Potato Pancakes (or Latkes)

Finished breakfast: latkes with sour cream, challah
toast (thanks Amy!) and a cheese omelette!

Anyone that knows me knows about my potato fetish - give them to me in just about ANY fashion and I'm happy. If that fashion happens to have been fried, has onions and I can add sour cream to it, that simply adds to my happy factor!

This recipe has all the above and this morning I was a happy camper indeed. (Well, I really wasn't camping; just an expression, but I WAS a very happy cook!)

We never had potato pancakes growing up; plenty of fried potatoes (what they call home fries here in New England) but never potato pancakes.  I didn't try them until I was in my thirties, and then the ones I had weren't very good. They were the frozen ones at a cheap diner somewhere so I didn't try them again until three or four years ago. THAT time I had good ones and I was hooked. I tried many times to replicate them at home and they always came out too starchy or too "thick" - more like a blob of potatoes than what I had come to know and love.

I had noticed the same thing anytime I tried to make hash browns (another favorite and not really that different than potato pancakes). A couple of years ago I stumbled across an easy trick to make your hash browns MUCH better (and lighter!). After shredding them, remove as much starch as you can by placing them under running water or simply soaking them.  If you do that, they will improve immeasurably.

Last night while I was trying to fall asleep I was thinking about surprising my wife with breakfast this morning (I'm strange) and thinking about making her hash browns. I had one of those odd little leaps in my brain and suddenly thought that I could apply the same principles (removing as much water as possible) to potato pancakes. It made a lot of sense to me (though admittedly, thinking about it when I was trying to sleep did NOT make a lot of sense). Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well because I kept thinking about how good they would be if it worked. Lucky for me (and now you!) it did and I'm going to tell you exactly how I did it if you care to follow along. If you do, you'll be rewarded with some of the best potato pancakes you've ever had - and if you don't, just maybe you learned something that will help the next time you decide to make hash browns.  (I do realize that this is probably common knowledge amongst many chefs, but it was a huge revelation to me!)

Ingredients

Makes enough to serve 3-4

2 large russet potatoes, peeled
1 small onion, shredded
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Olive oil and butter for frying

Optional

*garlic powder to taste (before cooking)

*ground rosemary to taste (before cooking)
applesauce (as a side to the latkes, after cooking)
sour cream (as a side to the latkes, after cooking)

*these are NOT traditional, but they ARE good!

Directions

1. In a food processor or a box grater, shred the potato and onion.
2. Mix the onions with the shredded potato. 

   

   Shredded potatoes (before removing starch)

3. Remove as much starch as possible from the potato/onion mixture. There are a couple of different ways to do this. You can either place them under running water until the water runs clear (which may take a little while) or simply soak them.  I generally soak them and change the water several times.  I do this until I can run water over them and the water runs clear.  
4. Once you've removed as much starch as possible from the potatoes, drain them to remove the water.  It's not necessary to remove all the water, but the more you remove the faster they will cook.
5. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, egg, salt and pepper together and optional ingredients if you're using them. 
6. Stir in the potato/onion mixture until all pieces are evenly coated.
7. On a griddle or in a medium skillet (cast iron is perfect for this), heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter until shimmering. Drop packed tablespoons of the potato mixture into the skillet and flatten them with the back of your spatula (you want them to be fairly thin so that they cook all the way through and are nice and crispy when done). 

   

   Potato/onion/egg/flour mixture before
   being spooned into the skillet.

8. Cook them over medium high heat until the edges are just starting to brown, approx. 2 minutes; flip and cook until just starting to brown on the bottom, about 1 minute (if yours are a little thicker it will take more time). 
9. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with the rest of your potato/onion mixture, adding more oil/butter to the skillet as needed.

NOTE: These are actually great to do ahead if you are trying to make them as a side for other things. Either keep them in the fridge for a day or two or just keep them in a warm oven while you're cooking everything else. If they've been in the refrigerator, reheat them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven until they crisp up again.

Latkes are traditionally served with sour cream or applesauce. Either way (or plain!) it's hard to go wrong.

Enjoy! And if you try them, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Cinnamon Roll French Toast

Cinnamon roll bread

French toast is one of my favorite breakfast foods. (Hell, let's be honest. It's one of my favorite foods, period.)

As I posted a couple of days ago, cinnamon rolls rank right up there in that same rarified stratosphere of favorite foods for me.

It seemed natural to put the two together - hence, "Cinnamon Roll French Toast".

We had French toast fairly regularly when I was growing up, but we just made it with regular, sandwich cut, white bread. I still love it that way and had it that way for most of my life. A

French toast, ready to eat!

couple of years ago I decided to make it with "Texas toast" (which is really just much thicker cut white bread). It came out horrible (and I had my in-laws over for a big breakfast - I was seriously
embarrassed). I had made it exactly the same way I did with thin slices of bread (which really meant just dipping it in the egg mixture and throwing it on the griddle).  The problem was that it was simply too dry. I learned from that and changed my technique considerably when I'm using thicker bread. That is reflected in this recipe since I use much thicker slices of bread.

