Rosh Hashana Menus

The Jewish New Year is fast approaching, and here at NDP we might just be in over our heads; we're having lots of D's family for the holiday and very excited to host them all! With so many people to feed and not much time to prep, I've drawn up menus to keep myself on track and to make grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking as streamlined as possible.

Now, I haven't started yet -- the big cook commences tomorrow -- so no pictures so far, but right now, I'll share my menus with you as promised.

Keep in mind: I'm only making two of the meals entirely from scratch. We're being hosted elsewhere for one dinner (but I'm making the brisket), and we're doing a potluck for another (so I'm making only challah and a side dish). But I'm still cooking brisket, chicken, and 2 full meals -- one meat, one dairy. Hopefully this will provide you all with a head start -- or a kick in the butt -- for menu-planning. Enjoy and please share your menus in the comments!!

Also -- can't resist this one little shout-out: my friends at KOL Foods, the only purveyors of local, organic, grass-fed kosher beef and chicken, were published in the Boston Jewish Advocate this week -- and the article includes quotes and recipes from yours truly! Be sure to check it out -- you'll find 2 really yummy brisket recipes there: https://www.kolfoods.com/pdf/BrisketArticle.pdf

And now, menus.

Meal 1: Rosh Hashanah Dinner

Challah Minestrone soup Mesclun salad with hearts of palm, persimmons, and pomegranates Tagine-style chicken with preserved lemons and olives Roasted chicken with dried fruit and wild rice Simple sauteed green beans and peas with lemon and almonds Saffron rice baklava and fresh fruit

Meal 2: Rosh Hashana Lunch

Challah Watermelon-feta salad with pickled red onions and kalamata olives Spanikopita Sauteed shelling beans with tomatoes, oregano, and garlic Orzo salad with fennel, dill pesto, feta, and lemon Greek honey-almond cake Greek yogurt with honey and poached fruit

Recipes are, for the most part, taken from epicurious, gourmet.com, and a couple other places. A quick search on epi will reveal recipes for lots of these dishes, and though I haven't hammered out the final recipes I plan to use, these sites are where I plan to start. I'll likely pull a few recipes and pull together the elements of each that I like to make whatever I'm making. I'll do my best to blog the process as I start cooking tomorrow, so stay tuned!

HamentaschenFAIL

Yea, I don't know what happened this year. Normally, this dough gives me minimal frustration, but for some reason, this go-round I got half a batch of nice-looking little guys and half a batch of...well, sexyugly. Tasty, nonetheless -- but not the kind of cookie you want to pass out. Especially not when you have a food blog. Ugh.

You know what? I'll own it. This dough may not produce the prettiest guys in the pack, but they're damn tasty. The dough is crunchy on the outside, nicely flaky, and flavored with tons of lemon zest. Nothing like those crumbly, nasty things they sell at the bakery. I'm just saying.

Any hamentaschen disaster stories? Share in the comments.

Friday Freakout #1: Where's my local falafel joint?

In the interest of diversifying this blog beyond my standard "photo with recipe" formula, I'm instituting a new feature called Friday Freakout. No explanation needed, right? Having recently returned from Israel, falafel is on the mind more than usual. Walk down the streets of Jerusalem with me for a moment: you won't make it a block without passing at least one falafel/hummus/shawarma joint -- more likely 2. Some are truly falafel stands, where all orders are to go, salad bar is DIY or done in a jiffy by the man behind the counter (trust me, you've never seen hands move so quickly). Others are hummusiot -- hummus is what's for dinner, served on its own or with any number of topings, ranging from tehina and chickpeas to sauteed mushrooms or even meat. Lastly, you've got the do-it-all places that have shawarma, falafel in pita or laffa (the big peasant-bread wraps), and hummus platters. And like I said, they're everywhere.

So why is it that there's no really, really good middle eastern food spot within walking distance of my house? To sharpen the gripe: there are three hummus/falafel/shawarma places within two blocks of my pad. The two best ones (Amsterdam Falafel and Old City Cafe) are decent, the third one (Shawarma spot) is really horrible -- like, effervescent hummus and bug-in-plate horrible. AmFal and OCC are fine, and they do the trick in a pinch: their falafel is crispy and pretty flavorful, their salatin (salads) are varied and some are pretty ok, but nothing out of this world -- and their hummus simply isn't so good. Last time I checked, hummus makes or breaks the whole sandwich.

The real joke here is that considering how many options are around me, I'm relatively lucky: outside of Adams Morgan, the hummus-falafel-shawarma food group is pretty endangered.

And that's not to mention the severe lack of other middle eastern food in the area: labneh (tangy, thick yogurt with a hint of salt), kubbeh hamousta (sour Yemenite soup with zucchini, sorel, and meat-filled dumplings) and good, not-overly-sweet baklavah are nowhere in sight. grr.

That concludes this installment of Friday Freakout. Do you live in DC and know of good ME food joints? Are you brewing over the lack of this food in another city? Comments, people, comments.

Now that the mood is off my chest, happy Friday and a wonderful weekend to all!