hanukkah Archives - Taste With The Eyes

Lokshen Kugel (baked noodle pudding)

Lokshen Kugel
(baked noodle pudding)

🕎 🕎 🕎 🕎 🕎

Happy Hanukkah! We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah this year with a delicious family meal.

Fortunately, my brother Bill was passing through town this holiday, on his way back to The Philippines. Along with sister Paula and chef/brother-in-law Ron, we cooked up a fabulous celebratory meal. Kudos to Paula and Ron for preparing the best latkes, ever. And kudos to Bill for assembling the most delicious kugel.

Sending our family’s warmest wishes to you at Hanukkah. May you be blessed with joy, good health, good food, and peace.

Noodle Kugel Recipe

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Turkey Matzo Ball Soup

Turkey Soup with Poultry-Seasoned Matzo Balls
Egg Noodles, Peas, Carrots, Shredded Turkey

A blend of thyme, sage, black pepper, marjoram, rosemary and nutmeg – this traditional Thanksgiving seasoning adds a unique savory flavor to my Hanukkah matzoh balls.

When Hanukkah falls right after Thanksgiving on the calendar, a special opportunity arises. Here, we are merging the best flavors and recipes of both holidays…With this seasoning, the matzoh balls have a taste reminiscent of turkey!

Turkey Soup with Poultry-Seasoned Matzo Balls Recipe

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Latkes with Farmer Cheese

Latkes with Farmer Cheese, Two Ways

Sweet with Pomegranate Arils
and
Savory with Fresh Herbs

Happy Hanukkah!

A jug of olive oil, which held enough oil to last for one day, burned for eight when the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated. So we eat foods fried in olive oil to commemorate that ancient miracle. As far as symbolic foods go, potatoes fried in oil are pretty much everyone’s favorite.

This year I’m serving my latkes two ways, sweet and savory, both topped with farmer cheese. My favorite, Lifeway Farmer Cheese, is a cultured soft cheese made from an old world recipe with a distinctive tangy flavor, and it’s packed with probiotics to boot. You might say farmer cheese and latkes are a match made in heaven…

Latkes with Farmer Cheese

Latkes Two Ways

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Short Rib Kreplach and Nana’s Meat Soup

Short Rib Kreplach and Nana's Meat Soup

Celebrating Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights
with
Short Rib Kreplach and Nana’s Meat Soup

Back in 2008 I had asked my Mother about recipes from the past. She said that my Nana (my paternal grandmother) made excellent soups. I remembered her chicken soup which I still make to this day, and her delicious borscht. Mom said that she always liked Nana’s meat soup. Meat Soup, I asked? Mom said that it was just like chicken soup but with meat. She still had the recipe.

These are the ingredients my Mother had listed on the old recipe index card from notes she took while watching her mother-in-law make meat soup: short ribs, carrots, onions, parsnips, celery stalks, parsley root, dried large lima beans, and egg noodles.

In honor of Hanukkah and in remembrance of my dear mother Joyce (1933- 2013) and dear grandmother Fanny (1894-1972), I’m making Nana’s Meat Soup and adding those comforting Jewish dumplings known as kreplach, filled with tasty shredded short ribs of beef.

Short Rib Kreplach and Nana's Meat Soup

Short Rib Kreplach and Nana’s Meat Soup

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Kimchi Potato Latkes

Kimchi Potato Latkes and Happy Hanukkah!

A jug of olive oil, which held enough oil to last for one day, burned for eight when the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated.

We eat foods fried in olive oil to commemorate that ancient miracle from the second century BCE and potato pancakes are almost everyone’s favorite symbolic food. This year my latkes have a daring twist. 5779 is the year of the Kimchi Potato Latke!

Adults who adore kimchi’s complex spicy, salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami, fermented flavors will fall hard for this pancake. Kids, unfortunately, not so much…the younger set should probably stick to traditional style potato latkes with that wonderful combination of sweet apples and sour cream, like this one.

The recipe is a marriage between my kimchi jeon (mind-blowing kimchi pancake batter) and my standard recipe for potato latkes. The combination is amazing pancake synergy.