Rosh Hashanah

A leek puree adds rich flavor. This side dish is especially good with the Brisket with Dried Apricots, Prunes, and Aromatic Spices recipe.

These nut meringues are also called erstesternen ("first stars"), a reference to the heavenly signs indicating the end of a fast day. They are traditionally served by German Jews at the meal following Yom Kippur.

Hoisin sauce is sold at Asian markets and in the Asian foods section of most supermarkets.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 15 min

I particularly like this version of whitefish salad, because there is no filler in it. Mark, a political consultant who served in the Carter White House, makes it for break-the-fast as well as during the year brunches.

(Torta di Bietola ed Erbe) In the more rugged areas of Tuscany, like the Garfagnana and Lunigiana in the northwest, savory tarts are as popular as their sweet counterparts. Vegetable tarts are quite common and usually include greens and herbs. This one features Swiss chard, thyme and oregano. Other herbs used in such tarts are tarragon, sage, nettles and borage.

This is one of the many types of apple cake popular throughout central Europe. I have seen apple cakes, a traditional Rosh Hashannah dessert, served on Sabbath and holiday tables from Israel to Australia.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

For bigger matzo balls in this soup form mixture into 12 rounds and cook them for one hour ten minutes.

Teamed with meats of all kinds in Moroccan cooking, dried fruits and honey impart flavor and sweetness to the sauce in this rich stew. Serve it with a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Begin this at least one day ahead. Serve with Potato-Leek Matzo Balls and steamed asparagus. What to drink: A full-bodied red with robust fruit, such as Zinfandel or Australian Shiraz.

Sephardim enjoy these confections on special occasions, especially Rosh Hashannah and Passover. Almost any fruit can be used in this process, but hard fruits require cooking and dried ones soaking. Although fruit is naturally sweet, the sugar in this recipe contributes additional sweetness and also intensifies the flavors, contributes body (so that the paste can be cut into shapes), and acts as a preservative.

This tsimmes created by Chef Lenard Rubin of the Phoenician Club in Phoenix, Arizona, is so good that I sometimes serve it alone without stuffing it into the chilies.

The German plum harvest is celebrated every year with a festival in Bühl in the southwestern part of the country. In this simple German dessert, cake batter is covered with wedges of fall plums; a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar bakes into a crunchy topping.

This soup, actually my mother's recipe, is traditionally served at Passover, but it's so good that my family likes to make it all year round. A little chicken stock goes into the matzo balls, and the rest makes up the soup base. You can also use canned chicken broth, but for the best-tasting and most authentic soup, we think nothing beats homemade chicken stock. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

In nineteenth-century America, kichlers or Haman's Ears for Purim Night were small cookies (kichel is cookie in Yiddish), sometimes made from a pound-cake batter, deep-fried in butter, and bathed in sugar syrup flavored with cinnamon and rose water. Notice that butter was used in this age before vegetable shortening. Haman's Ears is also the American name for a kichel, kichelkies, or hazenblosen (blown-up little pants), thin strips of fried dough sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, similar to the Italian bugie served at Carnivale in February. "When I would ask my grandmother how much red wine to use in her kichelkies, she would reply, 'Half and egg shell,'" said Flora Atkin, who enjoys making traditional family recipes for holidays. "She used to say, 'I know my recipe won't die because my granddaughter will carry on the tradition.'" She was right. Before Rosh Hashanah, each year, Mrs. Atkin makes kichelkies on an assembly line with three frying pans going at once.