Thats what the old ad sort of says (okay, the ad had to do with Levy’s Jewish rye bread, but it’s the same sentiment).

And it’s true about latkes. Everyone loves at least one kind. And although most people think potato when they hear the word, latkes actually come in a variety of flavors and ingredients. The word latke just means pancake or fritter, so you could make them with shredded vegetables like zucchini or with sweet potatoes. Or you could make batter pancakes and mix it with cheese or corn kernels and fry them up to crispy goodness and those are latkes too.

I have an Irish friend who makes a kind of latke. She doesn’t call it that of course and, to tell the truth, she never thought of it as a dish for Hanukkah, but it is a pancake. It includes potato. It’s fried. And best of all it’s delicious. And guess what? It’s not difficult to make and doesn’t make a mess on your cooktop or counter like classic potato latkes do.

This “Irish latke” is called a Pratie Griddle Scone. It’s a delicious alternative to classic latkes during the 8 days of Hanukkah. It’s a good snack anytime. A good side dish at dinner and almost best of all, you can serve it for breakfast or brunch so it might be perfect if you’re having sleepover guests or brunch company at New Year’s time.

The recipe calls for one cup mashed potatoes. You can used leftover mashed potatoes or boil up a potato or two or use the insides of a baked potato.

Pratie Griddle Scones

1 cup packed mashed potatoes

2 tablespoons softened butter

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup quick oats, approximately

vegetable oil for frying

Place the mashed potatoes, butter, salt and baking powder in a bowl and mix ingredients to blend them. Place the oats in a food processor and process to pulverize them almost to “flour.” Blend as much of the oats into the potato mixture as is needed to form a soft, pliable dough. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/4-inch thick. Prick the dough in several places with the tines of a fork. Cut the circle into 6 wedges. Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Fry the scones for about 3 minutes per side or until they are golden brown an crispy. Makes 6 pieces

When in Egypt, eat as the Egyptians do.

So I have, as I’ve been here for just under two weeks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Some of the traditional breakfast food is actually not so different than what I eat at home, which usually is plain yogurt with fresh fruit or dried apricots. There’s lots of yogurt here for breakfast, all plain rather than being mixed with so much stuff that you can’t taste the yogurt.

But for breakfast here there’s also hummus, baba ghanoosh, tahini, olive salads and falafel, so I’ve been having a feast. I love all that food, but normally it’s for snack or hors d’oeuvre, not breakfast. This will change my company brunch menu for sure. All of these dishes are ones I can make ahead so there’s no fussing when people are over.

Think New Year’s weekend.

One of the more interesting breakfast dishes is the variety of feta cheese mixtures. I love feta cheese. But it’s the kind of cheese I crumble into a salad or spinach pie. In Egypt they mash it up and mix it it with lemon juice and olive oil to make it creamy, add some chopped tomatoes, scallions and sometimes parsley or mint and it becomes a spread for pita bread.

Terrific breakfast food. Great change from toast and jam.

The photo shows the way it’s served: with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Try it. The recipe is something like this — use amounts of lemon juice and olive oil that suit your fancy and make the feta as creamy as you like.

Mash 6-8 ounces of feta cheese with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and about 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Beat until creamy. Add plain yogurt if desired for a creamier consistency. Add 3 chopped scallions, 8-10 chopped cherry tomatoes and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or one tablespoon chopped fresh mint if desired. Mix thoroughly. Serve drizzled with olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Serve with pita bread. Makes 6 servings

Crunchy or soft? What’s the right way to eat matzo brei?

In my last blog post I said that my husband thought it was weird that I ate matzo brei with yogurt, not maple syrup. His mother had served it with maple syrup, or, more likely, with “table syrup” like Log Cabin.

Well that’s not the only point of disagreement we have on the subject. The other one has to do with texture. Sometimes food can taste terrific but the texture isn’t right.

Right?

When I made made matzo brei for him the first time he said it wasn’t at all what he expected. My version is soft and tender, the way my mother made it and the way my grandmother made it.

His mother made it crunchy. She hardly soaked the matzo, so matzo brei in the Fein household was more like an eggs and matzo flat omelet. It tastes fine. But I prefer the soft, tender kind. But I realize that good people can have different opinions on this, so here’s how to make Crunchy Matzo Brei:

Crunchy Matzo Brei

1-1/2 matzos

warm water

1 large egg

salt to taste

butter

Break the matzos into small pieces into a bowl. Cover with warm water and let it soak for 20 seconds. Drain any non-absorbed water, then squeeze the pieces to extract as much excess water as possible. Add the egg and mix the ingredients. Sprinkle to taste with salt. Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the egg-matzo mixture. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown and crispy. Makes one serving (but you can double, triple or even quadruple the recipe and use a bigger pan)

“There’s no French Toast during Passover.” That’s what I told my grandkids when they were here for a few days for Seders and sleepovers. They’re used to French Toast when they come to grandma’s house because I always have a spare challah in the freezer, or we make one and then have leftovers, and everyone on earth knows that the best French Toast is made with challah.

But never mind that. “Israeli Toast” is on the menu, is what I told them.

You know. Matzo Brei. It’s the same thing as French Toast but instead of using bread, you use matzo. 

