Harvest Latkes and Spiced Date Apple Sauce

At the risk of offending some of the Microsoft engineers in my life, I sometimes think working with Microsoft Office is much like my husband. It is pretty much a part of my life, and on most days it works,  some days it completely drives me crazy and other days, it totally surprises me with its multidimensional possibilities. 

Well, back to the husband, he actually is not as excited about the blog as he used to be, especially on a weeknight when he has to wait for me to take pictures before he eats, so I was quite surprised when he asked me whether I had blogged about these latkes I had made last week. So, I was pleasantly surprised and curious and it turns he has a co-worker whose latkes smell bad but taste great.

Traditionally latkes are potato pancakes that celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah.

My version actually makes them with carrots, rutabagas as a smaller amount of potatoes. I served this with a spiced applesauce sort of a hybrid between applesauce and chutney. So let now tell you all about the recipes.

Apple Sauce with Dates, Star Anise and Red Chili Peppers

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour (mostly unattended)

Ingredients

5 granny smith apples

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 large stick cinnamon

2-3 star anise

3-4 red chilies

Method of Preparation

1. Core the apples (I do not peel them) and process in a food processor.

2. Place the apples, vinegar, dates, cinnamon, anise and red chilies in a medium sized sauce pan and cook on low stirring occasionally until a nice thick mixture is formed. As you are stirring the mixture mash in the  dates into the mixture.

3. Cook for about 40-50 minutes until the mixture is a nice thick caramel colored mixture.

4. Cool slightly and remove the cinnamon and star anise.

5. Place the mixture again in the blender and puree.

6. Strain through a sieve and store in a small jar.

Harvest Latkes

If you are unsure about welcome this wonderfully pretty pale saffron vegetable into your hhouse. OK, so it does not look quite so pretty on the exterior. It is like a large brownish vegetable covered with a somewhat strange layer of wax. Nonetheless, pry a little deeper and you shall be rewarded.

My latkes do have a nice spike from the green chilies, which can be skipped if you wish. The only thing that I do insist on is to please hand grate the vegetables, or the texture is not the same. I shallow fry the pancakes and think they yield a nice crunch to the pancakes this way.

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 25-30 minutes

Serves 4 (about 20-25)

Ingredients

1 mmedium red potato (please use an organic potato, if like me you want the skin on)

2 cups grated rutabaga

3/4 cup grated fresh carrots

5 pods of garlic, minced

1 medium red onion, cut into a fine dice

1 teaspoon salt

2 green chilies, finely chopped

3 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

3 tablespoons all purpose white flour

Oil for shallow frying

Method of Preparation

1. Grate the potato with the skin on and set aside in a colander for about 15 minutes, to drain the water out. The potato oxidizes and turns a little dark in color, but it tastes just fine.

2. Squeeze out any additional water and then place the potato in a large bowl. Add in the rutabaga and carrots and mix well.

3. Add in the garlic, onion, green chilies and cilantro.

4. Mix in the salt, egg and the flour.

5. Heat the oil on medium heat. It is important to fry the pancakes on a medium low heat.

6. Shape the mixture into medium ( about 3 inch) sized oval or round pancakes and lower into the oil. Let them fry undisturbed for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Gently press down to flatten and ensure a crisp texture.

7. Remove from the oil and drain lightly.

Note: The proportion of the vegetables in this recipe can be varied based on taste and it can be made with more potatoes if desired.

In a Pickle - Panch Phoron and Rutbaga Pickle

Indian Pickle recipes are like heirlooms, passed on for generations. Some households have their organized seasonal calendars of pickle making usually in summer to stock up for the cool winter season to have something to warm their cockles during the cooler winter months.

Unfortunately, while quick chutneys were popular in my childhood home, traditional Indian pickles were not something that my father and I were terribly interested in and it just was not something my mother invested time in.

My husband however loves pickles and relishes especially to savor with his lentils on a weekend. Over the years I have taught and learnt 2 or three pickle recipes that I think are interesting and I make them in small amounts so that we have an assortment of them in different times of the year.

This recipe combines one of my favorite spices Panch Phoron(Bengali 5-spice) with black pepper, I know these are both somewhat uncommon as the main source of spicing in an Indian savory pickle, but once I tried it I thought it worked rather well. I guess for that matter, rutabagas are really not something we see that often in India.

Panch Phoron like the chinese 5-spice is an equal combination of nigella seeds, cumin, fenugreek, mustard and fennel. It is usually used whole although I have ground it for this recipe. What is interesting about this mix is that its characteristic balanced flavor works only in combination, if any of these spices are missing the taste is not the same. It is used in the cooking of Eastern India (Bengal, Orissa and Bihar) precisely for this purpose to provide an even balance of tastes and palates. The characteristic of traditional bengali spicing involved fairly strict traditions related to the combination of spices and their use between non-vegetarian (especially meat) and vegetarian food. This spice is reserved for vegetarian dishes and fish.

Rutabaga Achar.

Makes a large jar of Pickle

Ingredients

15 dates
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 rutabaga(wax turnip) peeled and cut into thick wedges
1/2 cup mustard oil

3 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 cup powdered jaggery

1 tbsp black peppercorns
1.5 tbsp panch phoron (Bengali 5-spice mix)

Method of preparation

1. Make a paste with the dates, raisins and white vinegar.

2. Apply the salt to the rutabaga and set aside for an hour on a colander to drain the water.

3. Heat the oil and fry the garlic lightly and then add the turnip.

4. Fry well for 10 minutes till the water has evaporated.

5. Powder the peppercorns and panch phoron.

6. Mix in all the ingredients in a non reactive container.

8. Pour into a pickle jar and close tightly.

9. Let this sit in the sun for 6-7 days and then the pickle should be ready.

Well, baby it has been cold outside, in this part of the world the past few days, a warm bowl of dal, rice, and the pickle does help one try to find a cockle if not warm it completely. Rosie of Bitching in the Kitchen with Rosie, is hosting the Spice is Right event and I will send this off to her today.