Pain perdu is a French nursery dessert. Meaning "lost bread," it reclaims day-old leftover bread and is the French answer to, aptly named, French toast. Challah is a traditional Jewish egg bread, slightly sweet and buttery, and very similar...
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That I love Maneschewitz is a vast understatement. It is cheap, and it tastes like spiked Concord grape candy. I am invited by my best friend's parents every year for the Jewish New Year, and every year, to the...
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There is nothing like a homemade donut. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would make beignets, French donuts, and cover them in warm honey. Donuts are traditional on Hanukkah, and are classically filled with jelly. In the...
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There is nothing brisk about brisket: It takes four hours to cook. The good news is that all the work in this recipe takes about 30 minutes, chopping included, and then you just turn your back on the meat...
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While I was growing up in New York, every Sunday morning was dedicated to a fine Jewish-American tradition: the bagel store. My dad and I would wander over, up Second Avenue, and I would order mini poppy seed bagels,...
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I always figured that if Hanukkah Harry really existed, he would wear a latke as his yarmulke. Latkes are potato pancakes, usually about the size of a silver-dollar flapjack at IHOP—but thicker, and made from potatoes cooked golden and...
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Christians have Blitzen; Jews have blintzes. Close, but not quite the same thing. The first is a reindeer, while the second is a traditional Jewish dish in which thin pancakes encase a creamy filling of cheese or fruit. I...
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Today's recipe from this week's featured cookbook, Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking, is for Potato Latkes. You basically couldn't write a book by that title or blog about it without highlighting these little fried potato pancakes. Here, Schwartz recommends using...
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Editor's note: Mario Batali had never participated in any Hanukkah rituals until he came to New York and met his wife, who loves making a big deal about Hanukkah for their kids. But just because he was a Hanukkah neophyte...
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I've never entered a latke-making contest, I've never even tried to come up with one on my own. That doesn't mean I'm not one of the great latke eaters of our time. When my grandmother was alive she would sometimes...
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