Rosh Hashanah

Honey and apples for the Jewish New Year; reinventing apple Charlotte for Food Cycle.

Photo by Anthony Coles on Unsplash

I've never liked the enforced jollity and celebrations of new years eve. Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah has quite a different vibe. It’s supposed to be the birthdays of Adam and Eve, the beginning of the world. Falling between 2nd-4th October this year, why it’s celebrated in the Autumn is lost in the mists of time and best left to Talmudic rabbis to analyze.

My few childhood memories are mixed. At new year, a shofar would be blown, and tiny glasses of sickly sweet kosher wine and biscuits handed out. In a crush of people getting their free biscuit, I manage to reach the table, taking two, for my sister and myself, my hand slapped, biscuits dropped, and I’m told that I'm greedy. The festival leads into Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement. A day of fasting and synagogue attendance. A day off school; who wouldn't say no to that. There would be new dresses, lacy tights, patent leather shoes. What I mostly remember is the gathering, gossip and excitement outside the shul, not much attendance inside, where the women were ushered upstairs, their new hats bobbing on neatly coiffured heads, heels clattering on the stairs, men and boys downstairs in the main hall. Ushers coming out to tell us off for being too noisy. And the smells drifting over from the bakery next door, taunting us as we teased each other; who could hold out the longest. I don’t ever remember my parents being there.

Rosh Hashanah is meant to be about reflecting, stocktaking. The shofar a wake up call. It makes sense that it’s a harvest festival, a time to give thanks for the gathering in of crops. At infant school we brought in harvest festival gifts; mushroom boxes lined with tissue paper, filled with tinned and fresh fruit and vegetables and bars of chocolate, all to be distributed to local elderly people.

Food reflects the stories. Sweet foods to symbolise hope for the year ahead.

Round challah bread. Przemysław Wierzbowski, CC BY-SA 4.0

Apples and honey for a sweet new year. Round foods representing good luck and prosperity; a round braided challah bread, sometimes with raisins in for added sweetness. New season fruits: figs, pomegranates, grapes.

I can't remember the last time we had a family new year dinner. After suggesting it to my sister, my parents visibly brightened when I asked if they'd like to host. It's 7 months since they moved home, gave up driving and their antiques business and life for them is much slower. They may be in their 90s, but they don’t like being bored.

‘I was going to make chicken soup tomorrow’ mum said.

‘We can use the good china and silver’ dad smiled, and I know he's thinking about getting out the silver polish, a project to focus on.

Jewish menus don't challenge the status quo but this one is going to mix Ashkenazi and Sephardic dishes.

Apple slices dipped in honey. Seasonal, local apples. Honey from Bermondsey Street Bees.

Chicken soup. Chopped liver. Homemade new green pickled cucumbers. Our cucumber harvest has finally come into its own and I made a batch yesterday, layering the spears with dill, garlic and bay leaves.

cucumber harvest at last

Home made round spelt flour challah if I get the recipe right. If you’d like to know more about challah, Claudia Roden is a great place to start.

Chicken pieces roasted with a pomegranate molasses glaze. Rice & orzo from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi. Seasonal roast vegetables.

My sisters’ honey cake and ice cream, and maybe this without the burnt bits.

Apple and plum fast charlotte

About twice a month I chef for the charity Food Cycle. The kitchens are full of generosity, front and back of house, and we never know what we’re going to make until the ingredients turn up. Last week a crate of apples and plums arrived. There were four loaves of bread in the freezer that needed using. I’d been thinking about Jewish New Year, about apples and honey and also about apple Charlotte, an old fashioned pudding that deserves its place at the table again. We were never going to make the original moulded pudding, where a bread and butter lined pudding basin is filled with apple puree. Supposedly the recipe dates back to Queen Charlotte, consort of George 111.

My quick apple and plum Charlotte involved mixing cubed pieces of bread with cinnamon, demerara sugar, oil (alas no butter) and a jar of warmed nut butter and scattering the cubes over poached apples and raw sliced red plums. Into a hot oven for 25 minutes. At home I’m trying it again, but with a cinnamon honey butter mixture coating the pieces of day old bread instead of oil. Serve with custard, thick cream or ice cream.

You don’t need to be Jewish to reflect and do some personal stocktaking, with or without a blast or two from a rams horn. Harvest festivals are celebrated everywhere, and we could all do with thanking our farmers for gathering in their crops. Happy New Year. I’ll report back on that challah.

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