Solemn and sweet: Festive tables of the high holidays

Every cuisine exists as part of a story. One part of the story told by Jewish foods is of migration, assimilation, and now-vanished worlds.

Eastern Europe, Spain, Russia, Yemen, Greece, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Bukhara in what is now Uzbekistan were all once home to large and vibrant Jewish communities. As these old communities were forced to disband and regroup in the diaspora, the foods of their past became an important link in their new lines.

So the story of modern Jewish food is one of a dynamic, multicultural cuisine.

Day to day, the children and grandchildren of Jewish emigres from far-flung lands eat what they like. But at their holiday tables, they reconnect most deeply with the symbols and traditions of their ancestors - whether from Berlin, Tehran, or Cordoba.

The fall high holidays, or high holy days, started at sundown Wednesday with the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, and continue through the harvest festival of Sukkoth, which starts at sundown Oct. 13

In all Jewish communities, this is a season for reflection, optimism, and hope, and for really good meals. There must be more festive meals served at Jewish tables in this period than during the rest of the year combined.

As wishes abound for a sweet new year, almost every high holiday table features sweet food. Apples dipped in honey, dates rolled in sweet spices with powdered sugar, sweet soups, apricot roast chicken, dried fruits, glazed carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash all are prominent on holiday tables.

In communities with North African roots, black or black-skinned foods, such as eggplant and black olives, are customarily avoided. Sharp or bitter foods, such as vinegar, tamarind, or chocolate would not be offered. Lebanese Jews avoid salty or lemony foods. And Jews from Ukraine would not serve pickles or horseradish.

Abundance, fecundity, and continuity - all things to hope for - are symbolized in many ways in the foods offered during the holiday season. Sweet raisin-filled challah bread is braided into a circle reminiscent of the year, seamlessly ending then beginning again. Chicken soups are served with round noodles and round dumplings. There are Moroccan rolled cigarette-shaped pastries, dripping with sweet syrup; and many dishes featuring round chickpeas, fresh black-eyed peas, and favas. In my own family, we serve a German Zwetschgenkuchen or Plum Cake featuring round sweet plums in a round sweet cake, a seasonal and symbolic delight.

Fish are served with the head intact - perhaps Pesce All'Ebraica, Italian Sweet-and-Sour Fish with Raisins and Pine Nuts, or a Lithuanian Sweet and Sour Carp or a Saffron tinted Baked White Fish.

The rosh in Rosh Hashanah means head, and a desire to be at the head rather than lagging behind is made manifest with these fish dishes.

An even more literal and dramatic way to exhibit this wish is to serve a lamb or goat's head. Once a quite common Rosh Hashanah staple among Jews from Aleppo, Syria, this symbolic dish is no longer easy to come by. But what goes around can come around again. I discovered an active exchange on the online food site Chowhound, between younger cooks, kosher butchers, and grandmothers interested in reviving this "head of the year" tradition.

The holidays progress through the new year to Yom Kippur, a fast day. The meal eaten before the fast is basic and filling. No salty or spicy foods that might induce thirst over the 26-hour fast are on the table. Substantial meat-filled dumplings, such as kreplach in broth or stuffed matzo balls, might be served so that "kindness will cover, as the dough does the filling, judgment and misdeeds," according to Claudia Roden in her encyclopedic The Book of Jewish Food.

Time-consuming to roll, cut and fill, hearty wonton-like kreplach are a labor of love harking back to another era. These kreplach can transform a simple meal into something of an honored ritual.

After a reflective day without food or drink on Yom Kippur, there are myriad ways to break the fast - generally around the table - though one man I see each year brings an apple to the synagogue and, as the long day of services concludes at sunset, he eats his apple (and raises his blood sugar) before the walk home.

Many local families will partake in an evening buffet breakfast-style meal of juice, fruit, bagels, smoked fish, and coffee cake.

In Paris, some of my Jewish Egyptian emigre friends will break their fast with rich chicken consomme and retire to a nice restaurant for a late dinner. Having abstained from caffeine for the entire day a cup of tea or coffee is also welcomed in all traditions.

Just over a week after Yom Kippur, the festival of Sukkoth starts. Known also as the Feast of the Ingathering or Festival of the Booths, this is the holiday to truly celebrate the season, the farmers, and their crops.

Families, community groups, and synagogues build temporary dwellings of wood, fabric, and cornstalks in which to eat and entertain for the holiday week.

Decorations in the sukkah include bundles of herbs, stalks of grain, and strings of drying vegetables and fruits. The commitment to eat, and even sleep, outside for seven or eight days each fall creates a tangible connection with nature's rhythms. Who wouldn't feel gratitude for the abundance of the season after being served a filling harvest feast?

Meals in the sukkah tend to feature seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Because Sukkoth often falls during the cool, damp nights of a Philadelphia fall, soups and stews have become local traditions for these outdoor meals. Hearty grains and beans, rice, and noodles all have a place at the Sukkoth table.

In Morocco, couscous dishes with sweet vegetables were eaten on the first day of Sukkoth. In Israel, fruit and other cold salads are popular. Hungarian Mushroom Barley Soup alongside a German Cabbage Strudel with Fruit Compote would be nice for a buffet, as would Persian Rice and Lamb Stuffed Vegetables.

