Tzimmes is an eastern European recipe for honey baked carrots. The Yiddish word "meren" means carrots and to increase. Carrots symbolize our hope that we increase our good deeds in the coming year. Some tzimmes recipes add prunes, sweet potatoes or even meat to the sweet carrots. This is a meat recipe. You may leave the meat out for a parve version, substituting the shmaltz (yes, the chicken fat) for oil. If your menu is milchig (dairy) you may indulge in butter (forget the calories).
Ingredients:
- 1 lb carrots
- 1 1/2 lb flanken
- 1/2 lb dry prunes
- 3 white potatoes
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 2 tsp chicken fat
- 1 medium onion
- 1 tbs salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup tomato juice
- 2 tsp honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tsp sugar / 2 tsp water for color
Preparation:
Trim meat of all fat. Shred carrots and onions and sauté in chicken fat. Cut potatoes into medium-sized chunks. Put meat at bottom of pot, then arrange layers of potatoes, prunes, sweet potatoes and all other ingredients and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
Put 3 tsp of sugar and 2 tsp of water on high flame - get the sugar burned - themn pour 1/2 cup of cold water over the burned sugar and add the liquid to the tzimmes before putting tzimmes into moderate, 375 degrees Farenheit oven for 1 1/2 hours. And this is the final result:
Like the recipe? Any suggestion to improve the blog? Just to say hi? Drop me a line: jewishcookingworld@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.
I am happy to make the review of a much beloved book of mine, an old, well-worn, old school pillar of ashkenazy Jewish cooking. This jewell gave me much of my knowledge of what authentic ashkenazy cuisine is all about. It is old, and therefore divided into sections ( Introductions - Thoughts about food - Time Savers - Fish and Appetizers - Soups - Poultry - Beef - Veal - Side Dishes - Chollents and Casseroles - Stuffings - Cakes and Desserts - Salads and Relishes - Food for Holiday Thought - What made Mama Mama - Index).
The book is compiled and edited by the author, printed by Thomas Yoseloff, New York - London.
About the author:
Born in Russia, Sadie H. Rivkin came to the United States when she was eight years old. Although she had to leave high school after one year of work, when her first son was born she attended and graduated cum laude from law school. Having practiced law with her husband for a year, Mrs. Rivkin decided being a full-time mother was more important, and having raised three wonderful children, she has never regretted her decision. During World War II, she served as a volunteer worker at the naval base in Bayonne, New Jersey. Later, at the suggestion of her son-in-law who taught social work at the Hebrew Educational Alliance in New York, Mrs. Rivkin herself started a class at the Educational Alliance in traditional Jewish cooking.
Now that you know Mrs. Rivkin I want to share with you one of my favourite recipes from her little book. It is Carrot, Prune and Potato Tzimmes. You will find it in my next Post. Enjoy it as much as I did.
