relish.com features foodfix: food bloggers we love

I was pleasantly surprised and proud to be selected by relish.com, to be the subject of a feature article and slideshow that appeared the week before Christmas on the site. I’m officially now one of relish.com’s “Food Bloggers We Love” and my 10 holiday recipes that I posted back before Thanksgiving are featured as a cool slideshow with my photography for each recipe.

Relish is a print magazine supplement in Sunday papers throughout the country that is all about “America’s Love of Food”,  and it’s web presence at relish.com is a wonderful resource for recipes for all occasions, including everyday dinner! I’m happy to be a part of the relish family. I hope you’ll take a moment to click through and check out the feature! This was a great Christmas present to me and I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come in 2012. Cooking, is after all, about sharing the fruits of your labors, and the more people I can reach with my food, my photos and my passion, the more fun it will be!

Thank you to all my readers and visitors for your support and feedback…I am grateful for the opportunity to enter your life and your kitchen and get you to stir things up! I hope you will all continue to read and share FoodFix and to keep on cooking in the new year! Wishing you all the sweet ingredients of success, happiness and health in 2012!

big fluffy potato pancakes

Since Chanuka is a time for recounting miracles, let me boldly say this: Latkes can be light and fluffy and never turn leaden, greasy and grey . “Bah, humbug!” I can hear you hurumphing even though it’s a phrase you don’t often associate with this holiday. But have faith! If you can believe the story about the oil in the eternal lamp that lasted 8 nights instead of 1, you can give me the Chanuka benefit-of-the-doubt and imagine a potato pancake that is so simple to make, with results that are so consistently light, fluffy and transcendent, it will give you a whole new reason to celebrate! And later I’ll tell you about another miracle that happened when I made these while competing on Food Network’s Chopped.

To me, the fact that the lowly spud can be transformed into the golden crispy goodness of finished latkes is a magical miracle in itself.

As with all leaps of faith, you must throw away your pre-conceived notions about life, love and latkes. You must, well, leap! S0 don’t bring out your grater, my friends. Don’t begin to panic because you know from experience how once grated, those potatoes begin to turn purple-y grey and you have to work quickly against the evil oxidation devil transforming your lovely pale latkes into hockey pucks from heck. No, you need not worry about any of that. Just peel and rough chop the potatoes and some onion and get out the blender.

In batches, you will simply puree the RAW potato and onion, adding water to help the process along. I don’t know why, and this is part of the miracle of THE BIG FLUFFY LATKE, I suppose, but once pureed, this mixture does not oxidize, no matter how long I’ve had it sitting out. Maybe it’s the air incorporated into it by the blender, maybe it’s the raw onion enzymes, or maybe it’s just one of those grand mysteries of our existence that makes this time of year so special!

Once pureed, strain as much of the water content out as you can, with a fine, mesh strainer. Salt, pepper, flour, corn meal, baking powder and an egg later, you will have this batter.

Before taping my episode of Chopped, (It has not aired yet. You have not missed it.) I practiced for 3 months, recipes that I could do, start-to-finish, in under 20-30 minutes…recipes that could be vehicles for other, more mysterious ingredients if necessary, and this recipe was one I honed down and perfected for speed and “wow” factor. I knew they would puff up and be impressive. The miracle of that day is that, nerves or my partial age-related blindness (even though I had my reading glasses on), prevented me from finding the baking powder! But despite having to plow ahead without it, these little babies came out pretty darn fluffy and impressive anyway. Was it the air incorporated in the blender? Was it the egg alone? I’m sure Harold McGee could explain it. The judges and Ted Allen were intrigued by it.  I chalk it up to another Chanuka miracle. That’s all I can say about that. You’ll have to wait until NEXT YEAR this time to see the actual results of my LATKE miracle. In the meantime, make some of these when you have 30 minutes and you’ll find yourself a believer! (Yes, that is the Spiced Apple Butter there on the side.)

