Staff Recipes: Thea’s Latkes & Apple Sauce!
Thea Dunlap-Preuss is Market Staff at the University District and West Seattle Farmers Markets.
The holiday food I look forward to the most is Latkes. Potatoes and onions can be found at Alvarez Organic Farm, Olsen Farms and others. Latkes must be eaten with applesauce on top. Since I’m never in America during the holidays and applesauce doesn’t exist in India, (where I live half the year), my husband Taylor and I make applesauce from scratch. Homemade apple sauce is easy to make! The best apples can be found at the farmers markets. This apple sauce recipe was adapted from Cookie + Kate’s How To Make Apple Sauce.
Latke Ingredients:
2 cups peeled and shredded potatoes
1 tablespoon grated onion
3 large eggs eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup vegetable oil, (or other high heat oil), for frying
Apple Sauce Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds sweet, red apples
1 ½ pounds tart, green or yellow apples
⅓ cup water
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey, more to taste
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Latkes:
Place the shredded potatoes in a cheesecloth and wring, extracting as much moisture as possible. Pressing them into a colander also works, as long as you’re extracting as much moisture as possible.
In a medium bowl, stir the potatoes, onion, eggs, flour and salt together.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until hot. Place large spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil, pressing down on them to form 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick patties. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Let drain on paper towels. Serve hot!
Apple Sauce:
Peel, core and chop the apples into roughly 2″ chunks. In a saucepan, combine the apple chunks, water, maple syrup and cinnamon. Cover and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and falling apart.
Remove the pot from the heat. For chunky applesauce, use a potato masher or the back of a spatula to break it up to your desired consistency. For smooth applesauce, use a blender or immersion blender.
Stir in the vinegar. Adjust to taste—for sweeter applesauce, stir in more maple syrup; for more spice, add more cinnamon; for more complexity, add another teaspoon of vinegar.