Published in the Five Towns Jewish Times, September 8, 2006

If someone were to ask you what your mother’s kitchen smelled like on Erev Rosh Hashanah, what would you say?  Perhaps you’d close your eyes and transport yourself years back to the smells of chicken soup mixed with the sweetness of taiglach or tzimmes filling the house.  Undoubtedly, you’ll revisit the first taste of apple dipped in honey on your tongue.  The sensory memory is indeed a very powerful thing.  I often discuss with my students the idea that the senses of taste and smell can be a strong medium for capturing memories and linking them to our greater mesorah.  It is for this reason that I find myself fond of trying to learn and continue the tradition of my own family’s recipes.        

But just as the world is a drastically different place from 100 or even 50 years ago, the way we used to cook has drastically changed as well.  And the “old school” of traditional Jewish cooking has all but vanished.  What I refer to as “old school,” is the use of tasting over measuring, and intuition over a dependence on recipes.  Your tongue was your guide, nothing was written down.  You “schit a-rein” – loosely translated from Yiddish “you throw in…and you throw in some more”.   And although we have access to many more kosher ingredients today than ever before and a slew of good cookbooks, what we have lost is the ability to cook by feel and honed tastebuds, a true Yiddishe ta’am.   That is something you cannot get from a cookbook.  That is something you must teach and pass on.   

With all that said, I am about to do the impossible.  I am going to feebly attempt to give over my own grandmother’s recipe for Tzimmes. 

Now you must understand that my grandmother’s tzimmes is very different from the dish most people envision when they think of tzimmes.  Hers is no candied carrot side dish, rather a hearty main course that was given over to her in the Polish (Galician) style from her mother and grandmother.  There are carrots, of course, but also meat, and knaidlach, …the works!  And in my family, it was not yom tov if my grandmother did not make this delicacy – even our guests would ask if she’d be making it!  The end result is less sticky-sweet, but more stew-saucy and really delicious and satisfying.  Here is how my grandmother told it over to me when we cooked together…

Grandma’s Tzimmes

3 lbs. Carrots - buy the large loose ones, not the small ones in a bag, sliced about ¼ inch thick on the bias.

4 sweet potatoes, cut into chunks

2 whole large onions, trimmed and scored like an “X” on top

2 pieces flanken (about 3 lbs.) – very important to choose meaty non-fatty pieces of flanken.  Cut each piece into 4 sections in between the bones for a total of 8 pieces.

water – “enough” to cover (Huh?  Don’t worry, I’ll explain it, but don’t hold your breath for measurements!)

Start with 1 cup Brown sugar – you’ll add more later.

Start with 1 cup honey – you’ll probably need to add more of that too.

Start with 1½ tsp. kosher salt and ½ tsp black pepper – plus more to taste.

1 basic matzo ball recipe - any recipe from the back of a matzo meal box is fine as long as it uses seltzer instead of water (it comes out fluffier). Go heavy with the matzo meal though. 

Directions:  

Place flanken in a large soup pot and cover with at least 1 1/2 inches of water.  Place over high heat and bring to a boil.  Skim off whatever fat or foam rises to the top.  (This should take about 20-30 minutes). Add in all of the remaining ingredients, and make sure that there is enough water to cover all the vegetables.  (Grandma says it’s okay if you’ve added too much water because you can always boil it off and “cook it out” by uncovering the pot during the cooking).  Bring to a simmer and let cook partially uncovered for about an hour and a half.  You can now start to taste and season the broth with more honey, brown sugar, salt and pepper (it should have a full-bodied sweetness with plenty of flavor!).  

In the meantime, prepare your matzo ball mixture and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Bring tzimmes to a boil and start dropping in your knaidlach – you can do this by forming the balls in your hands. Make sure your hands are wet so that the balls don’t stick to your hands.  Cook partially covered for another hour.  Then season to taste once again (if the broth is not very flavorful, you need to add more of something!).  If there is too much water (the consistency is very watery), then you need to cook it down by uncovering the pot. The end result should be firm knaidlach that have soaked in all the wonderful broth laying on the top of the tzimmes.  The broth should be slightly thicker than soup, sort of saucy.  Before the tzimmes is finished, taste one last time to adjust seasonings. (as a child I was called upon to taste and to taste again – with pleasure!).  Once the dish is finished, transfer it to baking dishes or tins.  Remove and discard the onions. Reheat in the oven – covered if it’s “good”, uncovered if the liquid still needs to reduce more. 

Serves 6-8, but can be easily doubled!           

I always enjoy trying new and exciting recipes for yom tov.  I’ll be teaching a whole bunch of them at the Kosher Culinary Institute under the direction of Naomi Nachman at the JCC on Sept. 12 – enough for a whole menu, in fact!  Call the JCC at 516-569-6733 to sign up!  But while I love unique and creative gourmet dishes, there are certain tastes that forever stay with me and complete my holiday experience. I hope you’ll enjoy Grandma’s Tzimmes as much as we do each year.  And if you happen to run into my Grandma, please let her know.  May the coming year bring much sweetness for you and all of Klal Yisrael. 

Naomi Ross teaches Cooking Concepts, courses on the fundamentals of cooking & Jewish homemaking.  For more information, visit her new website at www.jewishcookingconcepts.com.  Naomi can be reached at .