where's the year gone?

Yeah, you gentiles think I'm worried cos it's almost November and the giant bloody Christmas tree is up again already. But no, I'm worried cos I had this Rosh Hashana post all thought out and the time, the time, where is the time... it goes and now it's bloody weeks since jewish new year so what do you wanna hear me kvetch about it or what?

Also I'm thinking maybe I should get me a computer so I can do this blogging thing more often. New jobs don't have as much interweb slacking time. But then me thinks, well do I want to spend my home time on the computer or in the lovely big new garden or playing with Lish's Le Creuset pot and the world's biggest mortar and pestle in my new kitchen? But you know, maybe if I had a computer I wouldn't write all frantic frantic unedited on my sister's while the baby sleeps...

Ok, here's the new year's recipe.
for what it's worth at this late time, Shana Tova folks.

New Year's Chickpeas
from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian.

Claudia Roden says in her Book of Jewish Food that round foods like chickpeas bring good luck for the new year. Wholeness and all that. I think Sephardic Jews eat chickpeas at Rosh Hashana. A few years back I decided that we should too because this truly is delicious. I like also to remind people that there are Middle Eastern Jews too... you know in these days where the idea of Arab and Jew are sold to us as diametrically opposed. As if the Middle East wasn't the safest place for Jews to live for centuries and centuries of Muslim rule. As if Iraqi Jews never existed. Um.. anyway. On a food note, if you serve it with giant couscous, which is my new favourite thing, then you get double roundness. And because Rosh Hashana comes in Spring here it's so exciting to use the first of the broad beans. If not, Madhur suggests using zucchini.

You need:
(double or triple this for a festive meal)

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 onion, sliced into thin half rings
• 1 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ginger, ground
• 1/2 tsp cayenne, or less
• 3 tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cups of cooked chickpeas
• 2 cups of pumpkin in a 2cm dice
• 2 tbsp big fat raisins
• vegie stock
• 1 cup or more broad beans
• salt
• chopped parsley and coriander - a few tbsps

Mix the dry spices together in a cup. Heat the oil in a big saucepan. Fry the cinnamon stick for a few seconds, then add the onion and fry until golden brown. Add the spices and stir for a second before adding the tomatoes. Cook until they soften down. Now add the chickpeas, raisins and pumpkin and cover with stock - it should be quite quite liquidey. Cook slowly until the pumpkin is almost tender. Season as needed and add the broad beans. Simmer until done. Mix the herbs through and serve over giant couscous with labne and harissa.