When I posted the latke recipe I didn’t have pix of the in-process or finished product. I made more the other night and (this time) remembered to have the camera handy:

Two pans going. You can see how thin they are, and the crunchy, lacy edges formed when the very runny batter spreads in the hot oil. Yum.

I did promise the family blintz recipe. This time no pix are in the offing. I don’t have any plans to cook these up soon, but a promise is a promise. This recipe like the latke one was originally shared with the KnitList mailing list back in 1995, and was also collected into a knitters-on-line recipe omnibus in 2002.

MINNIE LEIBOWITZ’S CHEESE BLINTZES

(For Grandma this makes about 50 blintzes – for me, about 35-40, my crepes are heavier than hers)

First a discussion of cheeses:

It’s tough to find the right kinds outside of New York City , I imagine that it might be even more difficult for people in other countries.

Farmer Cheese – A white soft cheese that is sort of like large curd cottage cheese that’s been pressed until it’s solid. Not particularly sweet, but a tad salty. It is sold in large soft chunks custom “cut” from a big block at the deli/cheese counter, or in small individually wrapped blocks in the prepackaged cheese/butter section of the supermarket. There is no substitute for this – if you can’t get it, skip the recipe. Common brand names on farmer cheese in the Northeast U.S. are “Friendship” and “Breakstone”.

Pot Cheese – To get the authentic texture I like to add pot cheese like my Grandmother did. This is a big problem because no one outside of NYC has ever heard of it. Pot cheese is sort of in between Ricotta and small curd cottage cheese in feel, but dryer and with firmer curds, and sharper than either of them. It’s not as dry or as salty as the farmer cheese. It’s sold scooped into containers at the deli/cheese counter, or in cottage cheese style tubs in the regular dairy section of the supermarket. I’ve tried substituting cottage cheese and Ricotta (even pressing or hanging them in cheesecloth to dry them out). All substitutions have produced disasters. The filling becomes way too soft and wet and breaks the crepes. If you can’t get pot cheese, substitute it’s volume equivalent in farmer cheese. The blintzes will be a bit firmer than my Grandmother’s, but they won’t fall apart. The brand name I remember as I child was “Breakstone”.

Cream cheese – Good old Kraft Philadelphia (the bagel’s friend) works fine. In a pinch I’ve substituted low fat cream cheese, but the filling ended up flabby and bland. Don’t use whipped or flavored cream cheese, only the old fashioned plain kind sold in the silver foil bricks or in bulk.

On traditions:

In our family, blintzes are slightly salty and served with sour cream. Other families make sweeter blintzes and serve them with applesauce or cherry sauce. My Grandmother said that fancy sweet sauces like cherry were “townsfolk” things – rural people like her family couldn’t afford the sugar. Decrease the salt and add a pinch of sugar to the filling if you plan on serving these with a sweet condiment.

Instructions:

For the crepes (blechlach in Yiddish):

16 enormous heaping table tablespoons (as opposed to measuring spoons) of all-purpose flour (pile these so high that more can’t balance on the spoon)

1 1/2 quarts water

7 large eggs (6 if blintzes will be eaten immediately instead of being frozen or refrigerated)

Vegetable oil for frying

Grandma beat the flour and water by hand. It took forever to achieve a lump-free batter. Spare yourself, use an electric mixer. Combine water and flour until completely smooth with no lumps. Adding the flour in by batches makes this easier. Blend in the eggs. This should give you a very runny vaguely yellowish batter.

Heat at least two small saut or frying pans over medium-high heat. (Using one pan at a time takes too long – Grandma and my Great-aunt Itke did a ballet that featured four pans and two cooks). I use the same pans I use for latkes, the non-stick small omelet pans pictured above. Pour a small quantity of oil into a saucer. When the pans are hot, brush them lightly with the oil and drain the excess back into the saucer. Ladle about 3/4 cup of batter into each hot pan and swirl the pan to coat the bottom evenly. Cook until the edges have begun to curl and the center is set. They should be lightly marked with brown spots, but not crispy or stiff. Do not cook the second side. Invert the finished crepe onto a clean dishtowel or old tablecloth to cool. Crepes can be stacked when cool.

I’ve improvised using this basic crepe recipe, flipping them over and cooking them on both sides, folding them around a dollop of sour cream and sprinkling them with cheap lumpfish caviar and slivers of chive or scallions. Very impressive looking when bosses or Important People come to dinner, but don’t tell them that Grandma was the inspiration. 🙂

For the filling:

1 1/4 lb. farmer cheese

1 1/4 lb. pot cheese

1 large cream cheese (8 oz. block) at room temperature

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

Mix the ingredients with a spoon by hand until thoroughly combined- do not use a mixer or blender. It’s easier to get the filling uniform in texture if the cream cheese is at room temperature.

To assemble and cook:

Place a crepe in front of you, cooked side down. Spoon one or two tablespoons of filling onto the bottom third of one side. Fold the bottom edge up over the filling. Fold in the left and right sides. Roll the crepe away from you to make a cylinder roughly the size of a Chinese eggroll. The filling should be entirely encased. These may be frozen or refrigerated at this point – both of these processes work best if the blintzes are not touching each other. Otherwise they might stick and the outsides might tear.

Saut lightly in vegetable oil using a heavy pan starting with the “flap” side down. Blinzes are done when the skin is golden and the filling is firm. Serve with sour cream, or with applesauce or another sweet condiment.

UPDATE:

This recipe was collected by the Jewish Food Society, and appears in their on line recipe index here.   They romanticized the story a bit, but the basics are true.  And they better quantified the ingredients, which is what really counts.

