Creamy Fall Vegetable Risotto

Arborio. Arboreal. Something creamy, warm and smoked, for my belly today (and yours?).

What have we there? Broccoli, fennel, mushroom, orange pepper, and onion, surrounded by perfectly al dente little bites of rice. Onion grass from the back yard (aka, foraged chives). And some decadently creamy cashew stock, with smoked black pepper and roasted garlic.

I was concerned the creaminess of the stock would interfere with the rice performing its magic, but no worries. Perfecto. And easy.

Creamy Fall Vegetable Risotto
serves 6 (or 3 hungry me's)

2.5 cups arborio rice
3 tablespoons canola or olive oil

5 cups water
2 tablespoons mushroom stock concentrate, or another strongly flavored vegetable stock
6 cloves roasted garlic
2/3 cup raw cashews
Smoked black peppercorns, to taste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

2 cups mushrooms, sliced
Small fistful of fresh onion grass, minced
Fresh thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons
Fresh sage, 3 leaves, minced (optional)
1 small head broccoli, tough stems removed, cut to florets
1 onion, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 small head fennel, sliced to rings

Salt, at the end, only if it needs it.

Roast your mushrooms, fennel, garlic (wrapped in foil, with a tsp of oil) and broccoli in the oven at 430f. Use the same roasting pan, toss them with a little oil, and remove them to a plate as they finish cooking (broccoli at 8 minutes or so, mushrooms at 10, fennel then or at 12, garlic at 18-20).

Throw the first 6 ingredients into your blender and puree until very smooth. Remove to a small saucepan and heat over medium low, keeping it warm.

In a large risotto or saute pan, heat your oil over medium-high heat. Add your onion and pepper, and cook 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Lower heat to medium-low.

Add your rice and stir to coat with the oil. Toss for 4-5 minutes, until each granule has a translucent "halo" around its edges. Now it is time to add the stock.

2/3 of a cup at a time, dears - stirring constantly. Cashews contain protein, so beware of rice trying to become one with the bottom of your pan. 20-22 minutes ought to get you through most if not all of your stock and see your rice to near perfection - if you need a little more water at the end, don't hesitate to use it.

Add a little more thyme or sage, if you'd like. Taste for salt.

Go at it while its still warm. Cheers!

Sweet Potato Avocado Rolls with Maple Tamari Reduction

Yeeeeeeeehaw, let's go ahead and just put the sesame seeds away. It's ok. I've got something different for you to try.

Bit of a disclosure: this roll was supposed to be pumpkin and avocado, but by time I got to chopping and roasting the huge pumpkin I'd had lying around for a while, and discovering its sinewy reluctance to be delicious at all, well, the cute little sweet tater hanging in my produce basket was looking mighty fine. And so it got roasted. And cut into cubey strips. And wrapped in nori with a good friend (avocado) and coconut rice.

And rolled in toasted, salted pumpkin seeds. So good.

Earthy, nutty little suckers. A lovely coating - even when lying next to fellow rolls, being squished and leaned on, no one got stuck to each other. Uber easy to cut, even with my (gasp) non-recently sharpened knife.  Higher protein, these seeds, perhaps? Who knows, but for taste alone, I'd do it again. Maybe with some tempeh bacon next time, oh yeah.

And let's not forget - a small saucepan, half maple syrup, half tamari, healthy dash of smoked habanero poweder, simmered down to the consistency of balsamic reduction, drizzled over top with a fork. This isn't salty sushi. This is Prelude to Pumpkin Pie sushi.

Sweet Potato Avocado Sushi with Pepitas and Maple-Tamari Reduction
makes 6 rolls

Let's do this.

2 cups sushi rice, washed until water runs clean
1 can coconut milk + half a cup of water

1 medium sweet potato, roasted, sliced to 1/2 inch strips
1 avocado, sliced to strips
6 sheets nori
2 cups roasted, salted pumpkin seeds, crushed

1 cup maple syrup
1 cup tamari soy sauce
1/2 tsp smoked habanero powder

sushi mat
sharp knife

Easy peasy.

Prep your rice as you would normal sushi rice, but leave out the rice vinegar. Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, combine your tamari, maple syrup, and habanero powder in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-low heat 12-14 minutes, until reduced by half. Set aside.

Have your fillings at hand. Set up a separate plate for rolling your sushi in the crushed pumpkin seeds (ie, a spare cutting board). Be near a sink, for rinsing your knife in between cuts.

