Hannukah and Christmas are vastly different holidays, but every once-in-a-while, the two events overlap, as they will next week.
Our Food Guy grew up with memories of potato pancakes rather than a morning full of presents, and so this time of year, he thinks of a deli with several locations on the North Shore, where they’re frying up thousands of them starting this week.
Hannukah ranks pretty low on the “Holidays of Significance” calendar compared to Christmas. But I’m interested in the food tradition. Frying, to be specific, commemorating a miracle of sorts, when a small amount of oil kept a lamp lit in a destroyed temple for eight days. To mark the occasion, a deli up north is elbow-deep in frying right about now.
The kitchen staff is flipping out this time of year, because while latkes - or potato pancakes - are a staple on the menu at all five Once Upon a Bagels on the North Shore - including this one in Highland Park – they get especially slammed if Hannukah falls during winter break.
“Hannukah is a little bit different from the other holidays here, only because all of the families getting together so it gets a little nuts here,” said Ira Fenton, Owner of Once Upon a Bagel. “As you can see now here today, all the families are in, all the kids are home from school.”
Homemade bagels and matzo ball soup share table real estate with thick discs of potato pancakes, griddled and fried to-order.
“I would say this month we’re gonna do anywhere from 5,000 to 6,500 potato pancakes,” he said.
The Food Guy
Not a lot has changed since 1982. First, peel a ton of potatoes, cut them into cubes, and roughly puree them in a food processor. Then do the same thing with white onions, while pressing out as much liquid as possible from both the potato and onion mixture. Add some eggs to bind them, then baking powder, salt, pepper and oil, plus a handful of flour, all of which is incorporated by hand, to give the batter a rough but even consistency.
They’re first scooped on a flat top griddle, to cook the insides, then dropped into soybean oil for a relatively quick fry to make them crispy outside.
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“We do a large six ounce and a smaller three ounce. So when we cook ‘em on the griddle we’re able to form them in a nicer pattern,” said Fenton.
Served with sour cream and apple sauce – you choose either or both – they are quintessential Hannukah snacking enjoyed yearround. This time of year they also offer sufganiyot, a filled donut, yet another excuse to drop carbs into hot oil.
“It’s traditionally with a raspberry filling. This year we’re gonna try something a little bit different, we’re gonna do the traditional raspberry as well as vanilla cream and chocolate,” he said.
The sufganiyot typically is on the menu until the end of the year, but those potato pancakes never leave the menu.
Lake Forest, Winnetka, Northbrook, Highland Park