This recipe would work with ANY kind of bread you'd like to use - but you really want to use a thick cut slice (unless you simply dip it and cook with no soaking - in that case, feel free to use thin bread). I've made this with day old Italian bread, French bread, etc.  They all work well!

Ingredients

• 1 loaf cinnamon roll bread, sliced about one inch thick (8 - 10 slices, recipe here) or any thickly sliced bread.  Best if slightly stale.



Sliced bread, soaking in egg mixture

• 4 eggs
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• Butter
• Maple syrup

Optional

• 1 ½ tsp orange extract
• 2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
• pinch of nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together. If using, add orange extract, orange zest and/or orange extract until well blended. 



French toast, after being cooked on the griddle.  It's ready
to go into the oven and bake for an additional ten minutes.

3. Put your slices of bread in a flat, shallow dish (a casserole dish works well).
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and allow to sit for at least ten minutes, turning over a couple of times (the majority of the mixture will get absorbed into the bread).
5. Melt some butter over a skillet or griddle on medium high heat.
6. Add as many slices as will fit at a time, and cook until brown.
7. Flip the slices and repeat on the second side.
8. Repeat until all the slices have been cooked.
9. Put the cooked slices of bread on a cookie sheet and place in preheated oven.
10. Bake the bread for about ten minutes (this will cook the egg mixture that was absorbed into the bread so it's not "mushy" in the middle).
11. Serve hot with butter and real maple syrup.
12. Enjoy!

Breakfast, ready to go!  French toast, eggs,
home fries and bacon.  I'm hungry again!

Garden Fresh Vegetable Omelette

Finished omelette with pumpernickel toast, grits, home fries and
 a dollop of my wife's homemade strawberry jam in the center.

Do you have a garden? Go to farmer's markets? Maybe just REALLY like Whole Foods? We do all of these and frequently end up with extra vegetables and aren't quite sure what to do with them. Yes, we can always do another stir fry or just steam them (and they're always good) but sometimes we want to do something different.

That's where the omelette comes in. My wife went out to her garden last night and picked a lot of green beans, sugar snap peas, and summer squash. I'll be cooking some of that for dinner but it was a lazy, rainy day and I wanted to cook breakfast. So, in addition to the vegetables mentioned, I also used onions, garlic (also from her garden but picked last week and dried) and a tomato (it's too early to have ripe tomatoes here so that came from the grocery store.)

I do know that most folks know how to cook an omelette - and if you don't, don't be intimidated. It's pretty easy. You don't have to flip it in the air to turn it over like the chefs you see on TV (though that's what I do and is pretty simple as well with a tiny bit of practice AND the right pan). You can just use a spatula like you would to turn over anything else. The other good part about this is that although I'm using the ingredients that I listed, you can use anything you like - or just clean out your vegetable drawer before it goes bad. You'll get rid of something before it gets wasted and it will taste good on top of it!

This recipe has the added benefit of being healthy and vegetarian - and if you use tofu in place of egg, oil instead of butter, and a vegan cheese (or simply omit it) you could make this a vegan tofu scramble as well (or, if you're like me, you can add a piece of sausage, bacon or ham to it which is decidedly NOT healthy, vegetarian or vegan but to my taste buds sure does go down well).

Chopped ingredients waiting to be added to the pan.

Garden Fresh Vegetable Omelette (makes two large omelettes)

1 (very) small summer squash, cubed
8 sugar snap peas, 1/2 inch chop
10 green beans, 1/2 inch chop
1 small tomato, deseeded, rough chop
1 medium garlic clove, fine mince
1/2 onion, diced
4 eggs (2 per omelette)
4 tbsp whole milk
4 slices cheese (your preference as to type - can also use shredded. I tend to like American in mine while my wife prefers Swiss)
butter or olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)
1 tbsp olive oil (I like to use an infused oil if I can - garlic infused is great if you can find it. This is for lightly sautéing the vegetables before putting them in the omelette)
Garlic powder
Freshly ground rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed pan - the same pan you'll use for the omelette is fine.