But here’s a dilemma. Topping for French Toast is easy: either maple syrup, cinnamon sugar or jelly. A lot of people do the same for Matzo Brei. But when I was a little girl my grandma served Matzo Brei sprinkled with salt and topped with a big blob of sour cream. Sometimes applesauce.

My husband Ed always thought this was weird. But it’s how I served it to my own daughters too, who think it’s weird to drizzle matzo brei with anything as sweet as maple syrup. If I had sour cream in the fridge, that’s what they would choose. But we’ve switched to fat-free Greek yogurt instead.

“Israeli Toast” or Matzo Brei is so easy to make. And a delicious switch from every other cereal-based breakfast. So if you want to give it a try, here’s my recipe:

Matzo Brei

1 piece of matzo

hot water

1 large egg

salt

butter

sour cream or plain Greek style yogurt

Break the matzo into small pieces into a bowl. Cover with hot water and let it soak until the pieces are soft. Drain any non-absorbed water, then squeeze the pieces to extract as much excess water as possible. Add the egg to the soft matzo pieces and mix until the matzo and egg are well combined. Sprinkle to taste with salt. Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the egg-matzo mixture. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown and crispy. Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt, or, if you must, with maple syrup. Makes one serving (but you can double, triple or even quadruple the recipe and use a bigger pan)

Potato pancakes for breakfast? 

Yes indeed. It’s one of our New Year’s Day favorites. My cousins come to stay with us for a few days and we usually eat a couple of days of smoked fish (salmon, sturgeon, whitefish and herring) with bagels. But New Year’s Day should be a little more special so a couple of times I’ve made very large potato pancakes (like 6-inches) and served them with smoked salmon on top, capped with a blob of sour cream garnished with chopped fresh chives and sometimes with red salmon caviar.

Quite luxurious to eat. Beautiful and festive looking too. And it’s easy. You can make the pancakes ahead and reheat them to hot and crispy in a 425 degree oven, then serve them with the cold smoked salmon and sour cream on top.

I’ve given a potato pancake recipe before, but I change it slightly for New Year’s breakfast. When I couple it with something cold, like smoked fish, I prefer a shreddy texture — it makes crispier pancakes (so I don’t grate or chop the potatoes. I use the shredding blade on a food processor). I also don’t use baking powder because I like the pancake flatter and unpuffed — a better texture with the moist, cool fish.

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon, Sour Cream and Chives

4 large Russet-type baking potatoes, peeled

1 large yellow onion

3 tablespoons bread crumbs 

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

vegetable oil for frying

12 large slices smoked salmon

dairy sour cream (about 1 cup)

chopped chives or salmon caviar

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Shred the potatoes and onion using the shredding disk of a food processor. Using a handful or two at a time, place the shreds into a kitchen towel and squeeze as much liquid out as possible, then place the shreds in a bowl. Repeat with the remaining potato-onion mixture. Add the bread crumbs and toss the ingredients. Add the eggs, salt and pepper and mix to distribute the ingredients thoroughly. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Heat about 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a bread crumb sizzle, fry each portion, one at a time, for 2-3 minutes per side or until browned and crispy. Keep each pancake warm in the preheated oven until you finish frying all the batter. Place the pancakes on 6 plates. Top each with two slices of salmon. Top with a blob of sour cream in the center. Garnish the top of the sour cream with some chopped chives or a dollop of salmon caviar. Makes 6 servings 

When you’re used to plain yogurt and dried apricots for breakfast every day, the rare, occasional blueberry muffin becomes a luxurious treat. It’s not as if I can’t buy a fresh blueberry muffin at any bakery or coffee shop, any time. Or even make my own. They only take a few minutes to make and a few minutes to bake.

But I think of blueberry muffins as dreadfully fattening, especially the post-modern 21st century variety that looks three times bigger than I remember blueberry muffins from my youth.

When I first started working I was young and slim and everyone in the office brought in breakfast, so I did too. My choice was a yogurt (a rarity then) plus a blueberry muffin. Within 6 months I had gained 10 pounds.

I always attributed the gain to the blueberry muffins, so I stopped buying them.

I have to say, when you don’t eat something that you consider delicious for a long time, you really appreciate it when you do eat it.

I am going to make some blueberry muffins sometime between now and New Year’s Day when my cousins are at my house for a long-weekend sleepover. We’ll get a little bored with the smoked fish we usually eat, even the luxurious version I’ll serve on New Year’s Day (with smoked salmon on top of potato pancake; see the recipe Friday at www.ronniefein.com). So blueberry muffins it will be. A simple breakfast goodie. A couple of scrambled eggs and hot coffee and we’ll be satisfied.

By the way, if you don’t have buttermilk you can use plain kefir or yogurt or make this: 1 tablespoons lemon juice plus enough milk to equal one cup; let stand for 5 minutes. 

Blueberry Muffins

4 tablespoons butter

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

1 tablespoon grated fresh orange peel

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin. Melt the butter and set it aside. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a second bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, orange peel and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir only to blend ingredients (do not mix vigorously). Fold in the berries. Drop the batter in equal amounts into the prepared muffin tin cups (the number will depend on the size of the muffins) to about 2/3 filled. Bake for 22-26 minutes, depending on size, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 9-12