Gluten-Free Blintzes for Hanukkah Fun

Or however you choose to spell it. Regardless, it’s time to celebrate a military victory of epic proportions followed by the miracle of the oil lasting eight nights instead of one. I believe. Perhaps I should ponder upon how vague my knowledge of the Jewish holidays are while I spend hours at the stove making gluten-free blintzes. Or as my people call them, crêpes. Care to join me? The sweet treat after your brisket and kugel, my instinct is to throw powdered sugar all over these beauties. Apparently that’s not the Hanukkah way, so grab some berries, jam, or the like. Personally, I think fresh, healthy, fruit ruins a great dessert but I can roll. I spent this summer perfecting the gluten-free crêpe, (and what did you do with your time? hmmmm?) so let me give you a few tips on making these delicate pancakes:

• Don’t have a cocktail before you start making the crêpes. Trust me on this one.
• Be prepared to spend a heck of a lot of time at the stove when you undertake this delicious recipe. It seems simple, but you’ve gotta’ concentrate and stay at your post.
• Give your batter a mix several times during the process. The gluten-free flour can settle, and cause your crêpes to be too thin to flip.
• Use a large round spatula if you don’t have a pan you can flip easily, for easier turning.
• Even if you mess up half of your batter, there’s SO MUCH MORE. Surely you can make at least one perfectly, so don’t give up.

Eat up, revelers!

Gluten-Free Latke Recipe From a Celiac Shiksa

You cannot have the Hanukkah without some lovely fried potato pancakes, or as the chosen people call them — latkes. Even though my own Protestant mother used to make potato pancakes with leftover mashed potatoes (ohemgee, yummm), I’m determined to make these ‘cakes the way my husband usually does: Jewish style.

Now, I’ve fried many a food item in my day, but I took one look at this latke recipe that is naturally gluten-free and I totally do not get how you can make something fry in a patty without flour. Even hash browns at Denny’s come from some kind of super pressing  machine, right? Or something?

Yet I do love a recipe with very few ingredients, and this is all you need: potatoes, onion, salt, water, egg and oil. Oh, and this awesome menorah my two-year-old made in pre-school:

Yes, he does have a gift.

You know who else does? My daughter, who did all the squeezing of the ‘taters in a kitchen towel, like so.

And this kid HATES potatoes! But that’s how you do it, people. No, I don’t know why we keep the menorah in the kitchen.

But I do know how amazing these latkes are. Which is, so amazing. In fact, my husband and I ate all but two of them while my toddler was napping. Sadly, he woke up and ate the last two and then he cried for more. Of course there were no more, because we couldn’t help but stuff ourselves while he was completely unaware of the deliciousness going on in his own home.

Great latkes, bad parents.

Gluten-Free Kugel & Brisket When You’re Allergic to Hanukkah

Hanukkah, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, the “other” Christmas. Whatever you celebrate, if you’ve got an issue with gluten, you’ve got an issue with Hanukkah. Those delicious Jewish foods just loooove flour as an ingredient, so the celiac in league with Judah Maccabee has got to get creative.

Part one of my foray into the gluten-free Hanukkah goodness found me preparing a gluten-free kugel (sweet, of course) and a gluten-free brisket for an unsuspecting crowd of friends. Most of them weren’t even Jewish, but hey! What better mixed religious group to test out my gluten-free Hanukkah recipes than people who have never even had kugel before? (Tony, I’m looking at you.) Don’t they seem happy, and well-fed?

The wine helps.

Which is my first piece of advice to you, if you’re preparing a gluten-free holiday meal. Serve lots of booze and no one will notice if there’s a weird xanthan gum after taste. Hell, they won’t even notice if you’re serving kosher meat or not. Suckas.

Kugel is actually super easy to make gluten-free if you just get a fantastic gluten-free pasta. The people at Swanson’s (not the turkey pot pie people, darn it) let me shop in their amazing online food stuffs store where you can browse by diet, and I came away with this gorgeous gluten-free pasta made by Casalare. Don’t they look totally normal?

These macaroni twists may not be the traditional egg noodle, but they made for an excellent kugel. Right, Tony?

This is where I mention I also made a brisket using 6 onions. SIX! I just swapped in my favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour for the browning of the meat and voila, gluten-free brisket. I skipped the garlic in this recipe because one of my friends who came over has a garlic allergy. Yeah, puts your little wheat thing in perspective, doesn’t it? Garlic allergy. How much would that suck? A lot.

But as you saw in the photo above, no one missed the gluten, nor the garlic. I did, however, have to break down and buy a traditional challah. I just don’t have the patience to make gluten-free challah anymore. But feel free to skip that as well, for your Hanukkah celebration. Serve more wine instead.

Here’s how you can g-free your Hanukkah. Stay tuned for gluten-free latkes!