FLAVORS Tasty Teachers By Flora Rosefsky When planning high holiday menus, recipe pages stained brown or yellow from years of use come to mind: an apple cake to usher in a sweet Rosh Hashanah, or chopped herring made for Yom Kippur’s Break the Fast. I believe that Sukkot, my favorite Jewish holiday, can be part of the broad umbrella of the Jewish holidays that take place each autumn. My Sukkot meals include many Eastern European family recipes, some newer ones from contemporary cookbooks and a new kind of cookie I came up with this year to denote the time Sukkot arrives when we look up at a full moon. What kinds of foods can we eat to reinforce many of the teachings of this celebratory festival that begins four days after the end of Yom Kippur? In addition to its historical connections to the Exodus, retelling the 40-year journey from Egypt to the promised land, Sukkot manifests agricultural symbolism with a concept of thankfulness for the food G-d provides. Not to be one to watch the calorie count for a Jewish holiday meal, many of my Sukkot dishes are not only stuffed to denote the fullness of the Sukkot fall harvest season but also to be thankful for a bounty of food. A stuffed desert, like a mixed fruit strudel using chopped apples with a touch of honey, connects Rosh Hashanah to Sukkot. It can also be eaten for a Jewish New Year’s meal. If following the commandment to dwell in the sukkah for eight days, many meals are served in the temporary dwelling. Natural materials like bamboo, branches, or corn stalks create the roof (schach) with just enough room between them to see the sky. For those times when rain appears, it’s easier to bring one plate back into the house to finish the meal, the reason why Hungar-
A full moon Sukkot cookie is a treat.
A one dish meal of Hungarian goulash is perfect for Sukkot.
A plate full of stuffed foods is ready for a Sukkot supper.
ian goulash and other one-dish entrees with meat, rice or potatoes, and vegetables all mixed together, are popular Sukkot menu choices. My mother’s Romanian stuffed cabbage is a Rosefsky favorite Sukkot choice. The recipe’s sauce includes a mixture of dried fruits, brown sugar and lemon juice. I finally had to write up this handed-down recipe because everyone who tasted it wanted to know how to make it. Foods such as stuffed acorn squash, stuffed mushrooms and twice-baked potatoes also reinforce the fullness of the autumn season’s harvest. Some foods, which may not be “stuffed,” offer their own ways to teach us more about Sukkot. During COVID, besides decluttering closets and drawers bursting with clothes, dust off the piles of cookbooks tucked away on kitchen bookshelves or drawers. In addition to Sukkot recipes handed down from relatives, these cookbooks, often spiral
bound, were published by synagogue Sisterhoods, NCJW, The Breman Museum, Hadassah and other Jewish organizations. They explore Jewish traditions with their recipe choices, while being popular fundraising philanthropic projects. When I want to try something new while learning more about a particular Jewish holiday such as Sukkot, my favorite go-to cookbook is “The Jewish Holiday Cookbook: An International Collection of Recipes and Customs” by Gloria Kaufer Greene. One idea I came up with this year is to use store-bought large black and white cookies and simply cover them with white icing. I decided to call them Full Moon cookies, an appropriate dessert for Sukkot since it is the only Jewish holiday that begins with a full moon, and not a new moon. Note that out of curiosity, I did an internet search to see if there were recipes for Full Moon cookies. Pinterest and other resources showed phases of the moon cookies with many reci-
pes, but I did not find one specifically designated as a Sukkot moon cookie. With food pantries needing more support during the pandemic and communities experiencing food vulnerability, Sukkot brings to mind how we also can think of others by sharing our meals. If not with a container of cooked stuffed cabbage, we can look through our stuffed shelves of canned goods to donate to places such as the Jewish Family & Career Services Food Pantry, or to our local synagogue food drives. The Jewish symbolic foods I prepare, eat and share with others during Sukkot bring me full circle back to my mother and my grandmothers, of blessed memories, who set the compass on how to embrace Jewish traditions through their kitchens. Now it’s time to pass on their recipes, along with a few of my own, to my children, grandchildren and to my community. Chag Sukkot Sameach – Happy Sukkot Holiday! ì
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