I Like You A Latke

Many well-meaning non-Jews mistakenly believe that Chanukah (pronounced with an agressive phlegmy "CH") is a significant and important Jewish holiday. It is not. It's the President's Day of Judaism.

It's the timing that shakes things up. Because it falls around Christmas, I've had non-Jews (particularly Christians) ask me, "What are you doing for Chanukah?" in the same vein I might ask what they're doing for Christmas. So Christians and non-Jews take heed: I do nothing for Chanukah. Nothing, that is, except make latkes on the fifth night like I did with Lisa last night.

We made this awesome latke recipe we found on Epicurious, featuring apples and celeriac in the latke batter. Celeriac? What's that? It is this:

It cost $4. It smelled like celery. We used a one-inch cube of it. That, my friends, is celeriac.

We only used a one-inch cube (instead of a two-inch cube) because we halved the recipe. This was wise because we yielded a perfect number of latkes. Anymore and we would have been greasy and explosive.

Here's what went into the shredding mechanism of my food processor: apple, potato, onion, celeriac:

Then, into a towel where the juices were squeeed out:

It's unclear whether the recipe wanted us to retain the juice and reincorporate it or dump it. I dumped it (to Lisa's chagrin) but I don't think it had any effect on the finished product.

After adding egg, chopped marjoram (which added much flavor), flour, salt and pepper, we poured oil into a skillet and fried 'em up 3 and 4 at a time:

Here's the final result with presentation by Lisa:

They were delicious. Tasted just like the ones mom used to make, except they weren't defrosted from a box in the freezer. They capture the true spirit of Chanukah which is--ummm---appley? Potatoey? Celiarcy? Again, Chanukah isn't a very important holiday.