Pam R

I love that... a Sephardic Syrian dinner. I should be receiving cases of zaatar and sumac this week - you'r latkes are now on my must-try list. Hope you feel better soon (and I hope it wasn't the latkes that made you sick!)

Hi Rona. The amount of liquid will vary from potato to potato - after a rainy summer, the potatoes around here tend to have much more water in them... as they do this year. I actually squeeze the grated potatoes - I don't just let them sit in a colander. If you squeeze them and you don't get a lot of water out of them, don't worry about it. You don't have to add any cornstarch. Sometimes I add the starch, sometimes I don't. As to the colour. I always grate the onion first then toss the grated potatoes with the onion - this keep the oxidization to a minimum. Some people add some vinegar to their recipes - but you have to be careful because then you have vinegar flavoured latkes. If the potatoes turn brown, it doesn't really harm the latke - it's just oxidizing potatoes. In fact, my grandmother's latkes always had a purplish tint to them when I was growing up. And last, it's -21.4 C back here at home. Enjoy the 5.

Latkes anybody? I made about 10 dozen today.. which had me wondering how many I'll be making over the holidays. So I taped a piece of paper to the kitchen wall and I'm going to count them up. The list includes ones from Wed. on. It's definitely potato pancake season (though I'm including latkes... that are potato-less in the count).

Of course! I even mentioned during the interview that I like to saute some spinach and garlic, add it with feta and oregano for a different flavour. Or some zucchini and leeks. Or .... I can't wait to see what you come up with.

I'm happy to hear you like this book - it's on my list of books I must get. I was lucky enough to sit in on a talk he gave last month and found him to be fascinating. I may have to buy it for myself for Chanukah.

Thanks for the wonderful blog Jamie. I visited your beautiful end of the country last year - and you've been reminding me all week that I need to return. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Today I taped a latke segment for CBC radio. As I was prepping for the taping I took some pictures: 2 small onions and 2 lbs. potatoes grated and draining: squeezed on the left, starches settling on the right: added 2 eggs, 3 Tbsp. flour, salt and pepper: ready for flipping: now, I know that the plating is lacking, but everybody knows that the best way to eat a latke is right out of the pan - no fork or knife necessary - before the rest go to the table (or in this case, they were packed up and sent to the studio):

I'm not sure if the bagels here are boiled in honey water... I don't think they are but I'll have to ask at the bakeries next time I'm in or call to order. I was thinking more along the lines of the Montreal bagel which I believe is boiled in sugared/honeyed water. If you google Montreal Bagels, you'll find they also think they have the best bagels in the world.

Yep. I ran the food service at a community center that had a high-school in it. We sold a lot of fries. We'd peel, cut and blanch 400-500 lbs. of potatoes a week. Once blanched we spread them out on baking sheets lined with parchment and froze them. Into plastic bags and back into the freezer. They went right into the fryer from the freezer with no problems. Ended up with a crisp outside, soft inside. Frying oil doesn't like moisture, but blanching that many potatoes meant changing the oil frequently anyway.

Every wedding invitation I've been sent in the last few years has had an RSVP card in it with a place to check off my entree choice. I think each and every one has had a chicken, fish (usually salmon) or vegetarian option. And when we cater weddings, if it isn't a buffet, there is almost always a choice. Is this possible in your situation? By having the guests RSVP their choice you don't have to have extra food on hand to offer alternatives. Then you can do an interesting Salmon, a vegetarian and some sort of meat dish (or just a fish/veg choice if you want to limit the choices)

The good ones are boiled first. And of course, they're made from a yeast dough. Some are boiled in sweetened water but I believe sugar in the recipe is kept to a minimum

I'd check with these guys. If they don't sell it, I'm sure they could tell you who might.

on another thread about cooking brisket, we discussed the fact that briskets aren't generally graded at all. briskets are NOT a prime cut of meat. but you can get melt-in-your-mouth results if cooked properly. I'm also for the long, slow cooking - but not quite as long and slow of some of the previous posts. I slather my brisket with a paste made from olive oil, garlic and spices, wrap the sucker in foil and into a 275-300 oven for a few hours. a pot roast may require longer to cook due to the shape of the roast. for rare to medium rare I only use rib roasts. there are only a few choices when dealing with kosher meat, and none of the other cuts make a good rare roast.

we never put stuff outside. it's too cold and there's the issue of skunks and cats and dogs. that's why we have garages. attached to the house, but not heated it's almost perfect (though there's a 19 L water bottle out there that looks like it may be on the verge of splitting). there are periods during the winter when the average temperature for 30 days straight may be -30, so then it is a freezer, rather than a fridge.

I've never heard of it in that form.. but I wonder if it might be the same recipe - minus the steps of slicing and re-baking. I've never kept my loaves around long enough to see if they remain soft after an hour or two. I need to bake some (we call it Komish around here) in the next few days.. I'll bake an extra loaf and leave it for a while. Of course, somebody out there might already have an answer for you

That sounds amazing.. I don't have rosemary chicken sausage.. but I'm thinking I can sub some oregano/basil chicken sausage? My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We're freezing here. The high is about -12C - so it's definitely soup weather. I made another batch of carrot dill yesterday, my go-to fast,easy & delicious soup. Today I'm prepping vegetables for two batches of borscht - 1 vegetarian, 1 with meat.

I tried this recipe this morning - I absolutely love Crunch bars. Though it tasted pretty close... I don't think my candy got... poofy enough. Do you think I should add more vinegar or baking soda? or both? hmm..

Go to a kosher place for your chicken parts. I only use whole fowl if I'm going to use the meat for something else (kreplach, knishes, chicken pot pie). Otherwise, the best chicken stocks are from backs, necks and wings. Baba would have used feet as well - can you believe you can't buy kosher feet in my province anymore? Any kosher butcher (or store) worth it's salt will have these parts (except for the feet). For beef I use ribs and neck.

I think it's pretty common here to 'tip the tax" - or to use it as a guide. I generally tip a minimum of the tax (14% total pts&gst) plus some to bring it up to 15% or so. For great service, I up it. I've been a server - and I sometimes find that I fight myself over how much to tip. Some service is so atrocious that I don't think the server deserves a tip. I know it's hard work to wait on people - but I expect a certain level of behaviour from a server when I'm eating out. I've yet to not leave anything at all - but I've definitely left less than 15% for bad service.

Yep - thanks. Wanted to make sure I wasn't poisoning myself.

Or a rosti... both of which aren't bad things. I'd add some raw onion and egg/flour to make it a pancake... but it looks delicious!

and are they supposed to have the slightly sour flavour I'm tasting?

I think I'll pass. My bag is salted - no other flavouring. But I notice a slight... tang? when they're cracked open. So, assuming I can buy a watermelon that still has seeds... would I roast them like I would a pumpkin seed? Can you imagine all the seeds I've thrown out over the years!

I no longer flour pans. I find they release better for me with just a liberal spraying of Pam/veg oil.

Somebody brought me a bag of roasted watermelon seeds from Israel this week. I'm sitting here cracking through the hard skins with my teeth and eating the hard 'flesh', which to me tastes like a cross between a sunflower and pumpkin seed. I don't think that I'd go out of my way to find these again. It seems like a lot of hard work to get through the shell for a very limited pay-off. My cousin (in Beijing) told me that they seem to be popular in China.. and obviously they have them in Israel - but I've never seen them here before. Is there anybody out there who loves them? Hates them?