Hanukkah Food

When it comes to Hanukkah food, people often think about potato pancakes or latkes. This is a traditional dish usually served with applesauce. This is a recipe that can be made any time during the year, but if you don’t have it for Hanukkah, you feel like you’re missing something. It’s the holiday’s main staple, and while the recipe is not difficult, it is very time consuming.  Years ago, people grated the potatoes by hand until they were exhausted. If you have a food processor, you will be well advised to use it instead of a grater.

Here are ideas to shorten your cooking time. You can buy applesauce, but there’s nothing better than homemade applesauce, warmed up on the stove. Applesauce is simple and the recipe is provided here as well.

For the latkes, if you have two frying pans going at once, both large-sized, you can substantially reduce your time to make this recipe.  Also, there’s nothing better than this recipe. People will be coming back for more. If you don’t like onions, you can take them out, or reduce the amount, but remember they help add to the flavor.

These can be served for Hanukkah only or combined with a Christmas dinner and added to the menu, for dinner or for dessert.

This recipe can be doubled for more people.

BEST EVER HANUKKAH LATKES

6 large potatoes

1 medium onion

1 egg

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Olive oil

1. Wash potatoes and peel.  Use shredding setting on food processor and place potatoes in chute. Process potatoes so they are thin and shredded.
2. Place potatoes in a medium size bowl. Pour out extra water but make sure the potatoes aren’t completely dry.
3. Using food processor, grater or knife, shred or cut onion into small pieces.  Add to the potatoes.
4. Beat egg and add to the mixture.
5. Add pepper, salt, flour and baking powder.
6. Mixture should be firm enough but not dry or stiff.  Take a kitchen tablespoon, preferably round, and make a heaping tablespoon full of the potato mixture.
7. Coat frying pan(s) with olive oil, using just enough to coat. You will need to add more oil during the cooking process when you add new tablespoons of the potato mixture.
8. When the oil is hot, drop heaping tablespoons of the potato mixture into the oil, using one or two frying pans as indicated above. Fry each latke until it is brown around the edges, about 4-5 minutes. Turn it over with a spatula.
9. Fry latke on the other side for about 3-4 more minutes. Latkes should be at least a golden brown on both sides but not burned.
10. Place paper towel on plate and using spatula, remove finished latkes from frying pan(s). Drain on paper towels to remove extra oil. 
11. Continue until all the batter has been used.

This recipe can also be doubled.

HOMEMADE CINNAMON APPLESAUCE

Water

15 medium apples

Cinnamon

Sugar

Water

1. Add about ½ inch water to a good sized pot. You may need to add more water later if the apples are sticking to the pot.
2. Turn on the stove to heat the water.
3. Core and peel apples, one at a time. Chop apples one at a time as well, and then add to the pot after the first apple is chopped. Add apples to the pot one at a time after they are chopped.
4. Cook on medium heat. Turn down heat when apples start spitting from the pot.
5. Add cinnamon and sugar to taste. You may need to add extra cinnamon and sugar later, depending on your taste preferences. (You can also make this with sugar-free sweetener instead of sugar.)
6. Mash apples with potato masher as it is cooking.* (see number 8)
7. Important—use a good whisk after potatoes are mashed. Whisk until lumps are smaller.
8. Add to food processor IF you desire smaller chunks of apples. Otherwise, keep mashing and whisking until you have most of the lumps out. This can be done during the cooking process, but be careful of the stove—it is safer to take the pot off the stove and mash and whisk it there.
9. Serve warm over or next to potato latkes.