Maple-Baked Salmon

A most appetizing dish (mine looks even better than the NYT photo!) pictured here with Greek Lemon Potatoes

Living as close as we do to the Atlantic Ocean, seafood is a perennial favorite of ours. Living in New England also makes us big fans of maple syrup. What choice did I have than to make this? From the New York Times Cooking pages Maple-Baked Salmon was a crowd-pleaser (the crowd in this case being me and James). We also are big fans of cilantro (which I know for some is a non-starter). We loved all the flavors and will definitely make again.

FTE Air-Fryer Potato Wedges

Note: This is one of those long posts that people who do not like cooking blogs like to complain about. Read from the bottom up if you only want the recipe. But stories are what makes civilizations, so ...

So we accidentally ended up being air-fryer people. We cook a lot, as readers of this blog know. And since we often try new things, we are tempted by all kinds of cooking tools (aka gadgets). But we are also relatively frugal and can envision just about anything we buy landing up at a yardsale, landfill, or ocean plastic patch. As quick as we are to try a new recipe, we are slow to try new equipment.

We've been hearing about air fryers -- because how could we not -- for a few years, and had only the vaguest notion of what they are. We had heard some encouraging testimonials, but not enough to spur us to serious research.

And then the electric range at our weekend place died. Well, it did not die completely, but it was in need of enough serious repair that we decided to put it out to electronic pasture. Somewhere, it is probably refurbished and serving someone else just fine.

As food snobs, we had thought we would need to "upgrade" to natural gas when replacing this range, especially since we are in the process of making this weekend place our retirement place. 

But the house has a surplus of solar power and natural gas is a bridge to nowhere. So we decided to invest in an electric oven as -- we hope -- our last oven purchase.

Following advice from friends, we located an independent appliance dealer (one we used for years ended when its owners retired, and big-box is not the way to to go for these big boxes).

We found the folks at Yale Appliance to be excellent, allowing us to select an oven through consultation with a knowledgeable salesperson by smartphone and to schedule delivery quickly and conveniently. The crew who brought the stove were amazing -- while two of them removed the old range, the third team member readied the new unit. They had it installed, leveled, and tested within minutes.

After choosing what we thought was a fairly basic model, we of course learned of its features. They include WiFi (that's a hard "no" Hal), two kinds of convection and air frying. Everything we read about air frying is that it is a kind of convection, so we are still not quite sure what makes it "frying" rather than "really even cooking" but it seems to be just a matter of degree.

Further research suggested that one other distinction is that we could not "air fry" something unless it was suspended in the air; that is, we needed some sort of basket. Between the two of us, we have worked at the Big Three frying places (McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King -- we have tales to tell), so we know what a fryer basket is. An air fryer basket is much different -- called a "crisper tray," it looks something like a little dish rack. I spent way too much time reading reviews because I could not really envision how this would work. We were already $1500 into this project, though, so I plunked down another $30 to see for myself.

Pretty confident that none of our printed cookbooks would address this topic -- all of them being published more than 5 minutes ago -- I turned to AllRecipes, which regular readers know as one of our favorite places for food advice on the Interwebs. I found a 5-star recipe with the perfect title for my first time frying air: Air Fryer Potato Wedges provides guidance on cutting, coating, and cooking potatoes. 

My approach differed slightly from the recipe -- because some sources cautioned against using oil at all, I decided to combine oil and spices in a bowl and dredge the wedges in that paste. Kitchen tongs made this much less messy than it might have been. 

Because I was preparing this for Pamela to do while I was rowing, I thought that some of that oil might drip onto the tray. So I placed paper towels between the basket and the tray, to be removed when these were ready to cook. Pam did the honors -- cooking an uncrowded trayfull for 20 minutes at 400F. She did not interrupt for turning, as that is the whole point of the rapid air movement.

These turned out PERFECT. A very similar flavor to what I have been making for years -- very Old Bay-forward -- but with a much lighter texture. These were soft on the inside and crispity on the outside, with no heavy oiliness. Win-win-win!

