Potato Pancakes with Awesome Sides!!!!

Happy Hanukkah!!  Whatever holiday you celebrate, there is not a single person who can say they don’t like latkes! I mean come on, a delicious potato pancake served with awesome sides. While making them for this recipe we probably ate 10 of them, but made sure we had enough left to photograph. I am eating one as I type this, cold…because they are awesome hot or cold.

These are some straight forward delish potato latkes with some very amazing garnishes…cinnamon/pear/apricot jam, ponzu sour cream, and some jalapeno bacon jam! Though the bacon jam isn’t kosher….it’s wonderful!

This recipe makes about a dozen! Maybe more but you will have a dozen after you eat the ones right out the pan.

Ingredients:

Potato Pancakes:
1 bottle vegetable oil
7 Russet potatoes
1 large shallot
2 eggs
¾ cup wheat flour
Kosher Salt

Jalapeno Bacon Jam:
1 pack bacon
4 jalapenos
½ cup brown sugar
½ lemon

Cinnamon Pear Jam:
4 small apricots
2 large bosc pears
½ cup sugar
½ lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Ponzu Sour Cream:
½ cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons Ponzu
2 teaspoons Siracha

 

Start by making garnishes so that you have them ready.

Jalapeno Bacon Jam:

Remove seeds from jalapenos and chop. Dice bacon as well. In a large skillet on a medium high heat, render bacon and jalapeno stirring every few minutes. Cook for about 15 minutes or until browned a bit.

Place in a food processor and blend slightly. Add back into the pan. Lower heat until medium and add a ¼ cup of water, cook until water has evaporated. Add another ¼ cup of water, the sugar, and squeeze the half lemon. Stir, and let cook for about  6 minutes.

Remove from heat, and let sit.

Cinnamon Pear Jam:

Chop up apricots and pears and place in small sauce pan on medium high heat. Using a masher, mash up fruit until mostly liquid with small pieces. Bring fruit to a boil.

Once boiling, squeeze the lemon half, and stir in sugar. Let that come to a boil for 2 minutes, and then lower heat to a simmer.

Let simmer and cook down, stirring every few minutes, for about 25 minutes.

Set aside and let cool.

Ponzu Sour Cream:

This one is very simple… simply mix all the ingredients together!

Potato Pancakes:

To make the pancakes peel all of the potatoes. You are going to be preparing the potatoes into three different ways, so basically into thirds. Cube two of the potatoes, and place in a pot of salted water, and bring to a boil. Let boil for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, grate the remainder of the potatoes, with the large side of a grater. Press with a paper towel to get rid of excess moisture.

Now, chop up the shallot, and take half of the grated potatoes and place into a food processor with the shallot and pulse. Place back into the large bowl with the grated potatoes.

Once the boiling potatoes are tender, drain and mash up. Place those into the large bowl with the rest of the potatoes.

Using a large spoon mix all the potato mix together, with a large pinch of salt, two eggs, and the wheat flour. Now your mix is ready.

In a large skillet on medium heat, heat up about a ¼ inch of oil. When the oil is ready, plop in a spoonful of potato mix and push down. Place about 3 pancakes in. Cook for about 7 minutes, flipping halfway through. Place on a paper towel to drain excess oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Voila! Now serve with garnishes and enjoy!

 

Cinco de Mayo Savory and Sweet Empanadas!!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cinco de Mayo, as I wrote about in last year’s post, is a holiday celebrating the Battle of Puebla. It is celebrated as a holiday of Mexican heritage pride, and is widely celebrated in the United States, becoming more popular in mainstream American culture. So much of America is a huge melting pot of different cultures, that to celebrate a holiday that has been adopted and assimilated in American culture, we have made a dish that has been adopted and assimilated by many cultures; the empanada!

 

Empanadas origins are traced back to Spain and Portugal during the time of Moorish invasions, coming from the word empanar, meaning wrap or coat in bread. Through colonization, travel, and trade throughout the world, the empanada has moved to Latin America, Southern Europe, Southeast Asia, and parts of Southwest America; it is a truly universal food.

We made two kinds of empanadas, one savory and one sweet. The savory empanada is filled with potato, chorizo, and queso fresco, the sweet is filled with papaya jam.

This recipe takes about 2.5 hours

Ingredients: serves 10-12

Empanada Dough:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large egg
1/3 cup ice water
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Savory Empanada:
10 oz chorizo
2 cloves garlic
4 medium golden potatoes
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 large pinches salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Sweet Empanada:
1 very ripe papaya
¼ cup + a pinch sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

 

 





Start by making the dough. Either by hand or in a food processor combine flour, salt, and cubed cold butter and mix until everything combined. In a small bowl whisk together one egg, vinegar, and water and pour into the flour mix, and using a fork mix everything together. On a floured surface knead out dough until just combined, pat into a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.