Cover your mat in plastic wrap, folding it around itself at the edges.

Press 2/3 cup sushi rice onto the plastic, about covering the area of one of your nori sheets. Press a sheet of nori in place over your square of rice. Place 3-4 potato strips and 5-6 slices of avocado at roll bottom, then bring the bottom edge up and using the mat, roll your sushi tightly, following through at the end, so that the riced nori sticks to itself.

Dust your spare cutting board with 1/2 cup pepitas and roll your sushi in the delish powder. Set roll aside.

Complete the rest of your rolls. If you have leftover rice/nori, try your hand at ....

Starting with a sharp knife that has been run under the faucet, slice your sushi into 8-10 pieces. Plate as you go, and drizzle your lovely rolls with tamari-maple reduction, when done.

Taking those babies to a party? Skewer each piece with a toothpick. Enjoy!

Vegan Ranch Deja Vu

Ranch dressing sans the mayo, the buttermilk, the sour cream, the moooo. It's been done before. It'll be done again. And since meals when the kitchen's in boxes come mainly from the fridge, I'll be eating it alot over the next few weeks.

Last time we went down this long Southern-bound path, it was with our pal Tofu. Tofu is good. Tofu is light. But if you want something a tad more decadent, you might want to try this cashew-based puree instead. You should try it regardless - it's seriously delish.

Cashew Ranch Dressin'

makes 2 cups. Dip the radish, the lettuce, the carrot, your finger, et all in it.

1.5 cup raw cashew pieces + 1/2 cup of cashew soaking water
Juice of 1 lemon
4-5 tablespoons pickle juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
Miso, small pinch
Ground mustard, pinch
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
Handful each : fresh parsley, dill, scallion
Tons of freshly ground black pepper


Throw the first 6 ingredients in the blender, except for the water - just add 1/4 cup at first. Whizz away for a long while - the longer, the smoother the dressing, and thus mine went for 6-7 minutes - adding water as needed to keep the motor running sufficiently to smooth the puree out. You'll probably need most of the 1/2 cup to acheive this.

Add your yeast (if using) minced herbs, and black pepper, and pulse to just mix.

Chill for an hour or so before serving, to let the flavors mellow and blend.

AWESOME on a tomato/greens/mustard sammich. Yeah, I eat that alllll the time. Simple and tart.  Best when tomatoes are just coming in - as they are now. Say hello to bulbous, beautiful heirlooms, my darlings! They're coming!

I'm such a salad nerd I spent some bucks on vintage Scandi-design salad plates that come preprinted with salad.

*chomp*

Strung out on Strawberries

I've been having a blast hanging with some rad local-to-CLT foodbloggers over the past month. For lots of reasons.

One, it's a myriad of walks - teachers, photographers, personal chefs, fitness-minded-ers, food writers,  well...maybe we're not all THAT different, but diverse enough that the conversation's pretty awesome. I like to pick brains, and everyone's been AOK with that.

Two, I have no pals, save a couple, that do their own bloggy thang, so I can make nerdy, trite blogger jokes about basements and pajamas and get at LEAST an annoyed eye-roll.

Three, the potlucks we've had so far have been AMAZING, because everyone knows what they're doing in the kitchen x infiniti. And even more awesomely - they're cool with the couple of us that don't eats the meats, and have been schleping vegan and near vegan nosh to the park so that we can all partake.

 
And since I know that several of the CLTFBs are pretty into bacon and bar-b-que, it's pretty sweet of 'em. At this particular shindig, there were 7 of us and neon-nikon Crosby.

Strawberry Salsa. Hulllll-ooooo. This simple, fresh treatment was my fav of the day (and there were some serious contenders, believe you me). Brought to my mouth via Allison aka WishUponAChef. So good - lime, cilantro, jalapenos and sweet, sweet strawberries. Fantastic.

Check this mother out:

Yes. That's a sicknasty, huge, strawberry cream pie. And yes, I eschewed my summer veganism and had a messy, awesome slice. Thanks Julie!

VEGAN ARTICHOKE DIP ALERT - this was a close second to my stoked tongue. Cheezy, gooey, awesome. Maybe if you're stupendously sweet to Ensley, she'll share the recipe. Maybe she already has! We're talking about doing some super awesome guest posting this summer. Stay tuned, daaahlings.