 

Big Fluffy Potato Pancakes

Makes 12-14

INGREDIENTS

3 large potatoes, ( 1-1/2 lb) peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
egg, beaten
¾  cup all purpose flour
¼ cup medium grind yellow corn meal
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt, freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup high-heat vegetable oil, for frying, add more if needed

PROCEDURE

1. (This is an optional step to mellow the raw onion flavor in the pancake batter. If you don’t mind stronger onion flavor you can omit this step and simply puree the raw onion in with the potatoes, making the recipe even faster and easier!) In a small skillet, heat 1tablespoon olive oil and sauté onions until they are translucent and soft, but not browned, 3-5 minutes. Remove onions to a bowl and cool slightly.

2. Place half of the potatoes, and half the onion in blender; add enough water to cover and blend until finely grated. Drain mixture through a fine sieve, using a wooden spoon or the bottom of a ladle to press the mixture a bit and push excess liquid through; transfer drained mixture to large bowl. Repeat with remaining potatoes; add to bowl. Mix in egg, flour, baking powder and salt. You want a the consistency of this mixture to be like a thick batter, or like applesauce. If it appears too watery, then you may need to add a little more flour to firm it up.

3. Prepare a cooling rack, sheet pan or platter by lining it with paper towels for draining the finished latkes. Alternately, you can preheat your oven to 225 degrees and as the latkes are done frying, you can hold them in a warmed oven until they are all finished.

4. Heat a heavy skillet or cast iron pan until medium hot, then heat enough oil in the pan to cover bottom of pan (a ¼ inch or so). The key to creating a non-stick surface with a skillet like this is to make sure the pan is hot, and then the oil is also hot before introducing the batter. When the oil is “shimmering” Add ¼ cup potato mixture per latke, leaving at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) between each; tap lightly on top of each latke with a spatula to flatten a bit. You don’t want the oil so hot that the outside browns too quickly, leaving the fluffy inside raw…so  keep your oil over medium/high heat and adjust so that pancakes can brown for 2-3 minutes per side without burning so the middle can cook too. Alternately, you don’t want the oil too cool, or the pancake will soak up too much oil. (Between 340-350 degrees is about right, if you have an oil thermometer…if you don’t…toss a kernel of unpopped popcorn into the oil while it’s heating up…when the corn pops…the oil is approximately 350 degrees!)

5. Fry the latkes, in batches and adding more oil as needed, (and making sure the oil gets hot again each time you add some) until bottoms are golden and edges are crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn over and fry until golden, about 3 minutes longer. Drain on paper towel–lined racks. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 8 hours; reheat on rimmed baking sheets in 400°F/200°C oven, about 5-8 minutes.) Serve with apple sauce, Spiced Apple Butter, or sour cream.

This recipe was also posted as part of a “Holiday Menus” feature on Good Morning America’s website.

Deep Dish Spanikopita

If the above photo looks like golden cobblestones on the highway to heaven, then you and I are on the same page. Lucky for us this is not masonry at all, but Spanikopita, and it is addictive, edible, easy-to-make, and incredibly delicious as a bring-along to a holiday potluck dinner or brunch, as a main course served with a salad,  or as a wonderful side dish for just about anything. I included this recipe as part of a Modern Chanuka Menu that I taught the other night for a fun group of 22 ladies at Congregation B’nai Israel in Basking Ridge, NJ. My reasoning, the basis in historical fact somewhat debated by my students at CBI, for including a Greek recipe on a Chanuka menu, was that the Maccabees (the Hebrews doing battle in the Chanuka story) were Greek! Or at least they lived in ancient Greece. Or at least they fought the Greeks. Whatever! There is a Greek connection somewhere in that story and that is a good enough excuse for me to make this wonderful dish and share with you right before the holidays.

Now, Spanikopita is usually made as individual, triangle-shaped pies, but making them in a deep-dish vessel makes it less labor-intensive and less dough-heavy per portion so those are two other admirable justifications for making this recipe! Less Work and Fewer Calories!? Now, that is a Chanuka miracle if I ever heard one!

