Posts Tagged ‘side dish’

Andrea’s Potato Latkes

I have a couple of gifts for y’all during the holiday season, beginning with my recipe for crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside Potato Latkes. I developed the recipe years ago when my boys were little, and it was an instant family favorite. Now I have to double or triple it (oy!) so that I manage to get a few of these scrumptious, savory treats myself before my bottomless-pit teenagers descend!

To all who celebrate, sweet wishes for a Happy Hanukkah. May it be eight nights filled with warmth, light, love and miracles.

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Quick Salt Pickles

These are the delicious accompaniment I mentioned for those spicy Korean wings. I swear, if you can make ice cubes, you can make these. And if I write any more, it will take you longer to read this than to pickle these veggies!

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Belgian Fries

Would you like fries with that? If your name is Ben Reiser, the answer is unequivocally HELLS YEAH! Sure, he’ll eat any old fries in a pinch – but he deemed these the yummiest fries ever and it’s been our go-to recipe for years.

Making fries for the Reiser boys is admittedly a time-consuming endeavor. I went into labor and delivered Matthew in less time than it takes to peel, cut, soak, pre-fry, cool and final fry 16 potatoes. Because I’m a little OCD about the size and shape of my fries, I do the tedious upfront work, and then David takes over as Frymaster. It’s all worth it in the end, however, when you have…


Andrea’s Potato Latkes

Latkes, latkes, I love latkes

NOT a little but a lot of

Latkes, latkes, I love latkes

NOT a little but a lot…

Of latkes

Okay, now that we’ve gotten my favorite preschool Hanukkah song out of my head, it’s time to get down to the business of potato latkes!

Let’s be honest. Like all ethnic food, latkes are personal. You usually like what you grew up with, whether it was heavy, soft potato pancakes or thin, crispy ones. You either like onions in ′em or you don’t. You’re of matzoh meal lineage or flour lineage.

My mom loved ′em crunchy, but I remember hers coming out fairly mushy, and once I developed my own recipe for them, she was more…


A few Sundays ago, we decided it was a fried chicken kind of day, and we figured that nothing goes better with all that crunchy goodness than top-notch mashed potatoes. Ina has three recipes for what I used to call “mash’ll tee-toes” as a toddler, and because of the buttermilk in the chicken recipe, we decided upon the buttermilk variation. The problem with mashed potatoes is that they either come out lumpy if you use a hand masher or gluey if you’re silly enough to put them into a food processor. Two words, my friends: food mill. Brilliant! Miraculous! Standing ovation! Those Yukons transformed into edible velvet. Moistened with milk, butter and buttermilk, they were…


If it’s a mushy, cheesy, kid-pleasing side dish you’re seeking, look no further.

Otherwise, meh. Not so much.

This was the second dish Zack selected and made with that scrumptious roasted chicken last week, and again, he did a stellar job. He stirred and stirred for ten minutes until all the stock was incorporated into the corn meal, and then he added the texture and flavor enhancers ““ cream cheese, rosemary, and parmesan. “It’s…a piece of cake (snap), Bren!”

While the kids loved it, I thought it was an almost-insulting accompaniment to the lovely entré. (I preferred the other ““ greener ““ side dish much more…we’ll get to that later this week.) The flavor was less-than-sophisticated, and the texture reminded…


So this is the third dish I made, along with the Indonesian Ginger Chicken and Herbed Basmati Rice. Toldja it was a culturally schizophrenic meal!

I’m a late arrival to the cauliflower party. My mom didn’t serve it to us growing up, and I guess it’s kinda like the Barry Manilow of veggies ““ pretty boring and no one admits they love it, but someone’s buying it out of the produce bins. My most gratifying introduction to cauliflower came last winter after watching a Food Network Challenge in which chefs faced off making their most creative mac and cheese. Fanatic cheese-a-holics, our whole family was intrigued by Duskie Estes’ recipe, which included roasted cauliflower and bacon…


This is how I know I’m a true Barefoot Contessa junkie. I was trying to come up with a side dish or two for the Indonesian Ginger Chicken we made the other night, and my first thought was that it would go nicely with a light rice. So I grabbed the Barefoot library and began searching the indexes. I quickly came upon this recipe…and I broke into a big grin when I read Ina’s intro note:

“Years ago, I was making a side dish at Barefoot Contessa and I didn’t think it had enough flavor. My wonderful chef Martine Sharp said something I’ve never forgotten. She told me that if every dish on your…


Whole-grain mustard? Mmmm! Red potatoes? Mmmm! Mustard-roasted red potatoes? Not so much…

Roasted potatoes are my side-dish go-to when I’m feeling lazy. Cut up a bunch of Yukon Golds into small chunks, toss with olive oil, minced garlic, salt-n-pepa, and pop it into a hot oven on a half-sheet pan to roast until creamy and crunchy. Sprinkle on some chopped parsley before serving, and no matter how many pounds I make, there is rarely a morsel left.

The most enthusiastic potato fan in the hizzy is Big Ben. While his buddies know full-well that french fries are not safe in his presence, they might not be aware that he’s not opposed to potatoes in most other forms as well….


Barefoot Contessa Tabbouleh

I’m considering renaming this “Pavlovian Tabbouleh.”

I always, always, always make this grain-and-veggie salad whenever I make a summer dinner of grilled leg of lamb, tzatziki and pita. Except for this time…I made it to bring to a cookout where we enjoyed delicious burgers, dogs, chicken and swordfish. And my regular tabbouleh eaters, who are so used to tasting Mediterranean flavors when they eat the dish, were actually slightly less enthused this time.

Was it awful? Hardly! It’s one of the freshest, coolest side dishes you can imagine. You soften up the bulgur wheat in water, lemon juice and olive oil, then toss it with diced English cukes, scallions, parsley, mint and halved cherry tomatoes. That’s all…