From
Pauline Hartman:
POTATO PANCAKES (Latkes)
Makes 25-30 pancakes
3 Russet potatoes, grate finely by
hand or use the fine grater disc
on
the food processor
1 medium onion, grated can also be
used by food processor
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 – 3 tablespoons of Matzo meal, or flour
Canola oil
Salt
Grate the potatoes into a bowl of
water so that they do not turn black
or dump the potatoes from the bowl
of the processor into the water.
When
the onions are grated, pour the potatoes
into cheesecloth or wiping
towel and squeeze all the water out.
Mix the potatoes and the onions and
the eggs together. Slowly add some
matzo meal and stir until you are
satisfied with the consistency.
If you are using matzo meal, let
the mixture stand about 10 – 15
minutes
for the meal to absorb the moisture.
Heat about ¼” of canola
oil in
skillet over medium high heat and
then drop a tablespoon of the potato
mix into the oil, flattening them
with the back of the spoon. When
browned, turn and brown the other
side. You will have to make several
batches to use up all the potato
mix.
Drain on brown paper or paper towels
and then sprinkle them with a
little salt. Put them on a cookie
sheet in oven heated to 200 degrees
to
keep warm while cooking the rest.
Serve with applesauce and if no meat
at the meal, with sour cream.
Leftover pancakes freeze well.
NOTE! Latke problems:
The latkes are
too greasy. Probably
the oil was not hot enough. Make
sure that you fry small batches and
bring the oil up to medium high heat
before the next batch.
The latkes fall
apart. Potatoes were
not squeezed enough to hold
together. After the first batch,
add an extra egg or more matzo meal.
The latkes are
chewy and starchy on the inside. Shred the potatoes
more
finely, and make sure that the oil
is hot enough, make the latkes thinner.
The latkes are not crispy. Make sure
that the potatoes are dry and that
the oil is hot. Don't keep
them in the oven too long.
Use an ice cream scoop to measure
the mixture and drop carefully into
the oil.
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Walnut Creek:
Music: Bill Lombardo
Manager: Keith Farley. E-mail: wmarket@cccfm.org
Market Hours:
Winter hours 9 am to 1 pm
thru April.
Cooking: A winter vegetable cooking demo with Chef Lesley Stiles 10 am to noon
Programs:
The Frequent Shopper Card (from Nov. thru April);
Year-Round Parking Validation;
The Veggie Valet booth.
From Jessie Neu, General Manager:
Happy New Year to all our loyal customers!
We welcome local chef George Burghart who joins us by participating in the Walnut
Creek Market this first Sunday of the new year. His business name is "Your
Mothers Mustache". He is featuring his pre-prepared, innovative, comfort food meals which
include sauces, marinades, and soups.
From Keith Farley, Manager:
Happy New Year! It's 2007 - a new year and a
new start, symbolic perhaps since everyday is a new start
to make everything better. I have made my resolutions
and broken all but a few and it is only the first week of
the year. Oh well.
Since I have the floor, I would like to thank a few folks
that make my job a pleasure and much easier; Allied
Waste for trash removal, the Walnut
Creek City Council for their
continued support, the city staff for staying on
top of everything, the Walnut Creek
police department for
all they do in clearing the lot of cars and keeping an eye
on things in the rain and cold always with a smile, and
how could I forget my boss, Jessie
Neu the General Manager,
Lesley Stiles our Community Relations person and Market
Chef who without their work none of this would happen (seriously),
the Board Of Directors who give me a free hand to operate
the market and offer guidance and of course my own assistants
Emely and Nicole, two hard working young ladies. Thanks
to all!
The New Year marks many milestones at CCCFM and the Walnut
Creek Farmers' market. For instance, this is our 25th
year. No kidding. We are in the planning stages of
a huge party to mark this momentous occasion. It'll
be big, no, bigger than big; the governor may have to call
out the National Guard to contain this party. Ok, maybe
not that big but it will be big. Did I use the word
big enough?
This may also be our final year in the current location
as the library project will move forward this year barring
any unforeseen problems. As I mentioned in previous
articles this is not a bad thing, it is just change and
change comes hard to most. Especially me. I
will adapt as I am sure you will too. The new (proposed)
location is great in so many ways but I will miss the creek
and the trees, even those blasted Sycamores and their yearly
attack of pollen and little fuzzy things. I will keep
you updated as the plan unfolds.
With the New Year there will be many growers and vendors
that are taking extended vacations during the winter season. Ledesma
Organic Farms, Mee-Vang Asian Vegetables, J & J Farms are the growers that I am sure will be out this Sunday. There
may be a few others that due to crop transition will be
week to week. Winter is a time to acquaint yourself
with some new and perhaps unusual vegetables, so keep coming. Lesley
will show you what to do with these delicasies this Sunday
10 am until noon.
On the Vendor side, Bakesale Betty is on extended
vacation in Australia and I don't expect her to return until
the last week in January. Bariani
Olive Oil will be
in every week of January and after that they are taking
the rest of the year off to concentrate on production.
Be sure to stop by and talk to Sebastian Bariani and get
his contact information so you don't have to go without.
Our crafters will continue with us until the end of April
so keep an eye out for your favorites.