This is not a damp newspaper I’ve set out to dry. It’s phyllo dough. Let me just reassure you that, YES, it is extremely fragile, YES it will tear and fall apart when you work with it, NO, you cannot make the layers perfect unbroken sheets, no matter how good you are. So you can relax. Phyllo is actually pretty forgiving. Even if you don’t make perfect, seamless layers because it’s falling apart on you, or it cracked when you defrosted it and unrolled it, once it’s scored, baked and browned it will still look pretty amazing….and it is part of the nature of this pastry that it crumbles and flakes.

Nutmeg. Spinach. Feta. Parmesan. Pine Nuts. Eggs.

Layered between butter and oil slathered phyllo. Score it and bake it. Voila! Crispy, veggie, cheesey, briny, buttery, lovely.

Deep Dish Spanakopita
(serves 6-8)

INGREDIENTS

2 small onions, finely chopped
by hand or in a small processor
20-25 pitted calamata olives, finely chopped by hand or in a small processor
2T olive oil
2t salt
1 ½ teaspoon pepper
3 packages frozen spinach (10oz), de-thawed, drained and squeezed of all liquid
6 large eggs
2t nutmeg, grated
½ cup Parmesan, grated
3 tablespoons Panko bread crumbs
8 ounces feta, broken into 1/4″ cubes
(farmer’s cheese or drained cottage cheese, low-cost substitute)
½ cup pine nuts
(walnuts are a lower cost substitute)
½ cup melted butter, or as much as needed to brush phylo.
(You will need a pastry brush).
1 pkg of phyllo dough, defrosted, unrolled and held on a sheet pan under a damp towel

PROCEDURE;

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Heat a large sauté pan to medium and add olive oil and onions. Sauté for about 10-15 minutes until soft and beginning to brown. Add chopped olives and sauté for another 1-2 minutes. Let cool slightly.

2. In a large bowl add spinach (you can also use blanched, chopped kale,or chard) Parmesan, nutmeg, bread crumbs, feta, pine nuts and onions and combine gently. Add salt and pepper to taste (olives and feta are salty, so do taste before adding salt.) Once seasoning is adjusted to taste, add eggs. Mix gently until fully combined.

3. To work with the Phylo: The sheets will be larger than your pan, so you must trim them to fit. Separate 12-15 sheets of the phylo from the pile and place on surface you can cut on. Gently place your inverted 9×13 pan over the pile of sheets (over to one corner, so you only have to cut 3 sides) and cut them to the size of the pan. Keep sheets you are not immediately working with covered with a damp cloth at all times or they will quickly dry out and be brittle.

4. Butter your 9 by 13 inch baking pan, and spread 1-2 sheet of filo, using a pastry brush to coat evently with butter, (top side only) as you go. Repeat this with a total of 6 sheets. Spoon the spinach filling over this layer of 6 phylo, then cover with 6 more sheets, buttering each sheet as you go again. Score the top 3 sheets with a sharp knife to outline how you will want to portion it when it is done (I like doing the scoring on a diagonal, starting in one corner, then spacing my cuts 2-3 inches apart, down the pan, then doing the same on the opposite end, criss-crossing back, so you end up with “diamond” pieces). Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until top is golden, let stand 15 minutes, then cut into squares and serve warm.

 

spiced apple butter

I know a woman who takes a week off from work each December and bakes over 5000 cookies to give away as gifts. She’s a Christmas Cookie Warrior.  In fact, I’m trying to arrange spending some time with her during that confection-a-thon to learn a few recipes and document the whole legendary and impressive process for myself (which I will, of course share here). Me? I’m making apple butter to give away, adapted from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc, because, and I know this seems impossible coming from Thomas Keller, it’s so damn easy.  But, as expected from Thomas Keller, it is so damn delicious. I’m not just saying this because Keller is my son’s boss and owner/executive chef of Per Se in NYC, (French Laundry, Bouchon, Ad Hoc too). I had a chef-crush (a non-romantic, culinary-based admiration, if you don’t mind!) on him way back when my son was in culinary school. Pictured here in 2009 on the campus of Culinary Institute of America, I am an unabashed fan, waiting with a dumb smile on my face, for Chef Keller to autograph my just-purchased copy of Ad Hoc. My son, is off hiding somewhere, hoping I won’t embarrass him in front of the chef he hoped, back then, would be his future boss. See, Max, even my ridiculous obsessed-fan smile did not ruin your prospects!