Sauteing the vegetables





2. Add the diced onions and sauté for about two minutes.
3. Add the rest of the vegetables and sauté until they are just starting to soften - typically two to three minutes About one minute before you are ready to take it off, add the minced garlic and let it sauté as well.
4. Remove the vegetables and set aside.
5. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them until they turn a pale yellow color.
6. Heat a heavy-bottomed nonstick sauté pan over medium-low heat (you can use a pan that's NOT non-stick, but you probably won't be happy with the results). Add the butter and let it melt.
7. Add the milk to the eggs and season to taste with salt and pepper. This is where I add the freshly ground rosemary. I didn't give an amount and that's simply because this is a matter of taste. I LOVE rosemary and use it in many things. My mother HATES rosemary. I would use a lot, she wouldn't use any! That's why I didn't give an amount. Use as much or as little (or none!) as you'd like. I keep dried rosemary leaves in a grinder in the cabinet all the time so that I can add it to anything I'd like easily. 
8. Grab your whisk and beat the eggs like your life depended on it! Your omelette is going to be better (fluffier) the more air you can get into your eggs. You can always cheat a little bit and use an electric mixer as well.
9. When the butter in the pan is hot enough to make a drop of water hiss, pour in half the eggs. Don't stir! Let the eggs cook for up to a minute or until the bottom starts to set.
10. Using a heat-resistant rubber spatula, gently lift one edge of the egg while tilting the pan to allow the still liquid egg to flow in underneath. Repeat with the other edges, until there's no liquid left.
11. Your eggs should now resemble a bright yellow pancake, which should easily slide around on the nonstick surface. If it sticks at all, loosen it with your spatula.
12. This is the part that seems to unnerve some people. Flipping the omelette. There's no need to go into omelette heroics here. It will taste just as good if you flip it with your spatula as it does if you throw it in the air while judges in the corner write down your scores for how many triple sow cows (or whatever they call those things) it does on the journey back down. The point is to turn it over however you're comfortable with doing it. Using a spatula is perfectly fine. So, just flip that thing over.
13. At this point, in my head I draw an imaginary line about half way down the pan. I put all of the ingredients that will be inside the omelette on one side of the line. Add your cheese first - if you're using slices, tear one slice up and lay it on top of the egg. If you're using shredded cheese, sprinkle as much as you'd like on top of the egg. 
14. Add half the vegetables on top of the cheese. Spread them out evenly across the same half as the cheese.
15. With your spatula, lift the far side of the egg (the side with no vegetables) and carefully fold it in half, covering the half that has the vegetables. At this point, you'll have one half of your pan empty and the other half filled with a yummy omelette. 
16. Add another slice of your cheese (if you're using it) on top of the omelette. 
17. Repeat steps 9-16 for the second omelette.
18. Plate, serve and enjoy!

Beignets! (pronounced "ben-YAYZ")

What's for breakfast on a Sunday morning?

Beignets.  From left to right: vanilla sugar,
cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar shaken in
a paper bag and sprinkled powdered sugar.

Most of us don't live in New Orleans so we can't just get up and run to Cafe Du Monde and grab some of their wonderful beignets. There are probably people reading this that don't even know what a beignet is (it's kind of like a French doughnut).  For those of us that HAVE been to New Orleans, if you're anything like me, the word "beignet" conjures up images of sitting in a bustling cafe with these magical little pieces of pastry covered with powdered sugar and a cup of cafe au lait (well, if you're me, it's a cup of tea).

I just found out that my brother and sister-in-law are heading to New Orleans soon and that's what brought these memories back.  I LOVED the beignets served at Cafe Du Monde.  Since I wasn't the one heading there anytime soon, I decided to make my own - and since I was making my own anyway, I added a couple of minor twists to the recipes I was able to find online.  It evidently worked since all three of us in the house loved them (and my sixteen year old had never heard of a beignet either).

So - here goes...and enjoy!!

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg, room temperature and beaten
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 4 cup bread flour or all purpose flour
• 3 tsp instant active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (or another extract that you like, orange, lemon, etc. This is optional and was NOT in the recipe I found online but in my opinion it added to the flavor considerably)
• vegetable oil for cooking: use enough oil to completely cover beignets when frying
• powdered sugar for dusting

1. Pour the lukewarm water into a small bowl. Stir one teaspoon of the sugar into the water until it dissolves.  Pour the yeast into the water and stir well.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.
2. Combine the butter, sugar, salt and extract (if using) in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the butter mixture and then stir in the evaporated milk. Wait for the mixture to cool down until it is lukewarm. Then, add the yeast and water mixture and beaten egg.
3. Slowly mix in the flour until the dough forms a ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for three or four hours.
4. Take the cold dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut the rolled out dough into strips 2 to 3-inches wide, then cut again in the opposite direction and at an angle, making diamond shapes.  Alternatively, you can cut them into squares, then cut the squares at an angle to form a triangle (this is what I did - and I used a pizza cutter which made it very simple).
5. Heat your oil for frying in a heavy pan over medium-high heat to 360 degree F (180 degrees C).
6. Slide a few pieces of the cut dough slowly into the oil to avoid splattering and deep fry until they puff up and are golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes (they will need to be turned half way through - if the oil is too hot they will cook too fast and turn a deep brown outside before they are done on the inside - I know this from experience!). 
7. Carefully remove onto a rack with paper towels underneath and allow to cool until you can handle them. 
8. Either sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar, or place in a clean paper bag with confectioners' sugar and shake gently until covered generously.  I tried both ways - it depends on your taste.  Obviously the paper bag route is very simple but will result in a lot more sugar and therefore a much sweeter beignet.

