As seems to be the norm these days, I was up last night uploading photographs of Latkes for my Hanukkah post, taking care to transfer some from my camera as needed and then, BAM!, Lady Lethargy struck accompanied by her little sloth of a sidekick, Polly Procrastination. And yet again, I resigned myself to another session of writer's block when nothing ever seems to flow out of my fingertips to even call respectably call itself a head-note, leave alone a blog post.
And then it happened.. A routine run of errands and a change of Radio stations, (My kids love to listen to the Christmas music when riding along and I cherish the opportunity to turn back to my staple NPR broadcasts whenever I can this season) and there I was headed to the grocery store and listening to Leonard Lopate interview Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen on Hanukkah dishes. T'was an extra twist of fortune that I was round the corner from the parking lot at Wegman's Grocery. I dialed in to the show and was fortunate enough to be let loose on the air despite my babbling away to the person who picked up the call. For all of you interested in listening to the segment, here is the link.
My latkes this year were made with traditional Indian ingredients that are not so well known in mainstream American cooking. The first one was a sweet potato latke with wilted fenugreek greens (called Methi and sold in Indian grocery stores right beside the spinach and cilantro) and the other one was a totally delightful surprise ingredient, Banana stem. Yep, found this treasure at the Indian store last weekend.
For those unfamiliar with Fenugreek greens, they are sold in bunches at many Indian stores. The leaves resemble those of clover but without the 'heart' shaped bifurcation. (In fact Fenugreek is a legume, not a spice and is related to clover and other leguminous plants such as mung). While the leaves are tender and wilt easily, the stems - even the part that directly connects to the individual leaf are tough and unpleasantly chewy, take care to remove just the leaves and compost the rest of the twiggy stems & roots).
—Panfusine
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