Regarding the reviews for the tray: most were 4-5 stars, with some very interesting and angry 1-star reviews. I concluded that these were posted by people who did not read the directions about cooking and/or cleanup. Our results were terrific and the tray/basket combo cleaned up easily.

Birthday Scallops

Careful readers of this blog will know that on our birthdays, Hayes-Bohs get whatever they want for dinner and dessert. Or pretty close to it. They will also know that throughout the year, our culinary choices are increasingly influenced by the National Day Calendar. Pam's birthday dinner this year was a result of a confluence of these tendencies, though with a fairly flexible application of the calendar.

A couple weeks before the blessed event, Pam noticed that May 16 is National Coquilles Saint Jacques Day. Because it fell on a weekend this year and she noticed it ahead of time, we seriously thought about celebrating this heretofore unknown holiday on its actual date. But the recipe highlighted on the National Day site seemed a bit complicated and more worthy of a birthday celebration.

Bonus: waiting also meant that our visiting son could both be part of the celebration and part of the brain power needed to overcome one challenge we faced: this appetizer (or appetizer-as-meal in our case) is traditionally served on a scallop shell. I hoped our local fishmonger might have them -- as it is located in one of the world's premiere scallop-landing harbors -- but no such luck. Way too late in the planning, I realized that I could get scallop plates online. 

In progress but not in focus -- note
Harvey's skillful potato piping

Here is where our Harvey's creativity came in: the recipe calls for piping mashed potatoes around the edge of the shells, like icing at the edge of a cake. We could therefore use potatoes as the base of this appetizer. We essentially created a seafood version of twice-baked potatoes, following the recipe above to a tee, except that we began by slicing and partly baking potatoes, scooping them out, and then using that for an edge that our artist was able to create using his mad dexterity. He also rightly suggested brushing with olive oil and dusting with paprika before the broiling stage.

Grey-on-gray food made a bit more
photogenic by salad and cool nautical
pepper shaker

While I followed the rest of the recipe carefully in terms of ingredients, I did not do so in terms of sequence. I thought the sauce would take longer than the bouillon and the potatoes longer than either of these, so I did things in an awkward order this really complicated what should have been a very basic white sauce. If I follow this recipe again, I would still start the potatoes early, but I would complete the  bouillon starting the sauce.

Image: Holy Art

On May 16 next year, however, I will be prepared in two ways. First, I will have purchased the correct plates, harvested in the British Isles. Second, curious about the word "coquille" I found out that it means any appetizer of this sort involving a wine and cream sauce. I found several other recipes that do not involve potatoes, and I think they will be easier.  One of those recipes is in Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook, which also includes some remarkable information about the natural history of bay scallops. Incidentally, this was my first time cooking with bays -- I had always been intimidated.

DESSERT

We musn't forget dessert! Key lime pie is usually Pam's first choice and I have often managed to make a decent one including, apparently, in May 2017. (For the record, she has been to Key West just once; I have not yet gotten to any of the Florida Keys.)

For this year, however, enter another hero: we won a pair of key lime pies in our church auction, offered by McKayla, a fellow church member, my former student, and (most importantly for this post) a Florida native. Prepared and delivered with care the day before, it was PERFECT.

Lagniappe: That Saint

The adjectival form of James is Jacobian, and my name means "usurper" after Esau's greedy brother Jacob. So the conflation of Saint James and Saint Jacques are familiar to me. What was not familiar is the identity of St. James as the patron of scallopers -- he is sometimes depicted with shells around his neck and Crusaders sometimes adorned themselves with the shells as well. 

