Tzimmes

The original version of this recipe, which I have adapted, appeared in a spiral-bound Jewish community cookbook to which my grandmother, Molly Cowan, contributed. There is no digital record of it; when I asked my mother for a copy, she sent a photograph and offered advice on tinkering with the seasoning. It’s the only tzimmes I have ever known, although tzimmes comes in many different incarnations: with meat (beef, traditionally); with dried fruit (prunes, pears, peaches); with honey. Some families serve it at the High Holidays because it is sweet, and tradition dictates that the New Year is celebrated with sweetness. But in my family, we ate tzimmes all the time, as a side dish that took the place of sweet potato casserole. When my grandmother stopped making it, my mother stepped in. These days, I think of it as emblematic of Jewish American tradition, of how the flavor of our culture influenced nearly everything we ate.