I love latkes! I love the crispy slightly greasy oniony treat that is a familiar sight on Hanukkah. Give me apple sauce; give me sour cream, just give latkes.
At least for the first night. Then give me something else.
This week I am teaching Chicago-area Hanukkah revelers different gastronomic delights that fulfill the mitzvah of eating something fried. Below are some of the recipes. Have a Freylich Hanukkah!
At your next Hanukkah party why stop at topping the fried crispy beauties with just apple sauce or sour cream? Have a latke bar! Place a large platter of latkes out and add bowls of toppings.
See how, below the jump…
Chanukah starts next week – don’t let the opportunity to give meaningful, sustainable gifts to your loved ones pass you by. Check out The Jew & The Carrot’s Sustainable Chanukah Gift Guide for creative, eco-friendly gift ideas for *nearly* everyone on your list.
And – as thanks to our wonderful readers, The Jew & The Carrot teamed up with Thou Shall Snack to offer a special Chanukah gift to you - the chance to win a free gift basket filled with delicious and healthy goodies from Thou Shall Snack.
Click here and enter by December 5th for your chance to win.
With Hanukkah nearly upon us, it’s time to start prepping our latke recipes. The oil that we fry them in is more than just a nod to the Festival of Lights: It’s an essential ingredient as well, so it’s important to choose wisely. Different oils vary in flavor, nutritional value, and smoke points, and do you even know what Canola is? I’ve gone ahead and done some of the preliminary legwork to help you choose the right oil for your frying pan.
On the list you’ll find ideal oils for latke frying under the “Freedom Fry” heading, and oils to avoid on the “No Fry” list. Keep in mind that just because an oil appears on the “No Fry” list doesn’t mean that it’s unhealthy – for example, Flaxseed oil is rich in omega 3 fatty acids and can help lower cholesterol, but heat can destroy its omega 3 properties. Canola, on the other hand, has a higher smoke point, but those who wish to avoid GMOs and bioengineered products might want to stay away, as 80% of acres sown to canola are planted with genetically modified seed.
When doing your shopping, remember this: Many oils come from plants that are sprayed with fat-soluble pesticides. Those pesticides concentrate in the oil portion of the plant, so always buy organic when you can.
One last tip: Remember to change your oil out after every couple of batches. The longer an oil is heated, the more free fatty acids form, which lowers the smoke point and increases your chances of burning. Whatever oil you choose, I wish you a happy Hanukkah filled with luscious latkes and lots of love.
As promised by Jane Goldman in her interview for The Jew & The Carrot, Chow’s all-fried, all Chanukah menu is up and ready to go featuring:
Kudos to Chow for taking the minhag to eat foods fried in oil for Chanukah to the delicious (if not healthy) extreme. Check out the full menu here.
Chanukah, Hanukkah, or Hanukah – however you spell it, it’s on it’s way. The festival of lights starts early this year on December 5th.
The Jew & The Carrot offers you the opportunity to give sustainably this year with the Sustainable Chanukah Gift Guide!
If you’re not into giving Chanukah gifts, make all your own gifts, or a die hard re-gifter, more power to you. But if you’re looking for something special and sustainable for your friends/family/CSA farmer/yoga instructor/pet etc. this is the list for you.
It seems that Jews have made it. Bizarre, strange American holiday rituals (read: butter turkeys for Thanksgiving, fruit cakes for Christmas) have extended out a hand to American Jews. New for the holiday season is a special soda that tastes like latkes and a Christmas Ham soda that happens to be kosher.
Jones Soda co., a Seattle based soda-maker, announced new soda flavors for the holiday season. See the story in The Olympian. Jones is known for bizarre and “offbeat” flavors. New to the holiday line–in addition to the turkey and gravy soda flavors for Thanksgiving–are Chanukkah and Christmas flavors. The Hanukkah pack features Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and latkes soda flavors. “As always, both packs are kosher,” a Jones statement read.
What do you get when you cross:
-A blend of 28 cocoas (including 14 of the most expensive and exotic around the globe)
- 5 grams of edible 23-karat gold, served in a goblet lined with edible gold
- 18-karat gold bracelet at the bottom of the goblet (with 1 karat of diamonds)
- Whipped cream covered in more gold and a side of La Madeline au Truffle, which sells for $2,600/pound?
The Jew & The Carrot presents a sustainable Chanukah gift guide, which features earth-friendly, meaningful present ideas for (just about) everyone in your life.
Find these great gift ideas (and many more) at The Jew & The Carrot’s Sustainable Chanukah Gift Guide
Chanukah, Cooking, Food Writing, Fruit, Gadgets, Holidays, Jewish Culture, Recipes, Seasonality, Side Dishes
Last week, my coworker Judith came into the office, excited about a seasonal food discovery she’d made. “I was trying to figure out what to do with all the potatoes I got in my CSA,” she said. “And I realized - December’s not that far away and potatoes store well…no wonder latkes are a traditional Chanukah food!”
Judith’s epiphany links her back to the kitchens of our collective Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors, who made food from inexpensive, readily-available ingredients. What better way to have a delicious, filling meal, than to fry up a bunch of winter root veggies like potatoes?
And, I thought with a swell of “it all makes sense!” elation, what better to top them with than a sauce made of the only fruit that stores as well as potatoes in the winter - apples! Remembering the Hebrew connection put me in even more in a tizzy. (One of the first things that every Hebrew school student learns is that tapuach means apple and tapuach adamah means “apple of the earth” - potato.)
It was high time, I thought, to make some applesauce. (Recipe below the jump…)
ADAMAH, America, Chanukah, Farming, Gifts, Hazon, Holidays, Jewish Farm School, Organic, Seasonality, SustainabilityWalking down the streets of Brooklyn, you will inevitably run into some cobwebs – not the kind actually made by spiders (that’s asking a little much for our concrete jungle). Instead, you’ll find manufactured, cotton candy-like cobwebs that people drape on their bushes and pile on their stoops (along with winking pumpkins and smirking cardboard witches) for Halloween. Before too long, those pumpkins will be replaced by plastic Santas and reindeer dotted with little, white lights.
The Lord Almighty showers Hanukah miracles in all sorts of ways. Culinary masterpieces feed clean-burning transportation for a rabbi with his heart and soul in the right places.
The miracle of the (veggie) oil
Remnants of Vietnamese dinners power a rabbi’s car…The 33-year-old Conservative rabbi and congregant at Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom indeed drives a diesel car. But for the past year, he has not spent dollar one at a gas station. In fact, for many months he hasn’t spent any money on fuel at all. And that’s because he runs his hulking, two-ton Mercedes on the vegetable oil left on the bottom of the wok at one of Oakland’s finest Vietnamese restaurants. And they’re all too happy to let him cart off the grease for free.
Though hardly a traditional Hanukkah activity, Martha Stewart teaches us how to make our own candles. No, really. Simply turn on your blow dryer, roll the wax around the wicking, and, um, 44 candles later you have something you can get for 89 cents at Fairway…only more Martha-y.
Lame duck NY governor and ‘08 GOP presidential hopeful, George Pataki, charges admission to his annual party celebrating the festival of lights. “Food! Wine! Free Gift Bags! Current Members only!” Admission to Pataki’s latke party is $10 in addition to a $75 membership in the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The festival of greasy palms?
– Sarah Rose, JCarrot Editor-in-Chief
