Dinner Menu
Hanukkah/Christmas
With Hanukkah starting on the same night as Christmas this year, you might be wondering how you can celebrate both. Part of the answer: food! Here, we've written up tried and true recipes that are reminiscent of both traditions: Ashkenazi Cholent ✵ Simple Israeli Salad ✵ Latkes ✵ Challah ✵ Apple Pie
Ashkenazi Cholent
Time: 8–10 hours
Serves: 8
*Recipe published with permission from My Yiddishe Mama cookbook.
Cholent is a slow-cooked beef stew that’s traditionally served on Shabbat (because it slowly cooks while you are resting!). In this case, it can cook itself while you are dancing to Christmas music, or opening Hanukkah presents, or both.
Ingredients
3 yellow onions, chopped
3 small potatoes, cubed
1 kg beef stew meat, cubed
2 to 4 marrow bones
Salt and pepper
1 cup pearl barley
½ cup kidney beans
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp chilli powder
2 peeled boiled eggs
2 tbsp honey
3-4 cups of water
Method
1. Place the onions and potatoes in a slow cooker.
2. Add the beef stew meat and marrow bones.
3. Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper. Add the barley and kidney beans, then sprinkle with paprika, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder.
4. Add the boiled eggs to the slow cooker.
5. Pour the honey over the top of the cholent, and then pour the water over to cover the beans.
6. Cover the slow cooker, and cook on low heat overnight or for at least 8 hours. Prior to cooking, remove marrow bones.
7. Serve to your family with challah and/or latkes on the side!
Simple Israeli Salad
Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
*Recipe published with permission from My Yiddishe Mama cookbook.
Ingredients
½ cucumber
½ onion
3 tomatoes
Drizzle of olive oil
Drizzle of lemon juice
Salt
Black pepper
Method
1. Finely chop all of the ingredients and mix together in a bowl.
2. Add olive oil, black pepper, salt and lemon juice.
3. Toss together and serve immediately. That’s it!
Latkes
Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 5–12, depending on how many people it takes to eat about 24 latkes.
From The Jews for Jesus Family Cookbook by Melissa Moskowitz.
This recipe won first place in a Chicagoland area Messianic community. What won the judges over? “We loved the onions,” they said.
Ingredients
4 large potatoes, scrubbed and left unpeeled
1 medium onion
3 small eggs or egg substitute
1/3 cup flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil
Applesauce or sour cream (or catsup)
Method
Grate potatoes and onion, either by hand (if you have the energy and the knuckles!) or in the food processor, using the steel blade. You should have a mixture with the consistency of coarsely chopped apples for applesauce.
Place potatoes and onions in colander to drain over sink.
When drained, put mixture in large bowl and mix in eggs and flour (or matzah meal). Season with salt and pepper.
Pour vegetable oil to 1/4″ depth in heavy skillet. Heat until very hot, but not smoking.
Spoon batter into skillet, flattening pancakes into 3″ ovals. Fry until deep golden brown and crisp on both sides. Repeat with all the mixture.
Lay several newspapers on kitchen counter, cover with several paper towels, and place cooked pancakes on this to drain.
Serve immediately, or if you are waiting for other menu items to finish, keep warm in a 400° oven (they will lose some of their crispness, but will taste just as good).
Makes 24 latkes. Serve with applesauce or sour cream (or catsup).
Challah
Time: 4–5 hours including rising time
Yield: 2 large loaves
Whether you’re making cholent, latkes, both, or something entirely different for Christmukkah dinner, you won’t regret having fresh-baked bread on the side.
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups warm water
2 ¼ tsp (or one packet) active dry yeast
⅓ cup honey
A palmful of salt
3 eggs
Olive oil
7–9 cups unbleached all-purpose white flour
Fresh or dried herbs (thyme or rosemary work well) if desired
Method
Combine warm water and yeast in a large bowl; let proof for ten minutes.
Stir in honey, salt, and two eggs. Add flour one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. Add olive oil (a couple swirls around the bowl) into your flour mixture.
Knead by hand until smooth. Add more flour as necessary (as you knead, the dough should clean the sides of the bowl, and it should not be super sticky. You should be able to easily wipe dough off your hands).
Dump the dough out of the bowl; lightly coat bowl with olive oil. Place dough back inside bowl, cover, and set in a warm place to rise for about three hours or till doubled in size.
After dough has risen, separate into two halves.
Begin braiding by placing one half on a large, lightly floured surface (like your kitchen table). Separate this portion of dough into three pieces, then squiggle-squaggle each piece into a long rope. Place your three ropes of dough together on a parchment-lined baking sheet and braid.
To braid bread, either let any children in the house figure it out as they like, or ask Rabbi Google for a video tutorial. (Hint: it helps to begin in the middle, then braid your way to the outside, then turn loaf around and do the same thing on the other side.)
Beat an egg and use a pastry brush (a folded-up paper towel will work just as well) to coat each loaf with egg wash. Sprinkle top with herbs if desired. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Let loaves rise for another 30 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven for 30–40 minutes or until loaves are firm and nicely browned on top.
Set bread on your kitchen table to cool–or hide it if you want it to last until dinner!
Apple Pie
Time: 1.5 hours
Serves: 6–8
It’s very Christmassy. And when no one’s looking, you can dip your latkes into the apple-saucey part of the pie.
Ingredients
Double pie crust (your favorite recipe, or store-bought will do)
8–10 granny smith apples (depends on size of apples and size of your pan)
¾ cup–1 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs salted butter
1 egg (for egg wash)
Method
Peel, core and slice apples; place in large bowl.
Mix apples together with all dry ingredients.
Line a deep-dish pie pan with your first pie crust. Pile apples on top of crust; cut up butter and dot the top of the apple mountain with it.
Lay top crust over apple mixture.
Crimp the edges and cut two or three slits in the top crust to vent steam. Make an egg wash and use a pastry brush to brush the top crust for a nice golden color.
Bake in preheated 425-degree oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Then cover with foil (to prevent excessive browning) and bake for another 20 minutes.
How do you know it’s done? When you take the pie out of the oven and you can hear the juices inside sizzling!