2 apples, mix them with a few drops of lemon juice to prevent browning and put on the table in a small bowl. Have a small bowl of honey next to it.
- Have soup bowls and dessert cups ready in the kitchen. Have serving dishes and utensils ready for chicken, potato and salad.
- Now quickly make margaritas and serve the first one for yourself. You’ve earned it big time.
During the meal:
- Serve pomegranate margaritas as guests arrive. Reheat any dishes that need reheating and keep at low temperature until serving.
- At the table, if you want, start with blessings over candles, wine, challah, apples and honey “May the new year be as sweet as honey.”
- Eat gefilte fish with chrein while reciting “May we be the head and not the tail.”
- Serve matzo balls in chicken soup.
- Mix green salad with dressing, pecans, dates and pomegranate and serve next to chicken and potato to the center of the table. You can now recite “May we be filled with mitzvahs as the pomegranate is filled with seeds.”
- Serve vanilla ice cream for dessert, topped with cooked apple in honey and chopped walnuts.
The recipes:
Gefilte fish with chrein
Use store-bought gefilte fish (chances are, this is the kind you grew up with anyways), but impress you guests with your bravery making your own chrein (horseradish sauce). Just as a side note, Israeli wear their gas masks while grating horseradish.
Traditionally, the horseradish is ground in a meat grinder, but to save time and dirty dishes, we’re going to grate it instead.
Chrein (horseradish sauce) recipe:
Yields 1 cup
Ingredients:
4 oz. fresh horseradish root
1 large beet, raw
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
Peel horseradish and beet and grate on the finest grater. Transfer to lidded container. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix, adjust salt to taste and seal tight. Keep in the fridge until serving.
Chicken in red wine and orange
Roasted baby potato in rosemary and garlic
Herb salad with pomegranate and pecans
Vanilla ice cream with apple and honey topping