Latkes

Potato Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

4 russet potatoes

1 medium-large onion

2 eggs

1/4-1/2 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon of salt

Any oil to fry

Optional schmaltz

RECIPE:

Grate four russet potatoes.

Wring potatoes until dry into a bowl using cheesecloth, a tea towel, or your hands. 

Delicately spill out potato water; keep the white potato starch left over.

Add one chopped medium-large onion to the grated potatoes. Mix it up. 

Add potato starch back to the potato/onion mixture. Mix.

Beat two eggs and pour into potato mixture. Mix.

Add between a quarter and a half-cup of flour to bind the mixture. Mix.

Add half a teaspoon of black pepper and a teaspoon of salt. Mix. 

Heat more oil than you think you should in a pan (add schmaltz if available). 

Pat the potato mixture into flat latke patties. Fry in oil. Flip when browned. 

Sweet Cheese Pancakes

INGREDIENTS: 

2 eggs

1/4 cup of sugar

16 ounces of farmer cheese

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

A handful of chopped prunes/any fruit

Orange zest

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Any neutral oil to fry

A sprinkle of powdered sugar

RECIPE: 

Whisk together two eggs and a quarter cup of sugar.

Add 16 ounces of farmer’s cheese, 1/2 cup of flour, and 1/2 a teaspoon to salt to the eggs and sugar. Mix thoroughly and quickly.

Add a handful fo chopped prunes, orange zest, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla to the mixture. You can substitute strawberries, blueberries, or whatever fruit you want to add. Mix well.

Spoon pancakes out with an ice cream scoop. Roll into a ball and then roll in flour. Flatten slightly. Repeat until all batter is used. 

Fry in any neutral oil. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Schmaltz & Gribenes

Rendered Chicken Fat & Skin Cracklings

Take the pieces of a chicken you’re not using (skin, fat, etc.) and cut them into small pieces.

Render the chicken fat by placing the chicken pieces in a pan, adding water, and letting it cook down until the water is gone. Stir and add salt and onion for flavor. Leftover liquid is schmaltz.

The chicken pieces left over are gribenes — skin cracklings. 

Varenikes

Boiled or Fried Potato Dumplings

INGREDIENTS: 

Potatoes

Almond milk

Dill

Salt

Schmaltz

Gribenes

Wonton skins

Egg white wash

RECIPE: 

Boil potatoes in almond milk. 

Mash them together with dill, salt, and chicken schmaltz. 

Add potato filling and the gribenes you made earlier to a wonton skin. 

Add egg white wash around the filling and then close the dumpling. Push down corners with fork.

Place on floured surface.

Boil until cooked or fry until golden brown.

Banya Pontschkes 

Pumpkin Doughnuts for Hanukkah

Presented by Lorin Sklamberg

Recipe courtesy of Eve Jochnowitz

Sift together:

4 1/2 cups (18 ounces) flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Blend:

1/2 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin or winter squash

1/2 cup (1/4 pound) melted butter

1 cup (1/2 pound) brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

zest of one lemon

12 scrapings (1/4 teaspoon) nutmeg

3 eggs

Mix the pumpkin mixture into the flour to make a soft dough. Roll the dough out half an inch thick. Try to the extent possible to roll the dough evenly so that the doughnuts will fry evenly. Cut the doughnuts using a doughnut cutter (or use a larger cutter and make holes with a smaller cutter.

Heat about three cups of coconut oil (or other, neutral oil) in a cast iron Dutch oven or other wide, shallow pot. Fry the doughnuts a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on brown paper or paper towels and dust with powdered sugar.

NOTE: These delicious holiday pastries, which have become a Hanukkah tradition for my family, are the creation of Jewish culinary maven Eve Jochnowitz, whose blog (inmolaraan.blogspot.com) is a great source of food lore and ideas. These doughnuts, a cousin of Israeli sufganiyot, are her take on a seasonal treat found among Hasidim in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.