Technorati : cooking, jewish food, knitting

A small holiday this year. Long time readers may remember that I usually bake at least 10 kinds of cookies for the Hanukkah/Christmas season. This year work expanded to eat most of my prime baking weeks, so my cookie plans were diminished. This year’s set is all tried and true family favorites, with no experiments or departures into the unknown. I’ve managed to make only these:

• Chocolate chip
• Rum Balls
• Mexican Wedding Cakes
• Peanut Butter
• Chocolate crinkles (aka Earthquakes)

Plus panforte (two cakes as gifts); and the usual super easy condensed milk/bittersweet chocolate/butter fudge. I will say that I did something new on the fudge. I roasted some whole almonds leftover from the panforte then mixed up the fudge as usual. But instead of ladling it all into a square baking pan to harden, instead I hauled out some bendy silicon oval baking forms:

and tossed some nuts in each cuplet, then filled each with the fudge mixture. When all had hardened in the fridge, I popped out these:

All in all, a much nicer presentation than the squashed looking, inexpertly cut squares that usually result when I try to slice the cake- pan-produced fudge block.

In other news, the camo valence curtains have been finished. Pix await the teenager’s room being tidy enough to photograph. Another pair of gift socks has been completed, and the rest of the holiday preparations have been made.

Since tonight is Latke Night, in the spirit of the holidays I share (again) my family’s latke recipe. I first posted this 1995 as a gift to the old pre-Yahoo KnitList. It’s been collected in a knitters’ recipe collection since.

MINNIE LEIBOWITZ’S LATKES

Latke rules:

1. Every family does it differently.

2. Every family’s latkes are the best.

Latkes (sans sour cream) were a common accompaniment for meat leftovers that might not otherwise be enough to go around. Latkes (with sour cream) were the center of a traditional dairy meal.

Latkes work best when the potatoes are old because old spuds are more watery and brown better than new ones, probably because their sugar has begun converting to starch. Grandma’s general rule of thumb was

eaters-1 = number of potatoes, and

potatoes-1=number of eggs.

You can’t make this for one eater.

Ingredients for five eaters as a major side dish:

• 4 well-washed large raw baking potatoes (about man-fist size), ones that are starting to show their age are better. I’ve also used Yukon Golds. They work nicely, but have to be watched carefully during frying because they brown more quickly.  No need to peel them
• 3 extra large eggs
• 2 heaping tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• Water
• Lots of plain old vegetable oil for frying. (Olive oil and corn oil won’t work.)
• Additional salt for sprinkling on the just-fried, hot latkes

Equipment:

• Pyramid-style grater – the tin or stainless kind with the different size holes on each side.
• Frying or saute pan(s)
• Band-Aids

Serve with:

• Sour cream or applesauce

Directions:

Grate the potatoes on the side of the grater that produces mush. You don’t want potato shreds, you want potato slurry. I’ve not found any modern kitchen appliance (including the Cuisinart) that can produce the correct consistency. Also, I’ve never made these without skinning at least one knuckle. This is where the Band-Aids come in. 🙂

My grandmother peeled the potatoes first. I don’t. She was horrified by my oversight, but I notice no difference in the finished product between the with- and without-peels versions. The potato mush will turn ugly gray-brown- even if you’ve bothered to peel. Don’t worry, this also has no effect on the finished product.

Mix in the eggs and salt thoroughly. Add some of the flour and about a third of a cup of water. Wait about 10 minutes for the sludge to absorb the water and flour.

Now comes the hard part. The mush should be very thin and watery – far more watery than pancake batter. Since potatoes aren’t uniform in starch/moisture content, the exact amounts of water and flour to add to get to this consistency can’t be predetermined.

Heat oil (about 1/4 inch deep of oil) in the frying pan or pans – I use two small saute pans on separate burners because my stove won’t heat a big pan evenly.

Spoon a dollop (about 2 measuring Tbs worth) of the potato mush into the hot oil. If the batter is thin enough and the oil hot enough, the latke should spread out and have thin, lacy edges. Adjust the mush, adding more water or flour to achieve these results. If the latkes are too watery and the oil too hot, you’ll just get potato splatters, not things you can pick up and eat. If the batter is too thick or the oil is too cool, the latke will keep the shape you spooned and be heavy, greasy, and patty-like.

Fry latkes in batches of two or three until they are golden brown on the first side, then flip them over. I use a fork to stab and flip rather than a spatula because if the latke is too soft to spear, it isn’t ready to turn.

Replenish the oil as needed. The ideal Leibowitz latke is very thin with a wide crispy edge. When hot, it should be too crunchy to fold in half.

Grandma drained the finished latkes on paper towels or brown paper. I find they get less soggy if they are drained on a wire rack.  Salt them if desired when they are hot and right out of the oil.

Serve immediately with cold sour cream or applesauce. When my grandmother made these we kids would sit around the kitchen table like baby birds with mouths open wide, waiting for each pan full to be done.

Variations:

In accordance with Latke Rule #1, some families grate a small bit of raw onion into the mix. Others serve the latkes and sour cream with a very generous sprinkle of chives on top. Other families go for the sweet and spike the applesauce with a healthy amount of cinnamon. A friend’s family serves latkes with an apples stewed in honey-water dish I’ve never seen anywhere else. Other families belong to the “potato shreds held together with potato starch or flour and egg” school. These are good too, but they are not *the best* (see Latke Rule #2).

If you’re very good, I’ll post the family blintz recipe, too.

Technorati : cooking, knitting