Gluten Free Butternut Squash Latkes

Latkes. We can’t seem to get enough of their crispy, fried goodness! I don’t know about you, but I can eat latkes all Chanukah long. As long as I switch up the flavors, I’m good. Butternut squash latkes has become a family favorite in our home. They’re light, mildly sweet, and lend themselves well to all sorts of seasonings. We like them best straight up – good old butternut squash, onion, egg and some simple salt seasoning, but feel free to spruce them up with curry, paprika, cumin, or your favorites.

Because I prefer to prepare these gluten free latkes with simple flavors, I spice up the garnishes instead. Ginger applesauce and curried sour cream are the perfect complements to the butternut squash. Top them off with some scallions for latke perfection on a plate.

What are some of your favorite latke varieties? I’d love to hear! Share them in the comments below!

Butternut Squash Latkes

1 2 lb. butternut squash, peeled and grated (about 6 cups)
1 medium onion, grated (about 1 cup)
3 eggs
salt and pepper, to taste
oil, for frying
ginger applesauce, for garnish (recipe below)
curried sour cream, for garnish (recipe below)
scallions, for garnish

Method:

Add grated squash, onion, eggs, salt and pepper to a bowl and mix well. Heat up oil in a frying pan and place spoonfuls of mixture into hot oil. Fry until golden and crispy on each side. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.

NOTE: If the mixture starts to get wet and soggy, use gloves to form patties and squeeze out moisture before frying.

Ginger Applesauce

8 honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 cup apple juice or water
juice of 1 lemon
1 2″ piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 cinnamon sticks
3-4 tbsp honey or maple syrup

Method:

Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove ginger and serve.

NOTE: If you find the applesauce too chunky, mash it with a fork.

Curried Sour Cream

1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder

Method:

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix to incorporate. Serve over latkes with applesauce.

1 year ago: cheese latkes with raspberry sauce
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Chocolate Olive Oil Crinkle Gelt Cookies

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a post before. I mean, have you seen these cookies? If you think they look gorgeous in the picture, JUST. WAIT. TILL. YOU. MAKE. THEM.

My excitement over baked goods needs some explaining, I know. You see, as I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, I’m not the biggest baker. But I had this epiphany one night. I was thinking about crinkle cookies, and how you get those beautiful cracks in the cookie when it bakes. Traditionally, crinkle cookies are rolled in confectionary sugar, so they result in a beautiful zebra-like design. I figured, if I spray the cookies with edible gold spray paint, they’ll kind of look like a crumpled up foil wrapper from those chocolate Chanukah gelt coins. Am I right?

I thought about this one night last week and I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep. First thing the next morning, I ran to the store to collect my ingredients. My friends over at Colavita had recently sent me a few samples of their amazing olive oil, and I knew I had to incorporate it into the recipe. After all, isn’t it the miracle of olive oil that we celebrate on Chanukah? Luckily, Colavita included their 100% GREEK olive oil, and that just put it over the top. Olive oil and chocolate make a wonderful combination, so I set out developing a recipe for fudgy and delicious crinkle cookies. A few hours and a messy kitchen later, I hit the jackpot. To intensify the chocolate flavor without having to melt down chocolate over a double-boiler (I’m always looking for the easy way out, aren’t I?), I added some coffee and used dutch process cocoa powder. The result is a chewy, intensely-flavored chocolate cookie that’s reminiscent of brownies, but oh so much prettier!

To round out my Hanukkah cookie theme, I topped the cookies off with some real chocolate gelt coins. They’ve gone a long way since the waxy variety that used to be available. Nowadays, some of the chocolate gelt is made from real Belgian dark chocolate. So tell me, does it get any better than fudgy chocolate cookies topped with real dark chocolate?

In my special kosher package from Colavita, I received 4 bottles of their amazing premium world selection first cold pressed extra virgin olive oils, including:

Colavita 100% Argentinian Fruity
Colavita 100% Greek Classic
Colavita 100% Californian Mild
Colavita Private Selection 100% Italian

To celebrate Chanukah and these delicious cookies, Colavita is giving away free olive oil samples to one of my readers!

To enter the giveaway, and to get into the Hanukkah spirit, leave a comment letting me know your favorite deep fried foods! Also, if you don’t already follow me on facebook, like the BIB page here. Winner will be chosen at random at 11:00 PM Wednesday, December 12th.

