Hanukkah
251 recipes found
Garlic-Parsley Potato Cakes
These crisp and savory cakes, a longtime specialty of the Manhattan restaurant called Home, are best described as homemade Tater Tots in patty form. They are a nice change from mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving or Christmas (or any) dinner, make ideal carriers for fried or poached eggs at brunch, and can even double as latkes for Hanukkah. The power of the garlic is tamed in one easy step — by boiling it in the same water as the potatoes.
Citrusy Brisket With Spring Lettuces
This is a bright, zesty take on braised brisket, in which the meat is cooked with lemon and orange juice, along with plenty of onions and dry white wine. It makes for a lighter-tasting sauce than the standard rich, brown gravy, with a tangy, citrus flavor. For serving, the tender slices of meat are topped with a crisp herb salad, adding even more freshness to the plate. Serve it with mashed or roasted potatoes to soak up all the caramelized, oniony juices.
Kosher Pot Roast (Brisket)
It takes a holiday like Hanukkah, a time when the past is remembered and savored, to give brisket its due. Served with latkes, it is a traditional menu for the eight-day celebration.
Latkes
These crisp potato pancakes are the ultimate in holiday comfort food. (Don’t skip the sour cream and applesauce!) Get them sizzling away in a heavy-bottomed skillet until beautifully browned, and arrange them on a plate lined with paper towels as they finish. They won’t last long.
Okonomi-Latke
This hybrid of the Japanese okonomiyaki pancake and the traditional Jewish latke is from Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel, the chefs and owners of Shalom Japan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It works beautifully in any setting where you might ordinarily serve latkes and is a fine base for caviars of any hue.
Spicy Ketchup
Salt-Baked Pears
The salt crust encasing these pears — a method most often used with whole fish and some poultry — does what salt always does: It amplifies. In this instance, the sweet, juicy peary-ness of the pear. Ideally, these should be slipped into the oven after pulling out another dish in order to minimize time in the kitchen. As a dinner party dessert, it’s a perfect punctuation mark.
Sufganiyot (Orange-Scented Jelly Doughnuts)
Some Jewish foods take a lifetime to love. It can take years of practice to truly enjoy the baby food flavor and clammy texture of gefilte fish. And as festive desserts go, the dry honey cakes baked for the Jewish New Year are hardly alluring. This may explain why American Jews have enthusiastically embraced a Hanukkah treat popular in Israel, sufganiyot, or, as we know them, jelly doughnuts. Fragrant with sugar and jam, sufganiyot (the plural of sufganiya) have become a sweeter symbol of the holiday, especially for children.
Yerushalmi Kugel
A specialty of Jerusalem, this dark, dense kugel is bound by eggs and caramel, and sharpened with loads of black pepper. In this recipe, adapted from the cookbook author Adeena Sussman, the edges crisp as it bakes, providing a crunchy contrast to the soft, springy noodles inside. Don’t stray from the pan while the sugar is caramelizing, or it may burn in spots. Serve it in wedges, either warm or at room temperature. Leftover Yerushalmi kugel will keep for at least five days in the fridge, and reheats well in a 350-degree oven.
Cherry Rugelach With Cardamom Sugar
These tender, jam-filled confections, adapted from “Rose’s Christmas Cookies” (William Morrow, 1990) by Rose Levy Beranbaum, have a flaky, cream cheese-spiked crust that makes them a little like soft, tiny pastries. This version calls for cherry preserves and some optional walnuts, but you can use any flavor of jam (or nut if you’re so inclined) you like. Apricot and raspberry jam are the most traditional. Rugelach keep well at room temperature for up to one week, or they freeze beautifully for up to six months. (Watch Melissa Clark make her cherry rugelach.)
Golden Raisin and Pecan Thins
These slightly sweet, extremely simple crackers, adapted from "Better Baking" by Genevieve Ko, can be stirred together in minutes in one bowl, no electric mixer required. They are then baked twice – once in loaf pans and once after freezing and slicing – making them crisp all the way through. Serve them with cheese or pâté, or even on their own as a snack. And feel free to personalize these by substituting other dried fruits and nuts for the raisins and pecans. Chopped dried figs and hazelnuts make another wonderful combination.
Apple Cider Doughnuts
Todd Gray, the chef and owner of the Equinox Restaurant in Washington, developed these apple cider sufganiyot as a nod to his wife's Jewish heritage (he's Episcopalian), serving them with blueberry-ginger jam at his restaurant during Hanukkah. We like to throw a batch together anytime we crave the taste of autumn.