Huevos Rotos

This recipe comes from the New York Times Cooking page. It was super simple to make in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. Also filling and delicious. We will definitely be making this more often. 

photo from the New York Times

Pie in the time of Corona

Last Saturday was Pie (Pi) Day - 3.14. We had a bit of ground turkey left from when we made turkey burgers earlier in the week, so I told James I would start with that to make shepherd's pie. He didn't think it would really be enough, but I told him I could stretch it. He also seemed concerned because the turkey had apples and onions in it, but I couldn't see how the extra flavor would be a problem. He was prepared to make a grocery trip so I asked him to get some carrots and potatoes. He came back with carrots but said the produce section was completely wiped out of potatoes. We had six rather small ones on hand so again I decided I could stretch them. We also had 5 pieces of bacon so I started by cooking them and using them as a bottom "crust" for the pie. The filling was made with sauteéd onions and garlic, the cooked ground turkey, sliced carrots and peas. The potatoes were cooked and mashed for the topping. I baked everything at 375 for some amount of time. I don't remember. Anyway, it turned out good.

We are trying to be especially creative and thoughtful with our ingredients during this time of crisis. We did find an open farmer's market on Sunday. Not many people there (neither customers nor vendors) but we did buy some fresh vegetables to use in the coming week. We are both working from home this week. So far frustration levels are low to medium - having good food helps.

I recognize that the ability to put together meals when I have to make do with what is available is actually a privilege, and I am pleased to realize that over the nine plus years that we've been blogging about our cooking we have learned what flavors taste good together, what we like and don't like, and what we can tolerate.  It has made meal preparation one less thing to worry about.

St. Patrick's Day Shepherd's Pie

We are low-key celebrators of St. Patrick's Day. I (Pam) have some Irish heritage on my father's side, so we wear green, and admonish everyone to do the same. (Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!) We also eat an appropriate meal, generally one featuring potatoes. This year's repast was Shepherd's Pie made with a recipe from the New York Times Cooking Page. 

I started by peeling, cubing and boiling 3 large potatoes. While they cooked I peeled and diced 2 carrots, one onion, and 4 garlic cloves, and shredded a cup of cheddar cheese. 

When the potatoes were ready to mash I drained the water and put them back in the pot, and let them sit while I melted 6 tablespoons of butter and cooked with 1/2 cup of milk in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. Then I added the butter/milk mixture to the potatoes and mashed together, and then stirred in the shredded cheddar, along with a bit of salt and pepper. A taste test told me that this is a method I should use in the future for preparing mashed potatoes. They were way tastier than usual. The potatoes then waited while I prepared the rest of the dish.

The cast iron skillet was put back to work to sauteé the onions, garlic, and carrots in 2 tablespoons of butter. Once the onions were translucent I added a pound of ground beef and cooked until it was no longer pink. At this point the recipe calls for a can of tomato paste. I used some left over tomato sauce instead. It also calls for some beef stock, which I totally missed. So even though I saw it on the list of ingredients and had James buy some, it never made it into the dish. Finally, I added some rosemary leaves and thyme before spreading the mixture evenly across the skillet. This was topped with the mashed potatoes, and again spread evenly. The skillet then was placed in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes, at which point the potatoes were a lovely golden brown. I let the dish sit for 12 minutes before serving. This was divine. Wonderfully tasty, with a lot of texture. It made for lovely leftovers the next day as well.

Friend's Night In

While James was out of town earlier this month I had the chance to catch up with a friend whom I see a lot, but don't get to talk to as much as we'd like. I invited her for dinner and made a variation of  Cowboy Skillet  - a recipe I found on allrecipes.com when I searched for recipes with eggs, potatoes and sausage (three ingredients I had in abundance). The food was good. The company was charming, and the whole evening was simply hygge.  I really need to have friends over more often.

New Potato Salad

I see so many good recipes on my Facebook feed that I sometimes lose sight of the original intent of the "Nueva Receta" project - to make good use of my cookbooks. So I went old school with the bag of red-skinned potatoes I bought last week at the Fairhaven Farmer's Market and found a recipe on my cookbook shelf from Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet. I followed the recipe almost as presented. I didn't have any carrots so I skipped that, and I left the sugar out of the dressing. It just seemed unnecessary. As the recipe indicates this was quick to make. The yogurt made it especially creamy and it had a lot more flavor than what one expects in a potato salad. The caraway seeds really seemed to be the key.

