the Riverdale Press — Thursday, September 25, 2008 — B11
Why not cook?
Celebrating a newfound love for tzimmes
By Annie Baum-Stein
abaumstein@riverdalepress.com
For many years, the tradi-
tion as I was growing up, was
to have two Rosh Hashana din-
ners.
The first was held on the eve
of the Jewish holiday, and we
would go to my maternal grand-
parents’ home for roast capon
and kasha varnishkes.
We spent the second day
with my paternal grandparents,
Ceil and David Stein, founders
of The Riverdale Press. There,
after an afternoon of tea and
sweets, we settled in for brisket
and kugel.
The years of meals and
menus vary little in my mem-
ory; I have to really stretch to
remember tzimmes ever at the
table.
Both of my grandmothers
served very traditional Ashke-
nazi holiday meals to ring in a
sweet New Year, so it seems in-
conceivable that neither of them
would have served the custom-
ary sweet casserole of carrots
and dried fruit. I can vaguely
remember my maternal grand-
mother making it once with gi-
gantic prunes and my paternal
one with canned pineapple.
The sweet stickiness of the
slow-cooked dish, which com-
bines vegetables and fruit, was
unlike anything that we regu-
larly ate. I must have blocked it
from memory because I never
ate it.
Now, as an adult, tzimmes
sounds delicious to me. I love
candied yams and carrots, and
prunes and apricots are OK by
me. What could be bad about
combining them? So this year I
am determined not only to eat
it, but also to make it myself.
Here are the recipes I am con-
sidering:
Sweet Carrot Tzimmes
This is the most basic reci-
pe, but variations on this theme
are endless, from just carrots
in honey to the vegetables and
fruit with stew meat.
1 bag carrots (1 lb.)
5-6 sweet potatoes
1/2 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup honey
1 cup orange juice
1/2 to 1 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cinna-
mon
Butter or margarine
Boil water in large pot.
Wash and peel carrots and
sweet potatoes.
Place carrots and potatoes
in boiling water. Cover pot. Let
cook until tender but firm.
Preheat oven to 350 de-
grees.
Oil shallow baking dish.
Drain carrots and pota-
toes. Place in baking dish with
prunes. Mix gently.
Mix orange juice, honey,
salt and cinnamon together in
a small bowl. Pour over casse-
role.
Dot top with margarine.
Cover with foil and bake at 350
degrees for 30 minutes. Stir
gently and bake uncovered for
10 minutes.
Recipe adapted from about.
com.
Bialystok Tzimmes
with Sweet Potatoes,
Carrots, Prunes and
Apricots
If the recipe above is for
the most basic of tzimmes, this
is the most extravagant. The
casserole of sweet potatoes,
carrots, dried fruits and meat
is topped with a white potato
dough kugel, almost making
the dish similar to a Shepard’s
pie.
Serves 10.
3 lbs. short ribs or stew
meat, cut into 2-inch
cubes
Salt and freshly ground
pepper to taste
3 medium onions, sliced
2 Tbsps. chicken fat or
vegetable oil
6 cups water or beef
bouillon to cover
3 large sweet potatoes,
peeled and left whole
5 large carrots, peeled
and left whole
3 large white potatoes,
peeled and left whole
3/4 lb. dried pitted
prunes
3/4 lb. dried apricots
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apricot jam
(optional)
Dash of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
Slivered rind and juice of
1 orange
For potato kugel topping:
1 large peeled and grated
white potato (about 2
cups)
2 cups matzo meal
2 eggs
2 Tbsps. fresh parsley
1 onion, coarsely grated
1 Tbsp. chicken fat or
vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground
pepper to taste
1/2 cup water
Sprinkle the meat with the
salt and pepper and brown, with
the sliced onions, in the chick-
en fat or oil. Place the meat and
onions in a four-quart casserole
and cover it with water or beef
bouillon. Bake in a preheated
350-degree oven, covered, for
two hours. If you want to re-
move the fat, refrigerate over-
night and remove congealed
fat.
Cut the sweet potatoes, car-
rots and white potatoes in quar-
ters and add with the prunes,
apricots, brown sugar, apricot
jam, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon
juice and orange rind and juice
to the meat. Add more water if
too thick.
To make the topping, mix
the grated potato with the mat-
zo meal, eggs, parsley, onion,
chicken fat or oil, salt and pep-
per and up to 1/2 cup water, as
needed, to make sticky dough.
Sports
Flouring your hands, spread
the potato dough and press Heartbreaking homecoming
very thinly over the tsimmes
and bake, covered, for 45 min-
utes. Uncover, season with salt
and pepper, and cook an addi-
tional 30 minutes or until the
liquid disappears and the top
turns crusty. Bring the pot to
the table and serve.
The recipe is adapted from
naimanranch.com, but is origi-
nally from Joan Nathan’s Jew-
ish Cooking In America Cook-
book.
Winter Squash with
Caramelized Onions
‘Cassolita’
I found this recipe when
looking for Sephardic tzimmes.
Tzimmes is an Eastern Euro-
pean dish, but this cinnamon-
scented casserole is a delicious
seasonal dish that I think can
stand for tzimmes at a less tra-
ditional holiday table. Many
would argue that without car-
rots it couldn’t be tsimmes.
Makes 4 servings.
