2012 September 06 | Kosher Recipes and Jewish Table Settings

2 Comments 06 September 2012

My friend Brenda makes this amazing chicken dish adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe. It’s sweet and sour with cinnamon, honey and lemon and is perfect for Rosh Hashanah. The original recipe calls for thighs on the bone, but I prefer boneless thighs, which become fall apart tender when braised (I cut off all visible fat and cut them into small pieces). It’s comforting and delicious for the holidays or on a cool fall night. Serve with rice or couscous.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat & cut into 2-3 pieces each

2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise into1/4-inch-wide strips
1 lb carrots (6 medium), cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
3 large cloves garlic, minced through a press
1 – 2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Pat chicken dry. Stir together 1 1/2 teaspoons salt with paprika, cinnamon, and pepper and rub onto chicken.

2. Heat half the oil in a skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken in 2 batches, turning over once, about 5 minutes per batch. A non-stick skillet works well. Transfer chicken as browned to a bowl.

3. Add onion to the pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and beginning to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add flour and stir til combined.

4. Return chicken to skillet with onions. Add the broth, lemon juice, and honey, then cook over moderately low heat, covered, until chicken is very tender, about 30 minutes. Add carrots and simmer until they are soft – about 20-30 minutes more. Add salt to taste, more lemon juice or honey to balance the sweet and sour if desired, and parsley.

This dish reheats nicely and is even better the next day.

Lisa Ades

kosher recipes, rosh hashanah roast , lamb, and brisket recipes, rosh hashanah simanim, sukkot and rosh hashanah recipes

Loobiah- Black Eyed Peas Simanim for Prosperity- Aleppo Syrian Style

No Comments 06 September 2012

Image via -Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck

The Syrian Jewish custom of eating black eyed peas for prosperity goes back many generations to Aleppo, Syria. It amazed me that our grandmothers, some as young as 13 years old when married in Aleppo, came to this country over 100 years ago with not so much as a Farberware pot, yet they managed to continue our centuries old Rosh Hashanah culinary traditions. I often wonder how they were able to scour the streets of the lower East side, not knowing the language- and manage to find ingredients such as black eyed peas to celebrate their Jewish New Year as they had remembered their parents cooked back in Aleppo and Damascus. Black-eyed peas are rubiyah (in Aramaic and Hebrew) or lubiya (in Arabic), which are related to the Hebrew words harbeh, meaning many, and l’harabot, to increase.

Growing up, I remember holding up the fork full of loobiah (black eyed peas) and saying the “ZECHHOYOTANU KAROOBIAH” prayer while everyone joked that if we wanted to get rich that year we better down those black eyed peas ASAP.

This is my mother in law’s “LOOBIAH”- Black Eyed Peas Recipe for Rosh Hashanah. I’m sure many Syrian jewish women have different adaptations. Please send yours in to marlene(at)thejewishhostess.com so I can share it with Jewish Hostesses worldwide. (OR you can comment below).

We make enough loobiah to serve for the Rosh Hahsanah seder and then serve again during the actual holiday meal over rice.

If you are having a big crowd on Rosh Hashanah then double this recipe.

Boil 1 lb. package or 1 lb chopped flanken with the bone for 1 hour and throw out fatty water.
In a clean pot, sauté 3 cloves garlic and one chopped onion with boiled flanken for 20 minutes on a low flame.
Add one lb. bag of washed black eyed peas (washed and drained in a colander), sauté a minute.
Add salt, allspice, cinnamon,
Add 1 can tomato sauce.
Cook about an hour or more till loobiah is cooked and a stew-like consistency.