Coq au Velouté

Note: The Hayes-Bohanans met in French class, when we were Hayes and Bohanan, respectively. Pam went on to some level of competence in the language while James was not a stellar student and was lucky he remembered to switch to the Pass?Fail option just before the deadline. We both gained a lot in the long run though, namely each other, as the New York Times has reported. All of which is to say that I can barely pronounce the title of this blog post, though I did prepare the dish.

Its more pedestrian title in the Tabasco Cookbook is Chicken Hash, but the rich sauce makes that seem like rather an unworthy label. It is a fairly basic hash, except that it is baked with a complicated sauce. In other words, it is a dish with relatively few ingredients that will use every dish in the kitchen.

A velouté sauce in the book is similar to Emeril's version, except that the good people of McIlhenny call for a bit of their pepper sauce and the use of TWO saucepans. The hash itself simply requires boiling and chopping a couple of chicken breasts and potatoes, and then adding them to sliced mushrooms, chopped onion and yellow bell pepper, and parsley cooked in butter. The velouté  is poured over this and baked.

The result was amazingly delicious for a chilly evening. Sadly, a week has passed by before I got a chance to write, so we are not exactly sure which Malbec we had with it!

Northern Hash

The best thing about being a teacher is what I gain from my students. Usually these gains are intangible -- lessons learned and the satisfaction of lessons taught. But sometimes my students bring small but tangible gifts, occasionally things I would never find on my own.

I have been especially fortunate this pre-holiday week, in which students have given me highball glasses etched as globes, a beer home-brewed from tea, a coffee-themed deck of playing cards, and a can of salmon caught and canned just this side of the Arctic circle at Naknek, Alaska (58°44′23″N; 156°58′18″W). Feel free to explore the map at the end of this post.

Each of these gifts comes with a story, in the case of the salmon, the student had been living in nearby King Salmon last summer, when she was taking my online class that included a lot of discussion of Carl Safina's writings on Alaska and other places at the front lines of climate change.

So this week I found this can of salmon perched (pun partly intended) on the doorknob of my office, with a note about its provenance, and this morning Pam helped me figure out what to do with it: hash. Seems to be hash season, so this did not take much convincing. Especially since we have had a very hectic week, and Pam identified leftovers that would work perfectly with this gift.

So when I got home today, I fired up the indispensable cast-iron skillet and got to work on a quick and delicious dinner.

First, I heated a generous dollop of olive oil in said pan while finely chopping one half of a white onion. I browned the onion on high heat with a generous sprinkling of black pepper and then added leftover diced, roasted potatoes (see below), and then stirred in the can of salmon. I cooked until crispy -- as Goddess intended hash to be -- and turned and cooked some more. Then I made two divots, placing an egg into each one. I covered the pan and lowered the heat, cooking until the whites were set and the yolks still soft.

This was delicious with bread, butter, and Pinot Noir.

Diced Roasted Potatoes

This is a staple in our house that I "invented" while we were in grad school. I often see commercial packages in the produce aisle that I think allow the purchaser to make an inferior version at greater expense. It goes with many kinds of other dishes, or if those grad-school paychecks are being stretched thin, it can be the main dish.

Quite simply, I pre-heat the oven to 425 and then dice a handful of potatoes (the number depending on the number of diners and the size of the potatoes, perhaps 3 small spuds per diner. I usually peel them, but not completely, leaving about half the skin on. I put the diced potatoes (about 1/2-inch cubes) into a casserole dish with a generous dollop (there it is again) of olive oil. I then add a large amount of paprika, oregano, black pepper, and perhaps a couple other herbs. I roast until it reaches desired crispness, stirring and scraping occasionally. We sometimes serve this with sour cream or plain yogurt.

