Happy Chanukkah!

Joined
Jun 15, 2015
Messages
894
It's that time of the year again where everyone says "Happy Holidays" but they're not quite sure why. Well, now is the time to say "Happy Chanukkah" and get all the looks that mean, "Hey, you're not being PC!"

Like every good Jewish holiday, as well as some in other religions, Chanukkah involves several nights of eating and drinking. Eight nights to be exact.

The traditional food for this holiday is potato pancakes called a "latkes," plural of "latke," pronounced "laht-ka" or "laht-kee" depending on who you ask. They are typically served with applesauce in my house, but really they're good with whatever you want on em.

I snapped a few pictures at dinner last night, when we lit the first candle on the menorah and served latkes. Didn't get pix of present opening though. I got a voucher for snow tires for my car, which were much needed and appreciated, but don't really photograph well :)

This is my mom lighting the menorah. Candles get added from left to right, but get lit from right to left. The idea is that you're lighting the candles in the direction that Hebrew is read, right to left, but also lighting the most recent candle first.



Here's the menorah all lit for the first night, with latkes in the background.



And then some latkes with applesauce. Yummy



Now, I know what you're all thinking: "Oh man, those look so good! But how do you make them?? Well have no fear, they are quite simple to make, and my dad has a great recipie!

The Best Simple Latke Recipie:

Ingredients:
2-3 large potatoes
1/2 to whole onion
1 egg
Dash of salt, and optional pepper
Oil of choice for frying (vegetable oil works fine)

Step 1: Peel the potatoes and use a cheese grater to shred them into a colander or pasta strainer. Rinse thoroughly. Transfer to large bowl.

Step 2: Peel the onion and shred it onto the bowl of potatoes. Use half an onion even if you don't like onion. You can barely taste it, but if you leave it out, your latkes taste like something is missing. It's important to add the shredded onion AFTER rinsing the potatoes. If you mix them then rinse, you wash away all of the onion flavor.

Step 3: Beat the egg with a fork, mix with your shredded potato and onion, plus salt and pepper. Press it all down in the bowl.

Step 4: Use the fork to scoop clumps into a hot frying pan with about a half-inch of oil in it. Squish clumps with your spatula to form little pancakes (think cookie sized, but it doesn't matter if they're a little bigger or smaller). Fry each side until golden brown.

Step 5 (optional but recommended): Remove latkes from pan and place on wire racks with paper towels underneath. Allow to drip for a minute or two. If making a large batch, put the drip rack on a cookie sheet in the oven, uncovered. They'll stay nice and hot until its time to eat, without getting all soggy.

Step 6: Serve and enjoy, preferably with applesauce :) (Some like sour cream with theirs, so I've learned)

If you make them yourselves, make sure you post pictures or at least let me know how it goes!

(Edited for clarity and additional info)
 
Last edited:
Happy Channukah SingleGrind.
Awesome looking Latkes.

They remind me of "Kartoffelpuffer" from home. My wife says they have something similar in India as well, often instead of potatoes they use grated red beet.

I plan to give them a try tonight. Thank you for the recipe.
:-)
 
Thanks for the reminder.
Not being Jewish, so what ? Maybe I will fry potatis pannkakor at supper tonight.

Then question for knife related content,
Does a Jewish Smiths oil quenchant last seven days longer than it normally would ?
 
Agreed! Don't worry about PC!

I'll always say Merry Christmas when the time comes, but all the same; have a Happy Chanukkah!
 
This is neither here nor there, but I read of an ultra orthodox sect who'd make their butcher knives out of cast metal. For meat to be kosher the knife you use to butcher the animal has to be clean of any blemishes or scratches, and these folks were worried their forged knives might have microscopic scratches in them, thus making their food non kosher. Their solution was to cast their knives to ensure there weren't any blemishes from forging or sharpening.
 
