Turns out neither she nor I had reason to worry. In my older age, it’s not the presents I remember. It’s the candles. The handmade menorahs. And the food. It isn’t Hannukah without the latkes.

Today I’m calling upon the grande dame of Jewish cooking, Joan Nathan, to help me make them. Nathan’s cookbooks are legendary, and the one I’m sharing here, the Jewish Holiday Cookbook, was issued on the 25th anniversary of the publication of her Jewish Holiday Kitchen. It includes recipes from that collection and 1997′s Jewish Holiday Baker. Nathan has an encyclopedic knowlege of Jewish cuisine and Jewish culture. (With the dietary rules of kashrut, in many ways they are one and the same.) The beauty of her cookbooks, however, is she makes the information and especially the recipes, accessible to everyone. The Hanukkah entry, for example, begins with a beautiful passage about the holiday from the book of Maccabees. Perfect for someone like me who enjoys cramming in a few uber-observant moments over the course of an otherwise borderline heathenish year around holiday time. But it is followed by this, for the less reverent, from a story by Sholem Aleichem, the Yiddush author and playwright:

Can you guess, children, which is the best of all holidays? Hanukkah, of course … You eat pancakes every day … Mother [is] in the kitchen (rendering goose fat, mixing batter for pancakes.

I may get adventurous and take a stab at making sweet potato latkes this year, but only as a complement to the original. Nathan’s recipe is easy and includes the sort of tips I imagine my grandma passed along while I was too busy noshing. (Draining the liquid from the potatoes is key. The difference between mush and magnificence. Who knew?) And it’s perfectly okay to fry ahead of time and freeze. Joan thinks it may even make them taste crispier!

 Potato Latkes (serves 8-10)

10 mediun russet or baking potatoes

2 medium onions

2 large or 3 medium eggs

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour, bread crumbs, or matzah meal

Salt and white pepper

Vegetable oil

Peel the potatoes if the skin is coarse; otherwise, just clean them well. Keep them in cold water until ready to prepare the latkes.

Starting with the onions, alternately grate some of the onions on the large holes of the grater and some of the potatoes on the smallest holes. This will keep the potato mixture from blackening. Press out as much liquid as possible and reserve the starchy sediment at the bottom of the bowl. Return the sediment to the mixture.*

Blend the potato mixture with the eggs, flour, and salt and pepper to taste.

Heat 1 inch of oil in a frying pan. Drop about 1 tablespoon of mixture for each latke into the skillet and fry, turning once. When golden and crisp on both sides, drain on paper towels. Serve with yogurt, sour cream, sugar, or applesauce.

*The steel blade of a food processor or the grating blade are less painful ways of grating the potatoes and the onions. The blade makes a smooth consistency and the grater a crunchy one.

If you are, you aren’t alone, and sometimes I have to stop and wonder why.

I got a hint at the answer from my daughter last week. She turned eleven. As she sat among the chocolate cake crumbs, musical birthday cards, and beautiful presents, I asked how she felt. “Well,” she said. “To tell you the truth. Now that I’m eleven and all. I was kind of hoping for a letter from Hogwarts.”

She’s no dummy. She knows Harry Potter is fiction. Yet there is still that glimmer of hope that maybe, somewhere out there, it’s real. I know I’ve fostered the same hope from time to time, tried “Accio matching sock!” during a laundry-folding sessions, and even wished to disapparate out of a few cocktail parties. The fact is, as you read the books, you are taken into a world that, for all its fantasy, feels incredibly real. Perhaps that’s why Harry and Dumbledore’s final exchange in King’s Crossing gives me such comfort:

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

*Sigh* I’ll see you at the midnight show.

Signing off,

Anne Greenwood Brown
Gryffindor, Muggle-born

When Shauna was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2005 she literally had to change how she thought about food, and taught herself how to cook  foods that she could love. She started her blog gluten-free girl in which she chronicled her diagnosis, healing process, and rediscovery of truly good food. To fully grasp what Shauna was going through, I would ask that you at some point please read this (Shauna’s About page).

A little over a year after Shauna’s diagnosis she met Danny “The Chef” and life has not been the same since. Danny worked in some of the top restaurants in the country, and not too long after they met he started to cook for her. Their influence on one another soon became obvious. What was gluten-free girl, is now gluten-free girl and the chef, and Danny’s restaurant is now gluten-free.

They are two wonderful people with a passion for food and each other, and they show it in this book. The book is filled with delicious recipes they created for one another and the stories behind them. There are great recipes for entrees, side dishes, and gluten-free breads and pastries. Shauna has a great knack for blending flours and there is a great tutorial on how to work with gluten-free flours in this book.

The recipe I am sharing with you is one I love, and I think you will like it too.

Blue Cheese Cheesecake with Fig Crust

Ingredients

10 gluten-free fig cookies (there is a recipe from Shauna’s first book) or 10 store bought gluten-free shortbread cookies plus 2 tablespoons fig jam

Butter for greasing the pan

16 ounces cream cheese

16 ounces good-quality blue cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sour cream

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch spring form pan and set to the side.

