When you think of Hanukkah nosh, you think latkes: delicious fried potato pancakes with dollops of apple sauce or sour cream. But did you know that jelly doughnuts, known as sufganiyot, are a traditional Hanukkah treat in Israel? Follow the recipe below from Judy Bart Kancigor’s Cooking Jewish to make about 3 ½ dozen of these popular pastries:

Pnina Shichor’s Sufganiyot

(jelly doughnuts)

½ cup plus scant 1 cup warm water

(105 to 110 degrees F)

3 packages active dry yeast

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs, beaten

5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

Canola or corn oil, for frying

Jam (any flavor)

Confectioner’s sugar

1. Preheat the oven on the lowest setting for 15 minutes, and turn it off.
2. Pour the ½ cup warm water into a very large (at least 6-quart) bowl. Add the yeast and stir to dissolve it. Then add 1 teaspoon of the sugar, stir, and set the mixture aside until bubble, 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Stir the scant 1 cup water, salt, oil, remaining sugar, and eggs into the yeast mixture. Add 3 cups of the flour, and mix. Gradually knead in the remaining flour until the dough is spongy and elastic but still feels slightly tacky. Remove the dough and oil the bowl (no need to wash it). Turn the dough in the bowl to coat it all over with oil, and loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
4. Let the dough rise in the turned-off oven until it nearly reaches the top of the bowl, about 2 hours.
5. Punch down the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is ¼-inch thick. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter or glass, cut out the rounds of dough. Place the rounds on a baking sheet and set them aside to rise, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
6. Pour oil to a depth of 1 inch into an electric frying pan (preferred), deep fryer, or large, heavy skillet and heat it to 365 degrees F.
7. Dip your fingers in flour, and lift up a round of dough. Move it back and forth between your two middle fingers to stretch the center of the round quite thin without tearing it. This will be the depression for the jam.
8. Quickly drop rounds in the hot oil, depression side down—a few at a time, without crowding. Cover the pan and fry until the doughnuts are golden brown but not dark, about 30 seconds. Quickly turn them, cover the pan, and fry until the other side is golden brown, 30 seconds more. Drain the doughnuts on both sides on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining rounds of dough.
9. Fill the depressions with jam, and dust the doughnuts with confectioners’ sugar. These are best when eaten warm. They don’t keep well, but no matter. You won’t have any leftovers.

This Fourth of July weekend, flames and smoke will rise over backyards across the country. And that means grilling. In the best-case scenario, you get a tasty meal. In the worst case, you get an awesome story of how you turned hamburger into charcoal briquettes—or maybe how you got grill marks on your hand.

Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible, wants to help you stay on the right side of that line.

Steven is a major NPR fan, so when the call came to tape a July 4th segment with Morning Edition, he was on the next plane to Washington, DC (literally). Here’s gorgeous video from the taping to help you brush up on your July 4th grilling skills, along with a a recording of the full interview on NPR.

Alright, so maybe you won’t cook quite like Thomas Keller right off the bat. But Ad Hoc at Home, Keller’s latest cookbook, has the tips and recipes to get you cooking, if not on his level, then certainly with greater know-how and confidence than before. Even with limited experience in the kitchen, these are meals you can envision making. To become a well-rounded cook, one that can tackle almost any recipe, here are a few basics you might want to get the hang of….

Learn to:
Use salt properly: Salt enhances flavors already in a dish – if you can taste the salt, it’s too salty. Salt used for seasoning needs time to dissolve—salt steaks, chops and other smaller cuts 15 to 20 minutes before cooking, while larger cuts, like a chicken, should be salted 40 to 45 minutes before cooking.

Use vinegar as a seasoning device: Vinegar can be an important way to enhance the impact of a dish. It’s always worth considering whether a few drops of vinegar could be added to a soup, sauce, or braising liquid to make the flavors really jump out.

Roast a chicken: When you know how to roast a chicken you have an infinite number of dishes at your fingertips, from springtime chicken with peas and morels to cold salads in the summer to a winterized version with roasted root vegetables.

Sauté: Recognizing the level of heat you need is the critical part of sautéing food. A duck breast should be cooked over low heat to render the fat in the skin and make it crisp, while fish is usually sautéed over high heat to develop flavor on the exterior through browning.

Pan-Roast: This combines two techniques, sautéing and roasting. It’s a good technique to use at home and only requires a frying pan or sauté pan with an ovenproof handle.

Make a pie crust: Baking your own pie crust gives you the framework to make a range of dishes. It also allows you to choose the type of fat you want to use as your shortening—butter adds richness, while lard can be great for savory dishes.

Cook eggs: Eggs can be prepared in so many ways – they’re delicious, inexpensive and nutritious. They can be used in sweet or savory meals as an ingredient or a tool.

Use the big-pot blanching technique: Big-pot blanching involves boiling vegetables in brine strength salted water until they are cooked through. The result? Vividly colored, perfectly seasoned vegetables.

Roast: There are two types of roasting: high-heat roasting and low-and-slow roasting. High-heat is used for foods that are naturally tender, like chicken or rack of lamb. Low-and-slow is used for either of two reasons: it can be used for meats that need to be tenderized or for large cuts that need to time to cook evenly.

Make one really good soup: There’s enormous value in making a good soup. A vegetable soup, a protein-based soup, and a pureed soup are all an invaluable part of a cook’s repertoire.

Poach: Poaching is a gentle form of cooking—the temperature never goes above 200˚F. Poaching allows you to flavor the cooking medium and thereby enhance the flavor of what you’re cooking.

Braise: Braising has the ability to develop deep flavor and tenderness in inexpensive, tough cuts of meat.  Braising is straightforward: the meat is seasoned and browned on the stovetop, then liquid is added and the meat is cooked in the oven at 275˚ to 300˚ for hours until it’s tender.

What happens when a chef, restaurateur, and food-lover is diagnosed with diabetes? In Tom Valenti’s case, he went right back into the kitchen! You Don’t Have to Be Diabetic To Love This Cookbook takes delicious fine-dining cooking and tweaks them, making dishes delicious and diabetic-friendly.

Tom shares recipes for diabetics, and all food-lovers, on The Early Show.