This is neither here nor there, but I read of an ultra orthodox sect who'd make their butcher knives out of cast metal. For meat to be kosher the knife you use to butcher the animal has to be clean of any blemishes or scratches, and these folks were worried their forged knives might have microscopic scratches in them, thus making their food non kosher. Their solution was to cast their knives to ensure there weren't any blemishes from forging or sharpening.
That's cool and interesting. Though from what I see in my kitchen cast iron is quite rough compared to polished steel.
Would be cool to see the original rule. Maybe they just wanted to prevent deep cavities in food prep blades since they could be breeding ground for germs. Could it be that what they called a "scratch" back then might make us throw away the knife today anyway. Perhaps what we call a "scratch" today was considered ultra polished and steril back then?

What is real tradition anyways? To follow the rule to the letter or to try the currently best way of achieving what the rule was intended for?
Getting to philosophical. Need to buy some new onions and potatoes. Still good on Applesauce.
 
Happy Hannukah:)

When they read the story of Hannukah from the Book of Esther you are supposed to shake a rattle and make noise every time Haman's (the baddie) name is mentioned. The IDF do it slightly differently.............:D (volume warning)

[video=youtube;DHC4BGGy9Bw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHC4BGGy9Bw[/video]
 
I'll try to find the article I read. In the mean time this article should explain how serious they take their butcher knives:

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/160862/kosher-slaughter-knifemaker

edit: Found a reference in Wikipedia. It's called a Hasidische Hallaf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shechita


"In previous centuries the hallaf was made of forged steel, which was not reflective and was difficult to make both smooth and sharp. The Baal Shem Tov, fearing that Sabbateans were scratching the knives in a way not detectable by normal people, introduced the Hasidische Hallaf. The Hasidische Hallaf differs from the previously used knife in that it was made from molten steel and polished to a mirror gloss in which scratches could be seen as well as felt. The new knife was controversial and one of the reasons for the 1772 excommunications of the Chassidim .[12]"
 
Last edited:
The Book of Esther is the Purim story from Persia.

Hannukah is the war of independence from the Macedomian Greek kingdom in Syria.
 
Esav is correct of course, Book of Esther is indeed Purim, which has it's own delicious foods. Be patient guys! :)

About the knives, I didn't know they cast the knives to avoid imperfections, but that is very cool. Jens, you're spot on about about scratches and tradition. The rules of Kosher are definitely Googlable, but what I can tell you is that it was basically all just a way of trying to avoid eating foods that will cause sickness, as well as ensure the animals are being treated humanely and with respect.

Rabbis, when referring to Kosher laws, talk about something called "putting a fence around the issue." Back in the day, people had to worry about animals like pigs, because they were dirty animals and they carried disease. Things like crabs were seen as bottom feeders, dirty. Not properly handling meat caused it to go bad or cause illness. They didn't understand why, but they knew what, or at least thought they did. Instead of saying "you can't eat pigs, you can't eat crabs, you have to learn how to treat your beef, you have to do this and that, because if not you can get sick" they put a fence around the whole issue, and said things like "you can't eat any shellfish, you can't eat any animal with cloven hooves, you need to get all the blood out of your meat, BECAUSE GOD SAID SO." I imagine it was a little easier to handle at a time when bacteria and microorganisms were totally unknown.

Then you get to treatment of food animals. Certain practices would have been considered downright inhumane, including killing the animal slowly/painfully, and cooking the meat of a calf in it's own mother's milk. To prevent this, they could have said, "don't cook your beef in cow's milk," but then someone came along and said, "well what if you don't know whos milk that is? Or whos meat that is?" Which I presume lead to another person going, "ok, I guess we better not cook any meat in any milk." Sounds fine to me, I don't tend to cook meat in milk anyways. Well some other smartypants came along and said, "now wait, what if you don't cook the meat in milk, but you have the meat, then the milk. Surely they'll mix in your stomach!! We can't have that." So then the rule came about that not only can you not cook meat and dairy together, but you have to use all separate dishes and silverware, plus you have to wait a whole half hour (I think it's a half hour) before you switch from a meal that contains meat to a meal that contains dairy. Food that contains neither meat nor dairy is referred to as "Parve."

All Kosher food is marked, either with a U in a circle for "Kosher Parve," U in a circle with a D next to it for "Kosher Dairy," or a K in a triangle for "Kosher Meat."

