[2] Nacho Tuesday substitutes for Taco Tuesday (photo courtesy Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

You can combine Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday with meatless tacos, like this recipe for Veggie Hummus Tacos (photo #1) from Mountain Mama Cooks.

You get a nice portion of mixed veggies, along with nutrient-packed* hummus.

And, you don’t have to be literal on Taco Tuesdays. You can serve taco chips with a hummus-nacho dip, as in the recipe below.

If you don’t want either vegan or vegetarian† tacos for your main course, try this starter from our colleague Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet Blog. She serves it with a selection of tortilla chips, plain and flavored.

“Nacho hummus,” Hannah says, “delivers all the cheesy, spicy decadence of a good queso dip with the more substantial heft of a chickpea spread. The two rivals compliment and contrast one another: a natural union that has been long overdue.

“Whether you smear it in pita, thin it out to drizzle on tortilla chips, or just set it out with cut vegetable crudités, it’s a foolproof formula.”

 
RECIPE: HUMMUS NACHOS

Ingredients For 6-10 Appetizer Servings

 
Plus

1. ADD the chickpeas, roasted red pepper, tomato paste, chipotle, and garlic and lemon juice to a food processor. Pulse to breaking down the ingredients, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

2. ADD the tahini, mustard and all the seasonings and spices, starting with just 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne.

3. PURÉE, and while the motor is running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil, until the mixture is silky-smooth and it reaches your desired consistency. If you’d like it to be more of a sauce than a spread, follow that with water or vegetable stock, as needed.

4. ADJUST the spice level to taste. Top with sliced scallions and dip the day away!

Tortilla chips and corn chips are cousins, are made in very different ways.
 
Corn Chips

 
Tortilla Chips, A.K.A. Taco Chips

This ancient process was developed by the peoples of what is today Mesoamerica.

 
 
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*Hummus contains crucial nutrients, most of which come from the tahini: a high content of important minerals like copper and manganese, along with calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc. It is relatively rich in vitamins C and B6, and also contain vitamin E, K, folate (B9) and thiamin (B1).

†The difference, in this recipe, is sautéeing the vegetables in oil (vegan) or steaming or roasting them, versus sautéeing in butter (vegetarian).

[4] Nopalito’s handmade tortilla chips at (photo courtesy Good Eggs).

[2] A champagne cocktail with blue curacao and a gold sugar rim. You can substitute edible gold glitter (photo courtesy Living-On-Cloud-Nine.com).

Just as many of us “drink green” on St. Patrick’s Day, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy a blue cocktail on the first night of Chanukah (December 12, 2017; the date varies each year according to the Hebrew calendar).

You can use any cocktail recipe with blue curaçao. Add a white accent and you have the colors of the Israeli flag.

This cocktail recipe* (photo #1), from The Breakers in Palm Beach, is a riff on the Piña Colada, with orange flavor (from the curaçao) substituting for the pineapple juice.

Don’t like coconut?

Here’s another blue Chanukah cocktail recipe without any coconut flavor.

Want something elegant? Pour blue curaçao into a champagne flute, add sparkling wine. You can create a rim with sparkling sugar.

RECIPE: BLUE & WHITE CHANUKAH COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE the rim of the glass. Set down to shallow dishes: one for the agave, one for the coconut. Dip the rim of the glass into the dish of agave; then twist in the dish of coconut.

2. SHAKE the other ingredients with ice and strain into the glass.

TIP: If you want to save calories, use coconut milk instead of Coco Lopez.

More blue cocktails: Create a whole cocktail menu!
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*They didn’t intend it as a Chanukah cocktail, but as one matching the beautiful blue ocean around The Breakers. They call it the Coco Snowball.

This year, Chanukah, the Jewish Festival Of Lights, begins the evening of December 12th (the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar).
 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHANUKAH

In ancient Judea, the Syrian King Antiochus ordered the Jewish people to abandon their religion and worship the Greek gods. In 165 B.C.E., Judah, leader of the band that called themselves the Maccabees (Hebrew for hammer), drove the Syrians from Israel and reclaimed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, removing the Greek statues.

When they finished their work, on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, they wanted to rededicate the temple by lighting the eternal light (N’er Tamid), a candelabra that is present in every Jewish house of worship. Once lit, the light should never be extinguished.

But there was only a tiny jug of lamp oil—enough for a single day. There was no more purified* oil to be had. A miracle occurred: The light burned for eight days.

This is the origin of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, which is celebrated for eight days. The word Chanukah means “rededication.”
 