Back to the apple butter. Keller’s recipe couldn’t be easier. It’s all done in a slow cooker! You don’t even have to peel or core the apples!

If you don’t want to take the 8-10 hours needed to finish this in a slow cooker, you can do it on the stove top, as I did, in about an hour and a half, but you will need a food mill, either way you go. I take that back. If you don’t have a food mill, you can peel and core the apples before cooking them, and when they are soft from the first round of cooking, you can simply break them down to a “sauce” consistency in a food processor or blender.

Keller’s math on sugar content is “1 cup for every  2 cups of finished apple puree” but I cut that in half for a tarter, but plenty sweet, final product. You decide for yourself.

Add a mix of wonderful spices that will make your house smell like Christmas, (or Chanuka, because can you imagine how incredible this would taste on potato pancakes?), then a full cup of Champagne vinegar gives it that sophisticated sweet-sour gastrique quality, a little lemon zest and juice and the patience to reduce the liquid out of it to get a “thicker than applesauce but not as thick as jam” consistency.  Then it’s ready for the jars, which you can can or not can. If you choose to can them so they don’t have to be refrigerated, and last for up to a year in the pantry,  just follow strict directions for proper canning because ptomaine poisoning is not on the list of happy holiday gifts! And if you don’t go through that process, please let your friends and family know that the butter does have to be refrigerated and will last about a month that way.

If you can’t take a week off from work to make cookies, but love the idea of giving a little homemade, edible love for the holidays just the same, (or just want some for yourself to slather over Big Fluffy Potato Pancakes on Chanuka or buttery toast or waffles on Christmas morning), go ahead and make some. It’s Thomas Keller, after all….and it’s easy!

 

Slow Cooker Spice Apple Butter
Adapted from Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller

Makes about 4 cups

INGREDIENTS

4 lbs sweet, crisp apples (Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Gravenstein, Golden Delicious or Fuji or a combination of two different kinds)
1 cup champagne vinegar
2 cups water
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
Grated zest and juice of one lemon

PROCEDURE

1. Heat a slow cooker to high. Remove apple stems and cut the apples, including the cores, into 1-inch-wide wedges. Put the apples in the slow cooker, add the vinegar and water, cover, and cook for 2 ½ to 3 hours, stirring every hour until the apples are soft enough to puree through a food mill.

2. Set a food mill with a medium screen over a large bowl and puree the apples. Discard solids that don’t pass through, like skin and seeds. Measure how much puree you ended up with. You should have about 8 cups. Thomas Keller recommends using 1 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of puree. I think this is very sweet, so I use half that much, but you can sweeten to your own tastes.

3. Stir in sugar, and remaining ingredients to the puree, and return the mixture to the slow cooker, and continue to cook uncovered for another 3-4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so, until the apple butter is thicker than applesauce, but not as thick as a jam.

4. Spoon butter into jars or other storage containers, cover and let cool. Refrigerate or you may “can” these according to safe canning procedures to store unrefrigerated.

Quick Stovetop Version: Alternately, this recipe can be made on the stove top in much less time.  Use a heavy pot over medium heat, cooking the apples for a shorter period of time….or until the apples are soft enough to pass through a food mill in the first section, and then until the puree is thick in the second section. The benefit of using the slow cooker is that you don’t have to be attending the pot as much as you do if it’s on a flame. If you do this stovetop, you must stir more often to prevent burning and to encorage even cooking.

Need an even quicker version? Don’t tell Chef Keller, but you can: warm 1 cup of water in a large saucepan, dissolve 2 ½ cups of sugar in the water. Take 8 cups of prepared applesauce (organic, unsweetened)  and process in blender for 1 minute or until very smooth in texture. Place into saucespan with water/sugar mixture. Add spices, vinegar, lemon zest and lemon juice and simmer on medium heat until most of the moisture has evaporated and the sauce has thickened to be thicker than an applesauce, but a little thinner than a jam.

