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Blogs / On the Table / February 2008 / Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah

Today is the first day of Hanukkahand I for one will be celebrating on one of the eight days. I know—it'sonly a minor Jewish holiday that has been magnified by the proximity ofoverblown Christmas, but to me it's a great festival just because itincludes latkes (click herefor a good recipe in a weird format) and applesauce. Every family hasits own Hanukkah menu, but I don't know one that doesn't includelatkes. I like to make them with minimal flour, just grated potatoesmixed with beaten egg and seasoned with a little grated onion, droppedby the spoonful into hot fat. If I'm only making them for a few people,I get really minimalist and just grate the potato directly into the fatin the pan so there's no time for the raw potato to oxidize and turnthat weird pink color.

Kugel—sweet or savory—is also traditional for Hanukkah. Since thehoiiday celebrates the miracle of the oil in the temple, the emphasison the Hanukkah table is fat, fat, fat. My friend Jessica Ravitz saysthat making her maternal grandmother Minnia Biener's noodle kugel iseasy, but, she says, "I can make it even easier. Take fat. Inject intoarteries."

But Jessica! I think. Like so many kitchen shortcuts, that one wouldn't taste as good.

Grandma Minnia's Noodle Kugel
Ingredients:
8 oz. medium width egg noodles
4 eggs
1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup sugar
1 small (8 oz.) container cottage cheese, less 2 tablespoons
1 small (8 oz.) container sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt half the butter. Mix the melted butter and all the other ingredients (with the exception of the noodles) together.

Cook, drain and rinse noodles.

Mix noodles in with everything else.

Pour it all into a pyrex or other pan, dotting the top of the mixture with the rest of the butter (the unmelted butter).

Cover pan and place in pre-heated oven for 1 hour.

Originally published 2007-12-04