Sweet potato latkes revisited

I wish I had written down what I did for my sweet potato latkes, as they were a smashing success this year. Alas, I failed to do it at the time, so the best I can do is try to remember a few points about what worked.

• Use olive oil. It tasted immeasurably better than the canola stuff you usually get. Light olive oil is available in big jugs on the cheap (I got a 38 oz monster for $10.99) and that's more than enough to get you through a lot of latkes. Note that olive oil has a lower smoke point than canola oil, so watch the heat or you'll be scrubbing.
• Use one egg and at least three tbsp. flour for every pound of sweet potatoes. You may need even more flour than that. I found that with this much egg and flour kicking around, I didn't have nearly as much trouble getting them to hold together.
• Sweet potatoes don't cast off nearly as much water as regular potatoes do, but they are also less starchy and therefore don't want to stick together.
• Lots of onion. Maybe one medium onion for every 1.5-2 sweet potatoes.I was hesitant to use a lot of onion at first--they're sweet potatoes, after all!--but they really added a fantastic dimension that played right off the olive oil in spectacular fashion. With less onion, the taste was a bit sweet and insipid.
• Careful with the salt. I used the guidelines for normal latkes (about 1/2 tsp. per pound) and it seemed like a lot.

I can't remember if I used any baking soda in the sweets. Too bad; otherwise I'd write up a guestimate of the recipe.

I'm very interested in shredding one beet and tossing that in with the sweet potatoes next year. It would add a lot of pizazz.

Farfel Kugel

A kugel is a pudding or casserole, and while there are many different kinds of kugels, I generally divide them into two categories: sweet and savory. This kugel, made from matzo farfel (crumbled matzo), is a lot like bread pudding, except richer.

The traditional place of a dairy kugel like this one is on Saturday (shabbat) morning brunch; you could also serve it for any breakfast. Traditionally, it would not be served with or after a meat meal because eating milk after meat is prohibited. However, if you do not keep kosher, this makes a fine dessert.

By soaking the matzo farfel before using it, it mostly disintegrates and gives the kugel a smooth, pudding-like texture. I plan on posting another variation on farfel kugel that seeks to keep the matzo somewhat more intact.

I got this recipe from my mother, who got it from The Jewish Home Cookbook. I have made a couple of substitutions (in parentheses) to bring it from 'inconceivably high fat' to merely 'very high fat.' Mmmm....

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cup matzo farfel (or whole matzo crumbled into small pieces)
• 3/4 cup butter
• 5 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 8 tbsp. cottage cheese
• 4 tbsp. (lowfat) sour cream
• 8 oz. (light) cream cheese
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
  
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees; boil some water.
   
2. Combine matzo farfel and raisins in a bowl.
3. Cover farfel and raisin mixture with boiling water and let stand 15 minutes; then drain in a colander.
4. Meanwhile, beat eggs and then add sugar, salt, cottage cheese, sour cream and cream cheese, combining thoroughly. (Use a blender for this if you prefer.)
   
5. Melt the butter and combine with the matzo farfel so that it is coated. Then add the egg mixture and combine. Transfer the mixture to a buttered, nonstick baking pan or casserole.
6. Scald the milk in a saucepan, then pour it evenly over the kugel. Do not mix.
7. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, then another 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Allow to cool slightly before serving. Makes great leftovers.

Cholent

On the Jewish sabbath, it is not permitted to create or adjust a fire. This has been extended to all heat sources, making it essential to create foods that can keep cooking all through the sabbath day. Cholent is a sabbath stew so tightly bound to the old-world weekly sabbath rituals that one might reasonably call it a ritual of its own. My version uses a hell of a lot more onions than would typically be found because, hey, onions are fantastic.

Since you are blasting the meat for so incredibly long, it's especially important to use a rich, marbled cut that won't dry out as you cook it. With beef, I prefer flanken (also known as 'boneless short ribs'), but you could also use brisket. Lamb would work very nicely!

