SIMANIM: it is customary to eat specific foods known as simanim, symbols, at the evening meals of Rosh Hashana. These are foods whose names have a double meaning that signify blessing. With each food we recite a prayer that G-d should bestow upon us the particular blessing symbolized by the food. Simanim include fish, carrots, pomegranates, dates and of course, the most famous Rosh Hashanah food, apples dipped in honey. This custom is based on the Talmudic teaching……”Abaye taught, now that you have said that a siman (an omen) is significant, at the beginning of each year, a person should accustom himself to eat gourds, fenugreek, leeks, beets and dates…” (Babylonian Talmud Kerisus 6a)
The custom is to eat foods that are symbolic of good things as a signal of our wish for a good new year. These foods play a vital role in concretizing the experience of asking G-d for our most important needs.
Some of the more common symbolic foods are apple, honey, carrot, leek or cabbage, beet, date, gourd or pumpkin, pomegranate, fish and the head of a fish. These foods symbolize our need to live in peace and our wish that our merits be numerous, that they represent us and that we have a sweet and plentiful new year.
Harira is the traditional Maghreb soup. It is considered as a meal in itself. It is also served to relatives and friends after a special celebration, such as the morning after a wedding night, and its recipe varies then slightly from the harira eaten during Ramadan. Of course, it could be prepared any time, however, some families prefer to stick to tradition and serve it on special occasions.
Harira’s base-recipe is composed of the following ingredients, and may vary depending on regions: flour, tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, onions, rice, eggs, herbs [celery, parsley and coriander], spices [saffron, ginger & pepper], a small portion of meat [beef, lamb or chicken] and olive oil. Lemon juice is added at serving time as well as salt. It is usually served with hard boiled eggs sprinkled with salt and cumin, dates and other favorite dreid fruits such as figs, traditional honey sweets and slices of lemon.
Taboule, is a salad. The traditional recipe used crushed wheat, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, onion, parsley, mint, salt and pepper, mixed together and, where possible, chilled. It is often served as a side dish, great for buffets.
Pastilla, Bsteeya, Bastilla, B’stilla or Bstilla (pronounced Pastiya in Arabic) is a dish traditionally made of squab although today most use shredded chicken. It can also use fish as a filling. It is a pie which combines sweet and salty flavours; a delicious combination of crisp layers of warka dough, a thinner cousin of the phyllo dough, savory chicken slow-cooked in broth and spices and shredded, and a crunchy layer of toasted and ground almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.
Tajines are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce. They are traditionally cooked in the tajine pot, whose cover has a knob-like formation at its top to facilitate removal. While simmering, the cover can be lifted off without the aid of a mitten, enabling the cook to inspect the main ingredients, add vegetables, move things around, or add additional liquid.
Most tagines involve slow simmering of less-expensive meats. For example, the ideal cuts of lamb are the neck, shoulder or shank cooked until it is falling off the bone. Very few Moroccan tagines require initial browning; if there is to be browning it is invariably done after the lamb has been simmered and the flesh has become butter-tender and very moist. In order to accomplish this, the cooking liquid must contain some fat, which may be skimmed off later. Moroccan tajines often combine lamb or chicken with a medley of ingredients or seasonings: olives, quinces, apples, pears, apricots, raisins, prunes, dates, nuts, with fresh or preserved lemons, with or without honey, with or without a complexity of spices. Traditional spices that are used to flavour tajines include ground cinnamon, saffron, ginger, tumeric, cumin, paprika, pepper as well as the famous spice blend Ras el hanout. Some famous tajine dishes are mqualli or mshermel (both are pairings of chicken, olives and citrus fruits, though preparation methods differ), kefta (meatballs in an egg and toamto sauce), and mrouzia (lamb, rasins and almonds).
Other ingredients for a tajine include any product that braises well: fish, quail, pigeon, beef, root vegetables, legumes, even amber and aga wood. Modern recipes include pot roasts, lamb shanks and turkey legs. Seasonings can be traditional spices suited to the dish.
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