DECEMBER 11, 2007

Happy Hanukkah!

I’ve written a lesbian, Hanukkah-themed Single Shot called Better than Gelt, that will be coming out later this month as part of the Holiday Single Shot Extravaganza.  In celebration of that story, and also since tonight is the last night of Hanukkah, I thought I would offer a couple of traditional Hanukkah holiday recipes.

On the first night of Hanukkah, Rebecca and Eva from Better than Gelt make latkes! 

This recipe is from a wonderful, and now out-of-print cookbook called “Love and Knishes” (subtitled: “How to Cook Like a Jewish Mother”) that we inherited, but that once belonged to my partner’s grandmother.  The book is brittle and yellowed with age, and is full of wonderful traditional recipes and amusing anecdotes.  The “Note” at the bottom of the recipe is straight out of the cook book, and you can almost hear the wonderful humor an accent of the author!

Latkes  (potato pancakes)

Ingredients:
2 cups grated raw potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1 rounded or heaping tablespoon flour or matzo meal
pinch of baking powder
1 small onion, grated (optional)

Combine all ingredients.  Mix well.  Drop pancake mixture by the tablespoonful onto a hot skillet generously greased with butter or shortening. Fry on both sides until brown. 

Note:  This recipe should feed 4-6 people, but we some people see potato latkes they act like they haven’t eaten for a week.  They will want to make from latkes alone a meal.  When you have people who enjoy so much, so you won’t mind grating potatoes all day long.

Cooking Note from Jodi – we don’t actually use butter, we flatten the mixture into pancakes about three inches around and drop them in a cast iron skillet with about a half-inch of very hot oil to fry them.  When they’re done, take them out of the oil and put them on paper towels to soak up the extra oil, then move them to a plate and eat them right away with apple sauce and/or sour cream.  They’re much better that way than warmed up later.]

Jodi’s Awesome Applesauce

This is a nice tart applesauce that’s great with latkes.

Ingredients
5 pounds tart apples (like Granny Smith)
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
up to 3/4 cup regular sugar (I like unbleached, but white is fine)

Peel and core apples; save peels and core. Cut up apples into 1 inch chunks and set aside.

In a large pot, just cover peels and cores with water and cook on medium heat until peels are soft and water is the color of apple juice (15 to 20 minutes).

Strain liquid into a bowl, then discard the peels and cores. Put cut-up apples in the same pot and add "apple liquid" to barely cover apples. Add cinnamon sugar and the lemon juice and cook over medium-high heat until the apples are soft.  Mash apples in pot to desires consistency (I like mind pretty chunky, some people like it really smooth).  Taste, (it will be tart) and then add sugar by the tablespoon to desired sweetness.  Cook a little longer to incorporate extra sugar.

Serve warm or cold as desired.

Gut Yontiff!

Jodi Payne's novel, Founder, is on sale for 15% off until 12-14-07.