Usually, there are no leftovers, regardless of how much I've made. But today there was just enough for some perfect hash.

Indian-Spiced Tomato and Egg Casserole

Another winning recipe from the New York Times. Be aware that this one takes some time, and requires a lot of pots and pans, so prepare to do some dishes afterward.

I prepared the tomato sauce while the potatoes cooked. I used less curry powder than the recipe called for, and a lot more mint in order to suit our own tastes better. The pan was very full by the time I made the wells for the eggs and so I had to be extremely careful when adding them. This dish also took a bit longer to bake than expected in order to get the egg whites to set. I eventually put it under the broiler for two minutes, which finished cooking the whites, but also made the yolks harder than I wanted. The finished product though was very tasty, and filling. It paired nicely with Tom Gore Cabernet Sauvignon.

Roasted Potatoes with Figs and Thyme

I really like the New York Times cooking section for suggestions of food combinations I wouldn't have thought of myself. This recipe for fingerling potatoes with figs was a prefect example. The figs were seeped in tea before being cooked in with the potatoes. Although I didn't let it sit overnight as the recipe called for, by pouring hot water over the figs along with three tea bags and letting it seep while everything else was prepared the subtle flavor of the tea came through. Otherwise we followed the recipe as written and had it as a side dish with some haddock cooked in lemon oil. A wonderful meal with leftovers to boot!

Coming Out of the Cold

As mentioned in the "Cada Mes" post last week, our summer has been blessed with everything but at-home leisure, putting us well behind our usual pace of a new recipe each week. Well behind. As we get back on track, today's post is not only a specific recipe, but some of what we have learned about how to plan meals.

It began with Pam making a list of today's goals that included a freezer inventory. After a morning row and some extreme yard work, we got together at the freezer door and used a cooler so that we could take everything out and put it on a list. We threw out one or two items that were of miniscule quantity or unknown provenance, but otherwise made a detailed list of everything in the freezer before returning it there. (I did generously volunteer to save space by finishing off a small quantity of vanilla ice cream.)

With the inventory in hand, we each grabbed a cookbook to look for something that would be new to us, interesting, and most importantly that would use something from the inventory. Pam found a chicken salad that we will prepare at the end of the week for our weekly vineyard outing -- details to follow.

Because I knew we had a fresh package of tortillas in the fridge, I turned to our bible, a.k.a. The Well-Filled Tortilla. I have to admit I was doubtful. After all, we have used this book many times over the past 20 years, and much of what remains is either grandiose (even for us) or uses ingredients on the no-go list (olives, tripe). But we had a half-bag of lentils ("half" being the most common word on our freezer inventory), so I checked the index for that word.

On page 221 is a recipe entitled "Indian-style lentils." We were prepared to use the second half of our Sunday for something more complicated, but this worked out very well indeed. We went to our local farm stand at Hanson Farms after deciding the recipe, so that we could get the needed tomatoes there. We planned a grocery-store run for after the farm stand, for any items that would not be there. This is always a good order to shop -- home inventory then farm stand, then grocery.

The rest came from our shelf, fridge, or modest garden. (Actually, mint is not a "garden" item. It is something that the previous owner of our house planted, and which we can now retrieve from random spots all over our property.)

Preparation was incredibly simple, halving the recipe as printed. I put 3 cups of chicken stock (could have been any stock) in a stock pot, along with 1/2 pound of lentils and three medium potatoes, diced to 1/2-inch.  I then added plenty of turmeric, cilantro (in place of coriander), ground clove, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne. I heated to a boil and then simmered for 20 minutes.

I then added a generous splash of lime juice (from a bottle in this case). We then diced tomatoes, tore up some mint, and spooned up a little sour cream that was in the fridge. The only thing missing was something the recipe calls "pickled carrots, optional."

