happy new year

Two weeks ago, we hosted Rosh Hashanah dinner at our apartment for fifteen Monrovia-based Jews and assorted friends (such as myself and our flatmate, Denise). Our other flatmate Jim estimates that this group represents close to 100% of the Jews who have wandered to Liberia, but Peter is sure there are more out there and the numbers are growing daily. In fact, Peter may be right, as the same day as our dinner, the local newspaper reported that a rather famous Liberian had discovered Judaism:


Charles Taylor, of course, is the ex-Liberian President currently being tried in The Hague for war crimes. Does the text under his picture represent Taylor's point of view? Or was it just the newspaper editorializing, perhaps, about the benefits of Judaism? We'll never know.

Our friend Dan led the first prayer, and then we had apples and honey, which symbolize the hopes of a sweet new year.

Our menu included foods from a few cultures:

Apples and honey
Chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce
Ratatouille and bread
Homemade round challah with and without raisins
Brisket with roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, prunes, and dates
Roasted squash
Collard greens sauted with onions and white wine
Chocolate cake with coconut frosting

It was one of the more successful dinner parties we've had, I think, mostly because we started the preparations so early. On the Saturday before the dinner, Peter, Denise, and Jim visited a butcher shop on Benson Street in search of brisket. Jim and Peter brought a sketch of a cow to indicate the area of the brisket, and the butcher used an axe - yes, an axe - to hack it off the cow carcass hanging from the ceiling. Later, they told me that said cow's head was sitting on the ground of the shop.

On Sunday night at about 8:30, Peter started preparations for cooking the brisket. Why hadn't he started earlier? I can't really remember, but it probably had to do with the fact that we were lazing around at the beach that day. I made fun of him, which I would later regret. Peter stayed up until 1:30.

On Monday night, at about the same time, I cursed myself for having procrastinated again, and started baking challah at 9 PM. At midnight, the dough hadn't risen enough, but I figured it just needed more time. I decided to take a quick nap, but a few minutes after I turned off the light, I couldn't stop thinking: What did I do wrong? I bake bread every weekend...Suddenly I realized I had used a teaspoon of yeast, instead of a tablespoon. I dissolved some more yeast in warm water to make sure it was alive, but then realized that with so much more water, I would need more flour. Thirty minutes later, I had turned the dough back into a mushy mess...and now I needed to braid it. Oy.

I had known that round challah is often eaten at Rosh Hashanah, but for some reason I also wanted to bake a loaf with six braids, rather than the usual three. At 1 AM I found myself giggling as I tried to maneuver lumpy, sticky ropes of dough into a complex, elegant braid. They were pale, masses of mush. I let them sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, and at 5:30 AM, Peter kindly got out of bed to take the dough out of the refrigerator. I got up an hour later to bake them, and they actually looked great. Thank god for egg wash, which makes even my challah look presentable.

On Tuesday, the day of the dinner, we braised the brisket for a few more hours, cooked the squash and collard greens, and our friend Leah brought over the chicken and ratatouille.

Notwithstanding our manic midnight cooking, the dinner was really wonderful.









Here's a rough approximation of Pete's brisket recipe:


Pete's Brisket with Sweet Potato and Carrot
Adapted from a recipe on the Florida Department of Agriculture website (although he attests that most of the inspiration came from his mom's tsimmes recipe.)

Ingredients
6 medium onions, chopped
8 large cloves garlic, chopped
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
5 cups chicken stock or canned broth
3 cups "Sangria" (or whatever inexpensive sweet wine you can find)
3 bay leaves
2 5-pound boneless first-cut beef briskets
2 handfuls of dried dates
1 1/2 cups pitted prunes
3 pounds sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
6 large carrots, peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
minced fresh parsley


Preparation
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Heat oil in heavy large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until beginning to brown, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon allspice and crushed red pepper and stir 20 seconds. Add chicken stock, wine and bay leaves. Boil 10 minutes to blend flavors. Pour into gigantic roasting pan.

Make a mixture of salt, black pepper and olive oil and rub in to the brisket. Add brisket to roasting pan, fat side up. Add dried dates and pitted prunes. Cover and bake 1 1/2 hours. Add sweet potatoes and carrots to roasting pan. Cover and cook until brisket is very tender, about 5 hours longer. Remove from oven and let stand 20 minutes. Remove brisket from pot and slice thinly across grain. Arrange on platter. Degrease pan juices. Spoon pan juices over meat. Arrange fruit and vegetables around meat. Garnish with minced fresh parsley and serve.

If cooking in advance, as we did, slice the brisket and place at the bottom of the roasting pan and cover with juices and vegetables. Reheat as needed.

Yield
16 servings