What to pair with potato pancakes??

[HannahBanana]

HI!

I am making potato pancakes, serving them with smoked lox, thinly sliced onion, capers and sour cream. This will be for the appetizer.

Can you help me decide on a nice entree to serve afterwards? Nothing with red meat please.

Thank you!!!

[lynnlato]

Just thought I'd mention that my mother always pressed a thin slice of onion into one side of the potato pancake before cooking. It cut the sharpness of the onion and I just loved it.

Roast chicken and stove-top braised vegetables. Easy and delicious.

[phoenikia]

While I like the idea of cured salmon with potato pancakes, I prefer smoked salmon or gravlax to lox for this type of dish.

Chicken paprikash might be a good dish to follow the potato pancakes...(or goulash for the redmeaters reading this).

[Diane in Bexley]

We are having a Chanukah party next week and in addition to a roast (for the meat eaters in our family) we have to accommodate the vegetarian/kosher members. I am also doing a whole roasted salmon with lemon and dill sauce. As you are serving lox (smoked salmon), perhaps a roasted halibut, whitefish or other mild fish would work?

[hlehmann]

If you want to get fancy, serve duck. If you render off the duck fat ahead of time, you can use it to cook the potato pancakes, Yum.
Oh, and if you call them potato pancakes instead of latkes, then of course they have to served with an apple compote, or at least apple sauce.

[City Kid]

Definitely do with a light entree, fish or grilled chicken and perhaps a salad. Even though you indicate the latkes are an appetizer, keep the rest of the menu easily digestible since the latkes are pretty heavy and should be the star anyway. Steer clear of anything fatty or salty like goose or ham -- not because they are not kosher, but because they are too heavy, not the best combo. And don't forget the apple sauce!

[TampaAurora]

Goose is a traditional Eastern European fowl - one that was adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. If it is not kosher, it is due to slaughter methods or a diseased organ not anything intrinsic in the fowl. Rendered goose fat was a traditional cooking medium as well.

An acidic-dish - such as a vinegar-dressed salad (maybe a cucumber-onion salad which is traditional in my family) should help balance the heavy nature of the latkes.

A firm-fleshed white fish - baked in a spicy tomato - had worked well in the past and is one of the entrees I will be playing with next week.

[phoenikia]

Goose isn't fatty if it's cooked properly. Neither is ham;) And goose is only salty if the cook has oversalted the poor bird!

[TampaAurora]

I didn't say it was fatty when cooked, but it was a main source of cooking fat for Eastern European Jews.

Read the article from the NYT. Or read the many tales of Sholom Aleichem. Or listen to my dad's family stories.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...

[phoenikia]

TampaAurora, I didn't disagree with anything you wrote.

I was responding to City Kid's comments which are above your original reply: "Steer clear of anything fatty or salty like goose or ham -- not because they are not kosher, but because they are too heavy, not the best combo."

[TampaAurora]

Ah. Sorry, my apologies. A honey cake didn't turn out, a special Shabbat dinner I had planned went bad in the fridge, and I was feeling grumpy. I should read more carefully.

[gnovi]

a hearty lentil soup with a leafy lettuce salad.

[KiltedCook]

One (or more) brined roasted whole chickens (ore one game hen per person), with favorite spices & herbs; and a big Romaine salad with lots of additions - cukes, tomatoes, carrot, daikon/radishes, mandarin orange slices, etc. And a citrus viniagrette.

[pengcast]

I woulld go the route of Ukrainian/Russian meatless Christmas eve dishes -- white fish, roasted chicken, roasted veggies, oven baked buckwheat (Kasha), cabbage rolls ....

[jlafler]

How about a souffle with a light salad (greens + citrus, nice for the season)?

Or, since you're having a rich appetizer, you might try something lighter for the entree -- a vegetable soup or a main-dish salad.

[HaagenDazs]

Turkey? Goose? Chicken? Ham? Pork loin?

[hill food]

ham with latkes? ahem...

more latkes with smoked lox, thinly sliced onion, capers and sour cream would be my choice.

or as jf suggests a (bitter) green salad.

[HaagenDazs]

It's not being served WITH it as you implied, it's (as the original poster wrote) "a nice entree to serve afterwards". I don't care if you're Jewish and you don't eat pork, not my problem, that wasn't specified as a problem so I didn't eliminate it.

[jlafler]

The OP does say "nothing with red meat." I'm not sure if most people categorize ham or pork in general as red meat but I certainly would. (If it's not "red meat," what is it?)

[tmso]

Ham with Kartoffelpuffer, why not?

[mpjmph]

In defense of HaagenDazs, we have latkes of Christmas breakfast every year, served with apple sauce and locally produced pork sausage. So not all potato pancake eaters are Jewish... and for that matter, not all Jews forgo pork.

[hill food]

please I was just being silly.

[HaagenDazs]

You're hilarious.

[hill food]

Thanks HD, nobody else ever says that!

(sorry if I stepped on anyone's toes as it really was meant in the most innocuous way) while the pork industry has done their utmost to convince us it's the 'other' white meat, I thought the OP asking for something not mammal, just my interpretation and yet another lame non sequiter on my part - thought there was still room for that in the world.

whimsy. pffff DOA.

I stand by the idea of just more potato pancakes.and as hlehmann recommends duck fat is GREAT for the fry.

[tmso]

Yeah, I appreciated the humor...

As a serious reply to the original question, I think a lot of the fish suggestions are good ones. Alternatively, a roast chicken, red cabbage and lentils would follow that nicely as well.

[todao]

OOPS... no red meat. Sorry ... I had some sausage recipes in mind.