2 lbs. winter squash,
peeled, seeded, and
cut into 2-inch pieces
3 Tbsps. vegetable oil
1/4 cup (about 1 oz.)
slivered almonds
3 onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsps. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, Photos by David Root
plumped in warm
ABOVE, Horace Mann
water and drained
quarterback Kai Cogsville
Salt and freshly ground
evades a Rye Country Day
black pepper
School defender during
his squad’s 41-8 loss at
Preheat the oven to 375 de-
home.
grees.
Place the squash in an oven-
At left, homecoming
proof dish and bake until ten-
festivities included a spir-
der, 50 to 60 minutes. ited game of tug-of-war.
Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat
the oil over medium-high heat.
Below, Horace Mann’s
Add the almonds and fry un-
pint-sized cheerlead-
til golden, 3 to 4 minutes. With a ers pick a perfect spot
slotted spoon, transfer the nuts to watch the pre-game
to paper towels to drain. warm-ups on Saturday.
Add the onions to the oil in
the skillet.
Cook, stirring occasion-
ally, until soft, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and cinnamon,
Horace Mann suffers
tough loss to a familiar foe
decrease the heat to medium,
and continue cooking until the
onions turn brown, 20 to 25
minutes. Add the raisins and
season to taste with salt and pep- By Jason Eisenberg
per. Cook, stirring, until heated sports@riverdalepress.com
through. Transfer the squash to
a warm serving platter. Spread Homecoming weekend at
Horace Mann brought back
the onion mixture evenly over
hundreds of familiar faces, but
the squash, sprinkle with the there was one in particular that
fried almonds, and serve.
stood out from the crowd: the
private school’s longtime varsity
Recipe adapted from epicu- football coach, John Colandros.
rious.com and taken from The However, this time Col-
Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sep- andros did not take his place
hardic Cuisine from Morocco. along the Horace Mann side-
line, where he led the Lions for
11 seasons. Instead, he was in
an unfamiliar spot, on the visi-
tors’ side of the field, as head
coach of the Lions’ opponents,
Rye Country Day School. get the same help from the of- of life, despite already being
“John and I are good friends ficials. In the final minutes of down 21-0 on the scoreboard.
so it was great to see him back the second quarter, Horace With their first possession
here and it was especially fitting Mann quarterback Kai Cogs- of the second half, the Lions
for homecoming weekend,” said ville launched a 40-yard pass impressively drove down the
Robert Annunziata, the Lions’ downfield, which appeared to field, beginning with a first
current head coach. “However, be caught, inside the Rye 10- down pass by Cogsville to run-
considering he just left only two yard line, by halfback Charles ning back Dylan Keegan. From
years ago and that his whole Sadaka. The officials ruled the there, senior fullback Louis
coaching staff is from Horace play an incomplete pass and did Solmonson took over, rushing
Mann, he is familiar with many not throw a flag for interference for more than 20 yards to move
of our best guys and how we despite two opposing defensive the Lions into the red zone. A
play, which certainly put our backs dragging Sadaka down few plays later, Solmonson fi-
team at a great disadvantage in before the ball reached him. nally got Horace Mann on the
this game.” This play proved to be far board with a seven-yard touch-
This disadvantage resulted more costly for the Lions than down run.
in a nightmarish day on the simply not scoring, as Sadaka During the ensuing two-point
gridiron for the home team, as injured his shoulder and did not conversion attempt, Cogsville
Rye defeated Horace Mann by return. According to coach An- used his speed to elude a sack
a score of 41-8. nunziata, the junior will “prob- and threw up a prayer that was
While there is no question ably need surgery, but either batted down by a Rye defender,
that the Lions were significant- way he is done for the season.”
but landed right in the hands of
ly outplayed by a superior team, To Annunziata’s credit, he re-
Solmonson, who dove across
it was obvious from early in the fused to blame the lopsided re-
the goal line for two points.
game that the hosts were not sult on injuries and bad calls, in-
This would be the final high-
going to catch any breaks on stead focusing on his defense’s
inability to stop big plays, in- light of the game for the Lions,
this day.
cluding three Rye touchdowns as Rye scored three more times
Two of Rye’s first three
of more than 50 yards. and the rout was on.
touchdown drives were aided
by questionable calls from the “Yes, it looked like Charlie “Of course it was disappoint-
officials. Late in the first quar- caught that pass and some calls ing to lose badly for the second
ter, with the game still score- went against us and three of year in a row on homecoming
less, Rye quarterback Joe Bar- our top players were banged weekend, but we have a short
ber threw an incomplete pass up, but this is not why we lost week, with a road game on Fri-
on fourth down, but a defensive the football game,” Annunziata day, so we need to regroup and
pass interference penalty gave said. “First of all, Rye is one of be better prepared for Hackley,”
them a fresh set of downs and, the best teams in the Fairches- said Annunziata. “There is no
shortly after, a touchdown. ter League so give them credit way we can replace what Char-
Then, in the second quar- for the way they played, and lie brings, but I do feel comfort-
ter, Barber once again failed to second, we could not make any able going forward with Kenny
complete three straight passes tackles. We just cannot afford Thompson and Louis Solmon-
but the Rye offense remained to be making first hits, second son as our feature backs and
on the field thanks to another hits, sometimes more and yet am confident that Kai [Cogs-
flag for pass interference. This they are still running with the ville], who had never taken a
drive ended in similar fashion, ball.” snap before this year, will only
with another touchdown. The Lions came out in the improve his play at quarterback
The Lions offense didn’t second half showing some signs as the season goes on.”