To make savory filling, chop up potatoes, remove chorizo from casings and mince both garlic cloves. Fill a medium sauce pan with water, bring to a boil, then drop in potato and boil for about 10 minutes, or until soft. In a sauté pan set to medium heat, render the fat out of chorizo for about 7 minutes, constantly stirring, then add garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Set chorizo aside and let cool. Once potatoes have been cooked, drain and the water out, add salt, vinegar, and pepper, and mash up with two forks. Let cool.

To make sweet filling cut the papaya in half, remove seeds, and remove from skin with a spoon. In a small sauce pan on medium heat, start smashing up the papaya. Once the papaya starts to bubble, pour in sugar and lemon juice and stir for 6 minutes. Pour in a small bowl and let cool.

After the dough has chilled for an hour, cut in half, and one half at a time on a floured surface roll out about 1/8” thick. Using any circular shape (we used a bowl, and then a cookie cutter) cut out circles, larger ones for savory, and smaller ones for sweet.

To fill the empanadas, in a small bowl whisk one egg. To make the savory empanada; scoop about a Tablespoon of potato, a Tablespoon of chorizo, and sprinkle some queso fresco in the middle. Brush around the edge of the dough with egg, and then fold over, and using a fork push down on edges to seal. To fill the sweet it is a bit tricky and involves so finger skills. Pick up the smaller circle, fold slightly in half, fill with papaya jam, brush the inner edge with egg, push the edges together, lay back down on baking sheet, and using the fork push together. Chill the empanadas for 30 minutes. Keep egg wash.

Preheat oven to 375. Once empanadas chill, poke some holes to allow for steam to escape, and brush with the remainder of egg wash. Sprinkle the sweet empanadas with sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way. You want them to be golden brown. Check the sweet ones at 20 minutes to make sure they don’t burn, sugar can brown very quickly.

Enjoy!!

Christmas Ham Pot Pie!

We hope that you are staying warm, have people you love close by, and love in your heart. We have prepared for you a wonderfully simple and delicious shitake mushroom and Christmas ham pot pie. You can make one gigantic one or you can make 5 or 6 small ones!!

Merry Christmas!

*you can make your own pate brisee, we have recipes for that, but don’t feel any shame in using frozen pie dough!

Ingredients: serves 6

2 large carrots
1 turnip
1 yellow onion
1 cup diced red and purple potatoes
5 medium shitake mushrooms
3 garlic cloves
Pre-cooked glazed ham (2 cups worth)
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
¾ cups flour
2 chicken bullion cubes
5 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt plus a pinch
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg
2 packs frozen pie dough

 



Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees, and dicing all of the vegetables and ham into small pieces, leave pie dough out so it softens.

Place the potatoes and turnips on a sheet tray and sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and bake 10 minutes, until partially cooked but not completely raw.

In a medium sauce pan heat 5 cups of chicken stock, then dissolve the bullion cubes in the stock.

In a large sauce pan melt butter. Once butter is melted add onion, garlic, and rosemary. Cook until onion is translucent.

Reduce heat to low, add flour and salt to the butter and whisk constantly until thickened, about 2 minutes. After two minutes add chicken stock, stirring constantly until completely thickened. Add salt, then take the mix off the heat and add in all of your vegetables and ham and fold in.

Spoon mix into the bowl or bowls you will be baking in. Mix the egg in bowl, and brush the outer edge of the baking dish. Place pie dough over the top with at least ½ and inch over the edge, then pinch the dough where it meets the baking dish so that it adheres. Brush the top with of the dough with egg, and using a really sharp knife make four small slits.

Place in oven and bake 45 min to an hour, or at least until the dough is golden brown.

Let them cool at least 10 minutes, otherwise you may sear your tongue!

Enjoy, Merry Christmas!!

Vegetable Latke with Persimmon Butter

Happy Hanukkah!! It is amazing because Hanukkah and Thanksgiving happen at the same time, which is awesome! We have created for you a spin on a traditional Latke, which actually will go fantastically with turkey! We have for you a latke made with potato, parsnip, carrot, and yellow zucchini, not to forget our very own persimmon butter on the side.

How do you celebrate Hanukkah if you do? Or better Hanukkah and Thanksgiving together?

*You will need a cheese grater with large holes.

