Hanukka potato pashtidot

To keep enjoying Hanukka’s traditional flavors, try alternative potato dishes.

By FAYE LEVY
Spudfest 521 (photo credit: Livnat Ginsberg)
Spudfest 521
(photo credit: Livnat Ginsberg)
By this time in the week of Hanukka, many of us have indulged in plenty of potato latkes. To keep enjoying Hanukka’s traditional flavors, I like to bake potatoes as a pashtida.
The Hebrew term “pashtida” can refer to a casserole, a kugel, a souffle or a pie. According to my friend Ruth Sirkis, author of Pashtidot Olamiyot (International Savory Pies, in Hebrew), when the term pashtida was used about 950 years ago by the biblical commentator Rashi, it meant a meat pâté baked in pastry.
Today, a popular pashtida is made of grated potatoes mixed with eggs and flavorings and baked until the crust is crisp. In fact, it resembles a big potato latke. When I prepare this kind of pashtida, I sometimes add other vegetables to vary the color and the texture. In my spiced potato and vegetable pashtida recipe below, for example, the potatoes are mixed with carrots, squash, parsley, ground coriander and other flavorings.
Sirkis bakes a layered pashtida composed of lightly cooked potato slices, grilled eggplant slices, tomato slices and a mixture of beaten eggs and parve bechamel sauce.
Olive oil, fresh basil, thyme and parsley flavor the vegetable “cake,” which is served with a garnish of olives and roasted red pepper strips.
For those who prefer their pashtidot in small portions, Efrat Libfroind, author of Kosher Elegance, turns her potato and sweet potato “gratin” into an appetizer. After baking a mixture of thinly sliced potatoes and sweet potatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, eggs and oil in a rectangular pan, she cuts the pashtida in cubes or uses a cookie cutter to make rounds.
She serves each piece topped with a chicken nugget, breaded and fried schnitzel-style.
In some culinary traditions, potato pashtidot are flavored with meat. To make a Romanian-style potato-and-salami casserole, Benny Saida, author of Bishul Balkani (Food from the Balkans, in Hebrew), combines grated potatoes with cubes of smoked goose and fried onions and then adds seasoning, egg yolks and whipped egg whites. He bakes the mixture in a pan lined with slices of smoked goose and salami and turns it out like a cake. Sirkis too bakes a pashtida from potatoes and smoked goose, made with lightly mashed potatoes and flavored with sweet and hot paprika as well as plenty of fried onions. (See recipe below.) All sorts of meat can be used in such potato casseroles, according to Esther Deutsch, author of the new kosher cookbook Chic Made Simple, who bakes individual pastrami potato kugelettes in ramekins. The grated potatoes are mixed with grated onions, pastrami strips, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. As alternatives to the pastrami, Deutsch recommends shredded flanken (cooked beef ribs), kielbasa (Polish sausage), thinly sliced hot dogs or corned beef.
To make a pashtida that somewhat resembles shepherd’s pie, many cooks layer mashed potatoes with meat. This is the technique used by Tamar Zimenbodah, author of Mimitbaha Shel Savta (From Grandmother’s Kitchen – Dishes of the Land of Israel, Old and New, in Hebrew). For her potato and meat pashtida, she spreads a mixture of mashed potatoes, sauteed onions, eggs, seasoning and flour in a greased baking pan, tops it with a filling of seasoned ground beef, fried onions and parsley and covers the meat with the rest of the potato mixture. Next she scatters cubes of margarine on top and bakes the pashtida until it browns.
Such meaty potato pashtidot are hearty enough to stand on their own as a main course for Hanukka, Shabbat or other special occasions.Faye Levy is the author of 1,000 Jewish Recipes.
SPICED POTATO AND VEGETABLE PASHTIDA
This recipe is adapted from my book, Jewish Cooking for Dummies. For Hanukka I sauté the onions in olive oil – the oil of the miracle. The onions gain an appetizing aroma from being sautéed with ground coriander, hot pepper flakes, oregano and paprika.
It’s best to grate the potatoes just before mixing the ingredients and baking the kugel, so that they won’t discolor.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
4 Tbsp. olive oil 2 large onions, cut in thin slices 1⁄4 tsp. hot pepper flakes, or to taste 1 tsp. ground coriander 1 tsp. dried oregano 1 tsp. paprika, plus more for sprinkling 350 gr. (3⁄4 pound) pale green squash (Hebrew kishuim) or zucchini 2 large carrots 2 large baking potatoes 1 to 11⁄4 tsp salt 1⁄4 tsp ground pepper 1⁄3 cup chopped parsley Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
3 eggs 1⁄4 cup matza meal
Preheat oven to 175ºC (350ºF). Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet or sauté pan, preferably nonstick.
Add onions and sauté over medium heat, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Add pepper flakes, coriander and oregano. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 10 minutes, or until tender; adding water by tablespoons if pan becomes dry.
Increase heat to medium-high, add 1 tsp paprika, and sauté, stirring, for 2 minutes or until onions brown lightly. Transfer to a large bowl.
Using shredding disk of food processor or large holes of a hand grater, coarsely grate squash and carrots. Put grated vegetables in a large strainer and squeeze out any excess liquid. Add to bowl of sautéed onion.
Peel potatoes. Coarsely grate them and squeeze out their liquid. Add to bowl of vegetables. Add salt, pepper, parsley and cayenne. Mix in eggs and matza meal.
Using 1 Tbsp. oil, grease a 20-cm. (8-inch) square cake pan or baking dish. Heat oiled pan in oven for 5 minutes. Quickly add vegetable mixture to pan. Sprinkle with remaining Tbsp. oil and then with a little paprika. Bake for 1 hour or until kugel is set and top is brown. Serve hot.
POTATO AND SMOKED GOOSE BREAST PASHTIDA This recipe is from Pashtidot Olamiyot (International Savory Pies). Author Ruth Sirkis writes that this juicy, golden pashtida, flavored with plenty of fried onions, gains an appetizing, slightly smoky flavor from the smoked goose and recommends serving it as a side dish with a meat entrée.
She notes that it can be baked in a low oven or on a Shabbat plata (hot plate) overnight but it should first be wrapped in foil and covered with an additional cover to prevent it from drying out.Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 kg. (2.2 pounds) potatoes, scrubbed, not peeled 2 onions, diced 4 Tbsp. oil Salt and black pepper 1 tsp. sweet paprika
Pinch of hot red pepper 4 Tbsp. self-rising flour 3 eggs, beaten 250 gr. (about 9 ounces) smoked goose breast (or pastrami) 4 Tbsp. goose fat or additional oil
Cook the potatoes in their skins in water to cover until barely tender. Cool them and peel if desired.
Cut in large pieces, put them in a bowl and mash them coarsely with a potato masher, leaving some small chunks.
Heat 4 Tbsp. oil in a skillet, add the onions and fry them until nicely golden. Add them to the potatoes. Add the flour and the eggs. Mix and season well with salt, black pepper, paprika and hot pepper.
Cut the smoked goose in small cubes; if you bought it in slices, cut it in small squares. Add to the potato mixture. Add 2 Tbsp. goose fat and mix well.
Grease an oval baking pan about 30 cm. (12 inches) long, 20 cm. (8 inches) wide and 5 cm. (2 inches) deep.
Transfer the potato mixture to the pan and smooth the top. Drizzle with the remaining fat or oil and spread it over the pashtida.
Bake in a preheated medium oven (180ºC or 350ºF) for 11⁄2 to 2 hours or until the pashtida is well browned.