 
THE HISTORY OF LATKES

To acknowledge the miracle of the oil, foods fried in oil, like latkes, are celebratory fare for Chanukah; as are sufganiyah, jelly donuts; and loukoumades, deep-fried puffs dipped in honey or sugar (oy, the carbs!).

Potato latkes are a Chanukah tradition, but they are enjoyed year-round by Ashkenazi† Jews during.

Latkes are not an ancient food (the word means “fried cakes,” i.e. pancakes, in Yiddish). The fried potato pancakes of European Jewish cuisine descend from sweet Sicilian ricotta pancakes that appeared in the Middle Ages (and evolved in Jewish cooking into cheese blintzes).

They traveled north to Rome, where the Jewry called them cassola. Here’s a recipe for ricotta latkes. While traditionally sweet, you can make a savory version with herbs instead of sugar.

Potato latkes are an Ashkenazi invention that gained popularity in Eastern Europe during the mid 1800s.

Modern Latkes

For centuries, potato latkes were the rule. Toward the end of the 20th century, adventurous cooks bucked the tradition with sweet potato latkes.

Then, anything was possible: latkes from beets, carrots, celery root, parsnips…If it’s a root vegetable, it can be turned into latke. You can also use non-root vegetables, like summer and winter squash.

Whether or not you celebrate Chanukah (in our upbringing, we celebrated every holiday that had a food focus, regardless of religion or nationality), if you like fried potatoes, Chanukah is your opportunity to try eight days of different recipes and toppings.

The latter range from the traditional sour cream or apple sauce, and luxury toppers like smoked salmon and caviar (photo #4).

They can be served as a first course, a side, with the salad course, and as mini-bites with cocktails (photo #2).

Or, serve breakfast latkes with poached eggs: the Chanukah version of home fries (photo #5).
 
 
LATKE RECIPES

 
But wait: There’s more!

Here are 30 modern latke recipes including such gems as:

[2] Mini latke bites with creme fraiche and a seasonal cranberry sauce garnish (photo Great Performances | Facebook).

[3] Potato latke with caviar: If only we could afford it (photo Tsar Nicoulai).

[4] Gluten-free carrot-scallion latkes. Here’s the recipe from Elana’s Pantry.

[5] Breakfast latkes, with a poached or fried egg. Here’s the recipe from IdahoPotato.com.

*For temple lamps, ritually pure olive oil was required. It took time to prepare: By religious law, the olives could not be pressed. Instead, choice olives were pounded and left to sit for several days, enabling the oil to drain out naturally—but very slowly. The yield for this special olive oil was (and is) very low [source]. So the Maccabees had to wait for new batches to be prepared.

†Askenazi are a Jewish diaspora population who coalesced as a distinct community in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium. They settled along the Rhine River, in Western Germany and Northern Franc [source]. Sephardim (Sephardic Jews) are the other major Jewish ethnic division. It emerged as a distinct community on the Iberian Peninsula, around 1000 C.E. They established communities throughout Spain and Portugal, and, exiled in the late 15th century, migrated to North Africa, Anatolia, the Levant, Southeastern and Southern Europe, and the Americas [source].

[2] Crosnes serve as the roots of this flowering plant (photo Wikipedia).

[3] Close-up (photo courtesy Cuisinons Les Legumes.

[4] Crosnes with grilled swordfish at Il Goto | Paris).

[5] Crosnes and peas. Here’s the recipe from Honest-Food.net, photo Holly A. Heyser).

Do you know about crosnes (pronounced crones)?

We didn’t until about a year ago, when they were served to us as a main course vegetable at Petrossian in New York City.

From the order Lamiales, the botanical family Lamiaceae, commonly known as the mint or deadnettle family, has lots of flowering plants, many of them aromatic.

The family includes culinary herbs such as basil, hyssop, lavender, marjoram, mint, oregano, perilla, rosemary, sage, savory and thyme.

But there are other family members that don’t fit in that group. One interesting member is crosnes (photo #1), pearly little tubers, the root of the plant.
 
 
WHAT ARE CROSNES?

Crosnes are rhizomes, edible roots of a flowering plant (photo #2). Crosnes have the unique look of larvae (photo #3) (as does malloreddus pasta from Sardinia), which can be cool or creepy, depending on your disposition.

It is an aesthetic perspective: Chinese poets have compared crosnes to jade beads.

They are harvested in the fall, like potatoes (which have similar nutrition but are from a different order, Solanales, and family, Solanaceae).

The name references the French town of Crosne, a suburb of Paris. The root was brought to the area by local chefs returning from travel through Eastern Asia, in the 1800s.