Colavita is also generously offering a 25% discount to all my readers in honor of Hanukkah. Use coupon code BIB25 at checkout. Off expires 1/31/13.

Chanukah Greek Olive Oil Crinkle Cookies

2 cups flour
1 cup dutch process cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup Colavita 100% Greek olive oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1/4 cup water
Wilton gold color mist food spray
chocolate Chanukah gelt coins

Method:

In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and coffee. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well to combine. If any lumps remain, stir the mixture with a hand-mixer until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Place the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Roll 1 heaping tablespoon of batter into a ball and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make sure to roll the batter quickly (otherwise the heat of your hands will make it sticky). Repeat with remaining batter.

Spray the cookies with gold spray paint and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes. Set aside to cool.

While the cookies are still a little warm (but not too hot that they will melt the chocolate), press chocolate coins into the center of each cookie.

VARIATION: Spray the cookies with silver color mist and top with milk chocolate coins. If you prefer not to use color mist, you can roll the cookies in turbinado or powdered sugar instead.

NOTE: If you do not have Colavita 100% Greek olive oil, you may substitute with any other olive oil.

YIELDS: 3 dozen cookies


1 year ago: chanukah cookies
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Chanukah Wall Hanging Craft


You know all those useless catalogs that stuff up your mailbox before the holidays? Well, it turns out they’re not always so useless. Especially when you’re stumped in the crafting department and you’re looking for some inspiration. The Land of Nod is a great place to find it. I was skimming through their overpriced catalog when I happened upon this idea. And when you have the Hanukkah decor squashed into a quarter of a page (against a several page spread of Christmas decorations) you’ve got to learn to be creative.  When I saw the countdown-to-Christmas calendar, I knew I had to make a Chanukah version with draidel pockets for each night. The pockets are perfect little holders for Chanukah chocolate coins, the real (green) stuff, draidels and little gifts. You can even use the center ribbon to personalize it for your family or child.

Hang this fun holiday wall hanging behind the menorah for some festive Hannukah decor.

Happy Crafting & Happy Chanukah!

Chanukah Craft

1 9×12 sheet blue felt
2 9×12 sheets white felt
assorted colors felt sheets
glue gun
stapler
dreidel shape template
dreidel pocket template
gift bow template

How to:

Glue the blue felt sheet to one of the white felt sheets. Cut a piece of white felt 12″ long x 2.35″ wide. Glue it to the center of the blue felt sheet. Using the gift bow template, cut out around the bow shapes and staple them to the remaining white felt sheet. Cut out the bow shapes and the ribbon for the center. Glue one side of the ribbon around the back of one of the bows. Glue one bow to the white backing, and the other to the front blue sheet. Wrap the open end of the ribbon around the back and glue down.

To prepare the draidel pockets, print out 2 copies of each of the draidel templates. Staple the templates to sheets of felt (you can double the felt so you cut 2 at once) and cut out the shapes. Attach the pocket covers to the draidels, making sure to only glue down the sides. Glue all the draidel pockets to the blue felt sheet. For the numbers, cut 8 very thin strips of white felt. Working quickly, draw the number shape with glue onto the draidel pocket and press the strips of felt down on the glue, adjusting the strip to fit the number shape (you can practice with the strips beforehand to set the shape). Alternatively, you may write the numbers with puff paint, or use number stickers.

Fill the pockets each night with Chanukah gelt, chocolate coins, or little gifts!

VARIATION: Instead of a bow, you can make the center strip into a stem for a menorah, and have a menorah branch out at the top. You may also write the family name,  child’s name or simply Chanukah along the center strip.


1 year ago: draidel snowglobe
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Chic Made Simple – Review & Giveaway!

When I first received the Chic Made Simple cookbook, I was wowed. It’s filled with beautiful pictures, impeccable food styling, and lots of delicious recipes that are truly, made simple. Esther Deutsch’s new cookbook promises fresh, fast and fabulous kosher cuisine, and it delivers. With appetizers & sides, soups, salads, poultry, meat, fish, dairy and desserts, the cookbook lacks for nothing. Chef’s are fond of saying “We eat with our eyes first”, and no one knows that better than Esther. Her talent for plating and food styling are on full display page after page. As a wannabe food stylist (at least for my blog) this book has taught me a lot.

