Build a Hanukkah latke bar Celebrate traditions, but invite variety and some adventurous sides too
On Hanukkah, beginning at sundown Dec. 2, when the potato latke moves to center stage, wouldn’t it be fun to have a parade of different ones, each with enough character to stand on its own and its own side sauce? What goes on the latke bar?
First, the tablescape. Traditions surrounding the holiday have not shifted, so pull out the chanukiah (I grew up calling it a menorah too); buy those little fishnet bags of goldwrapped chocolate coins or gelt, and scatter them; ask your musical-scholar-in-residence-child to make a playlist. . Moving on to the food. We’re offering a lineup of three very different latkes and four sides. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is a holiday that ends up returning to old priorities. Unless you have Sephardic guests, there’s an emphasis on the strikingly similar Ashkenazic recipe of grated potato, some onion (or not) and salt. The mixture fries in hot oil to a crisp goodness.
On the table, put a large platter of your nana’s latkes first. Celebrate your own traditions; they do keep the family together. Make them the spotlight. Don’t use restraint. Go for abundance! And offer heaping bowls of sour cream and applesauce.
If you’re thinking, why would anyone need more? Aren’t nana’s latkes enough? Why “break the bloodline,” so to speak? It’s no stretch to say that if I had escaped the antisemitic Russian pogroms of my shtetl in Poland, as my mother-in-law Rebecca Bazilan did, those potato latkes sweetened with applesauce would’ve come with me to America. By adding other choices, I am not demeaning their importance: as sanctuary, as profound connection to a once-happy life.
But they’re not reflective of the breadth of even the most basic winter
farmers market or grocery.
In a climate where culinary diversity is honored, there is hardly a new idea that I am not open to, except an overwhelming abstraction of the food. Which is why I was delighted to unearth Marlene Sorosky Gray’s combination of four root vegetables, and then a fifth, the beet, stirred into the classic sweet applesauce. Americans like Sorosky Gray, gifted at innovation, are forging ahead with an agenda of healthier choices. Maybe you have Yukon or Red Bliss potatoes on hand, but rutabaga? Parsnips, celeriac, beets? These ingredients truly add flavor to the classic potato latke.
The final latke contribution, from Mauro Mafrici, chef/owner of Pelago Ristorante in Chicago’s Raffaello Hotel, keeps the foundation of the latke’s classic Ashkenazic ingredients, but Mafrici felt the urge to change things up. He cut the potatoes in shoestrings, swished them around an iced water bath to remove the starch, let them dry out, then combined them with eggs, salt and flour, or cornstarch for the gluten intolerant. After they are fried, he re-engineers them by stacking each one with smoked fish, creme fraiche, a pinch of fresh chives and a watercress sauce that makes it a standout dish.
This year, the eight-day Hanukkah celebration falls over two weekends, which gives you more time to plan, cook and freeze. And stake your claim on hosting the holiday. What you will be offering besides your grandma’s delicious latkes are simply the limits of your own appetite.