Based on impressions from this beautiful essay on cholent.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 medium Spanish onions (about 1.5 - 2 lbs), sliced
  
• 10 oz. Crimini or Baby Bella mushrooms, scrubbed and sliced
• 4-6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
  
• 1 1/4 cup dry beans (any), rinsed and soaked overnight
• 3/4 cup pearl barley
• 1 1/2 lbs. red bliss potatoes, skin on, cut into large chunks
• 3-4 carrots, washed and cut into large chunks
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 lbs. beef brisket or flanken (boneless short rib)
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. paprika
• Salt and pepper
• Several whole raw eggs (optional), rinsed
  
• Olive oil for sautéing
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Once hot, add olive oil and allow to warm.
2. Add the onions and mushrooms along with the sugar. Sauté, turning frequently with a spatula, until beginning to caramelize: about 25-30 minutes.
3. Add the whole garlic cloves and continue to sauté about 5 minutes more. (The garlic will still be white.)
4. In a crockpot, thoroughly combine the caramelized vegetables, the beans, barley, carrots, potatoes and paprika.
   
5. Bury the beef in this mixture.
6. If you have room in the crockpot, bury some eggs in the mixture at this point as well. The egg white will turn an incredible caramel color.
7. Cook in the crock pot on low for a minimum of 8 hours, and as many as 18.

Serve at any time after the first 8 hours. Since you can't shut off the heat on shabbos, it's not uncommon to see people start eating the cholent after 8 or 12 hours, and then again several hours later.

PAIRINGS: I know that beef and beans and barley all fairly scream out 'red wine' (or dark beer), but I find that the entire dish has a sufficiently dark and brooding character that I really crave something a little bit sweet and fruity. Sweet white wines like Gewürztraminer and Riesling come easily to mind, or even a tawny port. A hard cider would also do the job.

Traditionally, people drink hard liquor (often scotch and vodka) on shabbos, although I've never been too crazy for that.

Chopped herring salad with pears

This is a slight variation on an Ashkenazi weekend morning standard. Serve this on a bagel with sliced red onion, sliced hard boiled egg and a few capers.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup pickled herring in wine sauce, drained
• 1 firm pear (such as Bosc, Concorde or Asian), peeled and chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• Several pecans or walnuts
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

Puree all ingredients in a food processor.

Kasha (Roasted buckwheat)

Kasha is a traditional preparation of buckwheat groats prepared in stock with mushrooms, onions and (sometimes) meat. I love kasha. I think the better the broth you use, the deeper the flavor is, and also the nutrients.

I love to cook a meat or dark poultry to go into the kasha. I make a really strong broth first. I make either a beef broth or a chicken broth. Then, the next day, or later that day, brown the meat you want to use: like flanken or chuck or turkey thighs or whatever you use, and then simmer it (poach) in the broth (strained) for a few hours till it is falling apart and wonderful. Strain the broth again (if necessary) . This recipe uses 4 cups. Put it aside for the kasha. It has to be BOILING
only at the point when you add it to the pan with the vegetables and the egg/kasha mixture.Cut the meat up and keep warm and save to add to the kasha in the end.

Kasha Varniskes is kasha with bow-tie noodles. I cook two cups dry noodles and drain and keep to add at the end with the meat.

NOTE (4/18/09): Do not wash the groats, or else they will absorb some of that water while cooking with the eggs and end up soggy.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups kasha (medium or coarse granulation)
• 2 cups dry bow tie noodles, cooked and drained
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 4 cups broth, hot

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saute or frying pan with a cover, cook the onions and mushrooms in oil until they are very soft and fully cooked, and smell great. You can add salt and pepper to them.
2. Keep this mixture warm until you are ready to add the hot kasha/egg mixture and the boiling broth to it.
3. KASHA : Beat 2 large eggs in a bowl. Add 2 cups dry kasha and use a fork to stir together until the kasha groats are all coated with egg.
4. Into another HOT (NON STICK )skillet ( yes, there are a lot of pots and pans and bowls for this ) toss the coated kasha groats. Cook over high heat 2-3 minutes,stirring,until the egg has dried on the kasha , the groats are separate and hot to the back of your finger.
5. Now, make sure that the broth is boiling, or get it boiling. ( Don't let it sit there boiling because you will lose some and there will be less than 4 cups).
6. Add the kasha/egg mixture to the frying pan with the mushrooms and onions (which you have thoughtfully heated up again) . Pour in the hot broth. Let it come back to a little boil, and then cover and turn down the heat and simmer for 7-10 minutes until the kasha groats are tender and the liquid is absorbed. It may take a longer time depending upon the richness of the broth.
7. Add the meat , if using, and the noodles. Season.

Serve warm; very good left over.