Here's some instant rice on the left, marked as Kosher Parve, some mashed potatoes on the right, marked as Kosher Dairy, and some Hebrew National hotdogs, obviously marked Kosher Meat.



And then, on top of all those other rules, your food also had to be blessed by a Rabbi. Now this sounds like just another religious thing, but again, there's an alternate motive: These Rabbis were now, essentially, the first food and health inspectors.

One of the things I really like about Judaism is that everyone is encouraged to practice their own form of the religion. It's like a "these are the base guidelines that define the religion, now do whatever works for you" kind of religion. It works for me, since I don't believe really any of the "religious" stuff, but it also works for the Hasidic Jews, and the Reforms and everyone in between. I personally don't keep Kosher in the least, I mean bacon is too good not to have, but I was raised semi-Kosher (never had ham or bacon in the house growing up), and my grandparents on my mom's side are totally Kosher..in their house. When we go to visit, my grandpa will usually take us out to lobster or sushi, and we're rarely able to bring home the leftovers. I mean they have 2 sets of silverware DRAWERS, one meat, one dairy/parve.

Now, playing into what I said and the point Jens brought up about tradition, I believe that these rules of Kosher were put in place in order to help mitigate common issues of the time. They didn't know much of anything about the real causes of these problems, and now we do. This, to me, makes Kosher and Halal (which is even more restrictive) antiquated and unnecessary in today's world, much like religion as a whole, but that's another monologue :)
 
Esav is correct of course, Book of Esther is indeed Purim, which has it's own delicious foods. Be patient guys! :)

About the knives, I didn't know they cast the knives to avoid imperfections, but that is very cool. Jens, you're spot on about about scratches and tradition. The rules of Kosher are definitely Googlable, but what I can tell you is that it was basically all just a way of trying to avoid eating foods that will cause sickness, as well as ensure the animals are being treated humanely and with respect.

Rabbis, when referring to Kosher laws, talk about something called "putting a fence around the issue." Back in the day, people had to worry about animals like pigs, because they were dirty animals and they carried disease. Things like crabs were seen as bottom feeders, dirty. Not properly handling meat caused it to go bad or cause illness. They didn't understand why, but they knew what, or at least thought they did. Instead of saying "you can't eat pigs, you can't eat crabs, you have to learn how to treat your beef, you have to do this and that, because if not you can get sick" they put a fence around the whole issue, and said things like "you can't eat any shellfish, you can't eat any animal with cloven hooves, you need to get all the blood out of your meat, BECAUSE GOD SAID SO." I imagine it was a little easier to handle at a time when bacteria and microorganisms were totally unknown.

Then you get to treatment of food animals. Certain practices would have been considered downright inhumane, including killing the animal slowly/painfully, and cooking the meat of a calf in it's own mother's milk. To prevent this, they could have said, "don't cook your beef in cow's milk," but then someone came along and said, "well what if you don't know whos milk that is? Or whos meat that is?" Which I presume lead to another person going, "ok, I guess we better not cook any meat in any milk." Sounds fine to me, I don't tend to cook meat in milk anyways. Well some other smartypants came along and said, "now wait, what if you don't cook the meat in milk, but you have the meat, then the milk. Surely they'll mix in your stomach!! We can't have that." So then the rule came about that not only can you not cook meat and dairy together, but you have to use all separate dishes and silverware, plus you have to wait a whole half hour (I think it's a half hour) before you switch from a meal that contains meat to a meal that contains dairy. Food that contains neither meat nor dairy is referred to as "Parve."

All Kosher food is marked, either with a U in a circle for "Kosher Parve," U in a circle with a D next to it for "Kosher Dairy," or a K in a triangle for "Kosher Meat."

Here's some instant rice on the left, marked as Kosher Parve, some mashed potatoes on the right, marked as Kosher Dairy, and some Hebrew National hotdogs, obviously marked Kosher Meat.



And then, on top of all those other rules, your food also had to be blessed by a Rabbi. Now this sounds like just another religious thing, but again, there's an alternate motive: These Rabbis were now, essentially, the first food and health inspectors.

