Lightening up tradition

As I travel around the United States, I am constantly meeting people who want to share their recipes and stories. Often I find that the only time American cooks bring out

their family dishes is during the holidays and that each time a recipe is prepared, stories invariably emerge.

Take Hanukkah, which this year begins on the evening of Dec. 24. Traditionally, most American Jews eat brisket, apple sauce and potato pancakes after lighting the menorah candles. However, with the de-emphasis on meat in general and red meat in particular, I have found many vegetarian Hanukkah celebrations, as well as those with fish as a main course.

Because the holiday lasts for eight days, people also like to vary the traditional potatoes with other vegetables.

This year, I might include in my Hanukkah dinner a recipe from Michelle Bernstein, the talented chef at Michy’s, a new restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami.

Miss Bernstein, who studied ballet in Israel, often makes a fabulous grouper with roast fennel, preserved lemon and za’atar, the popular Middle Eastern spice combination that tastes of Greek oregano and thyme, sesame seeds, dried sumac (which is not poisonous) and lemon salt.

Instead of potatoes with the grouper, she might serve her version of carciofi alla giudea (artichokes Jewish-style), which are succulent fried artichokes.

“When you make traditional foods, you often feel so heavy,” Miss Bernstein said. “Why not make some lighter dishes and surprise your guests. They love the idea of fish more often. Winter is a perfect time to serve it because the waters are colder and the fish tastes better.”

Across the country in Tiburon, Calif., home cook Simone Joseph, who was born in Tunisia, makes yoyos, fried dough dipped in honey.

“They are shaped like donuts, but the dough feels more like cake,” she told me. Miss Joseph, who also makes her prize-winning zucchini pancakes for Hanukkah, grew up with artichauts farcis — stuffed artichokes — and yapraks — lettuce leaves filled with a mixture of meat, rice, coriander, parsley and garlic. Both are cooked in tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, turmeric, laurel leaf, pepper and lemon.

The beauty of Hanukkah for Tunisian Jews is the fete des filles, or girls’ festival, she told me. “My mother always celebrated it,” Miss Bernstein said. “She had four daughters, to whom she served and baked everything in miniature china.

“When the synagogue was open, we girls were dressed in white (meaning they were available). Men could pick their future girlfriend and hopefully wife. They used to walk along the synagogue and just parade.”

For other families, the holidays are a chance to bring out time-tested recipes. In the early 1980s, when New Yorker Anne Luzzatto’s children were little, she summered in Venice, Italy, at her in-laws’ ancestral home.

The Luzzattos, a Jewish Italian family, lived in Italy from 1541 until World War II. Like many Italian mothers-in-law, Miss Luzzatto’s taught her how to create the favorite family dessert: a crostata made with a butter crust called friolla. Miss Luzzatto has been making this marvelous tart with its delicious butter crust a classy final act for dinner ever since.

In many parts of our country, food at Hanukkah is de-emphasized.

At the Jewish Community Center in Washington, for example, Hanukkah is a time for charity.

Families treat this minor holiday as an opportunity for tzedaka (charity) or for volunteering at fire departments and hospitals, which, because the first night of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas Eve, will be particularly useful this year, allowing many nurses and hospital workers to share dinner with their families.

The recipes that follow are adapted from my new book, “The New American Cooking” (Knopf).

Red snapper stuffed with braised fennel, leeks, onions and celery

About 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 fennel bulb, cut in 1-inch julienne strips

2 leeks, washed well, use white and light green parts cut in 1-inch julienne strips

1 yellow onion, cut in 1-inch julienne strips

4 stalks celery, cut in 1-inch julienne strips

cup white wine

Sea salt

2 to 3 whole snappers, about 23/4 pounds each, gutted but left whole

2 tablespoons lemon juice

A few grindings of black pepper

1 teaspoon za’atar (see note)

1 teaspoon ground sumac

1 diced preserved lemon (see note)

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat and saute fennel, leek, onion and celery strips until soft. Add wine, bring to a boil and reduce liquid for a minute or two. Add sea salt to taste.

Stuff snappers with sauteed vegetables and wrap each fish in jute or other twine. Place them side by side in a 9- by 12-inch baking pan and sprinkle with the remaining olive oil, lemon juice, ground pepper, za’atar and sumac, and toss the preserved lemon on top.

Bake in preheated 425-degree oven about 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove jute or twine and transfer fish to a large platter for serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note: Za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice combination of wild oregano or thyme, sesame seeds, salt and/or sumac, is available at many supermarkets and at most Middle East grocery stores. A lemon can be substituted for preserved lemon.

Italian fried artichokes

Juice of 1 lemon

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

Handful of peppercorns

3 large artichokes, about 1 pound each

Grapeseed or canola oil for deep frying

Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a large pot with lemon juice, bay leaves, a teaspoon or so of sea salt and peppercorns. Drop in the artichokes. If necessary, add more water to just cover them.

Cook until they are tender but still a little firm to the touch when pierced with a fork at the stem end, about 15 minutes. Remove artichokes from heat with cooking tongs and let them cool slightly.

Remove outer leaves from artichokes, cut off 1/4 inch from stem and tip ends, then cut each heart vertically into 4 pieces. Scoop out and discard the choke and the feathery fibers embedded in the center and refrigerate the pieces.

Fill a wok or deep pan with about 3 inches of oil and heat to sizzling. Deep-fry 2 to 3 artichoke pieces at a time for a few minutes. They will puff up as they cook. Serve hot, sprinkled with additional sea salt. Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish.

Apple-apricot crostata

3 Granny Smith or other good cooking apples (about 1 pounds)

cup sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 large egg yolks

1 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

cup apricot preserves

Grease a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.

Peel, core and slice apples into crescents about 1/4- to 1/8-inch thick. You should have about 24 pieces.

Put sugar, butter, egg yolks, flour and salt in a large bowl and rub everything together with your fingers or combine ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process in quick pulses until the dough forms a ball. Either way, do not overwork the dough.

Flouring your hands, shape ball of dough into a round and pat it into the tart pan. Working with your fingers and a cake knife or wide spatula, spread dough evenly around pan and up side.

The dough should be about -inch thick up the side and spread evenly across the bottom of the pan. Trim and flatten edges with a knife. Starting on the outside and working toward the center, lay apple slices in an overlapping, concentric circle.

Heat apricot preserves in a saucepan over low heat until liquefied. Using a pastry brush, paint the apples and the visible crust with apricot glaze.

Place tart pan on a cookie sheet and bake on center rack of preheated 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 degrees and continue baking until crust is deep golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Bring to room temperature, unmold and put on a platter or serving dish. Makes 1 tart; serves 10 to 12.

Joan Nathan is also the author of “The Foods of Israel Today” and “Jewish Cooking in America” (Knopf).