The result; Delicious! I had been skeptical of a dish calling for both lentil and potato, but they worked well together in this case. These tacos paired beautifully with a 2013 Wild Oats Pinot Noir from from San Luis Obispo, California. This is a complex wine with dark fruit flavors and just a bit of spice.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

We brought home a bunch of mashed potato leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately, the Huffington Post provided this list of 19 things to do with mashed potatoes just in time for the holiday. I wasn't even sure which one to prepare as so many of them looked promising, so I began at the beginning and made the Cheesy Pancakes. It was pretty simple as the potatoes were already mashed all I had to do was add some shredded cheddar cheese and some chopped scallions and form them into patties. They cooked quickly and easily, and were quite tasty topped with some sour cream.

Patty Pan Potatoes -- Day 2

We often remember the wisdom of Mrs. Poole once said on Valerie, mac & cheese is best on the third day ... with milk. (Quote is inexact, as this show predates social media, so I would have to watch the whole series to figure out exactly what she said.) We can picture her saying this -- and hear Edie McClurg's distinctive voice in our heads -- any time we have a simple dish that seems to improve with a little melding. The most recent example was this evening's side dish of roasted potatoes and squash, which I prepared last night to go along with some fresh salmon.

Putting the kitsch in our kitchen

I had prepared this because I was going whaling for the evening; and would be bringing back a late dinner from Kyler's Seafood. Since I had some leisure in the afternoon, I wanted to prepare a side dish that would require minimal effort from Pam. At this time of year, we also endeavor to use something from our farm share every day, and so far all we had used was the veggies from leftover ratatatatouille. With the bounty of vegetables coming in from Colchester Neighborhood Farm this time of year, we need to do something original every day! It is one of the challenges but also one of the chief benefits of eating locally -- readjusting our food calendar to include more of what is available nearby at any given time of the year.

What came to mind was a simple modification to an old standard of mine -- in fact, when Pam suggested blogging about it this evening, I was confused, because I hardly think of this as a "recipe" at all, much less a "nueva receta." But I do not think I have posted this handy dish before, and certainly not the modification.  I started with a few small potatoes, partly peeling each with our handy monkey peeler. (We usually refrain from peeling potatoes, and if we do, we usually remove only about half the skin.) I then peeled a patty pan (UFO) squash, and diced both to about half-inch cubes.

I put all of this in a casserole dish and added a generous dollop of olive oil and thoroughly dusted the vegetables with paprika (lots and lots), oregano, and pepper. I mixed it all thoroughly and left it for Pam to bake (about 375 for close to an hour) in time for my arrival with the fish, which I simply pan-fried with lime-infused oil and Old Bay. It was very good, served with our home-vinted Gewurztraminer.

But none of this is what inspired us to write this up. It was this evening, when we were putting together a quick dinner of organic hamburgers that we realized this would be a good side. I reheated the roasted potatoes and squash in the indispensable cast-iron skillet, alongside the patties (which included a healthy dose of Worcestershire sauce). The result was simply amazing -- overnight the olive oil had worked its Mrs. Poole magic on the vegetables, and refrying them worked just beautifully. (We did not, as we sometimes do, top this with plain yogurt.) This evening's pairing also worked very well -- our home-brewed Chinook pale ale.

There's No Q in Pi

As we recently wrote on Pi Day, we purchased a couple of cook books -- including a Pie Cook Book -- but we did not make any pi. The closest we came was a local pizza pi. We also promised to follow up soon, and today we came through.

PI DAY PURCHASE --
Order now for 3-14-15

Breakfast Pie with a Hashbrown Crust was actually on the family menu for last night, but a college tour of a certain very hilly campus had us returning home with groceries with too little time or energy to tackle this dish. And dish is an important word here -- quite a few were used, including almost all of our indispensable cast-iron skillets.

Knowing that our daughter does not like quiche, we maintained author Teeny Lamothe's ruse of calling this breakfast pie as we answered the repeated query, "what's for dinner?"

