After a day of atoning and fasting, the last thing any of us want to do is walk into our kitchen, fire up the stove and start cooking a meal that won’t be ready for a few hours. The key to preparing a lovely and delicious break fast, whether it’s for your family or a large group, is to cook dishes that store well and to reheat or finish them at the last moment. We’ve outlined a complete meal here. If you have family traditions for break fast, consider incorporating a dish or two from this menu to try something new.
Challah
While baking challah in advance isn’t the ideal situation, these two recipes call for apples or apple cider, which gives the challah a bit of extra moisture to help it stay fresh a day after it’s baked.
After a long day of prayers and atonement, the Yom Kippur fast ends at sunset and Jews gather to Break Fast and break bread.
Many people want to go home after synagogue services, putting together a traditional dinner, while some prefer to let a restaurant be the host, relax and be pampered like the chosen people. Here are a few suggestions should you want to let someone else do the cooking.
Brooklyn
No need to make a reservation at Miriam’s, a Mediterranean-Jewish restaurant in Brooklyn. Eat at the wooden bar or grab a coveted place at the tall, communal table in the front window of this popular Park Slope spot. Families and couples can spread out at one of the cozy dining room tables. The long, colorful haunt is strewn with Moroccan lights and atmospheric candles. On Miriam’s menu for Break Fast: roasted, boneless free-range chicken with Israeli couscous, roasted butternut squash and pumpkin seeds. Grass-fed, braised short ribs with traditional kugel is another holiday entree. Those preferring lighter fare can sup on chicken noodle soup served with kreplach.
79 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, will be open until 10:30 Wednesday, 718-622-2250.
With the days of Yamim Noraim almost at their beginning not only have my thoughts turned to the dishes I want to make for all the glorious holiday meals that are coming up, but also to the fast of Yom Kippur that will end this time of introspection and atonement.
Fasting is a ritual that is not only central within Jewish tradition but stretches across other religious traditions. Muslims practice the month long fast of Ramadan, while adherents of various Christian denominations, such as Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox Church, fast during the period of Lent. The Baha’I religion has a feast similar to Ramadan and the first Sunday of each month is a fast day for Mormons.
These periods of fasting offer us the opportunity for intense spiritual connectedness and spiritual nourishment. Yet there is no doubt that by the end of the fast people’s thoughts are begin to turn towards the long awaited break-fast meal.
Epicurious gives us some “Yom Kippur Recipes and Menus” including ones for Yemenite holiday soup, plumb dumplings and some traditional Jewish fare.
The LA Times explores different break fast traditions of Jews around the world.
“A former army man’s boutique brewery may change the face of Israeli beer,” according to Haaretz
Nikki Cascone, “Top Chef” alum, who is opening Octavia’s Porch, a global Jewish cuisine restaurant in New York speaks with The Village Voice.
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
You've successfully signed up!