One of the things I really like about Judaism is that everyone is encouraged to practice their own form of the religion. It's like a "these are the base guidelines that define the religion, now do whatever works for you" kind of religion. It works for me, since I don't believe really any of the "religious" stuff, but it also works for the Hasidic Jews, and the Reforms and everyone in between. I personally don't keep Kosher in the least, I mean bacon is too good not to have, but I was raised semi-Kosher (never had ham or bacon in the house growing up), and my grandparents on my mom's side are totally Kosher..in their house. When we go to visit, my grandpa will usually take us out to lobster or sushi, and we're rarely able to bring home the leftovers. I mean they have 2 sets of silverware DRAWERS, one meat, one dairy/parve.

Now, playing into what I said and the point Jens brought up about tradition, I believe that these rules of Kosher were put in place in order to help mitigate common issues of the time. They didn't know much of anything about the real causes of these problems, and now we do. This, to me, makes Kosher and Halal (which is even more restrictive) antiquated and unnecessary in today's world, much like religion as a whole, but that's another monologue :)
I might be totally wrong but given the choice between unknown normal food and unknown kosher food I'd take the kosher one. More restrictions feel good and if a person a Rabbi in this case is personal responsible for it, even better. Kosher pickled cucumbers for example don't have artificial yellow food paint in them. Dont know if yellow paint is bad, but why eat it if I don't need too? Kosher seems a little bit a predecessor of organic.

It's great how we can make more sense of traditions these days which maybe 200 years ago would have lead to misunderstandings.



The important part.

The dish turned out great with a steep learning curve.
First we used too little oil. Bottom burned before they were solid enough to flip. Recipe checked again, aha, half an inch of oil. Kind of deep frying. Almost no oil left in the house so out came the wok where the little oil can collect in the bottom curve and thus be higher. Now the burning issue was gone but the little guys desintegrated. Added 2 more eggs to no avail. Hmm maybe all that liquid in the mixture is the culprit? It had been strained well but the potatoes kept making more water over time. Did the onions made them cry or does a lot depend on the kind of potatoes?
Strained again and much improved now. Still, it has to work better.
Squeezed and compacted the mixture between my palms into shapes before dropping them in oil. Perfect!
Kids couldn't get enough and sour creme was their favorite combination. I liked apple sauce but imagine that Lingonberry or cranberry sauce would be even better. I'm also thinking of experimenting with adding whole peppercorns into the mix.

All in all big success and next time it'll be right from the beginning.
Thanks again for the great recipe!

(Might add pics later)
 
Awesome!! Glad you tried it, thrilled you got em to work, and ecstatic that you and the chilluns liked them!! Plus a good read.

I'll edit my original recipe to reflect the squishing bit, as well as Esav's sour cream recommendation. You can definitely add a little pepper to the mix as well, won't hurt hardly anyone.

Magic egg/potato ratio is about 1 egg per 2 or 3 potatoes. It shouldn't be runny or anything, it's not an omelette, just think of the egg as the glue that holds it together :)

Definitely post pics, I'd love to see how they came out!
 
Last edited:
Peppercorns are nice. I grind all my black pepper fresh. I also toss peppercorns into a salad. I recently picked up Craisins - cranberries prepared like raisins. Great addition to home made trail mix.

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm
Jewish tradition sees food as originally vegetarian.

Genesis 1:29 And God said: 'Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed--to you it shall be for food;

Only after the Flood ...

Genesis 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be for food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.
 
Last edited:
As my son in law would say: Happy Hannukah. As my daughter would say: Happy Chanukkah. As for me: Enjoy yourself and eat some for me. I gotta wait for Merry Christmas! Peace unto all.
 
Happy Hanukkah!

Being someone who traveled a LOT in my 20s & 30s I learned a lot from many different cultures. Hanukkah is my second favorite Jewish celebration (Seder is my favorite) Thanks for a very simple recipe for Latkes. The one I have is a bit more complex but not much AND I bet it tastes about the same...YUMMY. I prefer the applesauce, but sour cream is pretty good too. I had one friend's family serve them to us with sour cream mixed with a touch of capers minced in. That was good too. In fact I haven't found a way I don't like them :D
 
Back
Top