And then of course Mr. Mathis (sounds like a spy name, amirite?) brought something awesome - sweet potato salad. Hulllll-oooo again, delicious.

(and seriously, I ate the weight of my arm in fresh cherries, thanks to Crosby) 

Friggin awesome fignewtonbrownies - yup -

(Katie, you're a goddess)

And let's not forget the lovely Diana, rockin' some cous cous tabbouleh. Yes. I ate lots.

So why all the 'berries, you ask? A couple of Sundays back was National Strawberry Picking Day - and to commemorate that Holy Day by staining our hands and straining our backs (I know I sound like a cranky old lady here, which I secretly am) we all converged on Miller Farm just over the state line in SC. Place was a bit picked over, but who cares.

6 years? 7? since I last PYO threwdown on some berries. Tomatoes are more my jam, and they're on their way in now. I'll be back.

Still, we got a friggin' gallon of the little, misshapen, tumorous, leftover suckers:

(alright not ALL of them were tumorous, there were a few primo specimens that we'd pick, get all excited over, and show off to each other)

Here's awesomefignewtonbrownie Katie with her haul:

And Julie, rockin' the smaller box and some shade:

Random sky panorama, was a lovely day:

There was no way those little red orbuses were going to last until I cookeried them on Saturday, so I saved a few for fresh noshing and froze the rest. Sunday morning rolls around and I, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, strawberry crazed, went to town on the gallon or so frosty in the freezer. Two things happened:

Strawberry Balsamic Sorbet. Simple, tart, a little watery, but interesting. I basically followed this recipe and tripled the balsamic - next time, I might just double it, as the tartness was almost overwhelming.

More excitingly - check this tart out. She's a looker.

The idea was to do a caprese tart, only with 'berries rather than 'maters. It was pretty awesome. Maybe even very.

Topped with balsamic reduction and some arugula, the feeling was that you we're noshing on your old pals mozz, tomato, basil, garlic, vinegar, greens - and then the strawberry would pop through and surprise!

Neat.


Strawberry Caprese Tart

sliced, serves 6-8

1 batch garlic-basil pastry for crust (I used this recipe to a T, gotta love Ezra!)
8 ozs fresh mozz, sliced thin
8 fresh or 12 frozen strawberries, sliced thin
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Large handful fresh arugula

Easy peasy. Set your vinegar assimering in a non-reactive saucepan while you make your pastry - 10 minutes on medium heat should get it nice and syrupy.

Make your pastry - Mr. Poundcake did his in the food processor (GASP) so I did too. Doing it by hand will yield a flakier crust - it's up to you.

Butter a tart pan and roll out your (chilled! an hour! trust me!) dough thin - 1/8 inch or thereabouts. Carefully lift the dough onto the pan, press down, and let the pan cut the edge nicely (mine is sharp enough to do this, and reminds me of that fact every time my fingers get too fiesty with pastry-edge-pressing).

Lay your sliced mozz over your pastry, then your sliced strawberries. The correct term is scattering, I'm told.  Bake for about 30 minutes in a 375f oven, until your cheese is a little browned.

Cool your tart for about 20 minutes before attempting to remove it from your pan. Run a butter knife, gently, around any problem spots, and invert over a large, flat plate. Should loosen easily.

Drizzle that sucker with balsamic and plop a big ol' handful of fresh arugula in the center, and serve.

See you next year, Strawberry Mania! See you next month, HUGE PIG AWWWWWR.

oink.

Winterhaul! Almost.

It is seriously chilling out this weekend - I've just harvested the last of the herbs, since it'll be freezing at some point this noche. What happened to Fall? Sigh.

Still, there were some gorgeous heads of Bibb lettuce at the market this morning. I worry for their younger brothers and sisters.

Neato find - small hibiscus flowers used in brewing Red Zinger tea. Awesome.

And in further celebration of consuming our weights in burritos last week (sob, I miss you SF!!!), I made brekkie burritos. Nowhere near as perfectly made as any taqueria (burritoria?) in the Mission, so that'll be a project: How To Stuff and Roll the Perfect Burrito. And it wasn't like I wasn't hawk-eyeing whoever was making my 'rito every time I stopped for one - they just move SO FAST it's hard to catch the details.

Could it have been an overloaded with fillings problem?

Hmm. Maybe.

Latkes! Encore!

Since we're all unabashed potato lovers in this house (that's right, I even PEEL them half the time), I'm often looking for new flavors to pair with earthy-starchy.

