season’s greetings

Now that Thanksgiving is over, along with all the sacred shopping holidays that follow, our eyes are turning to Hannukah, the Festival of Light.

It’s been a beautiful autumn in Jerusalem, with olives ripening on the trees. The on-again, off-again coronavirus lockdowns have meant more long walks than usual with old dogs who still like to stretch their legs.

And they must be getting old, because I actually have managed to snatch photos of the 2 of them together!

THE BEST LAID PLANS

I was planning to do 2 apple cake recipes for you, but once again latkes - potato fritters - have muscled their way in.

I’ve received 2 requests for recipes for latkes - which are in our book, Just Add Love, Holocaust Survivors Share their Stories and Recipes, because how could you have a cookbook focused on Jewish grandmothers and not have latkes there? But still, I’ve realised that the apple cakes will have to wait … and concede this week to holiday foods.

I think we all need some light, after this strange year with so much illness and isolation.

HANNUKAH

The festival of lights has a different level of meaning here in the northern hemisphere, during the shortest days of the year. In Jerusalem, candles outside homes light up the long cold nights.  American in London, the journalist Michael Goldfarb this week described his current state of mind this way:

“The long nights are here, the frail light that manages to make it through the mizzle makes me feel like the last soggy sunflower stalk left in the field, head bending towards the mud. Sleep, nap, sleep with some telly or Facebook/Twitter in between. Not even this past week's full moon could impart some energy.

Words have I none ... beyond these.

Entropy.”

It's traditional to eat oily foods during Hannukah. The religious reason is to celebrate a miracle that took place in the Jewish Temple during Greek times, where one day’s oil needed to purify the Temple lasted for eight days. But winter is also the right time to eat oily foods… they help to insulate you against the cold (and the entropy?) and you want to eat them more now than you do in summer.

So apologies to readers downunder, it’s part of the price you pay for summer in December, when traditional Christmas fare such as roast turkey and steamed puddings also seem out of place, and better suited to the northern hemisphere!

What are the traditional, oily holiday foods on the Jewish menu at this time? Why, Latkes and Ponchkes, as they were known in Europe – potato fritters and jam-filled doughnuts.

DOUGHNUTS

Doughnuts began as a round fried ball of yeast dough, filled with strawberry or plum jam – the classic ‘Berliner’. But in Israel, they’ve gone gourmet and have been ritzed right up … Chocolate, vanilla crème, salted caramel, chestnut, marscapone with fresh fruit are just some of the fillings replacing plain old jam.

Some have gone the full Las Vegas… with small vials to let you inject flavourings, such as alcoholic or chocolate sauces, just before you bite in. 

No soggy doughnuts for the Israeli consumer - and this year, do they also give a little vaccine feel? The coronavirus vaccine appears to be the true Hannukah miracle in 2020.

Israeli bakery chain Roladin has a separate Facebook page just for its gourmet doughnuts. Am reposting this photo from Israeli chef Keren Kadosh who baked this doughnut croquembouche for Israeli newspaper Haaretz, because, well, I’ve never seen anything more impressive. AmIright, Homer?

But I have a confession, which may come as a surprise given how much baking there is here at Just Add Love. Looks around nervously. I’m not a huge doughnut fan. There I’ve said it. So if you want a recipe, chef Keren Kadosh won’t steer you wrong. Otherwise, if you live in Israel, troop out to buy some!

LATKES

Luckily, what we do make a lot of at Just Add Love is Latkes. Vegetable fritters, including the potato classic, of course. And also: Sweet Potato. Leek. Zucchini. Carrot.

Those recipes are in our book Just Add Love - and if you don’t have your copy yet, the last few books are available here on our website.

1. POTATO LATKES

The classic, "the original and best", with the recipe from Sydney grandmother Thea Riesel. I love sharing this recipe, because it’s the first one I ever posted, the recipe that ‘opened’ this blog 5 (!) years ago.

Plus Thea Riesel has an extraordinary story of surviving WW2 in a Japanese POW camp in Indonesia. Before I met Thea and her friend Mimi Deitz, who experienced that together as teenagers, I didn’t know anything about that whole chapter of Jewish life during the war.

https://www.justaddlove.net.au/potato-latkes

2. CARROT

Two ways, Middle Eastern with fetta cheese and Korean Chijimi fritter

https://www.justaddlove.net.au/blog-1/the-orange-revolution-carrot-fritters2852015

3. SWEET POTATO

Look out for the last recipe hiding on the carrot page, above :-) It has a sweetness and crispness that is irresistible.

Try one, try all and enjoy this holiday season, wherever you are.

GIVING THANKS

Since my sister returned to Sydney after many years in New York, our family has embraced the Thanksgiving holiday. I like it in combination with Hannukah, as I feel saying thanks fits well with letting in the light.

This year I would like to acknowledge all the people who have lost their lives to Covid-19, but to give thanks for the vaccines which were produced in record time.

I would like to give thanks for my mother Ruth and my sister’s mother-in-law Marlene both reaching the age of 80 in such good health and spirits, and for the good spirits of all my family members who are fighting different health battles at the moment.

And also for finding a new apartment in this beautiful village outside Jerusalem, which meant that I could continue living here, and for that doggie in the window seat, now almost 16 years young.

As Leonard Cohen says, don’t worry about the cracks, that’s how the light gets in.