Back in the saddle as they say, I missed you folks these
past two weekends and sure look forward to seeing everyone
this Sunday.
More
info. |
Martinez, Orinda
& Pleasant Hill:
Markets closed for the season |
|
FROM
OUR MARKETS by
Chef Leslie Stiles |
Once a year our fortunate culture gets a chance to publicly renew our vows to
ourselves to be healthy again. Whether it be going to the gym more often, giving
up the tobacco jones or lending more of ourselves to the less fortunate, we all
think about how we can do the new year better come January 1st.
Of course we want to focus on good things for ourselves and families but what about collective changes? Actions we can take for the greater good of everyone involved in the local game of life?
Being a bit predictable on this subject it is not too much of a stretch to figure out that I am talking about buying locally grown food instead of supporting talking heads at the top of billion dollar grocery empires that have no apparent positive effect on our culture in general.
What if we all made a collective push to curb childhood obesity this year by letting our schools know that we want salad bars in the schools, preferably locally sourced salad bars, and we want the junk food out? There is always plenty of time to eat junk food outside of school isn't there? Maybe take the bull by the horns and start a garden at a school to help immature DNA get back the memory of where food really comes from. What if we let our hospitals, juvenile halls and other large institutions know that we want healthy foods that promote healing instead of preventing it?
These are easily done actions for anyone whether or not you have kids in local schools or loved ones in the hospital. This is where the collective thinking part comes in. Even if the action does not have an immediate effect on you or your family does not mean that it won't have an extremely positive effect on you in the future. Isn't the future what this whole renewal thing is about anyway?
By buying locally grown food you are investing in a lifestyle that promotes gentleness
to the earth by preventing long fossil fueled trips for jetlagged produce there
by reducing the vitamin and mineral content not to mention flavor. By buying
local you are reinvesting the money you spend at the farmers' market back into
your community and can actually see a return in the quality of the food you get.
There is also the feeling you get by doing something inherently good for people
you love, most importantly yourself. One major positive side effect is that we
still get to have local farms in our community. Beautiful, amazing sights to
behold in any season including the austerity of winter.
Some seasonal offerings at the Walnut Creek Farmers' Market this Sunday are those
delicious little Satsuma mandarins, - our salad bar kids will be eating plenty
of these this season! - fresh pomegranate juice, tantalizingly tropical kiwi,
broccoli, - have your really tasted it in it's season? - Brussels, arti's, greens
of all kinds, winter squashes, Stan's apples, persimmons and the seasonal citrus
that is absolutely mind-blowing in the different flavors and varieties. Current
crop nuts and dried fruits, organic, locally raised beef that we have the pleasure
of giving a wide range to in Briones, new potatoes and sweet onions.
There is a lot more going on at your farmers' market than you may realize so put on a warm coat, grab your bags that you have been saving specifically for this purpose and get down to your farmers market to create the collective push toward better health which by the way results into more happiness. Also don't neglect to make your voice be heard at local schools and institutions advocating local foods.
As far as exercise goes, we have been barely affected by precipitation that tends to cause muddy and wet hiking trails to this point. Yesterday in Briones we saw a coyote tearing into something unfortunate on the ground, salamanders, hawks, deer and a lot of happy cows. It is yet another of the fortunes that we in Contra Costa County have at our foot steps to take advantage of. Whatever your exercise loves are, be sure to get out to practice them for your future and the new year of vow renewal to yourself.
Happy New Year! I will be doing a winter
vegetable cooking demo this Sunday from 10 to noon at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market.
Lesley Stiles can be reached at chef@cccfm.org or
on the market hotline 925 431-8361
|
DID YOU KNOW? by
Manager Keith Farley |
The internet is an endless source of useless information
and can waste many hours of your precious life?
Well it can! It can also educate, inform and
make you a better and healthier consumer. The amount of info out there
is staggering with regards to healthy eating and fresh foods. How
do I find all this wonderful information without wasting the next
decade Keith? Well you can do it like I do, use the services that
are offered free by Yahoo & Google
to name a few. It is called NEWS ALERTS or NEWS
CLIPPING. This
is how it works, you enter keywords like farmers
markets, slo (w) food movement, and organic
farming etc, and the service searches the internet constantly for
those words and sends you an e-mail when it finds an article with
those key words. The down side is you do get a few more e-mails
a day. Small price to pay since you can just hit the delete key
if it does not interest you. This service give you access to some
of the biggest and brightest minds in the food industry who have
taken to blogging. Which brings me to another point, those not familiar
with BLOGS,
here is the deal. These are private weB-LOGS
written by someone who has something to say and is generally not
affiliated with any real news organization although the writer may
be they are writing independently of their employer.
I use the Google service which requires you to
have an account (it's free) and I can have an
unlimited number of searches. Keep in mind that
the internet is a global thingy and you will
get hits from all over the world. I find that
valuable since I am interested in what other
farmers' markets are up to. Did you know farmers' markets in the UK
are more popular than ever before? Yep. Try it, you will be amazed
at the information out there you never knew or would probably never
know about without this FREE service. Be more informed, if nothing
else it'll make you more interesting to talk to over coffee. Not that
you weren't before but you know what I mean.
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