Beet It

Even though it's not quite here yet, we're fast approaching the culinary dead-zone of winter. In order to avoid the mounting frustrations of only being able to find local organic produce in the shape of tubers and roots, I joined a winter CSA. This of course will not come with the overwhelming bounty of produce that my summer/fall CSA does, so they've filled in the blanks with other products like meat, canned tomatoes, pickled products, cheese, eggs, milk, yogurt and other random goodies. Because there is so much less available this time of year, we only receive our shares once a month instead of once a week. I won't start receiving those shares until about mid-December, but in the meantime I still have some of my old CSA products hibernating in the fridge. You see, after volunteering during the late shift of our final pick-up day, I was able to bring home double the loot. Many people didn't show up, leaving a hefty donation of food for the church where we do our food distribution, in addition to providing those of us volunteering with some extra loot. In addition to sampling the eggs, milk, yogurt and cheese that you can also sign up for (all of which are excellent), I got to take home a few extra pounds of beets, carrots and kale. That all sounded great at the time, but none of these items are all that easy to use day after day (except the kale, which I can eat by the handful).

And as you may have noticed from the lack of posts, I've been dealing with trying to cook with these vegetables all week. I've already roasted beets for pasta (see previous post) and roasted a whole chicken on a bed of gorgeous red fall carrots, which made for a really full-flavored gravy. I've made crispy kale on multiple occasions, not to mention my old standby of super garlicky kale with heaps of spicy red pepper flake and a dash of cider vinegar. By the end of last week I hit a root vegetable wall, not quite sure what to do with what was left. The beets had finally reached a ridiculous size, coming in at almost the size of my head. The carrots weren't as large but I still had three bags worth piling up in the fridge. After doing a bit of searching I found a recipe for (how convenient!) beet and carrot latkes. After reading reviews of the recipe it was suggested by almost everyone that while the latkes themselves were good, they were even better accompanied by a spicy apple-jalapeño salsa. Absolutely loving latkes, I was sold.

The first thing I did do was change up almost all of the spices and serving sizes. I'm a big fan of reading the recipe reviews on any website or blog (which is why I appreciate every single comment I get here), and Epicurious is no different. It seemed unanimous that both recipes made an overwhelming amount of food, so I immediately cut the recipes down by a third. It was also mentioned that the beet latkes were a bit bland, so I added in some more spices. As for the carrot latkes, I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots and tend to get easily bored with them. But I love the way carrots are prepared at Indian restaurants, so I reduced the amount of ginger the recipe called for and threw in some curry powder (I only wish I'd had curry paste on hand) and a little cayenne for a spicy kick. I didn't change the salsa one bit, as it sounded like a simple stunner of a recipe (and it was). One thing I wish I'd done differently is to have used my food processor to shred the beets and carrots instead of doing it by hand on my cheese grater. While the recipe didn't take too long to prepare, the whole thing would have come together in under 45 minutes had I taken a little technological help. Here's what I finally came up with, but if you'd like to feed an army, the original recipes can be found here and here, as they appeared originally in Bon Appétit and Gourmet respectively.

Curried Carrot Latkes
adapted from Gourmet

3 cups coarsely grated carrots
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
canola or vegetable oil for frying

Place carrots in a large bowl; press with paper towels to absorb any moisture. In another large bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and pepper to blend. Mix in carrots, ginger, curry and cayenne, followed by the egg.

Heat enough oil in a large skillet to coat the bottom. Working in batches and adding more oil as needed, drop carrot mixture by the heaping tablespoon into skillet and spread into discs. Fry until golden, about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer latkes to a paper towel covered plate to absorb excess oil. Serve with apple-jalapeño salsa and sour cream.


Spiced Beet Latkes
adapted from Bon Appétit

3 cups coarsely shredded peeled beets
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Place beets in large bowl; press with paper towels to absorb any moisture. In another large bowl, whisk flour and next 7 ingredients. Mix in beets, then the egg.

