Heat Up your Chanukah With Aromatic Spices!

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is a time when we can experience a special hidden light that graces our families within our homes.     Whether it is the happiness that emanates from the flickering candles or the joy that resonates from the spinning dreidels, this special light permeates the home with tremendous beauty, love, and warmth.   Revealing hidden sparks of light over Chanukah can also take place in the kitchen where you can enlighten the palette!  This Chanukah I explored how to unleash the potent flavors and powerful healing qualities in aromatic spices to add another dimension of glow to the Chanukah table.     Enjoy this Chanukah menu that is filled with intense flavors of international spices - nutmeg, cumin, turmeric and more -  that will be sure to heat up your holiday table.  Chanukah Sameach!  

  

Pumpkin Challah

Potato Latkes with Nutmeg and Applesauce

Fennel, Spinach, and Oranges 

with Golden Ginger Dressing

Butternut Squash and Chicken Cous Cous

Coconut Eggplant and Chickpea Tagine

Chocolate Cardamom Plum Tart

Spice is a Verb

To get started in my new culinary adventure, I began reading through some of the most recent Middle Eastern cookbooks on the library shelves.  I became entranced in Maroud Lahlou's cookbook in which he captures his passion for cooking through blend of childhood memory and sophisticated invention.  Chapter one is titled "Spice is a verb," and quickly one can become drawn into the mastery of fine cooking.  

'Spices have a weird, magical quality that I can’t resist…The magic comes in how you coax out their essential flavors and get them to mellow and harmonize with one another and with the other ingredients in a dish.” - New Moroccan by Maroud Lahlou

After studying Maroud's mad genius cookbook, I couldn't help but to run to the nearest spice shop to experiment in some of my own kitchen wizardry.   I paid a visit to Penzey's Spices, a local spice store that carries an international array of spices both in raw and ground form.  The store, like a Childrens' Museum, is a great sensory experience.   Organized alphabetically, spices are neatly shelved and arranged and each spice sold has it's own smell testers in a clear glass jar.  (Of course, I picked up each spice tester and gave a good whiff.  Wow, very intoxicating!)   In addition to their speciality blends, they also have an entire baking section with every baking spice you could ever imagine.   I spent much time investigating each section of the store and went home with fresh cumin and cardamon seeds.   I wanted to get the most flavor and potential out of these seeds.  I remember my grandmother preparing her own spices uses a pessel and mortar, but I couldn't quite remember exactly what she did, so I went online and found some great resources:

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/spices-when-to-grind-when-to-toast/?_r=0

http://www.wikihow.com/Toast-Spices

Health Benefits of Spices

Anti Inflammatory Diet Pyramid

Although I am interested in creating flavorful and delicious dishes, my inspiration comes in the health baring qualities certain foods provide and healthy spices are another way to pump up the nutritional value of your meals.   Medicinally, spices have been used for centuries to heal and prevent disease.   Each spice, originating from a seed or plant, has it’s own characteristic biochemical, nutrient, and vitamin composition and hence each has it’s unique pharmacological activity.    Did you know that turmeric is an effective antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular, hepatic, gastrointestinal, and antimicrobial agent?   As Dr. Weil promotes in his Anti inflammatory Diet, adding a variety of healthy herbs and spices to your cooking is an excellent way to prevent vessel disease, the major cause of stroke, heart attacks, and other chronic health issues.  

Some of the major herbs and spices
that have known therapeutic qualities include garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, and fenugreek.  The Chanukah menu that I created feature dishes layered in some of these healthy spices.   Prepare these now or anytime of the year!  I hope that you enjoy making these dishes that can unlock sparks of savory light and along with your family, you can bask in the everyday miracles that surround you at your Chanukah table.  May you and your family have a happy and healthy Chanukah.  Chanukah Sameach!   Daniela Hermelin, M.D.