Category: Side Dishes

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Tostones for Hanukkah!

Tostones

The day I moved into my very first apartment was an important day for me. I was starting my senior year in college, and for what seemed like the first time, I was taking a leap towards independence. Sure, I moved halfway across the country to go to school where I knew only a couple people, but living on campus, there’s a certain safety net in place to catch (and comfort) the students if they fall.

pressing tostones
Smashing my plantains in the tostonera.

I remember taking great care to choose an apartment within my budget, and carefully selecting my roommates. We plotted and planned how we’d decorate, and made memories building our ready-to-assemble furniture from our favorite Swedish retailer. Not surprising, the part of apartment living I was most excited about was that I would finally have a kitchen of my own. While my roommates concentrated on finding art to decorate our walls and the perfect rug to tie the room together, I focused on stocking our kitchen with our favorite foods and the tools with which to cook them. I found mismatched sets of pots and pans at my local discount store, and piece by piece, built our little kitchen into a functional one our friends begged to come and borrow. It was nothing fancy, but it worked for us. Granted, we could never invite more than four people for dinner, because that was how many plates we had, but we made it work.

more tostones
Golden fried tostones remind me of Hannukah gelt, the traditional gold coins used to play dreidel.

My mom noticed my efforts, and took it upon herself to stock our little kitchen with its crowning jewel: a tostonera. A tostonera is a device specifically designed to smash chunks of fried green plantains into crisp, golden coins, called tostones. And the fact that my mom was gifting me a tostonera was a really big deal, because this served as an informal invitation to join the culinary ranks of the matriarchs in the family. Just about every Cuban person who cooks has a tostonera, and now, I did too. I was so excited to put my tostonera to use, and at the first Hanukkah party of the season, I surprised my friends with a new treat. I figured that in many ways, Cubans use plantain bananas the way Americans use potatoes, so swapping traditional potato latkes with savory tostones seemed like a natural choice. As my friends oohed and aahed while they crunched their way through the small plate of tostones, I smiled with delight, because I knew I was on my way to earning my culinary stripes.

This Hanukkah, if you’re looking for something outside the traditional latke box, take a cue from the Cuban cookbook, and serve tostones alongside your festive meal. And if your mother hasn’t gifted you with a tostonera, fear not. You can achieve similar results with the bottom of a frying pan.

As featured on MyJewishLearning.com.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Tostones
 
Author:
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Cuban
Serves: 4-6
Prep time:
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Mix up your traditional Hanukkah fare with these golden fried plantains.
Ingredients
  • Vegetable oil
  • 2 green (under ripe) plantain bananas
  • Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large frying pan, pour in enough vegetable oil to fill the pan about halfway, and place over medium to high heat.
  2. Remove the peel from the plantains, and discard. Chop the pulp into rounds of about 1-1½ inch thickness.
  3. To test the oil temperature, carefully place a small piece of plantain into the oil. If the oil bubbles around the plantain, it is ready. If it doesn’t, continue heating the oil, until it does.
  4. Once the oil is ready, carefully drop the plantain rounds into the oil, and fry for two minutes before flipping and frying for two minutes on the other side.
  5. Remove the plantains from the oil, and using either a tostonera or a frying pan and a flat surface, smash the rounds until they flatten.
  6. Return the now-flattened plantain rounds to the oil, and fry until golden and crisp, about two more minutes.
  7. Remove the plantains from the oil, and immediately place on a platter lined with paper towel to catch any unnecessary oil.
  8. Sprinkle with kosher salt while the plantains are still hot, and serve.

 

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A Rosh Hashanah recipe for a sweet new year: Apple Butter Swirl Challah

InsideChallah

As is the custom at many synagogues across the country, my synagogue is following a theme this high holiday season: Old. New. Make it holy. What is something old that can be made new? At TheCubanReuben.com, that’s an easy question. A recipe, of course! But how do we make a recipe holy? Let’s take my Apple Butter Swirl Challah, for example.

Filling the dough and creating the swirls.
Filling the dough and creating the swirls.