In a food processor, crumble the fig cookies (or shortbread and jam) and pulse until they are the consistency of bread crumbs. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and a quarter of the way up the sides. Wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil and bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool for a few minutes while you prepare the filling.

Turn the oven down to 325 degrees.

In a food processor, pulse the cream cheese and blue cheese together until they reach a creamy consistency, about 4 minutes. While the food processor is still running add the sugar and salt. Let the food processor run until the mixture becomes frothy. Scrape the sides down, add the vanilla. While the processor is running add the eggs one at a time allowing the processor to run for 1 minute with each added egg. This will make the cheesecake light. Mix in the sour cream on a low speed. Pour the batter into the crust.

Set a large pan in the oven. Set the cheescake pan down inside it and pour hot water into the pan around the cheesecake pan, enough to come halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. Bake until the top is firm and lightly browned (about 1 1/2 hours). Turn off the oven and prop the door open and allow the cheesecake to cool there for appoximately 1 hour. Pull the cheesecake out of the oven and allow it to come to room temperature on a wire rack. Chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours (or overnight). When you are ready to serve it, gently remove the sides, and slice. I chose to serve this with a little bit of warm fig jam.

Oh yes! I have a copy to give away Please comment here and I will do a random drawing from all the comments received, I will leave the comments open for 10 days and post the winner here two weeks from today. Good luck!

I love Melissa Clark‘s books. Melissa is a well seasoned writer with 29 books to her credit, many of those written in collaboration with some of the top chefs and food personalities in the country. She also  currently writes my favorite weekly column in the New York Times  called A Good Appetite.

Her new book In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite is full of wonderful recipes, and the stories revolving around their creation. The recipes in this book are simple, delicious and definitely fall into the realm of comfort foods. I do have to admit, this book won me over with the section dedicated to “Better Fried” food. I love anything fried and it shows

Border’s Media produced a couple of great cooking videos  that you can view here. One of those videos is for the recipe that follows.

I chose to share the Roasted Chicken Thighs with Apples, Gin, and Coriander Seeds. It is one of those dishes that takes just a small amount of time to prep, and takes only minutes to finish in the oven. It is fragrant and delicious.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Apples, Gin, and Coriander Seeds:

Recipe printed by permission of Melissa Clark

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small apples

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch strips

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white vermouth

1 1/2 teaspoons gin

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, dill, or parsley

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Crust bread or rice for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Core the apples and slice them as thinly as you can (somewhere between 1/8 & 1/4 inches if fine)

2. In a 9 x 13 inch pan toss in all the ingredients except 1 tablespoon cilantro (or dill or parsley). Spread the ingredients out into one layer in the pan. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the apples have softened,  about 20 minutes. Garnish with the remaining cilantro, dill or parsley. The sauce will be thin, so serve with crusty bread to sop up the sauce, or over rice

For the most part I am not particularly drawn to cookbooks that try to sell you on ease. The only way I can explain it is that I always look for the best way to prepare a dish rather than the quickest way. That being said, when I first read a review a friend did of Thirty Minute Pasta, I immediately ran out and bought it. Not because of it’s title, but because of who wrote it. This is Giuliano Hazan’s 4th book (yes I have the other 3 too). I knew that this book would be authentic and that the recipes within would be delicious.

The Hazan family is legendary in the world of food. Giuliano is the son of Marcella Hazan who is hailed by chefs and food writers as the Godmother of Italian Cooking. Giuliano followed in his mother’s footsteps when at the age of 17, he began work as an assistant at her School of Classic Italian Cooking. In 2000 Giuliano and his wife Lael started their own cooking school, Cooking with Giuliano Hazan at Villa Giona, and they travel teaching classes throughout the U.S. as well.

As read I through this lovely book I came across the recipe for Penne with Four Cheeses. It is surprisingly simple, full of great flavors, and extremely delicious. If you love cheese as I do, you must give this recipe a try. It is well worth it

Penne with Four Cheeses

Recipe printed by permission of Giuliano Hazan

Ingredients:

Fontina – 4 oz

Salt -  2 Tablespoons

Penne (rigatoni or maccheroni  work well also) – 1 lb

Butter – 1 Tablespoon

Heavy Cream – 1/2 cup

Gorgonzola – 2 oz

Mascarpone – 2 oz

Parmigiano Regianno – 1/3 cup

Directions:

Fill a large stockpot six quarts of water, place over high heat, and bring to a boil.

Cut the Fontina into a dice.

When the water starts to  boil add 2 Tablespoons of salt, then add the Penne.

While the pasta is cooking, put the butter and heavy cream in a 10 inch skillet or shallow sauce pan and place over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the Fontina, Gorgonzola, and Mascarpone. Season with salt and cook stirring almost constantly, until all the cheeses have melted, and you obtain a smooth texture. Lower the heat to the lowest setting.

When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce, and the Parmigiano Reggiano, serve  immediately and enjoy.