For Hanukkah: Latkes

Tonight is the last night of Hanukkah, so it's not too late for me to post at least one Hanukkah recipe: latkes, or potato pancakes. This is based off my family's recipe we've been using every year, and it's the kind I made two batches of last night for the preschoolers and kindergarteners at the school where I work. They are traditionally served with apple sauce or sour cream. Fun to make, and fun to eat :).

Apple Latkes

Makes at least 3 dozen small latkes.

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes

1/2 cup matzo meal
1-2 apples

2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 eggs

Olive oil or corn oil for frying

Instructions: 

1. Peel potatoes and cut into fourths, setting pieces in a medium bowl of water as you go.
2. Grate potatoes or shred them through a food processor.
3. Peel and chop apples into small pieces, and put them in a small bowl.

4. In another bowl, combine matzo meal, salt, pepper, and eggs. 

5. Add shredded potatoes and diced apple into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix all together until thoroughly combined.
6. Preheat some oil in a frying pan over the stove.
7. Fry ice cream scoop size amounts of latke batter in the pan, flattening out a bit with a spoon.
8. Let the latke fry on one side for at least 2-3 minutes, then flip it over for the same amount of time.
9. As each latke is finished frying, place it in a pan lined with paper towels for each layer to soak up the oil. You can fit at least 6 latkes in one layer.

The story behind latkes is that they were a quick meal for the Maccabees (Jewish soldiers) to fry up and take with them before they went out to battle Antiochus's army, their cruel ruler who would not let them practice their religion. The oil is significant in that the miracle of Hanukkah was a limited amount of oil lasting for eight whole days, enough time for the Jewish people to rebuild their temple destroyed in wartime.

Persimmon Cookies: A New Tradition

 My dad is really into persimmons right now. For him, they symbolize the bounty of the harvest. He has this friend who has a persimmon tree and lets him take all the persimmons he wants, so we have a whole bunch of persimmons at our house... some ripe, some still ripening. From off the tree, it takes a persimmon about 4-5 days to completely ripen. I'm still getting used to it.

One way we've been using them is to make persimmon cookies. I would liken them to ginger cookies, with a nice bit of spice to them and a soft yet not overly doughy texture. We've already made two batches, and tonight is the third batch. :)

Persimmon Cookies

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients: 

2 ripe persimmons

1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Cut and peel 2 persimmons, enough to produce a cup pureed.
2. Puree in blender until smooth.
3. Microwave butter about 15-20 seconds, until it is very soft and melting a bit.
4. Beat persimmon puree, baking soda, sugar and butter until combined and smooth.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and spices.
6. Crack egg and drop into liquid mixture.
7. Mix powdered ingredients into liquid mixture little by little on low setting.
8. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

Travels

My weekend in San Francisco was fun! As it turns out, it was really more a visit just to the bay area in general, because I also spent some time in Oakland and Berkeley. There are two particular places I visited that I wanted to share.

1. Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, Oakland

This is a funky little diner that a couple friends of mine like to go to all the time. They took my other friend and I there and we ordered different things... all of which were amazing. The guys ordered burgers, and us two girls ordered breakfast-- for dinner. My friend had the challah french toast-- always excellent.

This is what I had.

It's a chicken pesto omelette with provolone. Hidden behind that delectable egg covering lies pure magic, I assure you. I never would have thought of such a combination, but it's one of their weekend specials. It was the perfect mix of breakfast and dinnery. Add the english muffin and generous hash browns, and it's a perfect meal!

Afterwards....

2. Almare, Berkeley

Because who can resist gelato, right? It's the perfect dessert between ice cream and frozen yogurt-- brilliant flavor packed in every delectable bite, and so smooth and creamy.

I got the tiramisu flavor. Tiramisu gelato-- how amazing is that? It tasted just like tiramisu in non-cake form. Other awesome flavors they had: lemon, oreo, melon, strawberry, vanilla, rum, and multiple varieties of chocolate. No wonder my friends frequent this place as a special treat :)

Needless to say, this one night was my favorite part of the whole vacation. At the end of the night, we went home and I made tasty spiced cider for everyone, too. Happy times, indeed.

Great Foods I've Enjoyed

Ok, so I don't have a second recipe for this month... but I am posting to share some pictures of food I've had at restaurants that I enjoyed, or stuff I've made that just doesn't have a particularly important recipe.

 

Chocolate crepe with strawberries and chocolate syrup :). Just made this for fun. 

