Braised Beef Brisket & Roasted Carrots with a Pomegranate-Honey Glaze for Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year celebration, begins at sundown on October 2. All over the country, Jewish families will gather with friends and family to recite the holiday blessings, break bread and wish one another “L’shana tovah:” a sweet new year!

Because we leave nothing to chance, Jewish families celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which means the “head of the year,” with a meal full of sweet foods to symbolize our hope that the coming year be a sweet one. For example, many families begin Rosh Hashanah dinner by dipping slices of apple in honey. Rosh Hashanah also comes at a time of year when fall fruits and vegetables are at their peak, making it easy to plan a delicious and seasonal menu.

One fall vegetable that graces many Rosh Hashanah tables are carrots. Look for carrots with the green tops still attached - they have the best flavor - and seek out some heirloom varieties in different hues of yellow, orange and even purple at your local farmers market. I find that roasting brings out carrots’ natural sweetness. Add a sweet-tart glaze made with pomegranate molasses and honey — another traditional Rosh Hashanah food — and you have carrots worthy of a holiday meal.

(Pomegranate molasses, a common Middle Eastern ingredient, is simply pomegranate juice that has been reduced to a thick sauce. It resembles nothing so much as Balsamic vinegar. You will find it at better grocery stores or you can make it yourself by cooking down pomegranate juice until syrupy. After Rosh Hashanah, try pomegranate molasses in salad dressing or as a glaze for meat.)

The centerpiece of my Rosh Hashanah menu is a beef brisket cooked in a red wine sauce. An inexpensive cut of meat, brisket is the ideal food to serve a crowd because you can do all the work in advance. Not only is it possible to make brisket the day before you plan to serve it, it is preferable.

But put aside such mundane considerations as price and convenience: brisket is a wonderful dish to serve a crowd because it is true comfort food. Shreds of meat that melt in your mouth, winey, tomatoey gravy that soaks everything it touches. Who can resist such satisfying warmth?

The key to tender, melt-in-your-mouth brisket is to braise it, that is, sear it first on the stove, then cook it in the oven, surrounded by liquid, for several hours. For this task, use a heavy, lidded Dutch oven, such as one by Le Creuset, that can go from stovetop to oven. The brisket should fit snugly in your pot.

The brisket’s cooking liquid will become a flavorful gravy to serve alongside the meat. But here is another potential pitfall. The sauce can end up being greasy because of the fat from the brisket. The solution is to cook the meat the day before you plan to serve it, as I mentioned. You can then chill the sauce and the fat will congeal at the top, making it easy to remove.

Another advantage to cooking the brisket the day before your celebration and refrigerating it is that brisket is easier to slice when it is cold. You want thin slices of meat, so use your sharpest carving knife and be sure to cut across the grain of the meat. The sliced brisket is then reheated in the remaining gravy just an hour prior to serving. There is always so much to do in the hour before guests arrive — isn’t it nice to serve a main dish that requires no attention from you during that time?

To round out this menu of brisket and roasted glazed carrots, I recommend a refreshing green salad garnished with pomegranate seeds, another traditional Rosh Hashanah food; a round challah; and for dessert, a traditional honey cake, or perhaps, for a more sophisticated crowd, an apple tart topped with creme fraiche.

May your Rosh Hashanah dinner be festive and delicious and your new year sweet and full of blessings!