Every shabbat, we feature long, beautifully braided loaves of fresh challah, as did our ancestors many moons ago. Families have been passing down challah recipes for generations. This tradition, so indicative of the Jewish culture, can be considered the “old.”

RawRoundBraid
The starting position on a round braided challah.

For the “new,” I have incorporated another Rosh Hashanah tradition: apples. Symbolizing a sweet new year, apples are often enjoyed during Rosh Hashanah. Inspired by my Jewish summer camp experience, where bowls of dense, cinnamon and nutmeg-spiced apple butter were served alongside challah at every shabbat, I spread a bit of this spiced apple reduction along the dough, then rolled it to create my strands. After it baked, the apple butter appeared as deeply hued swirls decorating and perfuming the airy loaves. That’s certainly not something you see everyday.

RawRoundChallah
An example of a challah twist, before the oven.

And how do we make it holy? Of course, there’s the blessing over the bread, but what’s more, challah loaves that are specifically used for the Jewish new year are either braided into a round loaf, or twisted into a big swirl twist. Because of their round shape, these loaves are distinctive from their shabbat cousins, and this difference is what helps make them holy. Also, can you imagine the french toast this would make in the morning? That’s definitely holy.

Swirl Challah
Baked round twist challah.

With Rosh Hashanah  beginning  at sundown, you might think that there are folks racing the clock to get the feast on the table. But I would venture to guess that many Jewish cooks have been preparing for some time now. If that’s the case, it’s definitely not too late to incorporate this old, new, and holy recipe on your Rosh Hashanah menu. You won’t regret it.

RoundBraid Challah
Round braided challah loaf.

Shana tova, from TheCubanReuben.com, to you! May this be a sweet, happy, and healthy new year for us all.

5.0 from 2 reviews
Apple Butter Swirl Challah
 
Author:
Recipe type: side
Cuisine: Jewish
Serves: 12
Prep time:
Cook time:
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Make this the highlight of your Rosh Hashanah table!
Ingredients
  • 2¼ tsp dry active yeast
  • 1½ tsp plus ¼ cup sugar
  • ¾-1 cup warm water
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs, divided
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1½ tsp table salt
  • 4 cups flour (or less)
  • ½ cup of prepared apple butter
Instructions
  1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add yeast, 1½ tsp sugar, and between ¾ to 1 cup of warm water, and mix until dissolved. Let sit for 10 minutes.
  2. Mix in vegetable oil, 2 eggs (1 at a time) and egg yolk, with remaining sugar and salt.
  3. Slowly add flour, ½ cup at a time.
  4. When the dough holds together, switch to the bread hook, and knead until smooth.
  5. Transfer dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour.
  6. Punch dough down, and leave it to rise again for 2 hours.
  7. You can now either make 1 large challah or 2 smaller challahs. To make one large challah, cut dough into 2 pieces, and with a rolling pin, roll into thin rectangle. Spread ¼ cup of apple butter on each rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border on each. Tightly roll the strands, and pinch the long edges, so that the apple butter is locked in. You can now either make a twist challah or a braided challah.
  8. For a twist challah, tightly snake each rope of challah, like a snail. Tuck in the edge.
  9. For a braided challah, cut the 2 ropes in half, creating 4 equal strands. Pinch the raw edge to seal. Lay two strands next to each other. Take the third strand, and lay it over one strand and under the other. Take the fourth strand, and lay it alongside the third strand, but under the strand that is over the third, and over the strand that is under the third. The center of your braid should look like a square, with 4 pairs of strands sticking out. Take the right side of each pair of strands, and move it over the left. Now take the left strand, and move it over right to its neighbor's strand. Continue this process, until the strands are all braided. Pinch together the end of the strain pairs, and pull up to the middle. Then, turn the loaf over, and place braided loaf on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  10. Use one egg to brush an egg wash over the top of the loaf.
  11. Let sit for one hour.
  12. Use another egg to brush a second coat of egg wash. (At this point, you can sprinkle turbinado sugar, sesame seeds, or any other topping you want).
  13. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

 

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