While styling is important, the food also has to speak for itself. The recipes in Chic are simple enough for the novice cook, yet sophisticated enough for the more experienced chef. Some of my favorite dishes include quinoa patties, pulled meat wontons, roasted chestnut pumpkin soup, sundried tomato basil capons, creole veal burgers, 60-second cajun salmon, fruit tartare, and many more.

All that being said, I do have a few small qualms about this book. As the food editor of Ami magazine, many, of the recipes appeared in the magazine at some point (46 of the recipes in the book have never been published). While it mostly reads like a cookbook, there is some confusion where the pictures don’t entirely relate to the recipe, and some magazine spreads that were stuck in the book, disrupting the flow. The pictures, having been photographed by a few photographers, don’t offer the same style, and some are so highly manipulated, they don’t look realistic. As a graphic designer, I find this very frustrating, but to the untrained eye, most people will not be disturbed by it.

Bottom line: Chic Made Simple does in fact offer chic recipes that are fairly easy. Some recipes use highly processed ingredients, but most include ingredients that you’d find in your pantry. While many will not be able to plate their dishes as impeccably as pictured, the recipes sure seem to taste as delicious as they look.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me about a simple recipe that you serve in a chic way! And if you don’t already follow me on facebook, like the BIB page here. Winner will be chosen at random at 11:00 PM Wednesday, December 5th. 

Warm Deep-Dish Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Torte
excerpted from CHIC Made Simple: Fresh. Fast. Fabulous. Kosher Cooking By Esther Deutsch, Feldheim Publishers

Ingredients

2 cups oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
4 cups all-purpose fl our
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (10 oz.) chocolate chips
Store-bought vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the oil, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt on medium speed until well combined, about 2–3 minutes. Add the chocolate chips and combine.

2. Pour the batter into two 9-inch round baking pans and bake, uncovered, for 55–60 minutes. Serve the torte warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

3. To reheat, warm the torte, tightly covered, in a preheated 200° F oven for no longer than 1 hour. Serves 16.

Note: This recipe yields two 9-inch round cakes. You can serve the second one as a breakfast cake.

1 year ago: black bean brownies
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Kani Salad


This kani salad recipe (courtesy of my cousin Chana, a great hostess!) converted me into a mock-crab fan. It’s that good. If you go back to this post, you can read in my own words how much I used to dislike those orange colored surimi sticks. I’d always pick them out of California sushi rolls. But not anymore. Does the idea of eating mock-crab freak you out too? Well then do yourself a favor and make this salad. Trust me, you’ll never look back!

I’m not the only one who’s gaga over this recipe. I had my friend Dina and her family over during the holidays, and I served this among the appetizers. I hadn’t known, but apparently Dina and her husband have sampled kani salad at just about every kosher restaurant in (and out of) town. They were excited to see how this recipe would measure up to their favorite. Not only did it measure up, it exceeded their expectations by far. In fact, they no longer order it at restaurants, they make it at home instead!

There’s just something about the stringy texture and spicy dressing that makes you want to eat it all up with chopsticks. And chopsticks are fun. So, if you’re looking for a colorful, spicy and delicious dish, give this kani salad a try!

Kani Salad

1 pkg mock crab surimi sticks, cut or pulled apart into thin strips
1 English cucumbers, jullienned (see tip)
1/3 cup mayo
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp sriracha
2 tsp black sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup Rice Krispies or french fried onions

Method:

Add kani and cucumber to a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine mayo, rice vinegar, sriracha and sesame seeds. Pour dressing over kani salad and mix. Garnish with additional sesame seeds and Rice Krispies.

NOTE: Sriracha is an Asian hot sauce, typically made from chili peppers, vinegar, sugar and salt. I prefer my kani salad to be spicy so I use 2 tbsp.

TIP: The simplest method to julienne a cucumber is by using a julienne peeler. First, I cut the cucumber in half so that I can get shorter pieces (you don’t want your strips the entire length of the cucumber). Then, I peel the cucumber all around, once for the peel, and another time around the inside. I discard the rest. If you don’t have a julienne peeler, cut the cucumber lengthwise, and using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out the seeds. Cut the cucumber in half so that you have 2 u-shaped pieces. Place the cucumber face-down on the cutting board and cut lengthwise into thin slices. Keep the slices stacked and cut the stacks into thin strips.

VARIATION: If it’s too hard for you to cut the crab and cucumbers into sticks, you can dice them up instead.

1 year ago: pan seared tuna steak
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