Local farmers grew the crop as something of a delicacy, and the vegetable was quite fashionable across Europe for some time, before declining in fashion (source).

Depending on how they’re cooked, crosnes are crunchy, with a flavor and texture reminiscent of water chestnuts (order Poales, family Cyperaceae or jerusalem artichokes (order Asterales, family Asteraceae).

(We provide this botanical information to illustrate that vegetables that may seem to be related actually have no kinship at all. )

Originating in China, crosnes (genus and species Stachys affinis) are also known as Chinese artichoke, Japanese artichoke, artichoke and knotroot.

The thin skin ranges from a pale beige to ivory white in color, with white flesh inside. It is not peeled before cooking. The nutty flavor is delicate.
 
 
HOW TO SERVE CROSNES

Crosnes can be prepared similarly to poratoes Jerusalem artichokes; but they require extra soakings and brushings to remove all the dirt from the small, convoluted shapes.

Crosnes are used as a general vegetable or starch, in salads, and as a very interesting garnish.

Don’t these truffles look delicious, the work of a skilled professional?

They are, the famous Force Noir* truffles from San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti (one of our favorites). He invites you to make them at home with the recipe below.

Truffles can cost $3 apiece at an artisan chocolate shop. Egad!

In truth, if you can roll a round ball and then roll it in evenly in the coatings, yours can look this good.

Why not make them for home entertaining or as gifts?

You can use whatever dark chocolate you like. Force Noir chocolate is only available in bulk, so pick whatever 70% or 72% cacao bars or discs/wafers you come across. And need we add: The finer the chocolate, the better-tasting the results.

What if you like prefer chocolate?

Most artisan chocolatiers stick to dark chocolate because, when combined with the butter and cream, it has a better chocolate flavor. But if you won’t eat anything but milk chocolate, look for high cacao milk chocolate bars or discs (38% cacao or higher, the higher the better).

Note: You have to start the day before, so the ganache can set overnight in the fridge.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH HONEY

If you want to break up the work:

 
Ingredients For 50 Truffles

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Scrape the vanilla bean seeds from the bean into the pan and then add the whole bean. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

Once the mixture has reached a boil, remove from the heat and cover the top of the pan with plastic wrap. Allow the cream mixture to cool to room temperature, transfer it to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

2. LINE the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with plastic wrap and set aside. Put the chopped chocolate in a medium stainless-steel mixing bowl and set the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts to 115°F. While the chocolate is melting…

3. REMOVE the cream mixture from the refrigerator and strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a small saucepan. Heat the cream mixture to 115°F, stirring occasionally. When both the chocolate and cream mixture have reached 115°F…

4. REMOVE from the heat and pour both into a 1-quart clear vessel. Blend the chocolate and cream mixture with an immersion blender using a stirring motion. Make sure you reach the bottom of the vessel. The ganache will thicken, become slightly less shiny, and develop a pudding-like consistency. Add 3 tablespoons of the very soft butter and incorporate it with the immersion blender.

5. POUR the ganache into the lined pan. Spread the ganache as evenly as possible with a small spatula. Allow the ganache to cool at room temperature until it has set, 2 to 4 hours. Next, cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to roll your truffles.

6. REMOVE the ganache from the pan and transfer it onto a work surface. Remove all plastic wrap. Cut the ganache into 1-inch squares with a knife dipped in hot water. Be sure to wipe the knife dry before and after each cut.

7. LINE a sheet pan with parchment paper; place the truffle toppings in individual bowls, large enough to hold 6 truffles. Dust your palms with cocoa powder. One at a time, pick up a ganache square, roll it into a ball between your palms, and drop it into the toppings bowl of your choice.

[2] Truffles rolled in chocolate powder (photo Rozmarina | 123rf).

[3] A box of homemade truffles (photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board). You’ll note that some have been dipped in dark chocolate: another step you can take, but more time-consuming than simply rolling the truffles in coatings.

[4] The original truffle, related to the mushroom, which gave chocolate truffles their name (photo courtesy Because It Matters).

8. CONTINUE rolling until you have used all the ganache. Serve the truffles soon after rolling them at room temperature. If you’re not eating them immediately, you can store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, in a plastic bag or covered bowl.
 
 
LOVE CHOCOLATE? LEARN MORE:

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*Force Noir is a couverture from Cacao Barry, one of the world’s most presitgious couverture companies, made from West African Forastero beans. Its character is intensely dark, with a balanced cocoa taste and roundness in the mouth.