Cooking & Crafting 2013 – Hanukkah Eats

While many people are preparing for Thanksgiving this week, others are ready to celebrate Hanukkah, which starts this Wednesday. To celebrate, Anne made Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Latkes and Cider-Glazed Root Vegetables from THE NEW JEWISH TABLE by Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray to share with all of you.

Enjoy! And don't forget that you can enter to win a copy of THE NEW JEWISH TABLE and other cooking and crafting books (see details after the recipes).

Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Latkes

INGREDIENTS:
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 cup matzo meal (Anne substituted a mix of cornmeal and flour since she didn't have matzo meal)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup canola oil

DIRECTIONS:
Grate the potatoes and onion on the large-mesh side of a box grater or in a food processor. Using your hands, squeeze out any liquid and transfer to a medium size bowl. Add the eggs, matzo meal, thyme, salt and pepper, mixing until all ingredients are well blended.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Heat a nonstick saute pan over high heat; add 1/4 of the oil and heat it until it begins to smoke. Shape the potato mixture into 5-inch round cakes about 1/2 thick and add them to the pan, 3 at a time. Lower the heat to medium and cook the cakes until brown on one side (about 4 minutes); turn them over and cook on the other side until brown (another 4 minutes). Remove the cakes from the pan and transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Continue to cook the latkes in batches of 3, adding more oil to the pan as needed. Keep the cooked latkes in the oven to stay warm.

Serve with the topping of your choice: applesauce, sour cream, creme fraiche, fresh or frozen cherries, etc.

Cider Glazed Root Vegetables

INGREDIENTS
1 large carrot
1 medium turnip
1 medium rutabaga
1 medium celery root
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups vegetable stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme, plus the leaves from a third sprig for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Peel and dice the vegetables into 1/2 inch dice (you should have about 1 cup of each vegetable, or 4 cups altogether). Heat the butter and oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the vegetables and saute until they turn slightly golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in the honey and cook for another minute. Add the vinegar and continue to cook, stirring until it has evaporated, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the salt and pepper. Add the stock and whole thyme sprigs. Raise the heat to high and bring the stock to simmering; lower the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and simmer the vegetables, until they are tender and turn shiny, about 5-7 minutes more.

Drain the vegetables in a colander and discard the thyme sprigs. Transfer the vegetables to a serving dish and toss with the thyme leaves. Serve immediately.

Win a bundle of cooking and crafting books for your library!

UPDATE 12/16: Congratulations to our winners, Sarah Bourg of Hamilton North Public Library in Cicero, IN and Pam Aghababian of Ashland Public Library in Ashland, MA! 

To enter the giveaway, simply email Library@MacmillanUSA.com from your professional/library-issued e-mail address (subject: Cooking & Crafts) with your libraryís mailing address to be placed in the random drawing. This sweepstakes is open to librarians in the United States. Entrants must be age 18 or older. No purchase necessary. Entries must be received by Sunday, December 15th, 2013 to be eligible. The winner grants Macmillan Library the right to announce his/her name on Twitter, MacmillanLibrary.com, and any other platform we want to congratulate him/her on. We will select the potential prize winner at random from among all eligible entries received. If a potential prize winner cannot be reached after three (3) business days, we will select an alternate winner, so check your email.