We still had several pounds of VA apples from our camping/foraging trip last weekend, so I started off by simmering them with a little molasses and brown sugar, a la this recipe. And since we'd also brought home 3 pounds of the biggest, gnarliest taters I'd seen in many moons, well, Latkes were on the menu again. What a tragedy, eh?

The fun thing about these was surely the secret filling - folded slices of brie, all melty and creamy. Man. I think I ate 5 before I realized what I was doing. Add a little applesauce on top, and there's some serious flavor play happening here. Yum.

Brie-Stuffed Latkes

4 large potatoes, parboiled and peeled
2 large eggs, scrambled
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2/3 pound Brie, rind on
Handful of all-puropse flour
1 tsp baking powder
Dash of milk, soymilk, cream, or water
Salt and pepper, to taste

Vegetable oil, to shallow-fry

We're following this technique almost totally - the only difference is the stuffing part, which happens in the pan, so procede as decribed - parboiling, peeling and shredding your taters - shredding the onion over the same disc, adding your minced garlic, salt and pepper, then mix. Add your eggs, flour, baking powder, mix, and then a tiny pour of milk, until you see batter thinly coating each shred of tater.

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy iron skillet to medium. Have your cheese at the ready. We're keeping the heat a little lower than usual to give us time to make and stuff three latkes at a time.

Fork about a tablespoon of batter into the pan and flatten it with the back of a spoon. Quickly press a piece of brie into the batter, leaving a border of pancake free from cheese all the way around it. Fold it to fit if need be. Fork an equal portion of batter over the cheese, making sure to enclose it completely. Procede to make 2 more latkes in this way - by time you finish the third, it'll be time to flip the first.

When you flip these babies, press down slightly to compress, but be gentle. You don't want to squash your cheese out of its pocket.

Continue making latkes until the batter is gone. You'll have 10-12 large pancakes.

The cheese replaces the traditional sour cream accompaniment, at least for me. I didn't have any on hand, so I didn't try. Could be magic, who knows?

Enjoy.

Octoberness

Sweet, sweet fungus. Can you tell what object in the picture I'm most excited about munching?

Oh yes. Wild puffballs. They're gonna get stuffed with something, so says I.

From the same awesome lady that foraged the Insane Chicken Mushroom last month. She also makes amazing goat cheese. I kinda wanna be her when I grow up.

Other awesomeness - tasty Japanese greens. Apples are everywhere. And bootleg goat cheese. We have really strange dairy laws in this state.

Foraging, then fondue! All Hail Autumn.

I always get a little pagan around this time of year. Things smell amazing, the air is perfectly crisp, leaves floating around, getting stuck in your hairs.

Nothing like a weekend of hiking to get your fall cravings rumbling.

Cheddar. Fondue. Is. What. I. Crave.

Do I love the Gruyere/Emmenthaler mix? Oui. Do I like beer cheese more?

Yup.

Especially with apples, toasty bread, hard boiled eggs, pickles, and slices of tomato. So fun. Every bite is a little, tiny sammich.

We had mustard and hot sauce out, too, for a last dunk before shoveling. But yeah, sammichdue is great, because it forces you to SLOW DOWN. So that maybe, MAYBE, you won't eat an entire pound of delicious cheesebeer in 10 minutes. It did not phase me nor my three cheesepatriots this time. Perhaps next.

There really isn't anything special about this recipe - the only thing to worry about is the cheese. You need the oldest, stinkiest, sharpest chunk of cheddar you can get your hands on. Don't worry if it's crumbly, or if there are salt crystals, the process will take care of that.

If you don't usually smell your cheese before purchasing, do so now. If there's even a whiff of plastic, or the wrap is loosened because of stray oil, put that sucker down - it has been kept improperly.

Beer Cheese Fondue

8 oz beer (2/3 of a can), any (seriously) will do (as in, we used PBR. I saved the good stuff for drinking as we dipped)
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon strong mustard
1 tsp salt
1.5 pounds sharp, sharp, sharp cheddar, grated
1 handful flour

1 loaf bread, cubed and toasted
1 tomato and 1 hard boiled egg per person
Several slices garlic pickles per person
Small serving bowls of mustard and hot sauce (franks or Tabasco, please) to serve

If you use an electric fondue pot like we do, you'll need to make the cheese in a separate pot. If you're using an old school sterno set, you can stick that metal sucker on the stove!

