Fried Olives and Pickles for Hanukkah
Plus: A Dream Collaboration with Erin Gleeson of The Forest Feast!
Looking for a last minute Hanukkah gift? Give a loved one (or yourself!) a weekly subscription to The Jewish Table. With a weekly drop of recipes, history, and stories from the world of Jewish food, it is the gift that keeps on giving all year round.
With less than a week until the annual Jewish fry fest begins, I have a special treat to share with you: a plate of crunchy, salty Fried Olives and Pickles perched on top of a creamy swoosh of labenh, plus a collaboration with one of my favorite women in food media, Erin Gleeson of The Forest Feast.
As I have mentioned in this newsletter before, my kids Max and Bea are members of the selective eaters club. And while that does not usually bother me too much (I was also a buttered noodle-only kid for a while), I can’t help but give them the side-eye when they refuse potato latkes - quite possibly Ashkenazi cuisine’s most delicious contribution to the culinary world.
They both happily eat French fries, so a reasonable person might assume that the leap from one fried potato variation to another would be straightforward. And maybe they will surprise me this year and suddenly become latke fiends. But until then, their pickiness has led to some unexpected Hanukkah innovations around our house.
Both kids love all things pickled - olives, cucumber pickles, dilly beans, capers etc. So I decided to meet them where they were and offer fried pickles and olives alongside the latkes Yoshie and I crave. They could not be simpler to make (especially if you are already heating up a pan of oil for frying latkes), and everyone gets to celebrate with something they like: win win.
A peaceful Hanukkah dinner is celebration enough, but this year is especially exciting because I partnered with the amazing Erin Gleeson to bring my family’s briny holiday tradition to life.
Erin is an artist, the founder of the nature-inspired lifestyle brand The Forest Feast, and a New York Times bestselling cookbook author with 5 books under her belt. She spent many years in New York City going to graduate school for photography and building up her career as a visual artist. Then 10 years ago, she and her husband (Rabbi Jonathan Prosnit) followed his new rabbinical position to the West Coast and moved into a dreamy cabin tucked into the Santa Cruz Mountains.
At first, Erin worried that she had left her career opportunities behind in New York. But she soon began to play around with the natural beauty and local produce all around her - using them as new mediums to express her talents in photography and watercolor. She ended up creating a whimsical, totally unique way of showcasing simple, produce-driven recipes. I mean look:
I have followed Erin’s career for the last decade or so, and have secretly always dreamed of having one of my recipes get the “Forest Feast treatment.” So I was delighted when Erin agreed to style and shoot my fried olives and pickles recipe, which is adapted from a dish in my cookbook, Modern Jewish Cooking. I hope you love the photos and recipes as much as I do. Who knows, maybe Erin will agree to photograph my potato latkes next and the kids will finally be inspired to eat them?
Fried Olives and Pickles
Serves 6
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon smoked or sweet paprika, plus more for sprinkling
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups (200 g) Panko bread crumbs
40 pitted green olives, drained and patted dry
One 16-ounce (454 g) container dill pickle chips, drained and patted dry
Vegetable oil (like sunflower) for frying
Labneh for serving
Stir together flour and paprika in a wide, shallow bowl, beat the eggs in a second bowl, and add breadcrumbs to a third bowl or plate.
Dredge the olives and pickle chips in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dip into the egg wash, and dredge on all sides in the bread crumbs.
Heat ¼ inch of oil in a large frying set over medium heat until shimmering (about 350˚F / 180˚C), and line a large plate with paper towels.
Working in batches, and adding more oil as necessary, fry the olives and pickles, turning once, until crisp and golden, 2-3 minutes per batch. Transfer to the paper towel-lined plate to briefly drain.
Spread labneh on a serving platter. Arrange the fried pickles and olives over top (I put some aside, sans labneh, for the kids) and sprinkle with a little more paprika.
Happy Hanukkah! You can follow along on Erin’s journeys at The Forest Feast, and subscribe to the weekly version of my newsletter, The Jewish Table, here.