 

 


 

Roasted Beet, Feta, Olive Salad

If your experience of beets is limited to those sad canned specimens, the ghoulish and rubbery machine-cut rounds that have been boiled to death and locked up in the dark, floating in a metallic brine, only to be released onto salad bars and hospital trays across America, then I wouldn’t blame you for not being a “beet person”. On behalf of beets everywhere, I implore you to take some of these beauties home from the market and roast them yourself. Don’t be surprised if you find that you’ve suddenly become “upbeet” and in fact, start doing little dances of joy when you see them piled up at the store, as I did this past week.

I was craving something light. Something bright and clean after all the glorious heaviness of Thanksgiving, and this salad just hit every note that I love in a dish: freshness, color, crunch, acid, salt, natural sweetness, and fat. Eating this I was thinking: I could have this everyday and never tire of it. Everything about it was pleasing and nourishing and satisfying. It could be a meal in itself, or a starter for a larger meal…it could accompany a soup, a sandwich, a pizza, some crusty bread with more olive oil to dip into. The main thing is: roast some beets. Roast some of these gorgeous golden ones, or the mellow yellow ones, or even the work-a-day red ones, but go ahead and bring some of them home and see for yourself how a simple cooking technique brings out the best in these long-maligned roots. They will pay you back for your attention by giving you a sweet result, that is very high in iron, vitamin C and potassium.

Cut off the stems and leaves, and give them a good wash and brush. They will be quite gritty. No, they do not look pretty. But just show them a little love and you’ll see how they’ll transform for you. Drizzle them with some fine olive oil, salt and pepper, wrap them up in a foil pouch and let them basque in the warmth of your oven for a good hour or so.

See? It’s all about inner beauty with these. You didn’t know that beets could teach you so much, did you? I think the saying goes “Don’t judge a beet by it’s cover.”

Peel the beets…the skin just washes off under running water, with a little light rubbing. Whisk up a quick vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Crumble a good sheep’s milk feta, or some goat cheese, and add a few good briny olives, like calamata’s.

Quarter a few of the gorgeous beets, and bring this happy family of flavors all together on a bed of mixed greens and romain. Drizzle with dressing and find a sunny spot in your home to sit and savor this. When you close your eyes and taste the salty-creamy-acidy-crispy-sweetness of this salad, and feel the sun on your face, you can pretend you are somewhere overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean, with white-washed villas rising up the hills behind you. Yes, a roasted beet can do all that for you. Trust me.

 

Greek Salad with Roasted Beets, Olives, and Feta
adapted from Home Cooking with Jean-Georges, Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 medium beets (gold, red, or candy-striped, or a mix of each)
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup minced red onion (optional, if you are like me and don’t like raw onions)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes, or minced fresh Thai chile
6 celery heart stalks, sliced 1/2 inch thick length wise, then chopped into bite-sized chunks
Celery leaves for garnish
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I prefer feta made from sheep’s milk), or goat cheese
1/2 cup pitted olives (calamata or nicoise or a mix)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, thinly sliced (or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano)
4 cups of mixed greens, and torn romaine leaves

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Clean the beets, cutting off the stems, leaves and trimming the root side to create a flat surface. Arrange the beets on a large sheet of foil, on top of a sheet pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then season with salt and pepper. Wrap tightly and roast in the oven until a knife pierces through the beets easily, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Unwrap, and when cool enough to handle, peel the beets under running water by rubbing the skin gently with your fingers. Cut beets into 1 inch wedges.

2. Whisk together the vinegar, remaining olive oil, the onion, chile, and 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) of salt.

3. Place the greens, romaine and celery in a large bowl. Drizzle with part of the dressing and toss, until coated. Divide among 4 plates. Evenly distribute the feta, olives and beet wedges among the 4 plates. Top with celery leaves and drizzle more dressing over the beets and cheese. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve immediately.