New England Hanukkah

I’m Jewish, but we were never a very observant family. I am, however, what I’ve heard called a “culinary Jew,” which means I have a fondness (and occasional mad cravings) for certain foods of my heritage. I whipped up a bunch of latkes today when my brother and his wife came over to exchange holiday presents, and finding myself unexpectedly out of the traditional applesauce accompaniment, grabbed a bowl of the orange-ginger cranberry sauce I’d made for Thanksgiving. (The stuff keeps for weeks.)

Let me tell you, latkes and cranberry sauce should have met each other long ago. Oh, traditionalists might scoff, but I say give it a try—or go halfway by adding a chopped apple to your cranberry sauce recipe. The sweet-tart cranberry sauce complements the savory, rich latke just as applesauce does, perhaps even better. Here in New England, it seems particularly appropriate.

There are latke recipes aplenty online, so I won’t add my own here, which is an amalgamation of several. I will advise you, however, to wring out the grated potatoes and onion thoroughly in a towel before mixing in the other ingredients, or you’ll end up with a sodden, splattery mess.

(For those wanting a bit more about Jewish food and humor, make sure you read up on The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate. (Wikipedia also covers it.) Oy.)