As holidays go, I can’t say Hanukkah is a great candidate for the clean eating diet. You can give it the old college try, but no matter what anyone says, latkes taste better fried. You can certainly swap whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose, but I don’t believe you’ll be successful. The wheat is just too heavy. My advice is to splurge for just one night. The other seven you can be a bit more virtuous while your Christmas celebrating friends are overindulging in butter cookies and egg nog.
Here are eight of my favorite Hanukkah recipes. You’ll notice that I haven’t included any recipes that call for bacon, pork belly or any sort of pork lard, and for that you should feel grateful.
Starters
1. Matzoh ball soup. Hands down, the best Jewish chicken soup recipe is this one. I like Mark Bittman’s recipe for matzoh balls, but I’m not fussy about these things and haven’t taken a position on the great floater versus sinker debate.
2. Winter salad with fennel, radicchio and apple. Slice two or three fennel bulbs and a half of a head of radicchio. Toss with two chopped fuji apples, olive oil, juice of one meyer lemon and a bit of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Better-than-Brisket Main Courses
3. Perfect roast chicken. The classic that never goes out of style. Stuff a bird with garlic cloves, a lemon, and fresh herbs, then cover with olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and roast at 425 for about an hour or until the outside is brown and crispy.
4. Salt-Baked Leg of Lamb. This is a show stopper. Be sure to bake the lamb in a nice dish so you can bring it right to the table to crack open the salt crust.
5. Roasted Cornish Hens with Pomegranate Sauce. These are so easy and are lighter, juicy alternative to the traditional roasts typically served for Hanukkah.
Latkes: the Real Star of the Show Making multiple versions of latkes for Hanukkah can be time consuming. Here are two that are amazing, easy and a nice contrast to each other.
6. Latkes with creme fraiche, lox and caviar. A sophisticated version of the classic. It’s hard to go wrong with smoked salmon and creme fraiche.
7. Curried Sweet Potato Latkes. Crispy. Spicy. Earthy. I confess I prefer these to traditional potato pancakes.
8. Apple Chutney Applesauce. Elevated.
You might notice there are no recipes for sufganyot or doughnuts. I pick up a dozen from Krispy Kreme and call it a night (or eight).
A final note on Hanukkah. Many folks have difficulty grasping the cultural (not religious) experience of American Jews during this time of year. There are many serious works I can recommend, but I bet you’ll be more likely to watch something if it’s funny. So check out The Hebrew Hammer. You won’t be disappointed.
