holidays & recipes: happy hanukkah calas

We had never heard of calas until we saw them in A Baker’s Odyssey by Greg Patent. According to A Baker’s Odyssey calas (ka-LAs) are “not too sweet rice fritters with a slightly chewy texture.” They were a “traditional delicacy for decades in New Orleans”. And, according to Jessica Harris, in her cookbook The Welcome Table “Calas seem to have been the exclusive culinary preserve of African-American cooks who peddled them in the French Market” Belles calas! Tout chaud! Beautiful rice fritters! Nice and hot! During Hanukkah we make these delicious rice fritters as an alternative to the deep fried sufganiyot, round, ball shaped jelly donuts that are the traditional sweet of Hanukkah. Our family does not really enjoy the sufganiyot, but in keeping with the tradition of frying foods we are completely happy to deep fry calas to celebrate the miracle that occurred at the rededication of a Jewish... Read the Rest →

 

holidays & recipes: happy hanukkah calas

We had never heard of calas until we saw them in A Baker’s Odyssey by Greg Patent. According to A Baker’s Odyssey calas (ka-LAs) are “not too sweet rice fritters with a slightly chewy texture.” They were a “traditional delicacy for decades in New Orleans”. And, according to Jessica Harris, in her cookbook The Welcome Table “Calas seem to have been the exclusive culinary preserve of African-American cooks who peddled them in the French Market” Belles calas! Tout chaud! Beautiful rice fritters! Nice and hot! During Hanukkah we make these delicious rice fritters as an alternative to the deep fried sufganiyot, round, ball shaped jelly donuts that are the traditional sweet of Hanukkah. Our family does not really enjoy the sufganiyot, but in keeping with the tradition of frying foods we are completely happy to deep fry calas to celebrate the miracle that occurred at the rededication of a Jewish... Read the Rest →

 

holidays & recipes: hanukkah a latke recipe

Hanukkah starts on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev, and lasts for eight days. This year Hanukkah begins on December 20th and lasts until December 28th. Our family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. We are a dual-faith family and there are many of us out there. Neither my husband nor I are particularly religious by text book standards. We don’t attend services and we do not belong to a church or synagogue. Our approach to religion and how we incorporate it in our lives is very specific to our family and, as religion should be, a personal choice. Despite the pleading from our children in years gone by (they’ve given up now) we do not give gifts on Hanukkah and Christmas. We leave the gift giving for Christmas. Traditionally, gift giving was not a big part of Hanukkah and has become more popular in the United States. We celebrate... Read the Rest →

 

holidays & recipes: hanukkah a latke recipe

Hanukkah starts on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev, and lasts for eight days. This year Hanukkah begins on December 20th and lasts until December 28th. Our family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. We are a dual-faith family and there are many of us out there. Neither my husband nor I are particularly religious by text book standards. We don’t attend services and we do not belong to a church or synagogue. Our approach to religion and how we incorporate it in our lives is very specific to our family and, as religion should be, a personal choice. Despite the pleading from our children in years gone by (they’ve given up now) we do not give gifts on Hanukkah and Christmas. We leave the gift giving for Christmas. Traditionally, gift giving was not a big part of Hanukkah and has become more popular in the United States. We celebrate... Read the Rest →