Why Chanukah oil(y)?

I came accross an article online about Chanukah and it began by describing the holiday... "Unlike many Jewish holidays the celebration of Hanukkah is all about eating." I thought to myself, that's weird.  With the exception of Yom Kippur and other fast days, Jewish holidays are full of eating and sometimes over-eating. 

Passover has matzoh and two huge dinners (seders) that kick-off the eight-day eat-fest. Then there's Lag B'Omer with the traditional Bar-B-Que. Followed a few weeks later by Shavuot, the holiday where eating dairy-rich foods is the general custom. Jump ahead two fast days and we get to the fall season, where Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) calls for not one, but two nights of heavy eating (see the theme yet?). 10-days later comes a tummy-break with Yom Kippur's 26-hour fast. Don't worry though, before you can say "that fast wasn't so bad," you're most likely stuffing your face with bagels, cream cheese, cakes and anything else you can get your hands on. 

That's it, right? Nope. Just a week later is another eight-days of holiday eating. This time the holiday of Sukkot calls for outdoor chow-time in a hut (well, it wasn't easy building the wooden structure!). 

Ok so the high holidays are over, you have one month of holiday foods withdrawal and before you know it we're at it again. This time it's Chanukah and we're not just eating, we're eating everything we're told NOT to eat... Deep-fried donuts? Sure, have two. How about washing that down with some oil-drenched latkes (potato pancakes)? 

What's the deal? Why is the holiday of Chanukah the guilt-free, no-diets-allowed, cholesterol-who?, worry-free holiday of them all?

Maybe it's because we're celebrating our freedom from the ancient Greeks who wanted to strip us from our Jewish faith? Nah, otherwise we'd be snubbing ancient Egyptians on Passover. There must be another reason...

I know what you're thinking... It's the oil dummy! Tradition states that we eat oily donuts and latkes because we are meant to remember the miracle of the one remaining oil lamp. It was enough to light the Chanukah Menorah for only one night. However, it lasted eight nights instead, by way of Divine intervention. 

Of course, the Macabees knew nothing of clogged arteries and saturated fats. Nonetheless, they did know that people tend to be forgetful. Here's where things get interesting. 

According to the Association for Psychological Science (APS), memory and smell are intertwined (and flavor is what happens when taste and smell come together). See where I'm going with this yet? The brilliance of our ancestors is that they knew how important it was for future generations to remember their past. And what better way to instill memories, than with customs that had to do with foods? Associate the story with a food and repeat the custom of eating those foods every year for thousands of years... Your senses will remember the story through your taste buds. Genius!

So next time you bite into that deep-fried Chanukah goodness, remember how your freedom was won! (...and don't forget to dip it in apple sauce or sour cream too :)

Got Kosher? 

Visit thekosherkitchen.com for ways to order. 

Jewish (Moroccan) foods (part 2)

Honey, I'm home.

Phyllo dough, powdered sugar, almonds, chocolate and honey.  These are the main ingredients you're most likely to find in Moroccan sweets.  There are also Moroccan petit fours and they are not to be confused with the French variety filled with cake and marzipan.  They usually have some sort of nut (walnut, pecan, almond) as it's center and surrounds itself with crystallized sugar or honey and caramel to harden it. 

Moroccans love their honey and basically drizzle it on many recipes like it's a condiment.  It's used in Adafina (aka Dafina or Hamin) or the Sephardic cousin of "Cholent" (a Jewish stew that is usually simmered overnight for 12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat day (the Sabbath). Source: Wikipedia).  This is a desserts blog, but I'm sure Adafina will pop-up later on... love those chickpeas!

So you've heard of Moroccan cigars.  Well those are typically filled with spicy ground beef.  The dessert variety are also called cigars, but these are filled with almond paste or chocolate.  Yes, of course, they are also drizzled with honey!

More honey, you ask?  Well there's always Shebakia.  This is where the honey meets the deep fryer.  This hard-to-pronounce delicacy is more of a cookie topped with sesame seeds and mixed with rose water.  The dough is deep-fried in vegetable oil and shaped into a flower-like, flavor-full bouquet of comfort.  The color is a dark amber, due to the added turmeric and cinnamon (turmeric in dessert, yup).  

Another Moroccan favorite is the Fijuela.  It's fried dough and honey again, but has less ingredients, so the color remains more beige.  The shape is different too and is flash-fried to remain flexible as it's rolled into kind of a hay wheel.  

All delicious, but you won't find these desserts in the healthy aisle.  Okay, so carbs, gluten and type II diabetes aren't that common in North Africa, but these desserts go great with mint tea.  When visiting Marrakesh, though, make sure to ask for fresh "nana" (spearmint).  It'll wake you up... after the heavy meal followed by the fried desserts :)  

Chanukah's coming up and we should talk latkes and soufganiot next time.  Not to forget Moroccan beignets (or doughnuts) dipped in... you guessed it.

Got Kosher? Visit thekosherkitchen.com for ways to order.