Complete, one-dish meals are optimal, as one hopes to offer an abundance of food but limit the serving dishes carried in and out of the house.

For the observant, or simply the curious, the foods served by communities of Jews during this season are many, varied, and rich with meaning. These foods forge connections between the past with hopes that the future of the story is filled with peace, prosperity, and happiness.

Makes 6-8 servings

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2-4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2-3 teaspoons ground cumin   seeds

1 teaspoon ground hot pepper, such as Aleppo

1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and chopped into small pieces

2 parsnips, cleaned, trimmed, cut into 1/2- to 1-inch chunks or slices

5 carrots, cleaned, trimmed, cut into 1/2- to 1-inch chunks  or slices

2 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 1/2- to 1-inch chunks

1 large, or several small white potato(es) cut into small pieces

2-3 cups vegetable stock (can make with trimmings of stew vegetables)

2 cups cooked chickpeas

6-8 pitted prunes

15-20 string beans, green or yellow, cut into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces

1/2 cup chopped cilantro for garnish, optional

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1. In a large dutch oven or lidded saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the onions and cook, stirring often until they are translucent and beginning to brown. Add garlic and spices and cook until garlic starts to brown. Add fennel, parsnips, carrots, and sweet potato, and cover.

2. Turn the heat to low and cook these vegetables slowly until they start to soften. Add the stock, chickpeas, and prunes, and season with salt and black pepper. Allow stew to simmer for 40 minutes to an hour on very low heat.

3. At this point, the stew can be cooled and refrigerated for up to three days. Just before serving, bring the stew to a simmer and add the string beans and allow them to cook just until soft.

4. Stir in cilantro if desired. Serve with couscous.

Per serving (based on 8): 416 calories, 10 grams protein, 88 grams carbohydrates, 22 grams sugar, 5 grams fat, no cholesterol, 430 milligrams sodium, 17 grams dietary fiber.

Makes 8-10 servings

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2 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup almond flour (or very finely ground almonds)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs

Juice and zest from one small orange

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

10-12 Italian prune plums,  halved, stones removed

3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar

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1. Grease and flour an 8- or 9-inch tube pan with removable bottom. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flours and baking powder. In a medium to large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the one cup of sugar until well-blended. Add the eggs and mix well, scraping the bowl down at least twice during mixing. Add the orange juice, zest, and extracts, and beat until they are incorporated.

3. On the lowest speed, carefully add the flours and baking powder and mix until the batter is uniform and smooth.

4. Spread batter in prepared pan. Arrange the plums around the top, alternating the halves face up and face down in a spiral to encircle the entire top. Leave a small border of batter around the center tube and the edge to prevent sticky plum juices from baking on and making it hard to remove cake from the pan. Sprinkle the plums with remaining granulated sugar.

5. Bake about 1 hour until the cake looks lightly browned and the plums are still moist and glazed.

6. Let cool in pan. Carefully remove cake from pan after running a knife around the edges and center.

Per serving: 428 calories, 9 grams protein, 52 grams carbohydrates, 29 grams sugar, 22 grams fat, 111 milligrams cholesterol, 139 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

Makes 6-8 servings

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1 tablespoon canola oil

1 cup thinly sliced leek or onion

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon brown sugar, or to taste

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

5 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups peeled and chopped butternut squash (about 3 pounds)

6 cups reduced sodium  vegetable broth

4 cups peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples (about 1 pound)

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt

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1. Heat oil in large pot. Add leeks or onion, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and garlic. Cook two minutes, stirring continuously. Add squash, broth and apples and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender.

2. Puree with a food processor or an immersion blender. Add yogurt, and mix well. Serve warm.

Per serving (based on 8): 154 calories, 3 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams sugar, 2 grams fat, 1 milligram cholesterol, 308 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

Makes 40-50 kreplach or 10-12 servings

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1 pound fresh pasta dough (make with 2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2-3 eggs, and pinch of salt)

For the filling:

2 tablespoons oil or chicken fat

1 small onion, very finely chopped

1 medium leek, trimmed well, cleaned, and minced finely

1 clove garlic, minced fine

3/4 pound raw ground beef, or shredded cooked brisket, or rare grilled chicken or goose livers

2 eggs

1/3 cups finely minced parsley

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1. Heat the oil or fat in a medium saucepan and cook the onion, leek, and garlic until soft and golden. Add the meat and continue cooking until the meat is just browned, but not completely cooked. If using cooked brisket or livers there is no need cook it further at this point. Turn the meat mixture onto a cutting board and mix in the egg and parsley while chopping until the mixture is almost a paste. This can also be done in the food processor.

2. In batches, on a lightly-floured surface, roll the dough as thinly as possible. Cut into 1-1/2- to 2-1/2-inch squares. Place about a teaspoon of filling in the center of each square and fold over to make a triangle. Seal the edges by pressing down or pinching them together. Some people then draw the corners of the longer points of the triangle together to form a kerchief-shaped ring.

3. Cook the kreplach in a large pot of boiling, well-salted water for 15-20 minutes. Serve in bowls of hot rich chicken broth as a starter, or fry the boiled kreplach in oil or chicken fat to brown and serve as a side dish.

Per serving (based on 12): 197 calories, 13 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram sugar, 6 grams fat, 87 milligrams cholesterol, 62 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.