Marcella Cooking Stuff • Hanukkah Recipes
Hanukkah Recipes
If I told you the best thing I ate this week was 17 bowls of cornflakes would you believe me? It’s Hanukkah recipe week so yes, I made latkes, brisket, and kugel but I’m infatuated with corn flakes right now. Not any corn flakes, Natures Path Organic Honey’d Corn Flakes. I fully acknowledge that these are simply corn flakes...the cereal people have been eating since 1894. Toasted corn, shaped into little disks, dried and served with milk. But for the first time in 27 years, I have fully appreciated the deliciousness of THE corn flake.
I guess I ate them as a kid? My mother's house was a whole grain bread and natural peanut butter house and I didn't eat a lot of cereal with her. My father on the other hand had multiple boxes lined up at all times. Cereal was acceptable at any time of day. Sugary cereal? The more sugar the better. So to a child, a corn flake might look bland and that’s why I don’t think I remember really eating them.
I bought a box on Sunday to make Kugel with. That evening Marco and I said we would each have a small bowl as an after-dinner treat and THAT'S IT. Monday we agreed to just one more small bowl and Tuesday evening we accidentally finished the box. Wednesday I bought a second box which we accidentally ate half of. I did manage to make my kugel with the reminding corn flakes but I bought a third box on Friday for us to have any size bowl we want!
The corn flakes go on the kugel, we have established that. Not everyone does that but my grandpa does and so I do too. During my testing, I set out to elevate the corn flake topping and I most certainly did that. My grandfather's way of topping the kugel with corn flakes is to simply crush them up, maybe toss with some melted butter, and sprinkle them on top. I crushed them up, definitely tossed them with melted butter, AND I added brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Sprinkled on top and in the oven they went. I overestimated the amount I would need and was left with a decent size bowl of buttery crushed corn flakes. I’m not an animal. I couldn’t eat butter coated crushed cereal with milk. Then Marco walked in and simply said “toast them.”
🤯🤯🤯
If you make one thing from this week's newsletter, stop right now and make these toasted corn flakes.
They only took about 4 minutes in my toaster oven. Watch them closely! They were dark toasty sugary flavor blasting crumbs of my dreams!!!! So good I considered buying a frozen yogurt machine to make fro-yo and sprinkle them on top right that second! I reframed from the impulse purchase.
During the upcoming holiday if you find yourself with leftover corn flakes (or you just want some damn good corn flake crumbles) don’t toss them! Instead toasted them and use them for sprinkling on...
Yogurt
Ice cream
Kugel because you need extra crunch
Peanut butter toast
Directly in your mouth
Braised Brisket
Forever, my grandpa Bob has made an amazing brisket. It is a must at Hanukkah but I remember eating it other times as well. The recipe originates from an old Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel recipe. The copy I received a few years ago had some adjustments written on it which I always followed. Then after making it a handful of times I have shaped it into something with a little more depth, texture, and flavor. I zhuzhed it up.
Last year, I made a big 7-8lb piece for a Hanukkah party. I ran into the issue of finding something big enough to hold all the ingredients and braise in the oven. I ended up cutting the piece into two and braising the two pieces together. It turned out amazing. This year I tested a whole 5lb piece and a piece cut in half. Without a doubt, the two pieces cooked better than the whole piece.
Brisket is a tough cut of meat from the chest of a cow. It requires long slow cooking to breakdown and become tender. The issue that people generally run into during this long cook time is that it can become dry.
After 4ish hours, the single piece of brisket was still tough and on the dry side. After 3 hours the two smaller pieces were perfectly tender and moist. Cutting them in half allows them to cook faster and stay moister.
Another thing I did was salt the pieces 12-24 hours in advance. The salt not only flavors the meat but it helps with keeping it moist. During my research, I stumbled on a Cooks Illustrated article all about brisket and was happy to read that they found this was the best way to prepare brisket as well.
After hours of braising, the vegetables are fall-apart tender and become part of the sauce. I found that blending the vegetables and adding them back into the braising liquid created a thick velvety sauce that was really pleasant. To round out the meal, I cooked fresh carrots and baby potatoes in the sauce until tender. If serving this for dinner you would have a complete "one-pot" meal. On Hanukkah, you can omit the baby potatoes and serve latkes of course!
One optional step would be to caramelize onions to serve on top. Tender onions are one of my favorite things. The braised onions are so tender that they turn to mush after 3 hours. I reserved half an onion, caramelized them on the stove, and sprinkled them over the brisket when serving. This isn't necessary but the sweet flavor adds a layer that is to die for. Plus you can caramelize them in advance and keep them in the fridge for whenever you need them.
My last note about this brisket is the salt. The meat is salted and fish sauce is added to the braising liquid. Those two ingredients salted the dish well and I didn't add any more salt. At the end of cooking, after you reduce your sauce, taste and adjust your salt then. If you add extra before reducing your sauce, it may become too salty.
Enjoy and make some brisket sandies with the leftovers!!
Find my Braised Brisket recipe, here.
Marco's Latkes
One thing about latkes is they are not usually gluten-free!! Flour, matzo meal, and egg are common binding agents that are used in latkes. Marco is allergic to wheat and was at one point unable to eat eggs. So after many Hanukkah parties where he left hungry, we created these!
To be honest, Marco and our friend Misha actually created these in college BUT I helped Marco fine-tune and create a recipe for them.
There are two types of latkes in this world. Soft cake-y latkes and crispy crunchy latkes. What is better than a perfectly crisp potato? Absolutely nothing. These are our perfect latkes and I'm confident you will enjoy them too.
Something nontraditional about them is the addition of sweet potatoes. It may sound a little weird at first but all it does is add more flavor. We also like to fry them in a 50/50 blend of schmaltz and vegetable oil. Shmaltz also adds more flavor!
Find Marco's Latke recipe, here.
Noodle Kugel
If you have never had sweet noodle kugel...it sounds weird. Even while making it I have thoughts about how weird it is. But something happens when you bake everything together that is just magical.
Noodle kugel is just noodles baked into a custard dish. It is slightly sweetened but we are not talking dessert level sweet. Just a touch of sweetness. If you compare recipes online, noodle kugel is made the same across the board, and this recipe is no different. Besides my seasoned corn flakes, this is a classic sweet noodle kugel!
For fun, I baked some of the kugel in a muffin tin to created kugel cups! When planning, I envisioned them on display at a Hanukkah party and how cute they would be. They did end up very very cute. Also convenient! I have been unwrapping them and eating them as snacks all week.
If you plan on making kugel cups these are my tips. Instead of mixing the egg noodles with the custard, place a small amount of noodles into the lined muffin tin and spoon custard on top. It was very difficult to find a way of transferring noodles and custard without getting drips on the liner. When baked it darkens and isn't as pretty. I was nervous about them overflowing, they did not, fill them up all the way.
If you have never had kugel, give it a try! I think you will be surprised by how yummy it is.
Find my Noodle Kugel recipe, here.
Random thing of the week:
We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas in our house. This weekend we got our tree! One fun tradition we started when we moved to KC was cutting down our own tree. It's a fun experience that we both were really excited to do again this year.
Pet photo of the week:
Is it the guest bedroom or their bedroom?
Thing everybody needs:
If you need help with holiday gifts, check out last week's !
Happy Hanukkah!
P.S. What are your family's Christmas recipes? I don't have any!!!
See you next week,
Marcella