This pi begins with hashbrowns. I shredded a half dozen russet potatoes, squeezed out the excess moisture, tossed with salt, pepper, and rosemary. I then cooked them on hot oil on a hot skillet. I resisted the urge to stir as they cooked; rather I came close to Lamothe's standard of browning on one side and then turning (that is, scraping). I then pressed this mixture into a large, skillet in which I had heated some oil (good thing olive oil is good for us).

Meanwhile, I had cooked some leeks (which Pam had lovingly thawed and rinsed from last year's farm box) and mushrooms in butter (good thing butter is good for ... oh, wait ...), along with a bit more pepper. Also meanwhile, I whisked together a half dozen eggs and a cup of cream (good thing ...) and a half cup of shredded Parmesan. Then I placed the vegetables in the potato crust, topped with another half cup of Parm, and carefully poured over the egg mixture.

I placed all of this in a pre-heated oven, and convected at 350 for 30 minutes. The results?

"Is this quiche?" were the first skeptical words from our darling daughter as she eyed what was obviously a form of quiche on her plate. "I had a big lunch," were her next words. Nonetheless, she ate quite a sizeable portion of what we all agreed was ...

pretty good pi.

Skillet black beans with potatoes and tortillas

You'd think with a geographer in the house we would use a cookbook written by someone named Nava Atlas a lot more. But, in fact I don't remember the last time I had The Vegetarian Family Cookbook out. I was actually looking for a recipe with squash (one of the few things we still have left from last summer's CSA) but didn't find anything that I could make with the rest of the ingredients we already had. I did find this recipe though, which I was able to make with some creative substitutions. I put 3 small potatoes in the microwave for about 5 minutes, until they were "done but still firm" and let them cool while I prepared the rest of the food. I sauteed the onions and garlic in lime-infused olive oil, and then added some frozen tri-colored peppers. The recipe then called for mild chiles. We had neither mild nor hot chiles on hand, so I added a few tablespoons of salsa instead. Next a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of drained and rinsed black beans, and 2 t. of cumin. While all of this simmered I peeled the now cooled potatoes and diced them. Once the potatoes were prepared I added them to the skillet along with a bit of lime juice and some corn chips. The recipe called for corn tortillas cut into strips, but I had none, and this worked out fine.

A simple and hearty dish. Next time we will use a bit less cumin.

The best latkes - ever

Every year in honor of Hanukkah we make latkes. We have progressed in our 25 years together from a box mix, to actually shredding our own potatoes, and this year I serendipitously noticed a recipe in a never-before-used cookbook: The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt. Divided into nine sections (one each representing the 8 pagan holidays, plus an extra one for cooking with children) I happened upon a latke recipe while looking for something I might prepare for the upcoming Winter Solstice (stay tuned later this month for Bourbon-Rosemary Almonds!).The latke recipe is similar to the one we've been using for years from Deborah Madison, but this one includes apples in the mix. We peeled and grated 4 potatoes and two small apples and mixed them together. To this we added half  of a medium chopped onion, one egg and a dash of salt. We had recently read an article explaining the importance of the oil when cooking latkes, so I heated more than usual in my indispensable cast iron skillet, then added the the batter by large spoonfuls into the hot canola oil. I had to sacrifice the first pancake (but isn't that always true) while I was learning how to make sure they stayed crispy and didn't become an oily mess, but the rest turned out great. A perfect combination of textures - crispy, creamy (from the sour cream topping), and chunky (from James homemade apple/pear sauce). These were sweeter than our previous recipe, and required a bit more patience while cooking. These were so good, James even ate the "sacrifice" pancake. He asked afterwards if the recipe included flour, at which point I told him that I thought it did, but I  forgot to put it in! We enjoyed our homemade Chardonnay with this meal.

2019 Update

The latke dinner has become an annual, cherished event for three families, following this recipe on a somewhat larger scale.

Old-school peeling, shredding, and chopping tools are still employed, despite the use of 10 pounds of potatoes.

The coffee is also important in the preparation, keeping James alert.  Wines, meads, and other libations are served with the latkes themselves.