Ingredients: makes 10

Latke:
1 russet potato
2 large carrots
2 medium sized parsnips
2 small yellow zucchini
1 large egg
3 pinches of salt
¼ cup canola oil

Persimmon Butter:
4 ripe persimmons
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Pinch of cinnamon

If you want to make sure they stay warm then preheat the oven to 200 degrees so you can put the latkes in when you make them, if you don’t mind them being room temperature, then skip this.

Start by making the persimmon butter. Chop up the persimmons and blend in blender until they are pretty smooth. In a small sauce pan, heat the puree, when it starts to bubble, add the sugar and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir cooking for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit.

The latke making is so easy it’s amazing. Peel all your vegetable except the yellow zucchini. Into a large bowl, using the larger holes on the cheese grater, grate all you vegetables, including the zucchini with the skin. Fill the bowl with water, the pour the water out keeping the vegetables, fill it one more time, and let sit for 10 minutes. This gets all the extra starch out.

Strain the vegetables into a colander. Lay out some paper towels, and lay the vegetables on top. Roll the paper towels together, removing any excess moisture. Put everything back in bowl.

Crack the egg into the bowl and start to mix. Put one pinch of salt, mix, next pinch, etc.

In a wide skillet heat your oil to medium high. When the oil is hot enough, using a spoon, spoon a heaping spoonful of the vegetables onto the skillet. Do two at a time.

While those are cooking, lay a tray out with paper towels, so you can place the latke on and let the oil drain off.

Let one side cook for about 5 minutes until nice and golden brown, the flip and do the same.

If you put in the oven, be sure to not put it in with paper towel.

Serve with persimmon butter! Enjoy!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day: Corn Beef Hash and Chocolate Covered Marzipan!!

 



St. Patrick’s Day is not just a day for people to behave like they are in college all over again, drink Irish car bombs (though delish), and to wear green and find a pot of gold. It is full of beautiful tradition and history….now go have an Irish car bomb!!!

St. Patrick’s Day celebrates Ireland’s patron saint, and is technically a Christian feast day. Originally the color of St. Patrick was blue, but over the years, the color has changed with the use of wearing green ribbons and the shamrock. The shamrock, with its three leaves, was used to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. So to all you pagans out there, here is some knowledge and some delicious food.

This post is broken in to two parts, first our wonderful corn beef hash which is a traditional Irish pub dish, and second some chocolate covered marzipan delightful enough to catch a leprechaun!

Go ahead and enjoy!

*You will not need salt, because the corn beef is already pretty salty.

Corn Beef Hash:
Ingredients: serves 4

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 medium russet potatoes
12 oz corn beef
1 yellow onion
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoon prepared horseradish
½ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
4 eggs

Chocolate covered marzipan:
*You can make your own marzipan, but to keep it simple, we are using already made, and we will save that recipe for another time.

1 tube marzipan
4 oz white chocolate
Green food coloring
3 tablespoons green rock candy

Start by boiling your potatoes and by making your mise en place. Dice the onion small and cube the beef small in about ½” pieces. Boil the potatoes until they are just about fully cooked. Once ready, take them out and cube them as well.

In a large non-stick pan heat the oil, add the potatoes and cook about 10-12 minutes, until golden, constantly stirring. Add onions and cook until completely softened. Add the Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, then stir. Next add the heavy cream and stir until fully mixed, then add the beef and cook about 10 minutes until meat is cooked through and tender.

Remove pan from heat to stop cooking  so you can make the poached eggs. Fill a sauce pan with about 2 inches of water, and heat until it simmers. To place the eggs in, crack and egg into a bowl, and then plop in, one at a time about 3 inches apart in clockwise order so you know to remove them in that order as well. Once all eggs are in, remove from heat and cover, and cook for 5 minutes, NO LIFTING THE COVER!

While the eggs cook, plate the corn beef hash, and on the 5 minute mark remove the eggs in order, and place on top of hash! Voila!! Eat it!

The dessert is so simple. Make whatever shape you want with the marzipan, we made balls and 4 leaf clovers! Next heat the chocolate in a double boiler constantly stirring. Once melted you can either dip the chocolate in, or roll it in, whatever you so please. Lay on a wax covered baking sheet to cool, and sprinkle with rock candy. Cool, and eat!

This will certainly be a St. Patrick’s Day you will never forget!!!

Veggie and Beef Stew...squash that flu!

