Celebrating carrots

Just in case you’re sick of potatoes on Hanukka...

By FAYE LEVY, YAKIR LEVY
Orange - carrot and sweet potato patties (photo credit: Boaz Lavi)
Orange - carrot and sweet potato patties
(photo credit: Boaz Lavi)
Hanukka is the holiday of potato pancakes and kugels, but after a few days of spuds, it’s a good idea to highlight another root vegetable: the carrot.
Carrots are among the most versatile of vegetables – suitable for savory dishes as well as desserts. That may explain why “the carrot is the second most popular vegetable in the world after the potato,” according to the authors of Divine Kosher Cuisine, Risé Routenberg and Barbara Wasser.
Routenberg and Wasser have had plenty of experience with carrots. Their congregation, Agudat Achim in Niskayuna, New York, has been holding a carrot festival for 35 years.
The festival began as a simple farmers market and grew into a lively carnival that draws crowds from all over New York and surrounding states. “A multigenerational army of volunteers crowds the synagogue’s kosher kitchen to join... in cooking, baking and packaging a voluminous number of foods and dishes that will be snapped up on festival day,” wrote Routenberg and Wasser. People come to feast on dishes ranging from carrot tzimmes to curry-seasoned carrot soup, as well as non-carrot dishes like felafel and roast chicken, and stand in long lines to buy homemade carrot desserts to take home.
Carrots make delicious latkes, either as the main component or combined with other vegetables like in the vegetable-feta latkes created by the congregation’s cooks. To make these crisp latkes, you mix grated carrots with zucchini, fresh herbs and crumbled cheese (see recipe).
A warming soup is an ideal starter for a Hanukka meal, helping to curb appetites so people won’t load up on latkes. If you have somewhat adventurous eaters at your table, you could make the Carrot Festival’s Indian-spiced carrot soup, in which chopped carrots cook with onions sauteed in olive oil, curry spices, brown sugar, vegetable broth and potatoes; the soup is then pureed and served garnished with mint or fresh coriander. If you prefer delicate flavors, you could prepare a French-inspired velvety carrot soup flavored with thyme and bay leaf (see recipe).
Even children who usually are finicky about eating vegetables might change their minds if they try carrot tzimmes like the kind served at the festival. It’s made of sliced carrots baked in a covered pan with chunks of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, raisins, dates, prunes, brown sugar, honey and orange juice and zest.
For a Hanukka sweet, an oil-based carrot cake is a welcome treat. At the carrot festival, more than 1.500 servings of the signature carrot festival cake are sold. This elaborate creation is composed of carrot-cake layers studded with pecans and raisins sandwiched with a buttery pecan pastry cream, iced with cream cheese frosting and coated with toasted coconut. Wasser told me that for her grandchildren’s bar and bat mitzvas, she and her friends baked enormous carrot cakes made with three 1.5-meter (60-inch) layers.
The bakers for the Carrot Festival have come up with a variety of carrot cakes that are easy to make at home, using a basic formula of grated carrots mixed with eggs, sugar, oil and flour, which is then flavored with sweet spices, dried fruit and nuts. For their pineapple-carrot cake, they add crushed pineapple and chopped pecans, vanilla and cinnamon to the basic batter. Their iced carrot cake has raisins, chopped walnuts and three spices – nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice, and is coated with a parve cream-cheese frosting flavored with vanilla and lemon juice. A lighter cake calls for combining grated zucchini with the grated carrots and adding walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.
For those who like chocolate in everything, the Carrot Festival cooks have come up with a banana-chocolate chip carrot loaf, made of carrot-cake batter enhanced with mashed bananas, chocolate chips, vanilla and cinnamon. Their carrot-applesauce cake is studded with raisins and walnuts, and flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. It needs no frosting since it’s baked with a rich, crumbly brown sugar streusel topping (see recipe). Faye Levy is the author of 1,000 Jewish Recipes.Vegetable-Feta Latkes
This recipe is from Divine Kosher Cuisine. Made with tangy feta cheese and three kinds of grated vegetables combined with fresh parsley or dill, these latkes offer a variety of tastes with each bite.
