Columnist Muriel Stevens: Cookbook is a Jewish treasure

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

On this first night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the festive dinner table will include a sweeter-than-usual round challah (egg bread), studded with raisins and glazed with honey, and tsimmes, a sweet stew of carrots, sweet potatoes, dried apricots and raisins.

Sometimes meat is added to this sweet melange. There are so many versions of this dish.

And there are many recipes for Rosh Hashana, the holiday that forecasts the year to come. It is a tradition to eat sweet foods in the hope that they will assure a sweet year.

Home bakers using recipes passed down through the family recreate the familiar flavors.

A trustworthy collection of holiday recipes that will please any level baker -- cakes, breads, desserts, cookies and more -- can be found in the just-released trade paperback edition of "A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking" by Marcy Goldman (Broadway Books, $17.95).

Included is an exceptionally good selection of baked goods for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, as well as other Jewish holidays.

My criteria for cookbooks is if they make me want to drop everything and go into the kitchen. "Jewish Holiday Baking" does that.

Rosh Hashana is the beginning of a 10-day period that ends on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, a fast day and when the Book of Life is sealed for the year.

Kosher food in Las Vegas: The rapid growth of Las Vegas has encouraged supermarkets to expand their kosher foods section. Today all major markets offer an ever-growing selection of certified kosher products.

Kosher Mart (4794 S. Eastern Ave.) is, as far as I know, the only store offering fresh kosher meats.

Delivery is made every Tuesday. Meats not sold the same day are frozen. Kosher Mart management calls it "fresh-frozen."

Kosher Mart observes all Jewish holidays. They will be closed Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and until early afternoon Fridays. For more information, call 450-0099.

Jewish bakery: Freed's bakery in the same strip mall as Kosher Mart was one of the first in Las Vegas to feature Jewish-style breads and cakes.

This venerable family-run bakery bakes many breads, yeasty babas and other coffee cakes, rugelach and kichlach, and many Jewish holiday specialities.

It's wise to order holiday breads in advance. Call 456-7762. Be patient. The challah is worth the wait.

Whole Foods market: Whole Foods Market in Summerlin does not have a large selection of kosher products, but it does have kosher organic, free-range chickens.

These birds are considered fresh-frozen, but it would be more accurate to say frozen-thawed. These birds cannot be re-frozen.