Kosher caterer readies for sweet new year

The time: The dawn of the year 5772.

The place: Virginia Beach.

The scene: In a spotless kitchen, a cavernous pot of soup simmers over a low flame - the chicken stock, vegetables and seasonings releasing an aroma to soothe all souls.

Enter: Sue Adler, the soup maker, who has spent many long days toiling in Temple Emanuel's kitchen, stockpiling foodstuffs.

Adler opens a refrigerator at one end of a stainless-steel counter to reveal a stash of flat, aluminum pans filled with corn pudding. Down the hall, she reluctantly opens a freezer door. Inside, 30 pounds of sweet-and-sour meatballs, gallons of soup, bagels and bags of fried onions threaten to spill from the shelves.

In an adjacent storeroom, a freezer with French/double doors brims with marble cakes, apple cakes, pastries, bread and cookies. A hand-lettered sign taped to the door says "Sold."

For most of September, Adler has been prepping for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. According to the Hebrew calendar, it marks the anniversary of the beginning of the world. The celebration begins at sundown tonight.

Rosh Hashana is a time when Jews contemplate the relationship between the creator and mankind, make plans to better themselves in the new year, and ask for and grant forgiveness of others.

It's also a time for feasting.

"I tell the rabbi, 'You take care of their souls, I'll take care of their stomachs,' " said Adler, owner of Party's Etc., a kosher catering company, and resident chef at Temple Emanuel.

Temple Emanuel Rabbi David Barnett noted that kosher, or "ritually fit," applies to moral fitness, not just food. And Adler said making a kosher meal involves more than sliding a turkey into the oven.

Eating kosher forbids combining meat and dairy during the same meal. Pigs, rabbits, shellfish and catfish - among other things - are never consumed, and biblical laws govern how animals are killed.

Cooking kosher requires the strict segregation of equipment used to prepare meat dishes and dairy ones - including pots, pans, serving dishes, utensils, cutlery and cutting boards. Thus, a narrow corridor of locked cabinets in the temple kitchen has doors marked "dairy," "meat" and "parve," a term that means containing neither meat nor dairy.

Some sects require separate ovens, although at the temple, Adler "burns off" ovens by setting them for a time at 500 degrees, which allows her to start anew.

It all sounds so complicated, but when you've done it all your life, it's not, said Adler, who has been cooking kosher for customers for more than 19 years. For Rosh Hashana, Adler turns out a cornucopia of kosher foods that she has been eating since her childhood, some laden with symbolism of the season.

There's challah, a traditional yeast bread that is rich with eggs, yet light and airy. Usually, it's formed into a braided loaf. On Rosh Hashana, Adler forms the dough into spiral loaves that symbolize "the ending of one liturgical cycle and immediately beginning another," Barnett said, as well as "the idea of circularity and the annual cycles present within our lives."

Adler will bake scores of honey cakes - six or eight in a day - some made with butter and some made with nondairy margarine, so that they can be served at the end of meals containing meat.

A bite of the sweet cake, Barnett said, starts the new year with a sweet taste in the mouth and opens the person to new paths and awareness of spiritual regeneration and growth.

Another traditional treat, apples dipped in honey, is accompanied by a prayer for a sweet new year. And pomegranates are served, their many seeds symbolizing the 613 commandments attributed to the text of the torah, Barnett said.

In a single day last week, Adler made 28 quarts of chicken soup, eight honey cakes and a dozen pans of potato kugel. The next day, she moved on to chocolate mousse cakes, macaroni and cheese, cherry coffee cakes and mandel, which is akin to biscotti. That was followed by a full day making stuffed cabbage.

In the temple kitchen, she'll turn 20 pounds of beef liver into 35 pounds of chopped liver and make dozens and dozens of rugelach: bite-sized, fruit-filled pastries that are her favorite.

"We're in overdrive," Adler said of herself and her helper, Amy Freeman. "We're working all kinds of hours."

But soon Adler will rest; Jewish law forbids what we would consider traditional work on the high holidays.

RECIPES

Pomegranate Chicken
Serves: 4

3 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 large cut-up chicken or 4 to 5 chicken breasts
2 to 3 cloves minced garlic
1 16-ounce bottle pomegranate juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Mix cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, cayenne pepper and Italian seasoning. Take half the mixture and coat the chicken, then add the garlic. Put the chicken into a sealable plastic bag, add the pomegranate juice and marinate overnight.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Before roasting, pour marinade into a saucepan. Rub the remaining seasonings, oil and salt onto the chicken. Arrange chicken in roasting pan and roast, 40 to 50 minutes, or until juices run clear.

While the chicken is roasting, bring the marinade to a boil, turn to simmer and let it reduce by about two-thirds, or until it begins to thicken.

Remove chicken from oven and pour glaze over chicken. Return to the oven for 5 additional minutes. Chicken should be slightly crispy and browned.

Source: Sue Adler, Party’s Etc., Norfolk

Honey Cake
Makes: 1 10-inch cake

2 cups apples
¾ cup honey
½ cup margarine
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup strong coffee
2 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ginger

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 10-inch tube pan.

Peel, core and grate apples.

Combine honey, margarine, sugar, coffee and eggs. Beat thoroughly.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and ginger. Add to honey mixture, and beat until blended.

Stir in apples, and pour into greased tube pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Invert and glaze with honey glaze (recipe below).

Note  This is a low, dense cake.

Source: Sue Adler, Party’s Etc., Norfolk

Honey Glaze

½ cup honey
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat over medium, constantly watching, until the consistency is thin enough to glaze the cake.

Source: Sue Adler, Party’s Etc., Norfolk

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com

Check out Lorraine's blog at www.hamptonroads.com/blogs/lorraine-eaton.