Berry Sauce, Cranberry Applesauce, Latkes

Got a long stint in the treadmill today, so I may have time to post to 2 blogs. I suspect Tara is still waiting for the recipes in this one, so I’ll start off here.

First is fruit (berry) sauce. Berries tend to be low carb fruits and are full of nutrition and fiber. Strawberries in particular have been studied and found to be chock full of anti-oxidants and other stuff that reduces cancer risk. It makes a nice treat for breakfast, even for dieters. The biggest problem with berries is that they have a short season, after which they are hideously expensive (and bound to get more expensive due to increased transportation costs), and don’t taste nearly so good. For this reason, and to replace the maple syrup I can no longer eat, I devised this berry sauce, which is dead easy to make and oh, so yummy. It goes on pancakes, French toast, puffy omelets, ricotta custard and, according to Eric, ice cream. In fact, if you poured a bunch of it in a bowl and floated 3 or so balls of ice cream in it, you would pretty much have that Becher dessert I mentioned previously—the only one Germans will let you have after supper.

Berry Sauce

2 bags of frozen berries (about a pound each)

2 tbsp lemon juice (if it’s blueberries. Don’t usually add for other berries)

½ cup baking Splenda.

Toss the berries and lemon juice into a large, thick walled saucepan and heat over medium high until all berries are melted and bubbling. Turn down to simmer and let them cook for another 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit until it reaches room temperature. Pour into blender along with Splenda and puree. If you like your sauce lumpy, you can skip the blender and just add the Splenda. Pour into a container. I prefer qt size ball jars, myself.

Of course, you can always use ½ cup sugar, if you don’t care about carbs and you’re not into Splenda.

Here’s another that will no doubt be needed before long:

Cranberry-Apple Sauce

1 bag fresh cranberries (usual grocery store size—not sure of the weight, but I know it’s not the humongous family size you get at a wholesale store)

1 Macintosh apple, washed and cut into quarters

¼ to ½ cup water

Splenda to taste (probably at least a cup)

Toss the berries into a large, thick walled saucepan along with the apple and the water. If you have an applesauce grinder, you don’t have to peel or core the apple. If you don’t, and intend to use your blender, peel and core the apple first. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high, then turn down to low and cook until the apple puffs up and disintegrates. Pour into applesauce grinder or blender and process. Add Splenda to taste after, while the mixture is still hot. Place in a ball jar.

This last recipe is adapted from Grandma Elaine. The original uses sugar. One caution with all these sauces—pay very close attention to what they’re doing on the burner. It’s easy for them to boil over and wreck your cooking surface.

Brief pause—I was further along already in writing this, diligently using Word so I wouldn’t suddenly lose my post, when that crappy Microsoft program froze on me. Thankfully, they’ve had to deal with their stuff going on the fritz before, so the bulk of it was preserved in auto-recover.

On to the final recipe. This is one I also enjoyed for lunch growing up. My mother called it German Potato Pancakes, and it’s apparently a traditional food in that country. Doug calls it Latkes, and also has fond childhood memories of it. Different names, exactly identical recipe. It’s important to use some form of russet potato to make these, because those are the potatoes that mush up properly, allowing a crisp outside and soft inside when they’re done. It’s also important to shred the potatoes. Chopping them up in a food processor won’t cut it. For hand shredding, I prefer a mandolin shredder. I’ll see if I can post some information later about more mechanical devises that make the shredding less tedious.

Latkes (German Potato Pancakes)

4-5 Idaho Russet potatoes, either peeled or scrubbed vigorously

1 medium onion, chopped

2 eggs

½ cup flour

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Shred potatoes and place in large mixing bowl. Start frying pan on medium heat and add ¼ inch of oil to the pan. Put the rest of the ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (this is one of those times when using your hands is almost a must). Press a heaping servingspoonful of potato mix into the oil and gently spread with the back of the spoon until about ¼ to 1/3 inch thick. Fry until brown on one side, then turn over and finish on the other side. If the frying is going too fat, turn the heat down a little. When done, transfer to a plate with paper towels, to drain the fat. Serve with applesauce or cranberry apple sauce. (just applesauce is the traditional way to go)

For those who don’t want to go through the bother of making their own applesauce, you can generally fake it with a little effort. You may have to check around to find the best product. Stewart’s Macintosh applesauce, if you can find it, is good. Motts is not. Just doesn’t cut it. You could also get Trader Joe’s Gravenstein applesauce. It doesn’t have any sugar, but you can add Splenda or cinnamon to taste and have a slighter lower carb version. Apples are not a particularly low carb fruit, though they’re better than bananas, watermelon and pineapple.

I was going to do apple pancakes as well, but I’ve run out of time, thanks to Microsoft. That’ll have to be another day. Eat well!