Foodie Friday!

Happy Foodie Friday from the Monkey! This week a beautiful color brochure FULL of recipes and chef bios found it's way to my desk. Given that this brochure was based around potatoes, I HAD to track the producer down. - I was a LITTLE excited to find a whole commission for one of my favorite food groups... er... vegetables.

This led me to a great conversation with the Washington State Potato Commission's Assistant Executive Director, Karen Bonaudi. She gave me permission to feature the recipes and gave me a few facts.

I was surprised to learn that Washington's climatic and geological conditions allow it to produce an average of 60,000 of potatoes per acre in red, white, yellow/gold, blue/purple, and fingerling varieties! Holy potato!

Feel free to check out the Washington State Potato Commission at www.potatoes.com for more information. They have many wonderful recipes, facts, and suggestions on ways to cook potatoes but here is one of the scrumptious looking recipes that I will be trying this weekend.

Smoked Salmon Latkes

Makes 4-6 servings of about 3 latkes each

Sauce:
1 pint sour cream
1 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning (or any good crab boil seasoning)

In a small bowl, combine sour cream and seasoning. Set aside.

Latkes:
1 1/2 pounds Washington Russet potatoes
5 oz smoked salmon, finely chopped
1 small white onion, peeled and grated
1/2 cup flour
1 egg yolk
2 tsp kosher salt (I'm partial to the Red Monkey Sea Salt Grinder)
1 tsp ground black pepper (Again, go figure, I'm a fan of the Pepper Medley Grinder)
Vegetable oil

Scrub potatoes under cold running water. Shred with large holes of box grater or food processor. Turn the shreds into a strainer set over a bowl. Press potatoes firmly. Reserve liquid in bowl. Let liquid stand several minutes. Pour off top clean layer and reserve cloudy starch remaining.

Rinse squeezed potatoes with cold water. Drain in colander.

In large bowl, combine all latke ingredients, including the reserved starch, and mix well. Form into silver dollar sized cakes, squeezing to form the cakes. Arrange cakes on a paper towel covered cookie sheet. Pat dry with paper towels.

In large skillet over high heat, heat enough oil to cover 1/4 inch over bottom of pan until very hot. Add cakes and cook until well browned. Turn and cook second side. Serve 3 cakes per portion. Spoon cream over.


One of the best things I found about this recipe: only 414 calories with 12 grams of protein and a serving of fish! Thanks so much to Karen, the great people at the Washington State Potato Commission, and all the potato farmers. I'm a fan!

Best wishes for a great weekend all!