Rosh Hashanah Grub

Naked maple brown sugar apple spice cake

All Dressed Up for the New Year's Party

It's not a strange occurrence to hear me singing the praises of pork. Any given day you might overhear me saying, “I can’t imagine a world with out pork.”  Dramatic? Yes. True? Most certainly.

The way I see it, certain things like crispy American bacon, Chinese char sui, or Spanish chorizo just can’t be topped. Period.

That said, I've mused in previous blogs about growing up Jew-'ish' in New England and that even with my love affair with pork, there were still plenty of traditional meals and foods that I hold near and dear.

So with Rosh Hashanah, this week, I was excited to have an excuse to put my love affair with piggie aside for the day, and cook up 1 or 2 of my favourite holiday numbers, as well as introduce a new treat.

Complimenting the standard family stuffed chicken breast; I whipped up a caramelized onion and dill potato kugel.  And for dessert, individual maple brown sugar apple spice cakes. 


It's traditional to have apples and honey on any Rosh Hashanah table, signifying a 'sweet new year'.  Since honey wasn't really an option (read last week’s blog entry to know why I wasn’t going within 100 feet of the stuff), I tried these sweet little apple spice guys instead.   And having finished the last one 4 days after I originally made them, I have to say, they retained moistness like a sponge – they were as good if not better than the night I originally made them. 

Caramelised Onion and Dill Potato Kugel

I must admit I totally winged this one; so all measurements are a total guess.

1-2 large potatoes (grated)

1 onion (sliced fine)

1-teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

2-3 eggs

¼ cup oil

¼ cup sour cream

½ cup flour

Salt and pepper

1.Caramelise the onions on a low heat with sugar 

2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, add more flour if it is too liquidy

3. Grease a small square cake pan (I used a pie plate, which was too big – resulting in a tasty but too thin kugel)

4. Bake at 375 / 170 for about 45 minutes or until crispy and brown on the top

Maple, Brown Sugar, Apple Spice Cake

Modelled after the following recipe, I skipped the cream, upped the spices and put three chopped up and peeled granny-smith apples directly into the batter before baking in individual muffin/cake tins.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brown-Sugar-Spice-Cake-with-Cream-and-Caramelized-Apples-233995 

Honey. Not funny.

Cooling, waiting for their orange / honey bath

Finished product with a blackberry coulis

A lot of honey.  3.5 kilos to be exact.  Half of which ended up on my floor/ counters/ rug/ clothes

In the past 48 hours I have:

- Scrubbed my kitchen floor 5 times

- Wiped down my kitchen counters a dozen times

- Been on hands and knees with the carpet cleaner 3 times

- Removed all contents of fridge (including drawers and shelves) and hosed everything down – twice

However, my socks are still sticking to some residual goop when I walk on the floor.  How is this possible?

One word: Honey.

So why honey in nooks and crannies for months to come? 

Let me take you back 48 hours.

This past Sunday was my third time baking for the 'Potentino Pop-Up'. Normally, there’s a bit of creative banter back and forth around the recipe a few weeks before, allowing for practice runs, perfection of ingredients and ensuring proper equipment.  Not this month.  Only a few days before I got an email asking me to make an orange, honey, and ricotta tart, recipe scanned and attached.

Due to my travels abroad and an Ocado grocery delivery arriving at the last moment (Saturday, the morning before the Pop-Up), there was no trial run. It was going to be all or nothing.

Reading the recipe it seemed ridiculously easy, and thankfully, needing to make 10 tarts (each requiring 45 minutes in the oven) it was.  After baking a mixture of ground almonds, almond extract, eggs, ricotta and…quite frankly... a shit load of honey, the tarts were then covered in an orange and honey mixture that lovingly oozed all over the cake and down the insides of the tart pans.

Problem was this. I’d been told to use (and to be fair, totally agreed that it made sense) to use the 10 tart pans I’d purchased (and expensed) for the sciliian lemon tarts I made back in June.  Only problem here was that the lemon tarts required pans with removable bottoms for their pastry crusts. Not the case with the these tarts.

Since the orange, honey, and ricotta tarts had no crust, when I poured ¾ of a cup of orange juice and honey over them, except for the bit that sat on the top…it slipped down the sides and then out the crack in the removable bottoms.  Multiply this by 10 tarts.

No naturally you must be thinking? Well certainly Dana, after the first or second you must have come up with some sort of alternative solution?

Since there was no room for a real contingency plan (e.g. time to purchase the RIGHT pans) I tried improvising.  Each tart, before being covered head to toe in the honey-orange mixture got a condom-like wrapping of aluminium foil all around it.

It worked a treat until the tarts needed to be moved.  There was so much extra liquid on the top and on the sides that even with the foil, it still oozed up and over. Everything.

I’m not sure why I kept trying to keep up with the mess. Eventually, when they were all stacked into my fridge (which considering the diminutive size of my refrigerator required a significant number of my condiments to live on the counter for the night) I tried to salvage the floor, carpet, and counters.  I admitted defeat late that night.  I decided that I’d just finish it off the next morning once the Pop-Uppers (AG specifically) picked them up for delivery to the restaurant.

Note 1:  These orange and honey tarts, which were served with a blackberry coulis were not really my cup of tea (I'm not a fan of honey). Although much better when finally served the next day, allowing the flavours to settle.  Slightly controversial in taste they appeared to be either loved or tolerated.  Looking around the dining room, Pop-Up guests had either eaten every last morsel or had taken about 4 bites. I was of the 4 bite crowd, the others at my table eating up every last drop…

Note 2: AG who so kindly picked up the tarts early Sunday morning, informed me later that day that he had a small ‘problem’ he needed to deal with once the Pop-Up was finished that evening.  Apparently, the back seat of the car which hosted the tarts from my flat to the restaurant  (each of which had been given a fresh piece of foil for protection that morning) was covered in honey.  

Again, one word: Oops.

Lessons learned through experience:

1. Use the right pans when baking
2. Always allow trial run time 
3. Honey never comes off, ever
4. In excess, I like honey even less