Gahntze Tzimmes

Tzimmes, a sweet, heavy, root vegetable side dish, is made gahntz--whole, full--when cooked with beef or chicken. It is served at most holidays, especially Passover, when the high fiber content is particularly welcome. This New England adaptation makes use of one of our most beloved local vegetables: the butternut squash.

If you happen to dislike slow cookers (but why?), you could prepare this the old-fashioned way by blasting it in a 400 degree oven for an hour, and then turning it down to 300 and blasting it for 4-5 hours more. (Yeah, I'll take the slow cooker.)

Obviously, this thoroughly Yiddish dish can be prepared kosher (fleishig).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small (2 - 2 1/2 lb) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
  
• 1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 lb. carrots, peeled and sliced (or baby carrots)
• 2 lbs. flanken or brisket, chopped into pieces (or cut the meat off 4 lbs. of short ribs)
• 1 lb. dried fruit (usually prunes and apricots)
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• Several cups boiling water
  
• Ground cloves
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground allspice
• A dash of ginger (optional)
  

DIRECTIONS (LAZY):

1. Put the beef, carrots, squash, potatoes and dried fruit in the slow cooker.
2. Combine the brown sugar, flour and spices. Add some of the boiling water so it all dissolves.
3. Pour this over the tzimmes. Pour enough boiling water in that it's near the top of the tzimmes. Turn heat to low and let cook for 8-10 hours.

DIRECTIONS (AMBITIOUS):

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
   
2. Place the vegetables and dried fruit at the bottom of a casserole and combine.
   
3. Brown the beef in a deep skillet, then place on top of fruit and vegetables.
   
4. Add the orange juice to the skillet and deglaze with a spatula. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in brown sugar, flour and spices.
5. Pour over tzimmes. Pour enough boiling water in that it's near the top of the tzimmes.
6. Bake, covered, at 400 for an hour.
7. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for another 4-5 hours.

Serve hot. Even better left over.

Short ribs

This slow-cooker recipe works well with many stewing meats, so long as they are rich enough not to dry out. Short ribs and their boneless counterpart (known in Yiddish as flanken) are far and away the most impressive, but a shoulder chuck roast will hold up pretty well, too.

The single most important seasoning here is cloves; this cannot be omitted.

But as I think I mentioned in an earlier post, the real secret ingredient in sweet red sauces for beef in Yiddish-American cooking is soda: cola for dark sauces, and ginger ale for light ones. I have also experimented with cranberry and orange juices to good effect. (Orange juice ends up tasting like tzimmes.)

It's impossible to provide proportions here as it is completely a matter of personal preference. Since the sauce contains no raw meat, you can taste it until it "seems right"--and remember, of course, that it will be made far richer and milder by stewing with the beef.

INGREDIENTS (SAUCE):

• 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
• Plenty of molasses
• Ground cloves (this is essential)
• Spicy brown mustard
• Cider vinegar
• Chopped garlic
• Allspice
• Nutmeg
• A little cola or ginger ale
• Salt

INGREDIENTS (BRAISE):

• 4 beef short ribs --or-- 2-3 lbs. flanken or shoulder chuck roast
• 2-3 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 1 onion, sliced

Arrange the potatoes at the bottom of the pot, followed by the onions, and then the short ribs, then apply the sauce to the top of the ribs. It will drip down as it cooks, so don't worry too much about spreading it around. It's OK to put some ribs on top of others; if you do that, put some sauce on top of the first layer before putting the second layer on. Cook in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours on low. Serve warm with kashe or rice.

Kreplach (pierogi)

Update (02/02/08): What started out as a disappointing knish experiment turned into a startlingly excellent kreplach experiment. The dough is essentially a schmaltzy egg pasta: too dry to be baked, but perfect for boiling. Fortunately, I had half a batch left uncooked in my freezer to try this experiment out on.

These are more like pierogi that I've had in that the dough is thicker and eggier than most kreplach, which have an almost translucent, angelic quality. They are delicious by themselves with mustard or goat cheese, and I am sure they would also make an outstanding contribution to chicken soup.

I still haven't figured out how to make knishes, alas.