I also tried something different that I didn't see in the beignets I tried in New Orleans. In addition to powdered sugar, I tried sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar and vanilla sugar* (not all at once - three different variations).  The vanilla sugar edged the others for favorite in our house but not by much.  Everyone seemed to like all of the variations.

*I had never tried (or even heard of) vanilla sugar until five or six years ago.  If you've never tried it, it's well worth the investment to either make your own or pick some up (Penzey's Spices carries it and there are many other places you can find it on the internet).  

If you want to make it yourself, you simply need to get some vanilla beans and cover them with sugar and let sit.  That's it.  In a couple of weeks you'll have vanilla sugar.  If you wait longer, the flavor will get stronger.  You can also take the beans and grind them up in a food processor until they are very fine and add them to the sugar.  I've seen it both ways and like it both ways.  In any case, whether you buy it or make your own, you owe it to yourself to try it.  I don't drink coffee but I know people that swear by using it in place of sugar in regular coffee.  I use it in place of regular sugar in many recipes but the best and simplest use I've tried is sprinkling it on a humble piece of buttered toast.

Homemade Vanilla (or Chocolate!) Pudding

First recipe!!  Pudding?  Yes, pudding.

This is the first recipe I ever posted.  I've posted over 50 since then and when I went back to look at this one (and many of my early posts) I realized I needed to give them a makeover.

No pictures, poor instructions.  It's no wonder no one really looked at them.  Hell, if I looked at them I'd pass on to the next one as well.

So here is the original post, with some changes to make it a bit easier to follow and some pictures to help clarify any steps.

This pudding recipe is STILL one of my, and my family's, favorites.

________________________________________________________________

I gave a lot of thought to what the first recipe I post here should be.  I came up with something that has been a standard in my family for a very long time - and has the benefit of being incredibly versatile.

Pudding.

Yes, pudding.  I know, anyone under 30 has probably never even had homemade pudding - the Jello stuff in a box is all they know.  Even my wife had no idea you could actually make it from scratch.

The real thing is SO much better...and not much more effort.  

This recipe goes back to my grandmother and my mother - with a special thanks to my brother Larry who made it a LOT when we were kids.  This recipe is for the basic vanilla but with a little effort can be turned into many different varieties.  As kids, the simplest was either slicing bananas for banana pudding or adding cocoa powder for chocolate pudding.

Ingredients

1 c flour

2 c sugar (You can cut back on the sugar if this is too sweet.  I've used anywhere from only 1 cup to the full two cups.  The original recipe is two cups but as I've gotten older I prefer it a bit less sweet.)

4 c milk

2 eggs (beaten)

1/2 stick butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp cocoa (optional; specifically if you want to make chocolate pudding instead of vanilla)

Directions

1. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, and if you are using it, cocoa)
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Pour in the milk and stir well
   
   
   
   
   
3. Cook over medium heat until desired consistency stirring constantly. You want this to be thick, but not so thick it won't stir easily.
   
   
   
   
   
4. When desired consistency has been reached, remove from heat
5. Add some of the pudding mixture into beaten eggs and stir to mix well
   
   
   
   
   
6. Put the egg/pudding mixture back in with the rest of the pudding and mix well
   
   
   
   
   
7. Add butter and let melt
   
   
   
   
   
8. Add vanilla and mix well (Steps 6 through 8 can be combined; in other words, add the egg/pudding mixture, the butter and the vanilla all at the same time and stir until the butter is melted.)
   
   
   
   
   

Variations

You can easily alter this recipe for whatever you'd like.  As you can see in the ingredient list, if you add cocoa you get chocolate pudding.  Lately I've also added a chopped up Lindt dark chocolate bar to make it have more of the dark chocolate flavor I've come to love.

If you want to make a pie, simply add an extra half cup of flour and three and a half cups of milk instead of four to get a thicker consistency.  Use that to then fill the pie shell.

This works well if you line the shell with bananas and then add vanilla pudding or just add the chocolate pudding for an awesome chocolate pie.  I've made a chocolate-peanut butter-banana pie by lining the shell with bananas, heating up some peanut butter and pouring it on top of that, then adding chocolate pudding and refrigerating.  That particular pie was gone within about ten minutes of serving it.  I've also made butterscotch pudding by following the same basic recipe.  

The most important thing with this recipe (in my book, with cooking in general) is to NOT be afraid to try something different!!!  Experiment - the worst you can do is not like it and start again...and that's half the fun.