When I asked author Barbara Wasser what to serve them with, she suggested cucumber-dill sauce made with sour cream. To make it, see the note following the recipe.
Makes 10 to 12 latkes
❖ 2½ cups grated zucchini ❖ 1 cup peeled and shredded potatoes ❖ 1 cup peeled and shredded carrots ❖ Salt to taste ❖ 3 large eggs ❖ ½ tsp. ground pepper ❖ ¾ cup flour ❖ ½ cup chopped fresh parsley or dill ❖ ¾ cup crumbled feta cheese ❖ Vegetable oil for frying
Place zucchini, potatoes and carrots in a colander, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and drain for 15 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid and place grated vegetables in a bowl.
Add eggs, pepper and a pinch of salt to vegetables.
Stir in flour, parsley and feta.
Heat about 3 tablespoons oil in a large deep skillet. Drop vegetable mixture into skillet by tablespoonfuls, without crowding the pan. Fry patties on both sides over medium-low heat until they are golden brown.
After each batch, add more oil if skillet becomes dry, and heat it before adding more mixture.
Drain latkes on paper towels.
Note: Cucumber Dill Sauce: Peel, seed and grate 1 large or 2 small cucumbers and drain in a colander. Squeeze out excess liquid, and transfer cucumbers to a bowl. Add 1 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon minced onion, ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill and ¼ teaspoon salt. Mix well. Makes 2 cups.
Velvety Carrot Soup
This recipe is from my book Jewish Cooking for Dummies. Pureeing cooked carrots and rice gives this soup an appealing, creamy consistency, even if you make it without any cream or other dairy products.
Makes 6 servings
❖ 2 Tbsp. olive oil, vegetable oil or butter ❖ 1 large onion, chopped ❖ 700 gr. (1½ pounds) carrots, peeled and diced ❖ 4 to 5 cups vegetable broth ❖ 3 Tbsp. uncooked rice ❖ Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste ❖ 2 thyme sprigs, or ½ tsp. dried thyme ❖ 1 bay leaf ❖ ⅓ cup milk, light cream, whipping cream or soy milk (optional) ❖ Pinch sugar
Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan. Add onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, 7 minutes or until soft but not brown. Add carrots, 4 cups broth, rice, salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes or until carrots and rice are very tender. Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaf.
Let soup cool 5 minutes. Pour into a blender and puree until very smooth. Return it to saucepan.
Bring soup to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often. If soup is too thick, add about 1 cup broth, or enough to bring soup to desired consistency. Bring to a boil, stirring. Stir in milk or cream and heat gently.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and sugar.
Serve hot.
Carrot Applesauce Snack Cake
This recipe is from Divine Kosher Cuisine. The parve, generously spiced raisin- and walnut-flavored carrot cake is good on its own, or baked with the streusel topping for a festive touch. The streusel mixture can be made in larger quantities, as it freezes well. For best flavor, serve the cake at room temperature.
Makes 2 loaves, total 20 slices
❖ Streusel Topping (optional, see note below) ❖ 2¼ cups all-purpose flour ❖ 1 Tbsp. baking soda ❖ ½ tsp. salt ❖ 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon ❖ 1 tsp. ground nutmeg ❖ 4 large eggs ❖ ¾ cup vegetable oil ❖ 2 cups sugar ❖ 1 tsp. vanilla extract ❖ 2 cups applesauce ❖ 3 cups peeled and grated carrots ❖ 1 cup golden raisins ❖ 1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF). Grease two 23 x 13 x 7.5-cm. (9 x 5 x 3-inch) loaf pans. If you like, prepare Streusel Topping.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Beat eggs at medium speed of electric mixer.
Add oil, sugar, vanilla, applesauce and carrots, and mix well. Stir in flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in raisins and nuts.
Pour batter into pans. Sprinkle streusel over batter.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of each loaf comes out clean.
Note: Streusel Topping: Combine 3 tablespoons sugar with 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar, ⅜ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1 cup flour in a small bowl. Cut 55 gr. (2 ounces or ¼ cup) margarine in small pieces. Cut margarine pieces into dry mixture to make a crumbly topping.