Warm your beer to simmering, add garlic. Simmer 2 minutes. Discard garlic. Dissolve mustard and salt in the beer.

Toss your cheese with the flour thoroughly. Add the cheese by handfuls into the beer, stirring constantly. Adjust consistency with a dash of beer or flour as needed - you want the sauce thick enough to coat the back of a spoon to near translucency.

Toast your chopped bread under the broiler for a few minutes, until corners are toasting. Slice your tomatoes and eggs into thin rounds.

Keep your eye on the bottom of the pot as you work your way through - this stuff burns easily. But then you get to peel the submerged island off the bottom and eat it. Which is awesome.

Since we were eating with a fellow camper from the past weekend, and the two of us had successfully foraged for mushrooms, we ate those as well, sharing, generously, with our lazier campmate. They went in record time, so all I have to show you is this shot:

I identified them as Meadow Mushrooms after many hours of research and spore printmaking:

After taking a tiny bite, and waiting 48 hours to make sure my belly wasn't going to become possessed and attempt to thwart me, I knew they were A-OK. The 2 pounds we harvested, however, were technically some of the most expensive fungi I'd ever eaten, since I'd bought this book (and another on edible plants in our region) the week before as a reference. There are tons of online resources too - a favorite of mine is Roger's Mushrooms.

Mushroom foraging is actually pretty risky, as there are thousands of species, many that are unnamed or of questionable edibility. But it's fall. Mushroom season (except for Morels, aaauugh). And we were in the forest for days. Had to happen.

That reference I linked to is good, full of large photos and detailed descriptions. I wish he'd included some spore prints, because the descriptions of brown (a prevalent print color) varied from light, to dark, to fawn, to chocolate brown, and all of those shades are apparent in the prints I took. Still, check it out if you plan on doing some foraging of your own. And if not the above mentioned book, make sure to go armed with a good reference. And bags to keep your different finds separated, and the wherewithal to keep your hands away from your mouth and eyes as you go. Wash them paws often.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll train yourself to spot fungus. I've been doing some sighting (and stopping, and creepily hanging out in stranger's yards, poking at whatever's growing out of their lawn/tree) just driving around town - saw puffballs on the grassy side of a highway on-ramp, saw some HUGE yellow shelf mushrooms on a neighbor's oak. But it had a distinctively toxic smell - stingy, tangy, creosote-like (another key identifying phrase for foragers - a sign to stay far away). So I let it be.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first foray. If you've got a story of a hunt of your own, I'd love to hear it!

Stuffed Borscht?

I mean, you've got red cabbage, tomato juice, grated beets, red quinoa... some soy sour cream... no dill, but lots of sage and thyme... yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and dub this spread Quinoa Stuffed Borscht. And take it from me, it is uber-tasty.

And full of anti-oxidants! Whoopeeee! Not that I need any further dosing, what with the glass (or two... or 5) of red wine I have nightly. Brings back memories of mixing my bowl o' red with an order of Kasha Varnishkas at B+H, minus the butter and cream. I've been told that plated, this looks like something out of Gray's Anatomy. Venture on, dear fellow chef, and whip yourself up a batch of slightly-intestinal looking stuffs in time for Halloween.

Quinoa Stuffed Borscht

1 medium head red cabbage
2 small sweet potatoes, baked, grated
1 cup quinoa
1 large red onion
6 cloves garlic
1 large beet, baked, grated
Handful mushrooms, chopped
1 small can tomato paste
1 large tomato, roasted, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 medium piece of soy sausage or homemade seitan sausage, grated coarsely
2 tsp sage
1.5 tsp thyme
1 egg's worth of egg replacer, mixed
6 tablespoons Earth Balance
Faux-beef bouillion, 4 cups
Black pepper, fresh, lots

To start, preheat your oven to 400f and roast your potatoes, beet, and tomato for 20 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Boil the quinoa with a little salt in 2 cups water for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. If it's looking wet at 10, uncover the stuff for the rest of the boil.

Melt 4 tablespoons of EB in a large, flat bottomed pot. Add your garlic and onion, saute a few minutes. Add the chopped tomato, cook another 2. Add the stock, tomato paste, and half of the grated beet. Add a dash of sage and thyme (or dill!) and your bay leaves. Add half the garlic. Simmer sauce until tomatoes start to disperse, about 20 minutes.

