32 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2024
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N

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n last week’s issue, we covered
appetizers and sides for Rosh
Hashanah. This week, I’ll be focus-
ing on main dishes.
A challenge for Rosh Hashanah
can be to balance the
savory and the sweet.
With our aspirations
for a sweet new year,
we incorporate many
sweet flavors through-
out the meal: apples
and honey, pome-
granates and dates,
to name a few. But as
they say, the sweet is never as sweet
without the sour, and that is true for

our menus as much as it is for our
lives.
The recipes I share include savory
(and some sweet) elements to make
a balanced menu. Continuing our
theme of using foods traditionally,
included as simanim (signs or omens)
for a good year, I include a recipe for
Halibut Escabeche (in order to be
fruitful and multiply like fish) that
includes halibut fillets cooked and
then marinated in lime juice and
white wine vinegar with capers, garlic
and yellow onion. The sour flavors
paired with the rich fish provide a
bright and fresh dish.
I share a recipe for brisket incorpo-

rating pomegranate molasses (so that
our merits should increase like the
seeds of a pomegranate). The sweet-
tart flavor of the pomegranate molas-
ses is balanced by garlic, onions and
spices to be both savory and sweet.
I also include a recipe for Tzimmes
Chicken, incorporating carrots
(Hebrew: gezarim; Yiddish: mern)
to nullify any negative decrees
(Hebrew: gezerot) against us and for
more (Yiddish: mer) blessings. The
dish includes ample sweet elements,
including carrots, honey, dried
apricots and prunes, but also garlic,
onion, thyme, lemon juice and spices
like cumin and cinnamon. The spices
are subtle in the listed quantities to
accommodate those who do not love
them but can be increased to appease
those who do. I recommend serving
the brisket and chicken with saffron
rice, which provides an earthy and
mild flavor to let the proteins shine.

HALIBUT ESCABECHE
Adapted from G. Daniela Galarza
Serves 4. Pareve

Ingredients

4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

4 5-ounce skin-on halibut fillets, patted

dry

Fine salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup fresh lime juice (from 2 limes)

¼ cup white vinegar or white wine vin-

egar

2 Tbsp. capers in brine

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp. caper brine

½ small yellow onion (2 ounces total),

sliced

1 bay leaf (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place
halibut fillets skin-side down on a
rimmed baking sheet. Rub the hal-
ibut fillets with 1 tablespoon of the
oil, then lightly season with salt
and pepper.
In a shallow serving bowl large
enough for the fish, stir together
the remaining 3 tablespoons of
oil, the lime juice, vinegar, capers,
garlic, caper brine, onion and bay
leaf.
Roast the halibut fillets until
the flesh is opaque and the fish
begins to flake when prodded
with a fork. The timing will depend
on the thickness of the fillets.
Check the flakiness with a fork
starting after 10 minutes and be
careful not to overbake.
Remove the fillets from their
skin and nestle the cooked fish
into the bowl with the vinegar
mixture. Let marinate for at least
15 minutes and up to 40 minutes
(the longer it marinates, the more
pungent its flavor will be). Discard
the bay leaf and serve warm or at
room temperature.

POMEGRANATE MOLASSES
BRISKET
Adapted from Tori Avey
Serves 5. Meat

Ingredients

4-5 pounds beef brisket

½ cup pomegranate molasses

Extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. cinnamon

FOOD

Joelle

Abramowitz

Tzimmes
Chicken
Food for Thought:

Food for Thought:


Savory and Sweet
Rosh Hashanah
Main Dishes