INGREDIENTS -- DOUGH:

• 3 medium eggs, beaten
  
• 2 tbsp. schmaltz
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• About 1 1/2 cups flour (see instructions below)
• An extra egg yolk (for glazing)
  

INGREDIENTS -- FILLING:

• 3 lbs. russet potatoes
• 1 lb. onions, thinly sliced
  
• 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbsp. schmaltz
• 1 medium egg, beaten
  
• Salt and pepper

OVERALL STRATEGY:

Slice the potatoes ahead of time. Bring some water to a boil while working on the first steps of the dough. Throw the potatoes in while you're doing that. Then you can prepare the onions and mushrooms. While they are still in their early stages of sauteeing, mash the potatoes and add the egg (while stirring onions occasionally). That way, it's all ready to be combined when the onions are done. After you've done that, get to work rolling out the dough. Finally, boil as much as you'd like to eat now and freeze the rest for later.

DIRECTIONS -- DOUGH:

1. Beat the eggs together with the schmaltz, salt and baking soda.
2. In a mixing bowl, add about 3/4 cup of flour and combine thoroughly with a spatula. This will have a sticky, pasty consistency.
3. Add more flour a very little bit at a time--2 tablespoons at most--mixing very thoroughly, just until the dough is no longer sticky. You will have to use your hands after it starts to thicken up.
4. Knead until it's a totally even, dense ball of dough. Cover the mixing bowl and let stand for about 45 minutes (about the time it will take to make the filling).
   

DIRECTIONS -- FILLING:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Slice the potatoes into 3/4"-thick rounds but do not peel them. Boil them to desired consistency.
2. Meanwhile, heat the schmaltz in a saucepan. (WARNING: schmaltz burns faster than vegetable oil.) When the schmaltz is hot, add the mushrooms and onions.
3. Sauté the onions and mushrooms on medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until they begin to turn gold.
4. Add the garlic and continue to cook until the onions caramelize, stirring constantly.
5. Mash the potatoes and stir in the egg thoroughly. Add a bit more schmaltz if it's not smooth.
6. Once the onions and mushrooms are ready, add them to the potatoes. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

ASSEMBLING YOUR KREPLACH:

1. Knead the dough a bit to warm it up.
   
2. Roll out the dough as thin as you possibly can. For me, it helped to roll it as much as I could, then cut that much into quarters and roll that as much as I could, and finally to cut those quarters in half and roll each eighth to the appropriate thinness.
3. Cut the dough into 3" diameter circles. Put a dab of filling in the middle of one, then put another over it and pinch at the edges. You can curl the edges back over onto themselves, too, and then pinch them down with a fork.
4. Brush the top of each kreplach with a bit of egg yolk.

FREEZE 'EM OR COOK 'EM:

You only want to cook as many kreplach as you're going to eat immediately. Fortunately, kreplach freeze beautifully in an airtight container.

FREEZE: You want to minimize the exposure to air, while also laying them flat so they don't freeze together or deform. A trick I use for this sort of thing is to lay a zip-loc bag on top of a baking sheet, and then to put the kreplach inside the bag and freeze them. Once they're frozen, you can remove the baking sheet.

BOIL: Bring some water to a rolling boil. Place the kreplach in gently. They will sink straight to the bottom. They are almost done when they begin to rise to the top, after 4-6 minutes. Give it another minute or so more. Remove from the water. Serve immediately.

DO NOT DEFROST! You can boil them directly from the freezer; it just adds an extra minute or so to the cooking time.

A Note on Schmaltz

A few weeks ago, I was describing something that I made to someone and mentioned schmaltz. "Come on," he said, "now you're just making stuff up."

Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat, and it's a fundamental ingredient in Jewish cooking, as goose fat is in Polish cooking and lard is in (very non-Jewish) food from the American south. (Lard, incidentally, is called khazer schmaltz in Yiddish and is used in unflattering expressions about ideas that are foreign in origin but are presented as Jewish, like a drummer at shabbes services.)

Anyways: schmaltz is easy to come by if you ever make broth. The fat on a chicken is not a single, uniform substance, but is made out of many different molecules with different properties. Schmaltz, like ghee ("clarified" butter) consists of the fat that turns into a liquid at the lowest temperatures.

By far the easiest way to get schmaltz, at least in my life, is to carefully skim it from chicken broth after it's prepared. It will rise to the top naturally, and will be all the more easy to remove if you let the broth cool in the refrigerator first. Schmaltz keeps very well in the freezer and can be warmed easily in the microwave.

If you don't make much broth, there are other strategies to extract it available, and you can also buy it pre-packaged at kosher delicatessens.

