Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights

Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabbees in their 164BCE battle against the Syrian Hellenists and recapturing Jerusalem. When they returned to Jerusalem they found the Temple burned and a single oil lamp containing enough oil for one day. They lit it and miraculously it burned for eight days.

Today the miracle of the oil is symbolized by the lighting of candles in a Hanukkah menorah (menorah is Hebrew for lamp). There are nine places in the menorah – one for each night, plus the shamash (the candle used to light the others) One candle is lit on the first night, two the second and so on for eight days.

In the kitchen, the miracle of the oil is symbolized with foods cooked in oils. Potato latkes (pancakes) are probably the most well know of these foods, but latkes are really a tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. Jews in other parts of the world have other traditional foods - Italian Jews eat chicken pieces dipped in batter and deep fried, in Alsace they eat goose, and Iraqi Jews eat kba dumplings – a potato dough stuffed with chicken, meat and raisins and cooked in oil. In Morocco it’s sfenj – a deep fried donuty thing (a fabulous donuty thing by the way) that’s a breakfast and snack food throughout the year. A similar thing is called loukoumades in Greece and lokma in Turkey. In Israel – and now pretty much everywhere - sufganiot (jam filled donuts) are eaten at Hanukkah.

Even though I don’t make a lot of Ashkenazi foods, I always latkes on the first night of Hanukkah and, because sour cream is my topping of choice, I serve them with smoked fish and a large salad. I can’t usually bring myself to eat those 600+ calorie sufganiot but if I do break down, I’ll buy them at Harbord Bakery in Toronto rather than make them.

This year the last night of Hanukkah will be on Friday (the beginning of Shabbat) and at my house that often means chicken. This year I’ll follow the Italian tradition of fried chicken cutlets. And for dessert – I don’t know, maybe I’ll run over to Harbord Bakery for one sufganiah and cut it into 6 parts!