Sheets Culinary Feats

Sorry this post is a little late, with all the excitement at work and holiday parties I’m running a little behind.

My grandmother has made this fudge for as long as I can remember. I’ve had a lot of different fudges in my day, and still this one is my favorite. Maybe it’s the nostalgia, I’m not sure, but this recipe will always have a spot in my heart.

Fantasy Fudge

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup, or 1 1/2 sticks butter

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups marshmallow cream

1 cup of your favorite chopped nuts, I love some toasted walnuts personally

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Method of Preparation

1. combine the sugar, butter, and evaporated milk in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a rolling boil, and reduce the heat to medium, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Be extremely careful with the hot sugar, while it may not be caramel yet, 200 degree sticky sugar is still extremely unpleasant on your skin.
2. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until melted.
3. Add the marshmallow cream, nuts, and vanilla. Stir until well blended and poor into a 9″X13″ pan and let it cool completely.

These are extremely good after you have let them set up over night covered on the counter. They’ll keep in an airtight container for a week at room temperature, but they never last that long.

When I catered for the Jewish community I always looked forward to Hanukkah and the making of latkes for the kids to eat. There’s nothing quite like a warm breakfast of blintzes and latkes eaten with friends and family.

These latkes are a wonderful combination of potato, onions and egg. A wonderfully delicate treat that just explodes with flavor in your mouth. And then the amazing depth that actually comes out when you combine the savory and the sweet with the sour cream and the applesauce.

The act of slathering my latkes with sour cream and applesauce actually took a great deal of coercing on my behalf from my co-workers until I actually put the condiments on. But once I did I was sold, and I can never dream of having a latke or any other potato pancake without them ever again. In fact several times I’ve gone into restaurants and asked if I can get sour cream and applesauce with my potato pancakes, and when told that they didn’t have either I had to find something else.

But I digress, on to the recipe:

Potato Latkes with sour cream and applesauce - makes approximately 16 latkes

Ingredients:

2 pounds Idaho potatoes

1 large yellow onion

1/2 cup of matzo meal

4 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Your favorite brand of plain applesauce and sour cream for serving.

Method of preparation:

1. Grate the potatoes and the onion into a bowl and combine well. If you’re increasing the size of this recipe it is greatly recommended you use a food processor with a grating attachment. Place the mixture into a colander and let it drain until it is dry to the touch. This is extremely important, don’t skip this step as your latkes will fall apart otherwise, if you need to, use a paper towel to dry off the onions. Once completely dry place into a mixing bowl.
2. Add the matzo meal and the eggs and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. The mixture should be firm and stick together but still moist.
3. Heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet until very hot. Form the mixture into patties about 2 inches in diameter and fry in the hot oil. When the Latkes are browned on one side flip them over and brown on the other, about 3 minutes or so.
4. Keep the latkes in a warm oven and serve hot. Plate up with the applesauce and the sour cream.

Because it’s a shortened week I’ll be posting 2 recipes today instead of the usual 1. These are some pretty classical dishes that most folks eat at thanksgiving, I know for me they represent a large portion of the comfort food for me. Again these recipes are fattening and delicious, and shouldn’t really be eaten every day, but it’s thanksgiving and we all know that calories are reduced to 0 on thanksgiving.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes - Serves 4

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time - 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 head of garlic

1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil

2 pounds of potatoes for boiling. Preferably red or russett potatoes.

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/4 cup butter

1 quart heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

Method of preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Take the head of Garlic and cut the very top off, mostly just the point but you want to expose the cloves slightly. Take a piece of aluminum foil large enough to close around the head of garlic and form a small bowl. Place the oil in the bottom of the foil, then the head of garlic. Crimp the edges together to form a tight seal and place in the oven. Roast this until the scent of garlic drives you delirious from the aroma, around 1 hour. The cloves should be so soft they will spread like butter. Be careful when opening the foil as a lot of steam will come out.
2. Put on two quarts of water to boil, meanwhile clean your potatoes. I prefer my mashed potatoes to have the skins on them, but you can peal them if you desire. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes and just before you add them to the boiling water, add the kosher salt to the water. Cook the potatoes until a fork easily slides into the largest potato pieces. Strain the water out. Return the potatoes to your pot.
3. Add roasted garlic to the potatoes, be sure to squeeze the garlic out of it’s paper like wrapper, and grab your potato masher. I like the masher cause it leaves chunks, but if you like a smoother product you can use a food mill. Add the butter, about half of the cream, and some salt and pepper to start. After mashing the mixture together taste potatoes and adjust for flavor and texture by adding more cream and salt and pepper as necessary. Be sure to add small amounts at first, it’s easier to add than take out.