Boba Thai tea from a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose. Very refreshing.

 Seasoned Belgian fries from Bel Frites in San Luis Obispo. Fancy and fun :)

I'm going to San Francisco this weekend... surely more delicious food awaits me. I'll take pictures, hopefully I'll get to enjoy some dim sum. :)

Fancy Skewers

I was up late one night a few nights ago unable to sleep, and an idea for skewers came to me.... take some of the fanciest non-exotic things you can think of and arrange them in a skewer. Prosciutto wrapped asparagus. That's pretty fancy, isn't it? What else goes with asparagus? Shrimp. Squash. Drizzle some raspberry vinaigrette dressing ontop and sprinkle them with some cinnamon, and you've got yourself some pretty fancy skewers. Serve with some focaccia bread, and you've got yourself a nice little meal.

Fancy Skewers

Serves 3 (two skewers each).

Ingredients:

One medium sized yellow squash, cut up into slices and fourths
Seven stalks of asparagus, sliced up into moderately small pieces.
~Three slices thinly sliced prosciutto
One third of a bag frozen medium sized shrimp, thawed
Raspberry vinaigrette dressing, to taste
~One tablespoon cinnamon 

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Thread the squash, asparagus (wrapped and unwrapped with prosciutto pieces for variation), shrimp and squash pieces onto six wooden skewers in any order/pattern you wish.

3. Place skewers onto a large foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle raspberry vinaigrette dressing ontop.

4. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

5. Cook for about 15 minutes, so vegetables will be tender yet still crisp.

Even my grandpa said these were a "nice treat," so I'm pretty happy with myself :)

Party Time Cupcakes

I made some cupcakes a couple weeks ago or so, because I was craving something sweet and chocolatey and I hadn't baked for about a week since that's how long I'd been on vacation and didn't have access to an oven. Chocolate cake, vanilla frosting and... this is a surprise... pixy stick powder ontop of the frosting. Might sound a little crazy, but it was actually really good. It gave the cupcakes a wild burst of color and a flavor that really wakes up your taste buds. Top it off with a cherry and you've got cupcakes pretty enough to bring to a party, or even just to enjoy by yourself on a night in.

Party Time Cupcakes

  Makes at least 20 cupcakes

Cake Recipe: courtesy of Une-deux Senses : Black Magic Cake

Frosting: any basic buttercream will do, or even storebought vanilla frosting if you want to save time and don't have a lot of butter/etc.
Several pixy stix- variety
Sprinkles
Small jar of cherries.

Instructions: 

1. Bake the cupcakes as per the instructions.
2. Wait about 15 minutes for them to cool.
3. Frost them thickly with the frosting, making a well in the center for the cherry.
4. Pour different flavored pixy stick powder around the frosting in a circle- one stick per cupcake, or mix and match colors.

5. Sprinkle on the sprinkles.
6. Enjoy, and refrigerate covered the ones you don't finish.

So this is kind of a lazy post, the cake mix was fantastic but you could really use any kind of cake mix you want-- even a box mix. The main thing for me was the fun, luxuriously thick, tart, sweet frosting.... and I hadn't made cupcakes in a while.

Jen's Favorite Breakfast Burrito

I used to work at a gourmet bistro here in my hometown called Coffee Diem. I loved the food there, especially the breakfast burritos. Of course, I learned how to make these breakfast burritos and enjoyed them at home, too. Here is a variation on the kind of breakfast burritos I used to make there-- hearty, yet simple.

Jen's Favorite Breakfast Burrito

Makes 3 burritos

Ingredients:

3 average size tortillas

4 eggs

~1/2 cup salsa

18 tater tots

About 1 cup chopped leftover tri-tip or other meat on hand

~3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven at 450; when it's done preheating, put tater tots in the oven in a pan/tray lined with foil and set timer for 18 minutes.

2. After tater tots have been cooking for about 10 minutes, scramble and cook eggs over stovetop.

3. When eggs and tater tots are done, heat up three tortillas in a microwave for 30 seconds.

4. Lay tortillas out on 3 plates, and on each tortilla, divide up evenly the eggs, salsa, tater tots (6 each), tri tip/meat, and cheese. 

5. Fold up tortillas into burritos.

6. If serving immediately, reheat the burritos in the microwave for 30 more seconds. Then cut in half, separate halves at an angle, and enjoy.

7. If not serving some of them or finishing them later, wrap them up in foil and refrigerate.