Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Day 679 : Happy Hanukkah!

Over the next few weeks, I plan to look at different food traditions surrounding the holidays -- spanning the globe and across religions. So tonight is the first night of the festival of lights, an eight day Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Holy or Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt in the 2nd century BCE. In 2011, a Menorah is lit nightly for the eight nights of the holiday, families exchange gifts and come together over each nightly meal and people are meant to feast on fried foods symbolizing the oil utilized to keep the temple alight for those eight days. Apart from your traditional latkes and doughnuts, this is also a time to eat cheese! Why do I say that? Cheese is considered to be a commemoration of Judith and women in general who have greatly impacted the events of Hanukkah. Did you know that back in olden times, people did not eat potato pancakes, they ate cheese pancakes?

So tonight if you plan to eat plain straight forward latkes simply crafted with potatoes why not top them with Salvatore Brooklyn's to die for ricotta cheese? This luscious milky uncutuous young creamster will take your potato pancakes to a whole new level of yumminess. Wanna go one step further? Well then I think mixing in some chives and sea salt and black pepper to your ricotta would make it even better!

But perhaps you wanted to add some cheese into your latkes not just on top? I recommend utilizing a nice Alpine style nutty cheese because it will enhance the flavor profile of the potatoes and meld all of the flavors together excellently. I'd choose Uplands Cheese Pleasant Ridge Reserve hailing from Wisconsin crafted in the Beaufort style this firm aged cheese is great on its own or shredded and melted into your latkes. Nutty, butterscotchy, caramelly, and rustic with a nice buttery roundness and a tinge of grassy barnyardy-ness, this is the perfect addition to your latke to take it to the next level.

Happy Hanukkah folks!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive