Blintz Soufflé

–Adapted by Miriam Gray

In blender:

1 stick of margarine or butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup sugar (cook’s note: I don’t use that much)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon orange juice

Pour mixture over 2 packages (not defrosted) frozen blintzes (cheese or fruit). Bake in greased 7 x 11 pan at 350 degrees for about an hour — check after 45 minutes. You don’t want the top to be watery.

Quiche

–Eileen Schneider

1/2 pkg. frozen vegetables, defrosted (use chopped spinach — drain all the water — or chopped broccoli)

1/2 bag shredded cheese, 6 - 8 oz.

Frozen deep dish pie crust

1 1/4 cups milk

3 eggs

bit of flour

Prick bottom of pie shell with a fork. Drain veggies well. Place on bottom of crust, spreading around. Toss cheese with about a teaspoon of flour (keeps from sticking) and mix in with veggies. Blend milk and eggs in blender with any spices you want. I might put in a little dried minced onion, basil, garlic, whatever. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes until golden on top. Test by putting knife in, when it comes out clean.

Courtesy Inbal Jerusalem Hotel

This exclusive Rosh Hashanah recipe is from the kitchen of Chef Moti Buchbut, executive chef at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel.

Lamb Osso Bucco with Sweet Potatoes, Oranges, Raisins & Thyme

Ingredients for 4 servings:

4 pieces of lamb osso bucco
2 red onions cut to medium-sized cubes
1 celery root cut to medium-sized cubes
14 ounces sweet potatoes cut into
medium-sized cubes
1 parsley root cut into medium cubes
6 peeled whole garlic cloves
Juice from two oranges (orange zest may be added)
1/2 liter (17 ounces) beef broth prepared in advance
5 stalks of fresh thyme
5 tablespoons olive oil
3.6 ounces raisins
1 cinnamon stick
3.6 ounces flour for the lamb meat
1/2 bottle of semi-dry white wine
Salt, black pepper, and several bay leaves

Preparation:

Sprinkle flour over the lamb.

Place it in a large pot and brown it. Remove it (place on side in a plate).

Fry the sweet potato cubes and remove from the pot.

Sauté (in the same pot) the rest of the vegetables - onion, celery root, parsley
and garlic.

Add the broth, orange juice, (zest, if you like), thyme, white wine, raisins, and
cinnamon stick.

Then add the lamb and bring to boil.

Cover the pot and place in the oven at 320 degrees for approximately 2 hours.

Check if meat is tender and add the sweet potato cubes.

Place in oven for another 30 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serving suggestion:

Pour some of the stew onto a round deep serving dish and place the lamb in the middle. Adorn with thyme stalk and sweet potato cubes.

JERUSALEM — Breaking the fast has its own set of traditions. Ashkenazim usually break the fast with something salty, like herring, because they believe fish restores salt lost by the body while fasting. Herring also was the cheapest fish in Eastern Europe where the custom originated.

Egg and cheese dishes — dairy products in general — are popular among the Ashkenazim for the first foods after Yom Kippur.

Some Eastern European Jews break the fast with a German sweet roll called shnekem, from the German word for snails, because of its coiled shape. The yeast dough containing milk and sour cream is rolled out and brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with a cinnamon sugar and a raisin and nut filling. It is then rolled up and cut into slices and baked.

Teaneck’s Temple Emeth has not had to look further than its religious school graduates to find accomplished shofar sounders.

According to Rabbi Steven Sirbu, religious leader of the synagogue, his congregation relies on two alumna to sound the ram’s horn on the High Holy Days.

“The older of the two, Jessica Firschein, is in her mid-20s and does all her preparation on her own,” he said. The younger, 15-year-old Hillsdale resident Carly Etzin, has been working with Jessica and the rabbi to prepare for the holidays.

There is no verse in the Torah commanding Jews to sound a shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

“You can quote me on that,” said Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, religious leader of Fair Lawn’s Shomrei Torah Orthodox Congregation. “The fact that we use a shofar and not a harmonica or a tuba is based on oral law.”

For that matter, said Yudin, Rosh Hashanah is not named in the Torah, either, but simply called “the first day of the seventh month.” The Torah tells us to remember the teruah, or blast, on that day, later called yom teruah. “But it still doesn’t use the word shofar,” said Yudin.

In classes promising to teach participants to “toot your own horn,” Craig Weisz , a member of Cong. B’nai Israel in Emerson and the husband of the synagogue’s religious leader, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, hopes to demonstrate that sounding a shofar “is not all that difficult.”

“My 5-year-old daughter can do it,” he said, as can his 7-year-old son.

While there are different levels of preparation — including the spiritual aspect, “understanding the meaning of the shofar and what it’s about” — Weisz said he will be focusing on “simple technical tips.”

It was well past 11 p.m. on a school night, and yet Chef Carrie Weiss and a group of young parents from Gerrard Berman Day School, Solomon Schechter of North Jersey in Oakland were still luxuriating in the living room of Joan and Dan Silna’s Saddle River home. Months of planning and three days of preparation had resulted in an evening full of epicurean pleasures, and the participants were celebratory.

Conceived in response to the hackneyed suburban get-together, where chips and dip and “pigs in blankets” are served without fanfare, “Reclaim Cocktail Hour,” the May 3 fundraiser for GBDS, welcomed 80 supporters from throughout the community to experience three chic cocktail parties in one.

“Anyone can entertain,” Chef Weiss told the crowd. “It’s really about the people in the room. All that is required are a few good recipes, attention to detail, and some whimsy. Guests vibrate off of their hosts. If you are going to be rushed and haggard, well, why bother?”

The Silnas’ house is designed for entertaining. In the spacious kitchen, each of the three islands was decorated to advance a theme: Springtime in Provence, Zen Fusion, and Come to the Casbah. Portions were plentiful. Guests gushed over the onion tarts, the summer rolls, and the mouth-watering mint-edamame mash. The saffron cous cous and the orange and carrot salad with dates were like a magic carpet ride, transporting taste buds directly to the spice markets of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Each buffet hailed a signature drink: Guests sipped Kir royale in Provence, savored agave-sweetened mint tea in the Orient, and finally, at the Casbah, relished the spicy pear and orange sangria that made some tipsy. Desserts included baklava and meringues topped with whipped cream and kiwi. The light and airy macaroons donated by Mocha Bleu, in Teaneck, rivaled those from Pierre Hermes in Paris.

“It was a classy evening in support of the Gerrard Berman Day School and its superior program,” said Joan Silna. “I learned some unbelievable recipes, but Carrie’s right — it’s about the people in the room, and we love these people.”

Weiss is at work on a kosher cookbook. To reach her, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

To find out more about Gerrard Berman Day School, log onto http://www.ssnj.org.

Ingredients:

olives of your choice

chopped rosemary

smashed garlic

orange and lemon zest

toasted fennel seeds

coriander seeds

fresh lemon juice

olive oil

Ingredients:

ginger simple syrup

pear liqueur

pear nectar

white wine

cinnamon sticks

fresh basil

sliced pears

sliced apples

fresh segmented oranges

kosher orange liqueur