Happy New Year!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. We celebrated Christmas with family in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Tomorrow it’s back to work, but we had a great break. Like many people, I ate a few too many cookies and pieces of country ham, so the next few months I will probably keep it pretty healthy on the blog. In the meantime I have a few recipes I made last month that I wanted to share.

Taylor’s class did a unit studying different celebrations around the world. Her group had Hanukkah and she kept telling me that she wanted to have Latkes. As far as I know they are the same thing as the German Potato Pancakes I grew up eating so I gladly obliged. These were probably without a doubt one of my favorite foods growing up. Trader Joe’s has pretty good Latkes in their frozen foods section, but these are still way better and sooo easy.

I will write the recipe like my mom wrote it and you can decide for yourself how much oil you want to fry them in. I got away with a few tablespoons of olive oil this time and without being able to do a side by side comparison I thought they still tasted perfect lightened up a bit.

If you have never had German Potato Pancakes before you need to make these – they will become a favorite side dish for sure. The edges get nice and crispy and the centers have a potato cake consistency. The onions add some flavor along with a little salt and pepper. Some people like to eat them with apple sauce but I have never understood that flavor combo. I love them topped with sour cream and chives, but — not so healthy.

You will definitely want to make sure that you get as much moisture out of the potatoes as possible. Don’t skip the step of wringing them out in the tea towel or your mixture will be runny. Other than that, these are a snap to whip (and fry) up.

Enjoy!

German Potato Pancakes

 

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1 min

1 min

2 mins

 

Recipe type: Side

Ingredients

• 6 large potatoes
• 2 eggs – well beaten
• 1½ Tablespoons flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• grated onion (1/2 to 1 cup or to taste)

Instructions

1. Peel and grate potatoes coarsely. Drain quickly and wring out using a tea towel.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and then drop by spoonfuls into ¼” of hot oil (you can use less if you want to lighten them up a bit.) Brown on both sides.
3. Drain on paper towels keep hot in oven.

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I love potato salad.  My mom makes a few great ones and if we are together for my birthday a request of mine might be Sloppy Joe’s with her Dilly Potato salad…maybe I will post that recipe closer to my birthday.

A great healthier alternative to a sour cream or mayonnaise based potato salad  is this French Potato Salad.  My mom has a similar recipe that uses beef consomme that is really good, but I never seem to have beef consomme in my pantry so one day I stumbled upon this recipe.  It’s just as good – light and fresh tasting with a slight hint of vinegar.  If you are looking for a healthier alternative to potato salad – definitely try this!

The parsley you can see in the picture is from my herb garden…its holding on for dear life.

“Crunchily undercooked potatoes are dreadful, and overcooked potato slices will disintegrate.”

Can you hear Julia saying that?  This recipe was apparently one of her favorites and Nora Ephron made it on Good Morning America around the time that “Julie and Julia” came out.  The recipe there is definitely written in the style of Julia.

This is also incredibly easy to make.  Once you have the potatoes boiled and peeled it’s probably one of the easiest recipes on this blog.

So, if you are looking for a light and quick version of potato salad that will satisfy all of your cravings – give this one a try.  Julia does not disappoint.

Julia Child’s French Potato Salad

 

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Ingredients

• 1½ to 2 lbs small waxy potatoes peeled and cut in half or sliced
• 2 Tbs shallots or scallions, finely minced
• Salt
• White pepper, freshly ground
• ¼ cup chicken stock (or potato-cooking water)
• 1½ Tbs wine vinegar
• 2 to 3 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 to 3 Tbs olive oil

Instructions

1. Cook potatoes until you can pierce with a fork. Drain and cool.
2. Combine scallions, salt, pepper, stock, vinegar, parsley and oil. Toss with the potatoes and then allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.
3. Enjoy!

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These are really good twice baked potatoes. They aren’t extremely fancy, but they are just yummy good. We had these with some Porterhouse steaks on Sunday for Jim’s birthday. That very dinner is a typical birthday dinner for him. Which is fine with me because it’s pretty easy to fulfill that request.

You know how they always say that if you are cooking with wine you should use a wine that you would be happy drinking with? Well, I think the same goes for a twice baked potato. You want to start with a baked potato that you would be very happy eating.

So this is how I bake really nice fluffy potatoes. First, I try to get even sized potatoes  so they cook evenly. After cleaning and piercing several times with a fork. rub  some good olive oil on them. Sprinkle liberally with either Kosher or sea salt. You can see in the picture that there is a decent amount on there – and you could even add more. Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 40-60 minutes. Times will vary depending on the size of the potato. This will give you a nice fluffy potato with a yummy crispy skin. You can also wrap the potatoes in foil and bake, but it results in a softer skin and a bit of a different texture. I think this goes without saying, but I use russet potatoes because they are really starchy which is good for getting a nice fluffy potato.

These twice baked potatoes are really simple once you have the potatoes baked. They just have butter, salt, cheese, green onions and sour cream in them, that’s it. I feel like since I am having them with a steak you don’t really need anything else to flavor them . The flavor is out of this world and the nice crispy skin tastes soo good with the mashed potato mixture. Definitely, if you have never made twice baked potatoes you have to try these…they are to die for. Also, they are great to serve a crowd because you can make them ahead, stick them in the fridge and then pop in the oven when you are ready to bake.  I know that some people might take issue with me whipping them in a stand mixer, but I just really like the whipped consistency against the crispy potato skins.  If you have an issue whipping potatoes then you can certainly just mash them up with a potato masher:-)

Enjoy!

This post has been linked to Cinnamon Girl Recipes Side Dish Saturdays

Twice Baked Potatoes

 

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Author: Becki

Recipe type: Side Dish

Ingredients

• 4 large russet potatoes – baked
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 sliced green onions
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 sliced green onions
• ½ cup sour cream
• splash of milk
• Salt, white pepper and garlic powder to taste.
• Paprika and additional butter (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Slice baked potatoes in half (the long way) and scoop the pulp out leaving enough pulp in the potato to give it some stability.
3. Put the butter with the green onions in the microwave and cook for about 30 seconds or until the butter is completely melted.
4. Add melted butter and scallions along with all other remaining ingredients to the potato pulp. With a stand mixer beat the potatoes until you get a nice whipped consistency adding a little more milk if necessary. You can also mash with a potato masher if you don’t want the whipped consistency.
5. Mound the potato mixture into the shells and if desired, brush with a bit of olive oil or melted butter and then top with paprika. Sprinkle with a bit more salt and pepper.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.

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