Schmaltz is what gives Jewish foods like matzo balls and knishes their signature flavor.

Potato Latkes ( Recipe by Marlene Sorosky)

For 24 pancakes:

( 1 Vitamin C tablet )
2 1/2 pounds baking potatoes ( about 4 large potatoes)
1/2 onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tb flour or matzoh meal

Vegetable Oil

Directions:

• Place vitamin C tablet in a small bowl with 2 Tb water to dissolve. ( this step is optional... Peel the potatoes, and keep in a bowl of cold water until you are ready to shred them. ) Shred potatoes, using shredding blade of food processor, or by hand; place in a bowl. Stir in dissolved vitamin C.
• Shred or finely chop onion. Add to potatoes.
• Add eggs, salt , baking powder, and flour or matzoh meal; mix well.
• In a large skillet, heat 1/2 inch oil over moderately high heat. Using a slotted spoon, place about 2 Tb of batter into hot oil for each pancake. Do not crowd pancakes in pan.
• Flatten slightly with the back of the spoon and fry pancakes until golden on both sides, turning once.
• As you reach the end, squeeze batter lightly to remove excess liquid.
• After frying, remove to paper towels to drain.( Or brown paper bags with a paper towel on top. Pancakes may be kept warm in single layer in a 200 degree oven. May be frozen. Freeze on baking sheets in single layers. When solid, place in container. Bake in single layer on baking sheets at 450 degrees for 5-10 minutes or until crisp and bubbling.

Do not double the recipe, as the last of the raw potato batter gets too starchy and brown when it sits too long.

You can also coarsely grate the potatoes, and let some edges stick up and get more crispy. Or you can grate them, and then if it is too coarse for you, put them into the processor and pulse the blade a few times to more finely process them. It is up to you. Whatever you like!

When you are done, your house will smell like Latkes for a while!!

Love, Mom

RECIPE: JOAN NATHAN

YOU WILL NEED:

10 medium potatoes

2 medium onions

2 large or 3 medium eggs

4 Tb flour, breadcrumbs, or matzoh meal

salt and pepper to taste

veg oil

• Peel the potatoes if the skin is coarse; otherwise, just clean them well. Keep them in cold water until ready to prepare the latkes.
• Starting with the onions, alternately grate some of the onions on the large holes of the grater and some of the potatoes on the smallest holes. This will keep the potato mixture from blackening, probably from the acid in the onions. Press out as much liquid as possible and reserve the starchy sediment at the bottom of the bowl. Return the sediment to the mixture. ( I have done this, and it works well: it is the potato starch, and it has a strange but fun texture. ) Blend potatoes with the eggs, flour, salt, and white pepper.
• Heat 1 " of oil in a frying pan. Drop about 1 Tb of mixture, fry turning once.
• She says the steel blade of a food processor or the grating blade are less painful ways of grating the potatoes and the onions. The blade makes a smooth consistency and the grater a crunchy one.I think if you are doing many, don't grate by hand. Save it for a smaller, special batch. But, you can grate in the food processor, first some potato, and then some onion. It is the same idea.

Slow-cooked barbecue pot roast

The sauce for this was based on a barbecue sauce recipe from the back of a Grandma's Molasses bottle. While this sauce would be totally inadequate for that purpose, it does taste a lot like some of the zestier Ashkenazi recipes for flanken (boneless short ribs). Coca-Cola (or ginger ale) is the secret ingredient to many of these recipes.

In college, I discovered that a well-marbled shoulder chuck, when slow-cooked, developed the consistency of flanken. So for when you make that banana ketchup, here is an exotic variation on a well-rehearsed Yiddishe soul-food.

(If you don't have any banana ketchup, you can substitute 12 oz. (2 cans) tomato paste, 3/4 cup molasses, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup vinegar or lemon juice, some garlic, and a bit of ginger for that part.)

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce--

• 2 cups banana ketchup (see below) or the substitution described above
  
• 3/4 cup Coca-Cola
  
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard
• 2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup coke or ginger ale
  

Pot roast--

• 3-4 lb. shoulder chuck pot roast
• 2 large onions

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine all ingredients for sauce and set aside.
2. Slice the onions and place at the bottom of a slow cooker.
3. Brown pot roast on all sides and place in slow cooker.
4. Pour sauce over pot roast. Set slow cooker to low and allow to cook overnight (8-10 hours).

Serve with barley.