kim’s kitchen

Make these delicious cauliflower latkes

By KIM M. SIMONS
Posted 12/23/24

Hector’s Inn’s annual Christmas Market happened in Bethel, NY this past December 1, and as always, there were a number of local artisans selling a wide variety of homemade, one-of-a-kind …

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kim’s kitchen

Make these delicious cauliflower latkes

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Hector’s Inn’s annual Christmas Market happened in Bethel, NY this past December 1, and as always, there were a number of local artisans selling a wide variety of homemade, one-of-a-kind items. It’s always inspiring to see such creativity in our community.

My husband Fleck was there with his latest book, titled “Chaney’s Audition.” It details the beginning of actor Lon Chaney Jr.’s career at Universal Studios. 

I was there as well, selling some of my hand-painted bottles as well as copies of my cookbook of gluten-free recipes, “Get All Cook-Y With Kim.”

Before long, we were joined by Lily Barrish Levner. Lily works at Bloomberg Businessweek and also writes for the Hurleyville Sentinel. Her latest achievement is “Banquets & Bootleg Bounty,” a lively, light-hearted crime novel set mostly at the Concord Hotel in 1944. The first of a proposed series of “Catskill Capers” projects, this intriguing mystery presents a ton of historical details about the Catskills in general—and day-to-day life at the Concord in particular—as background for the rising action.

Getting to know Lily better, I discovered that we have a lot in common.

For example, Lily grew up in Sullivan County—in her case, Kiamesha Lake—and has unbreakable ties through her family with the Concord, Kutshers, the Pines, the Raleigh and the Sunny Oaks bungalow colony. She and her husband Jeremy still make their home here.

I grew up in Sullivan County as well—Liberty, in my case. The famous Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel was, of course, located there. Interestingly, Asher and Malka Grossinger, who founded the resort—as well as their daughter Jennie, who ran it for years—were all born in Baligrad, which was then part of Austria—the same place where my dad’s family came from.

In fact, my dad—Jack I. Simons—always joked that we might actually be related to the Grossinger family!

Whether or not that’s true, I was certainly familiar with Grossinger’s. But I knew of the Concord as well. My dad and Carol, my mom, attended a ton of events there. 

Chatting with Lily brought back a number of great memories for me. My dad was Jewish, but he absolutely loved Christmas—and my mom, a Catholic, was actually born on December 25. Given that, holiday celebrations during this time of the year were always lively and filled with neighbors and friends.

But as time went on, it dawned on me what my dad being Jewish meant. To begin with, he always enjoyed making traditional foods. My mom’s favorite was Dad’s potato latkes. But Dad always made chicken soup with matza balls, as well as liver and onions. There was always gefilte fish and pickled herring around as well, not to mention matzas. Lotsa matzas!

But my favorite was Dad’s matza brei. He showed me how to make it with real chicken fat, rendered down. Talk about delicious!

As I got older, it dawned on me that I should help my dad honor his heritage by helping him celebrate Hanukkah. Though he always fasted during Yom Kippur, we hadn’t touched on Hanukkah at all. I can’t remember exactly what year it was, but I do remember surprising him with Hanukkah gifts—he never saw that coming! And afterward, I always made sure to honor Hanukkah with him as well as Passover.

Unfortunately for me, I always suffered from eczema. Early in my life, my pediatrician advised my folks to keep wheat out of my diet. But life was extremely busy back then, with full-time jobs and fire department obligations and VFW events, so any special dietary concerns naturally fell by the wayside.

As I grew up—scratching all the way—I began to experiment by eliminating certain foods. Through trial and error, I realized that not only was I allergic to wheat, but to oats, barley, rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes as well. Eliminating all of those foods from my system made for better skin. But, boy, did I miss some of the things Dad used to cook, particularly the matza brei.

More recently—around the time I started thinking about writing my cookbook—I began experimenting with alternative ingredients, hoping to recreate the taste and texture of some of these dishes that I could no longer have in their original form.

Well, with the help of organic, spicy corn chips, I was able to mimic my dad’s matza brei very well. And I later found that combining cauliflower with crushed corn chips helped me to bring back another of my favorites—“potato” latkes.

That’s why this month’s project is cauliflower latkes. My parents are very much on my mind at this time of year. My dad passed on December 15, 2006, and my mom would have been 90 on December 25 had she not left us this past June 26. With Hanukkah starting this year on Christmas Day, I feel as if this is an ideal—and delicious—way to honor both of my parents.

I hope you enjoy making them and sharing them with your family as well! And as you enjoy this gluten-free, updated taste of the Catskills, make sure to give Lily Barrish Levner’s book a try. You’ll learn a lot about the history of the Catskills, plus you’ll be pleasantly entertained in the bargain.

Find the full video here.

Kim M. Simons is an artist, a food artist, and a cake artist. She has 13.5 doves featured on the Sullivan Catskills Dove Trail, the most recent of which was revealed in Parksville, NY this past November. Kim can currently be seen on “Cake Toppers,” a cake competition hosted by Buddy Valastro and streaming on Hulu. Kim is also available to teach classes, both individually and in groups. Visit Kim at www.cakesbykimsimons.com.

christmas market, hector's inn, bethel, cake, kitchen

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