Caramel Cheddar Popcorn
There’s a sweet and salty allure to eating caramel corn and Cheddar popcorn in the same bite, but popcorn purists can keep the two flavors separate. Either way, a giant tin of homemade fancy popcorn is the gift that everyone wants and no one thinks to ask for. And it’s a lot less expensive to make yourself than it is to buy. The popcorn will last stored airtight at room temperature for up to two weeks.
Aylenish Rugelach With Orange, Walnuts and Cinnamon
Once upon a time, good Jewish housewives (known as balaboostas in Yiddish) all knew how to make pastries like strudel, rugelach and schnecken from scratch, using a cream-cheese-enriched dough supposedly stretched thin enough that you could read the newspaper through it. This was a day’s work, but with the arrival of good-quality puff pastry on the market, modern bakers can quickly (“aylenish” in Yiddish) produce this close cousin: a sweet, fragrant filling of nuts, spices and dried fruit wrapped in rich dough. Orange marmalade gives a tart undertone (and the faintest suggestion of a Christmas fruitcake), but apricot or raspberry jam are also considered classic.
Braised Flanken With Pomegranate
I’d always thought that flanken was specific to boiled beef or soup. But a little research divulged that the brawny cut is hugely popular in braises (and pot-roasting is arguably the same as braising), especially in Germany, Austria and Hungary. It also shines in Asian cuisines, particularly Korean, in which it’s seared and served rare. Arthur Schwartz, in his book “Jewish Home Cooking” (Ten Speed Press, 2008), extols the virtues of flanken. He points out that it’s from the same part of the animal as short ribs, cut across rather than along the bones. But while short ribs have achieved culinary stardom and high prices, flanken remains cheap and obscure. And just as tasty.
Hungarian Stuffed-Under-The-Skin Chicken
Arancini With Brandy-Soaked Raisins
These Italian fried rice balls have a surprise filling of brandy-soaked raisins, which gives them a gentle sweetness that contrasts with the savory fontina and mozzarella cheeses. You can make the rice mixture up to a day ahead, and form the balls up to four hours ahead. Then fry just before serving so the cheese is warm enough to gush when you bite in.
Vanilla Bean Spritz Cookies
Delicate, buttery and festooned with colored sugar or sprinkles, spritz cookies are a holiday staple. You can make excellent ones without any special items like the vanilla bean paste and cultured butter called for here. But those ingredients will make your cookies even more delicious. You can leave them tasting purely of vanilla, or add another optional flavoring, such as citrus zest, cinnamon or cardamom, or almond extract. These fragile cookies don’t ship well on their own, but you can increase their stability by turning them into sandwich cookies, filled with chocolate, Nutella, or thick jam.
Portuguese Pumpkin Preserves
This recipe was designed for something that happens only about every 125 years: the collision of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah, an event that presents both a celebratory conundrum and culinary opportunity. Of course, you don’t have to wait (the last time it happened was in 2013). These preserves are a perfect topping for latkes, but you can just as easily incorporate them into your breakfast routine. Best of all, the recipe takes less than an hour, and will make your house smell like the essence of fall.
Garlicky Beet Spread with Yogurt, Dill and Horseradish
This recipe for an easy appetizer borrows from the Ashkenazi tradition, making it a perfect Hanukkah offering. Roasted beets, dill, walnuts and horseradish are whirred in a blender with yogurt, garlic and olive oil, coming together into a pungent magenta purée. It is thick enough to serve on latkes, and creamy enough to go it alone as a dip with vegetables. (The New York Times)
Classic Sugar Cookies
Everyone needs a good sugar cookie recipe. If you can master the very simple technique behind this one dough, you have several variations at your disposal, most likely without a trip to the grocery store.
Moroccan Semolina and Almond Cookies
Semolina flour gives these rather plain-looking but delicious cookies, adapted from "Dorie's Cookies" by Dorie Greenspan, a delightfully sandy texture. Almond flour makes them moist and rich, adding a gentle flavor and scent. If you don’t have almond flour, make your own by pulsing blanched almond slices in a food processor until they're finely ground. Just don’t over-process, or you’ll wind up with almond butter. And if you’re not a fan of orange blossom water, you can leave it out, or substitute rose water.
Olive Oil Challah
Made with extra-virgin olive oil, this challah is especially rich and complex tasting. A little bit of grated citrus zest, if you choose to use it, adds a welcome brightness to the soft, slightly sweet loaf, which is also flavored with orange juice. (Don't use store-bought orange juice with preservatives; it can inhibit yeast growth. It’s best to squeeze the oranges yourself.) If you’d prefer a more classic challah, substitute a neutral oil such as safflower or grapeseed for the olive oil and leave out the zest. This recipe makes one large loaf (about 1 pound). Feel free to double it if you’re feeding a crowd or if you’d like to toss one loaf into the freezer, where it will keep well for up to 3 months.
