Need to know extra in regards to the Jewish competition of Hanukkah or what to serve at a Hanukkah celebration? Learn our information from Jewish Chronicle meals editor, Victoria Prever.
What’s Hanukkah?
Hanukkah (additionally spelt Chanukah, Chanucah or Hanukka) is called the competition of sunshine. It’s celebrated for eight days round mid-December with family and friends coming collectively to mild candles, play video games and luxuriate in a lot of scrumptious meals. This yr, in 2023, it begins on the night of 18 December.
Hanukkah commemorates a sequence of miracles which began with a victory (greater than 2,000 years in the past) of a tiny military of Jews (the Maccabees) over Syrian invaders. They instantly rebuilt their desecrated temple however once they went to relight the holy mild — which was meant to burn always — they discovered solely sufficient oil for a day. It could take eight days to supply extra particular oil, however what they’d lasted for the complete time till extra arrived, which was the second miracle.
So, for eight consecutive evenings as darkness falls, we mild candles in a particular candlestick known as a menorah or chanukiah. An additional candle is added every evening till, on the final evening of Hanukkah, eight candles (plus the one used to mild them) glow. It’s a magical sight.
What to eat throughout Hanukkah
Whereas the candles burn, kids play video games and we feast on a variety of treats. A lot of the meals eaten throughout Hanukkah is fried in oil which is so central to the story. We additionally eat dairy-based meals. Listed here are a couple of favourites.
Doughnuts
Everybody celebrating Hanukkah will eat not less than one, and possibly a number of extra doughnuts over the eight days. Custard doughnuts or jam-filled doughnuts high the invoice for favourites, however any filling goes — from chocolate to pumpkin butter and extra Center Japanese-influenced flavours reminiscent of honey-scented tahina.
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Potato latkes
These beautiful, grated potato-based truffles (much like rösti) are one other Hanukkah staple. My traditional potato latkes are crisp, crunchy and scrumptious with soured cream and a dollop of apple sauce, though you’ll be able to high them with no matter you want. Attempt smoked salmon and a comfortable poached egg or tender salt beef with pickled cucumber to chop via the oil.
Twists on the custom latke embrace including herbs and spices like my za’atar and herb-packed recipe on BBCGoodFood.com or utilizing different starchy greens reminiscent of parsnips, candy potatoes and even beetroot for a folate-filled fry-up. High tip: the important thing to maintaining the latkes crisp is to squeeze out as a lot liquid as potential earlier than cooking.
Rugelach
These melt-in-the-mouth pastries (pronounced rog-ell-lah) are made utilizing a light-weight and flaky cream cheese-based dough and shaped right into a crescent form — like mini croissants. My favorite (which jogs my memory of my grandma’s excellent pastries) needs to be the standard filling of cinnamon, chopped nuts and raisins, like my cinnamon, raisin and walnut recipe on BBCGoodFood.com, however they’re additionally scrumptious full of chocolate or jam. Or attempt my raspberry and white chocolate rugelach.
These rugelach from John Gregory-Smith are impressed by the unique however swap the standard dough for puff pastry to attain the attractive swirls of pastry crammed with pistachio cream and darkish chocolate filling.
Rugelach is a Hannukah deal with due to the cream cheese within the pastry. Dairy meals are conventional due to the legend of Judith, a good looking Jewish woman who beheaded Assyrian basic, Holofernes. She was ready to do this after having fed him salty cheese, which had made him thirsty sufficient to drink a whole lot of wine and go to sleep. With the overall useless, the Israelis rallied, attacked and overcame the Assyrian armies who then fled.
Worldwide flavour
Jewish communities around the globe have their very own particular person meals customs for the competition of Hanukkah. In Israel, doughnuts are vastly common and are known as sufganyot. They’re full of all kinds of surprising fillings like halva, tahini and honey, sticky melting marshmallow and gooey chocolate.
Italian Jews have fun with fried rooster but additionally put together precipizi – tiny balls of dough, deep-fried and coated in heat honey. In Spain and Portugal, the Hanukkah speciality is bimuelos — yeasted fritters flavoured with cardamom and cinnamon, and drizzled with orange flower honey. Discover a recipe for these on The Jewish Chronicle.
Chocolate cash
Kids are given small presents on every day of the competition of Hanukkah, together with chocolate cash, which they’ll then use to play a recreation known as dreidel. A dreidel is a spinning high with 4 letters on. The letter you land on dictates whether or not you place a coin in, take half the pile of cash, take all of the cash or simply do nothing.
