It’s my turn to hold my book club meeting and we are discussing “Barney’s Version” by M. Richler. I thought of the brilliant idea of doing Jewish style appetizers. I came up with smoked salmon (lox) on bagel chips, chopper liver on crackers and then … That’s when I realized I have no clue. I’ve done a few searches but it’s hard to weed through them all. Any help would be appreciated, especially dishes that can be prepared ahead of time (like the night before, did I mention it’s tomorrow?).
Since Chanukkah is coming up, what about latkes? (potato pancakes)
I did think about doing those but I didn’t want to spend the evening in the kitchen. I wonder if they’re just as good baked?
Those two sound pretty good. Here are some other things you can try…
Mini potato knishes with deli mustard, noodle kugel squares, pickled herring or any fish spreads. Gefilte fish is always a good one with horseradish. Challah, pickles and pickled tomatoes. Havalah is a good desert, and the good thing is almost all of this stuff can be bought at any grocery store.
-M
Hoummus and veggies? It’s Israeli, anyway…
Latkes aren’t that hard, really. Just shred some taters, mix with some beaten egg, flour and vegetable oil, flatten into patties and fry 'em up. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes from washing the potatoes to wiping the crumbs off the counter. You can make them ahead of time and re-heat them in the oven when ready to serve. Add a little applesauce and enjoy!
Your first decision is whether to make it milchig or fleischig (meat or milk). You wouldn’t want to mix! Here’s some milchig things –
-Lox, bagels, and cream cheese is always a winner.
-Gefilte fish (especially the store bought crap) is not likely to go over well unless you have seasoned Jewish eaters. It is supposed to be a cheap dish to make, and it tastes it IMHO, even with my dad’s homemade chrain (horseradish).
-Chopped or pickled herring and kichel (sweet cracker thingys). Can usually be bought at a Jewish deli. Again, not likely to be a homerun with nonseasoned eaters.
-Sweet kugels are not difficult (large flat egg noodles, sugar, cottage cheese, and a little cinammon on top and baked).
-Cinammon Babka is really easy in the bread machine. I’m at school now but I can post a recipe when I get home. Of course, everyone likes the chocolate babka… It has a crapload of butter and sugar, so it must be good.
-Speaking of Seinfeld, how about black and white cookies?
-Blintzes or a blintz casserole is easy too, especially using frozen kosher blintzes. -Around Purim it is easy to find homentashen. That isn’t now. They aren’t difficult to make if you don’t mind rolling dough. Again, IMHO facilitated by a bread machine.
-Since it is around Chanuka, you may be able to find sufganiyot in Israeli/Jewish food places. These are pretty much jelly doughnuts.
-Borekas are a good Sephardi snack: phyllo dough filled with feta, spinach, or with mashed potatoes, kind of in the shape of a baklava.
FYI I’m likely in the most un-Jewish place on the planet so my sources are a bit limited. I just finished making the chopped liver and sweet jebus! I guess I didn’t really get how LIVER it was going to be. I hope I have some liver fans in the book club. Thanks for all your suggestions and at the very least I now know what Gelfite fish is - not as strange as it sounds.
Some of the food I’ve looked up and what’s been suggested sounds fantastic though and I will have to make it in the future. Babka …yum.
Fish is milchig? I thought fish was pareve?! Or did you mean that it was a milchig meal and the fish is okay with a milchig meal because of its pareve-ness?
I’d think for unaccustomed palates, some whitefish salad would be palatable than either gefilte or herring, no? It’s the only fish I’ve eaten other than tuna, and I found it to be quite enjoyable for, well, animal. (Both gefilte and herring were both too obviously fishy and strong smelling for me, a vegetarian for most of my life and a pescetarian for only a small, small portion.)