Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Latkes #FlavoursomeTuesday

Tonight, at sundown, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins.
Hanukkah House, Binghamton, New York

Tomorrow, I will blog more about this year's visit to Hanukkah House, a museum in Binghamton, New York open one month a year, but today is a time for food memories.

Hanukkah is an eight day holiday - this year beginning at sundown tonight (December 12) and ending sundown, December 20. (Our days begin at sundown, and we follow a lunar calendar, so holidays fall on different days on our secular calendar each year.)

The holiday (briefly) commemorates a miracle where, after enemy occupation, our Temple was restored to us, and a menorah, powered by oil, was to have been lit.  But there was only enough oil for one night.  It would take eight days to get more oil (remember, transportation in the second century BCE was somewhat slow) and, the flame burned those eight days until more oil arrived.

Several types of foods are traditional for Hanukkah in my cultural tradition:
Fried foods - two examples would be jelly donuts and latkes.  There are many more.
Hanukkah gelt - chocolate coins. Ok, chocolate in the shape of coins, with foil wrappers.  Fun!
Dairy - I didn't eat these as a child, but as adults, my spouse and I enjoy a fried cheese patty which, blending in his Italian tradition, he covers with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce and bakes in the oven. Not like the original.  His own.

But as for those latkes - I loved when my Mom made them.  (And I love when my spouse makes them in his own way.)

Mom would take out a 4 sided grater and hand-grate Russet (baking) potatoes, followed by onions.  She would squeeze any accumulated water.  To the mixture, she would then add matzoh meal (you can substitute flour), eggs, salt and pepper.  She would form into patties and fry.  Many Jewish households of the day used chicken fat for the frying but if you did that, you would not be able to eat with dairy food.

I can smell them cooking now, filling our small apartment's kitchen with the scents of Hanukkah, as I watch the candles burn.

My Mom would serve with homemade applesauce if a meat meal, or, with sour cream for a dairy meal.

This is how my spouse, the family cook, makes them nowadays.

Do you have a favorite holiday dish?

Happy Hanukkah to all of my readers who celebrate.

Join Bellybytes at Mumbai on a High and Shilpa Gupte at Metanoia for #FlavoursomeTuesdays.

19 comments:

  1. Looking forward to lots of latkes here, too. Happy Hanukkah.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my house, it's sweet potato latkes and (much fewer) zucchini/carrot ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sweet potato. Believe it or not we haven't tried those because I like more savory than sweet, but maybe we will.

      Delete
  3. Oh, my goodness, my mouth is watering! I have to try Latkes!
    Such sweet, sweet memories!
    Happy Hanukkah, my friend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you do try them, please introduce them to your community. It would be fun (and delicious). Thank you, Diane!!

      Delete
  4. Loved reading about your holiday! I have heard of this one but never knew the details around food.
    In India too, holidays and festivals are associated with food that’s made specially for the occasion. My favourite are the desserts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hanukkah isn't a "dessert" holiday unless you love donuts, especially jelly filled donuts. But yes, I love desserts!

      Delete
  5. Oh, I can almost smell them. Delicious!

    My favorite thing to make to share at the holiday is cinnamon sugar pecans. I got the recipe from my mom, it's SO easy and they are so yummy! I'm also kind of excited this year (although unfortunately terribly short of baking time, :( ) when I was a kid, my big sister and I would make Christmas cookies, she would be the head baker and I would help. Spritz cookies were one of the standard creations. I think my mom still has her Wear-Ever aluminum cookie gun in the pink box at home but in my apartment building, we have this shelf in the laundry room where people leave things they don't want, and earlier this year I was absolutely tickled to find a cookie gun! Modern plastic of course, but brand new, and I can't wait to make my first batch since I was a kid!

    Pecan recipe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for sharing that recipe, Bonnie. It sounds yummy. I love nuts! I am not a skilled baker, so I will leave the cookies to you...

      Delete
  6. It's almost sundown where you are now so Happy Hanukkah Alana!
    I think menorahs are beautiful and I love their symbolism. I really like the menorah at the top right corner of the table display in the Hanukkah House photo. Love the colors!
    (Speaking of menorahs, and not to get political here, but did you read about the White House Hanukkah party this year where the congressional Democrats were left off the invitation list? C'mon! And apparently, or so I read, there was virtually no Hanukkah celebratory symbols around, but there were four Christmas trees. Really? At least they brought out a menorah which was lit by the Trump grandchildren, but still, really? It's all just horrifying to me how divisive our president is. So much for spreading light!)

    Anyway, sorry 'bout that, but it's just been irritating me. Thank you for letting me vent...

    As for the latkes, Yum! Thanks for sharing your recipe! I have bookmarked it and maybe one of these days I'll actually try it. It's been a long time since I've had potato pancakes and your recipe with the parsnips sounds fabulous! And the fried cheese patty (smothered in mozzerella cheese and tomato sauce) sounds amazing! I'm hungry now... :)

    I haven't been blogging much lately and haven't done the Mondays 4M posts since Thanksgiving I think. Life just got in the way (my dog had major surgery -- he had an anal gland tumor that had to be removed; he had a really rough recovery and it was a nerve-racking week but thankfully the pathology came back benign! And then I took a tumble and messed up my shoulder and my foot and have been wearing a sling and covered in ice packs for the last 8 days. And other stuff...you know how it goes. It's a busy time of year). Plus I just didn't feel like doing a month of Christmas music posts so I'll be coming back to it after the New Year.

    I hope you have a wonderful Hanukkah season. Many blessings to you and yours...

    Michele at Angels Bark

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feel free to vent - my turn may come one day (grin). And yes, I know how it goes - my husband fell in October and is still in physical therapy. And I think you woke up to some stunning news this morning - just guessing here.

      Delete
    2. You guessed right! Actually I woke up in the recliner around 11:00 last night and boy, did that news ever wake me up! I took to Twitter right away :)

      Delete
  7. So that’s what Latkes are . I always wondered. The next time I’m in your part of the world, I will definitely try them . And wishing you a happy Hanukkah . Thanks also for joining #FlavoursomeTuesdays

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, bellybytes. Unless there is a kosher deli or kosher style restaurant you may not be able to try them but they are not that hard to make - just a bit tedious. (Wegmans may also sell them in the deli prepared food section in some stores in New Jersey).

      Delete
  8. What wonderful memories. Holiday food is so special, especially in a time when we can get anything at any season.
    Happy Hannakuh to you and yours.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful traditions and delicious holiday food; who could ask for anything more? Love and light to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me, and I appreciate each one. These comments are moderated, so they may not post for several hours. If you are spam, you will find your comments in my compost heap, where they will finally serve a good purpose.