table talk / By Stephanie Silvia

Hooray for Hanukkah!

Latkes and doughnuts for the Festival of Lights

(Dec. 10, 2009)  I love this time of year. I love to cook and to eat. I love to hang out with friends and family and play and cook and eat. I love that everyone makes time for each other. I love to heat up the oil and sizzle those latkes and eat them. I love pouring the wine and making the blessing around my dinner table in the glow of the Menorah. I love a holiday centered around the miracle of light when the world is its dampest and darkest. I love preparing the foods of my childhood. And, did I mention — on this holiday — I love to eat?

Hanukah originated when Judah the Maccabee and his followers reclaimed the Temple in the village of Modi’in from Syrian King Antiochus IV in 165 BCE. They found only one small flask of sacred oil to light the Menorah. Miraculously, the one-day supply of oil lasted for 8 days, until more could be prepared. In remembrance, a candle is lit each of the eight days of Hanukkah, each an opportunity to come together during these early dusks with loved ones and share meals.

Some traditional potato latkes.

GALLERY >

It is traditional to eat fried foods on Hanukkah because of the significance of oil to the holiday. The light in the Temple, the N’er Talmid, represents the Eternal Light that never goes out, which is why the oil lasting until more was prepared was so momentous. So we eat latkes, potato pancakes made from grated potatoes mixed with eggs, onions and flour and fried in oil. The Maccabbee soldiers ate latkes made from cheese, vegetables or fruit that was brought to them on the battlefield. Latkes were not made out of potatoes until the 1600’s when potatoes became readily available — aha! — making the most prominent festival food locavore with potatoes readily available this season here, too.

Since leaving my brethren in New York left me to make my own holiday meals, I have added other local foods to our family repast. Along with latkes and the customary Jewish elixir, matzoh ball soup, (recipes in Table Talk, 4/9/09), I count sautéing in olive oil as frying. Sautéed turnip with seckel pear is to die for. The key is slicing the peeled turnips very thinly, along with thin slices of garlic and being patient enough to turn them over with a spatula until the turnips are almost soft, before adding sliced pear into the mix. The Co-op carries the tiny pears from Washington, but I have used many kinds of local pears, along with the addition of sliced apple from our tree. Although I begin with the turnips in olive oil, I add a little butter (or Smart Balance faux butter), when adding the fruit, cooking over medium heat until all is cooked through.

Sautéed chard with garlic and browned onions, or sautéed spinach with garlic and tamari, a dollop of Cypress Grove chevre dropped atop each serving of warm winter greens balances the heavier dishes.

Latkes are served piping hot with sour cream or apple sauce that I make with our apples, simply slicing the cored, peeled apples and cooking them down over medium heat in a heavy saucepan with water and a scant handful of white sugar. Some nights we have apple-pancakes, adding slices to our whole wheat pancake batter or Los Bagels’ challah for French toast, both served with honey (try Reed’s Bee’s SandDune), in the spirit of the ancient Hebrews.

A story from the Apocrypha tells of the beautiful widow Judith who plied enemy Assyrian General Holofernes with cheese and wine until he fell into a drunken stupor. Judith beheaded the general in his sleep, and his soldiers fled in fear, saving her people from the Assyrians. I haven’t tried to make the traditionally served fried cheeses, but stuff small chunks of the sweet Lamb Chopper or Loleta garlic Jack into dried figs or large green olives to fulfill the cheese eating directive.

During the Middle Ages the widespread custom of giving coins or gelt during Hanukkah, in remembrance of the coins minted by the new independent Maccabbee state, made it possible for the poor to get enough money to burn their candles during Hanukkah. Today children receive gifts of gelt — gold foil-covered chocolate coins — reminding us of freedom and to share. Gleefully, I include chocolate as a Hanukkah food, unless it’s jelly doughnut night. I saved this for last, a chance to eat jelly doughnuts called sufganiot! (See recipe below.) 

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