In another pot, melt 2 tablespoons EB. Add your mushrooms and seitan, stir, and turn up the heat to medium-high. Cook until the mushrooms loose some liquid, about 4 minutes. Toss in your grated carrot and potato and beet. Stir in the remaining sage and thyme, and taste for salt. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add egg replacer, stir well, set aside.

Boil 4 quarts of water in a large pot. Core your cabbage by using a paring knife and a strong grip - slice into the cabbage about an inch down, in a small circle around the stem. Using a fork, pry the core from the cabbage. Slice a little more from the core, so that you can see where each leaf separates from each other. Dunk the cabbage into the boiling water. Using tongs, free leaves as they cook away from the cabbage - the first should fall off around two minutes, the entire process should take 15-20. Set the leaves on a cutting board to cool. You'll need about 10 leaves.

Using a small knife, cut the hard part from the bottom of each leaf's main vein, being careful not to cut all the way through the leaf. Repeat with remaining leaves.

In a shallow but wide dish or roasting pan, ladle a cup or two of sauce.

Lay a leaf on your cutting board. Spoon about 2/3 cup of filling into the center of each leaf and roll it like a burrito (or cigar, if the leaf isn't as flexible as you'd like, or is tiny). Place face down in the sauced baking dish. Repeat with remaining stuffing and leaves.

You'll end up with a semi-tender core after boiling the cabbage head - slice it into thick pieces. Tuck pieces of cabbage in and around the rolls. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the cabbage and cover. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the thickest part of each leaf appears soft when poked.

Serve with soy sour cream as garnish. Enjoy!

50 mile breakfast! - Latkes, herbed goat cheese, ruby relish.

I was telling my Gramma the other day what I've been doing for work lately. Since, you know, not-for-profit work in CLT is incredibly difficult to come by these days. "Yeah, I've been cooking food for people." I told her. "Vegan and vegetarian stuff with a local focus."

She found this totally amusing - turns out my great grandpa was big into cooking to, which was news to me. There really aren't a ton of "happy" cooks in my close fam - my aunt, me, and.... yeah, that's it. "He made amazing latkes." She said, kinda wistfully.

Basically, I've had a tater pancake craving ever since. Ze time to satisfy is at hand!


Bjinte Potato Latkes 

Everyone's got their little secrets when making latkes. Mine is kind of a wimp out.

Cook the potatoes first.

None of this soaking business (adds too much liquid). None of this raw, crunchy mistake stuff (if you just go to it with freshly grated 'taters, you could end up with uncooked shreds at the center of your cake). Make it easy. Parboil!

5 medium potatoes such as Bjinte or a good, sturdy baking potato
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
2 eggs
Dash milk or cream
A fistful of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons butter

Boil a pot of water, add your unpeeled taters, and cook 10 minutes. Set them in a colander under cold running water for a couple of minutes to cool. Peel 'em with a vegetable peeler.

In a large bowl, grate your potatoes, then onion. Add garlic, salt, pepper, mix well with your hands. Add your eggs, beat them where they land a little, and mix it all together.

Add your flour and baking soda and mix, then add a dash of milk. You want a coating on each shred of potato, but no pooling batter, like in the photo above. Add flour then milk, little bit by little bit, until the consistency looks good.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet until the foam subsides. Reduce heat to medium, and using a slotted spoon, spoon about a tablespoon of batter into the skillet. Repeat 3-4 times, depending on the size of your pan.

See how it's holding its shape? Yay.

Cook 2-3 minutes a side. You'll smell their toastiness and know it's time to flip:

Cook until browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

And on the side, we have...

Herbed Goat Cheese

5 oz fresh goat cheese
Dash cream
Large handful chives, chopped

Mix it all together, with a fork. Set aside.

Ruby Relish

1 pear, sliced thin
1/8 red cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
Splash sherry or bourbon
1 tablespoon honey
1 tsp Salt
2 tablespoons butter

Melt your butter in a small saucepan and add onions and cabbage. Over medium-high heat, get a little browning happening. Add your sliced pears, cook 2-3 minutes. Add your bourbon, honey, salt, and a splash of water. Lower heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent sticking.

Once everything is nicely softened, throw it in your blender and pulse 6-8 times, until things are uniformly small. Return to saucepan and heat to serve.

Best way to go at these babies is with a schmear of both goat cheese and relish on each bite, but to preserve crispness, serve your sauces on the side and let your pals do their own.