Hanukkah starts on Christmas Day this year, which, for families celebrating both, makes for one pretty busy Wednesday. But I can’t wait to wake up and open presents in the morning next to the tree … and then open more presents in the evening next to the menorah. When it comes to holiday cheer, more is more!
Then there are the latkes. (Excuse me one sec while I stare into space and salivate.)
For years I’ve been coming back to this latke recipe, because it’s as perfect as it is adaptable. Depending on how you cook them, they fry up either thin and crunchy, flecked with golden, crackling strands, or chubby and nubby, with soft, fluffy centers. For the former, you’ll want to scoop the batter loosely, drop small cakes into the sizzling oil, then press down with your spatula to thin them out so they crisp — these I nibble out of hand, dolloped with salmon roe. Or else use more batter and cook them slowly for the sort of thicker, softer latkes you can eat with a fork, preferably smothered with Samantha Seneviratne’s maple-syrup-sweetened homemade applesauce and sour cream. Hanukkah lasts eight nights, so this year I’m holding space for both versions.
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Classic Potato Latkes
To round out the Hanukkah table, or to simply add a festive gleam to your weeknight, try Susan Spungen’s recipe for roast chicken with olives and apricots. She wrote it with a springtime Seder dinner in mind, but the tangy flavors of sumac, oranges and white wine work just as beautifully to brighten up December. Better still, you can use any chicken parts you like — legs, breasts, wings or a combination.
It’s not Hanukkah yet, though, so let’s think: What’s for dinner tonight? I love the look of Carolina Gelen’s caramelized fennel pasta, which takes full advantage of that anise-flavored vegetable, both bulb and fronds. Simmering thinly sliced fennel in butter makes it very soft and sweet, which Carolina balances with a glug of pinot grigio and a handful of Parmesan. A minimalist delight for sure.
Ali Slagle’s crispy rice with dill and runny eggs is a meatless keeper that I keep on heavy rotation. Inspired by baghali polo, a traditional Persian dish, the rice is laced with herbs and velvety lima beans, which all get coated with the yolks from runny eggs cooked in the same pan. But the best part might just be the golden bits at the bottom of the skillet, crisped up tahdig-style, that make the whole thing just sing.
For dessert, sufganiyot, or Jewish jelly doughnuts, are another deep-fried Hanukkah delight you can make after, or instead of, the latkes. Julia Moskin adapted Claudia Roden’s recipe, for treats scented with orange zest and filled to nearly bursting with thick berry jam. You could also take a page from readers’ recipe notes and stuff them with lemon curd, Nutella, pastry cream or, more radically, nothing at all. As Emily in France writes, “In my family we just put sugar on top and don’t bother with the jam.”
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More chicken for you here, this time Sam Sifton’s much-beloved chicken shawarma, an oven-roasted take on the classic crowd-pleaser. With over 22,000 reviews, it’s one of our most popular five-star recipes. Make it once and you’ll see why.
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