Challah, Latkes and more

With many of our friends celebrating Hanukkah the past week, we were intrigued enough to attempt cooking a few of the Jewish dishes that we have grown to love during our time in the US. Having lived for over 10 years in the Greater Philadelphia Area and traveling frequently to New York - we have great memories of eating some amazing Jewish and Kosher food. So this weekend - we humbly tried our hand at making Challah bread, Latkes and Apple Sauce from scratch. And boy, were we astounded by the amazing results!! A big shout out to our friend Amanda for sharing the recipe links with us.

Challah Bread (Link to recipe): Let me start by saying that we have never baked bread from scratch before (unless you count baking Indian Naan in our Tandoor\Grill at home). So we approached this recipe very hesitantly and carefully. Not sure if it was beginner’s luck, but we were really thrilled with the end result!! The recipe was relatively easy to make and I personally had an amazing time braiding the dough along with my daughter. She has requested that I explicitly mention that the two smaller sized bread in the picture above were her creations :-) Will say that the aroma and taste of freshly baked bread cannot be beat!!

Latkes (Link to recipe) and Apple Sauce (Link to recipe): Latkes are pan-fried potato pancakes and are often served with sour cream or apple sauce. Now since we live in Washington state which is known for its apples, we had to pair the latkes with homemade apple sauce. And can we just say that it was a match made in heaven!! The savory latkes - with their crispy exterior and creamy interior and the apple sauce - with it’s light, fruity flavor - ah absolute bliss!! These latkes were so tasty, they disappeared in a blink of an eye at our home.

During this crazy Covid year of 2020, we may have missed the “Sourdough baking craze” that was so prevalent around April\May (do you folks remember that??). But we are happy to have tried our hand at baking bread at home before the year ended. And if you want to add bread-making to your list of “out of the ordinary” accomplishments - hope our novice attempt above will give you some motivation. As James Beard, the great American chef said “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts!”