We are a little over  2 weeks into the New Year, and the theme seems to be a hopefulness of change, the revving up of engines to kick-start one’s resolutions, a slight sluggishness from over eating the whole holiday season, and….the flu. It seems to be that not only did we eat whatever we wanted, but I ended up with a month long cough, which was the opposite of awesome. After a week of a massive obsessive overhaul and quarter life crisis, in which we cleaned out all of our “junk”, we are so ready to start up some new adventures. But…before we can muster the energy to look at the stair-master or cleanse, we need this delicious hardy bowl of vegetable beef stew. The spice will clear your nose, and give you a little pep in your step, the vegetables will warm you from the inside out, and the beef will give you that last umph of meatiness that you crave.

So enjoy making this!

Ingredients: serves 4 people take about 3 hours

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

7 Tablespoons flour

16 oz low sodium beef broth

16 oz water

3 medium turnips

4 medium to large carrots

3 large stalks of celery

8 small red bliss potatos

1 ½ pounds beef tenderloin

1 white onion

1 Tablespoon paprika

1 Tablespoon salt

½ Tablespoon pepper

1 Tablespoon fresh thyme

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ Tablespoon garlic salt

This dish can be made in either a crock pot or a slow cooker, whichever you prefer.

To start, create your mise en place by cleaning your vegetables and chopping them. Mince garlic, chop carrots and celery to be the same size, about a ½ inch wide, and the turnips, potato, and onion into thin half moon shapes, all the same thickness as well. Place all vegetable and fresh herbs into your crock pot or slow cooker, with no heat on. Now take your beef tenderloin and cube it into 2 square inch pieces and roll in a mix of 3 Tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of salt, and set aside.

In a sauce pan, we are going to create a roux which is going to help thicken our stew a bit. In a large sauce pan, melt your butter and by Tablespoon add the flour constantly whisking until mix thickens. 

Next add your cooking liquid (beef broth and water) about 2 cups at a time, whisking constantly. Add your spices and whisk in completely. Bring to a boil, and drop meat in. Cook for three minutes, then pour everything into your crock pot or slow cooker, and cook on low for about 3 hours.

The lovely thing about this is that you can leave your food and you don’t need to pay attention to any of it. You can go have a cocktail, read a book, have a nap, whatever you want. Once done, get a large spoon, and dig in!

Potato and Leek Latkes with Apple Chutney! Yay!

What a glorious time of year this is! Today is the second day of Hanukkah and Michael and I celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas so we get to be super festive the whole month. Every year Hanukkah falls on a different date, because it follows the Jewish calendar. Last year Hanukkah and Christmas overlapped, but this year it falls earlier on in the month.

It is a wonderful thing that Michael can teach me his family traditions, and I can teach him mine, and now we can share both together…and twice the amount of awesome food!!

That being said, we are making potato and leek latkes for the holiday with a sweet apple chutney to accompany it. An interesting fact about why latkes are a holiday staple and are loved in the Jewish community (besides being tasty), is that the oil used to fry the latkes is representative of the oil used to provide light miraculously for eight days!

The glorious thing about this dish, whether you call them latkes or potato pancakes, is that they are marvelous year round and are so unbelievably delicious I am hungry just typing this! So enjoy and happy holidays!

Ingredients:

Latkes: 4 medium sized ones

2 large russet potatoes
1 large leek
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup olive oil

Apple Chutney:

3 granny smith apples
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup apple juice
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

We start with making the apple chutney because it is best served at room temperature, so start by peeling and dicing the apple into same sized pieces depending on how large or small you would like your pieces. Melt butter in a sauté pan, and then add apples. Cook until apples soften, then add apple juice and cinnamon and cook until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from pan, and let sit at room temperature.

To make the latkes, peel the potatoes, and using a cheese grater with the largest size holes grate both of them. Place the shreds of potato into a bowl of water. Now take your leek, cut the end off where it forms a bulb, and then cute where the white starts to turn into green. Next cut in half length wise, take the outer two leaves off, and rinse the stalk under flowing water. Now laying the cut side down, thinly slice the whole leek into small strips.

Take the potato, and place in a strainer and run cold water over until all the foamy starch washes off. Lay a towel out, and place potato on top and ring out as much of the water as you possibly can. Place potatoes back in a large mixing bowl, mix in leeks, salt and the egg (lightly beaten). Be sure to mix thoroughly so all the parts are coated in egg because this is your binder.

In a large sauté pan heat your olive oil until it sizzles when you put a drop of water in it. Take about 3-4 Tablespoons of your latke mix and place in a circle in the pan, using a spatula push down to spread it out evenly. Put as many as you can in the pan, and flips them when one side becomes golden brown. When they are done, they should be golden brown on both sides, take them out and let them sit on a plate with a piece of paper towel on it to absorb excess oil.

When they cool serve with the apple chutney and any other toppings you like! Don’t just make these for the holidays, you can make these year round!

Happy Holidays!