CELEBRATE ROSH HASHANAH

celebrating rosh hashanah

Victoria Prever shares long-held traditions of the Jewish New Year, including this brisket recipe jewelled with pomegranate seeds

The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah (which translates from Hebrew as ‘head of the year’), is a festival when most Jewish people sit down to feast together to mark the anniversary of the creation of the world. The date moves around in the modern calendar because Jewish months are based on the lunar year. This year, it begins on the evening of Sunday, 25 September and ends the evening of Tuesday 27 September.

It’s customary to eat a fruit not tasted so far that season, and pomegranate – said to contain 613 seeds (reflecting the number of commandments in the Hebrew Bible or Torah) – is the most traditional. It also works very well with cost-effective beef brisket.

Pomegranate brisket

SERVES 4-6 PREP 30 mins plus overnight marinating and resting COOK 3 hrs EASY ❄

1.6kg beef brisket (if rolled, unroll it) 2 red onions, finely sliced ½ pomegranate, seeds only cooked giant couscous tossed with 10g coriander leaves, urfa chilli, chopped cucumber and lemon zest, to serve (optional) For the marinade 120ml pomegranate molasses 60ml olive oil 2 tsp ras el hanout 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tsp urfa chilli flakes

1 Mix the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl with 3/4 tsp fine salt. Put the beef in a large ovenproof dish. Pour over half the marinade, spread evenly, then turn and pour over the rest of the marinade to coat. Cover and chill overnight. 2 Remove the beef from the fridge up to 1 hr before cooking to come up to room temperature. Heat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9. 3 Turn the meat in the marinade, leaving the fatty layer on the top. Tuck half the onions underneath the meat and spread the rest on top. Cover loosely with foil. Roast for 15 mins, then turn the oven down to 170C/150C fan/gas 3. Cook for a further 2 hrs 30 mins, or up to 3 hrs. It’s ready when a fork goes into the meat and comes out easily – it should also be flaky. If not, put back in the oven for another 30 mins. 4 Rest the brisket for 15 mins, still covered with foil, then transfer to a board. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds over and serve with a giant couscous salad, if you like, or shred using two forks, then spoon over some of the sauce from the dish.

PER SERVING (6) 612 kcals • fat 34g • saturates 10g • carbs 19g • sugars 16g • fibre 3g • protein 56g • salt 1.4g

Victoria Prever is food editor at the Jewish Chronicle and trained at Leith’s School of Food and Wine. She is also a freelance food writer, cookery teacher and food consultant who has appeared on Sunday Morning Live on BBC One.

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