Heat enough oil in a large skillet to coat the bottom. Working in batches and adding more oil as needed, drop beet mixture by the heaping tablespoon into skillet and spread into discs. Fry until golden, about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer latkes to a paper towel covered plate to absorb excess oil. Serve with apple-jalapeño salsa and sour cream.


Apple, Green Onion and Jalapeño Salsa
adapted from Bon Appétit

1 1/2 pounds Fuji apples (about 3 large), peeled, halved, cored
1/2 cup minced green onions
2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño chiles
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
4 teaspoons lemon zest

Finely dice apples and transfer to a bowl. Whisk lemon juice, honey, and lemon zest in small bowl to blend; mix into apples. Season salsa to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and chill until ready to serve with latkes. Enjoy!

-Laura

A Latke Fun

When I was a kid, I used to get in trouble in school. It was never for being bad, or insubordinate, or for not doing my work. I got into trouble because I had too much time on my hands. You see, I loved school because I loved to learn--I always have. I'm a nerd at heart that loves to read, so I'd tear through the books we were assigned, always reading ahead and finishing all of my dittos early (remember those?). I would almost always run out of work to do during class, having usually finished my schoolwork for the whole week by Wednesday. My problems started when I would run out of work to do and start talking to my classmates. According to my teachers I was a distraction to the other children that were trying to finish their work, but what was I supposed to do?

It wasn't until the third grade when I was placed in Ms. Krauss's class that I got the answer. Instead of scolding me or punishing me when I'd done all the work I could, Ms. Krauss suggested that I write things down instead of chatting with my neighbor. She said that I could write a story, a letter, a poem, anything I wanted, so long as I didn't distract the people around me. I really took to writing and spent all of the free time I had reading and writing stories. My desk at school and my room at home were littered with composition books, and when I got older our house was always noisy with the sound of me at the typewriter.

But Ms. Krauss did more than just instill a love of writing in me. She also introduced me to the food that she made for her family to celebrate Chanukah. Among what she showed the class to make were latkes, a treat that I've loved and often made ever since she showed me how. I love any kind of pancake, but one made of potatoes is pure perfection. I didn't make the traditional latkes that I've always made, I actually started out with a recipe from Everyday Italian for Parmesan latkes and then totally changed it (big surprise). I kept the toppings traditional with sour cream and apple sauce, but changed the spice from Giada's basil, to one of my favorites, sage, because I love using it in the fall and winter.

Latkes are a really nice dish to make whether you're celebrating the holiday or not. I make them year round, which is not surprising since they're really a lot like a tortilla española without the egg. I loved the idea of making one big one and cutting it into little sour cream topped triangles, so I did take that from Giada's recipe. I think next time I'll play with adding in something like chorizo, or maybe a really delicious veggie. If I can bring myself to, I may tweak the toppings, but some things are sacred and I love the play between the slightly tart sour cream and sweet apple sauce. But until the next time, I'd like to dedicate this post to Ms. Krauss for believing that I could be much more than just a chatterbox. So, Chanuka Sameach everybody! Here's how to make the latke pictured above:

Parmesan Latke

2 large Yukon gold potatoes, grated
1/2 a large onion or 1 small onion, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp ground sage or 1/2 cup chopped fresh sage
5 Tbsp olive oil

1. Warm 3 Tbsp of olive oil on medium-high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and cook until fragrant.

2. Meanwhile, squeeze any extra water out of the grated potatoes (you can do this in a paper towel or kitchen towel) and add them to the pan along with the cheese, sage and more salt and pepper. Make sure everything is well incorporated.

3. Using a spatula, press the mixture down into the pan so it's evenly distributed. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the bottom of the mixture is golden brown and easily moves in the pan (about 12 minutes).

4. Flip the pancake over (I just flipped it in the air, but I have a lot of practice) by lowering the heat and placing a heatsafe plate over the pancake and flipping it out of the pan. Add the remaining oil to the pan along with the pancake, uncooked side down. Turn the heat back up to high and cook until golden brown (another 12 minutes). Slide it out onto a platter and serve. Enjoy!

-Laura