Rosh Hashana cooking: Adoni style

Recipes for the Jewish New Year.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Meir Adoni's Beet mafrum (photo credit: DAN PERETZ)
Meir Adoni's Beet mafrum
(photo credit: DAN PERETZ)
Beet mafrum filled with chicken, raisins and cinnamon
Serves 6
Ingredients:
6 beets, peeled
Filling:
2 boneless chicken thighs (pargiyot), ground
1 boneless chicken breast, ground
1 white onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil or sunflower oil
1/4 cup dark raisins
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons matza meal
1 egg
Salt
Pepper
Sauce:
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
2 liters of water
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup silan (date honey)
Cinnamon
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Slice off the top quarter of every peeled beet. Using a melon baller or a knife hollow out the beets, leaving a wall 1cm thick all around. Reserve the lids and the insides of the beets for later use.
To prepare the filling, soak the raisins in boiling water for 20 minutes, then drain.
Heat the oil and brown the onions until golden, then let them cool.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for a minute or two until they just turn golden, no longer. Let cool. In a bowl, mix together well the raisins, onion, pine nuts and the rest of the filling ingredients.
The filling can be prepared in advance and kept in a closed box in the fridge.
For the sauce, heat the oil in a pot and stir fry the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and the insides of the beets. When the vegetables start to soften and the onions start to turn translucent, add the tomato paste and cook for another two minutes.
Add the water, vinegar, silan and spices according to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the flame and taste the mixture to adjust the seasoning. Place the hollowed out beets and their lids in the sauce and cook them for 20 minutes.
Remove the beets and let them cool a little. Until this point everything can be prepared in advance.
To assemble the dish, fill the beets and top them with their lids. Reheat the sauce until just boiling. Add the filled beets to the sauce, cover the pot and cook for 30-40 minutes over a low flame, until the beets have softened and the filling is cooked through.
Gefilte fish with carrot and citrus and horseradish cremes
Serves 8
Ingredients:
600g cleaned fish
200ml (1 cup) water
50ml (¼ cup) oil
100g hardboiled eggs, chopped (about 2 large eggs)
40g sugar
100g almonds powder or finely ground almonds
200g finely minced onion (approximately 2 small or ½ medium onions)
2 raw eggs
Salt
Pepper
Fish stock
Instructions:
In a blender or food processor, grind together half of the fish with the oil, water and boiled eggs.
Mix in the remaining fish and the sugar, almonds, onion, eggs and salt and pepper.
Form the mixture into patties, and cook them in fish stock for 30 minutes over low heat.
Carrot and citrus creme:
Ingredients:
3 carrots
Juice of 4 oranges
200 ml (1 cup) water
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of vinegar
50 ml (¼ cup) oil
Instructions:
Peel and dice the carrots. Mix together the orange juice, water, sugar and vinegar in a pot. Add the carrots, and cook on a low flame until the carrots are soft.
Strain the carrots, and grind them to a paste along with the oil in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Horseradish creme:
Ingredients:
Half horseradish root, ground
3 large beets, cooked
1 apple
Teaspoon of fresh ginger
Teaspoon of wasabi
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of vinegar
Pinch of salt
Instructions: Grind all the ingredients together in a blender or food processor until the texture is creamy. Filter with strainer.
Translated by Amy Spiro