Rosemary, Fig & Goat Cheese Latkes

Chanukah starts tomorrow night. It only hit me when I glanced at my calendar on Outlook and it told me that I had to light the first candle on Tuesday.  I stifled a gasp. I’m totally not caught up with holiday preparations. I need to buy Chanukah and Christmas presents. Need to buy presents for my kid’s teachers and therapists. I need to sort out a chanukah party menu. The list goes on. I will breathe after December 23. That’s when I start my staycation.

Chanukah is already in the air though. Even if it hasn’t begun. The Chanukah spirit arrived last week when I made those delicious golden beet latkes. Today, I have another fun Chanukah treat and I’m sure I’ll have some more goodies for you through the holiday.

I’m so excited to share these latkes with you. The idea for these latkes came about one evening when I had some people over for a wine and cheese night. I served an appetizer that had some roasted figs with rosemary and goat cheese on them. As I worked through the flavors, and loved them, I knew these flavors had to become a latke! So here we are today!

I soaked some dried figs in some port wine and brought some goat cheese to room temperature. You can let the figs soak for about 20 minutes, or you can get distracted like I did and keep them soaking for an hour. You want them to soften and plump up. I chopped up the figs along with some shallots and mixed them with the goat cheese. I set that bowl aside.

The potato process needs to happen fast as you want them to keep their light color. I washed and peeled the potatoes. I shredded the potatoes, along with some onion, garlic and more shallots in the food processor using the shredding disc. Next, I rinsed the grated potato mixture and squeezed out all of the liquid.

I placed the mixture in to a large mixing bowl and stirred in some eggs, almond flour, salt, pepper and fresh chopped rosemary.

Next, I heated up some oil in a large fry pan.

I placed a thin layer of potato mixture in my hand and then placed some fig and goat cheese layer on top of it. You want a decent amount of goat cheese, but make sure that there’s an edge of potato around it. I topped the goat cheese with another thin layer of potatoes. You want the latke to be thin so that it gets crispy and cooked through, but you also want the cheese to shine through. The cheese should be completely covered by the potato mixture.

I fried the latkes until crisp on both sides. The trick with latkes is to place them in the pan and leave them alone until you see the shredded potatoes begin to brown at the edges. The browning will poke through. But don’t peek and don’t flip until you can see that it’s very crisp.

Drain the finished latkes on a cooling rack over a paper towel lined cookie sheet.

It’s best to serve fresh. But if you have to make these ahead of time, you can keep them warm in a 250-degree oven.

These latkes are out of this world. Because of the creamy goat cheese with figs inside, you don’t need any sauce or sour cream on top. There’s a huge amount of flavor all packed in to the latke! It’s amazing! My first thought as I sunk my teeth in to the latke was that it was “off the hook!” And I never say that! It was that good though. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Rosemary, Fig & Goat Cheese Latkes

 

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Author: Hindy Garfinkel

Ingredients

Fig & Goat Cheese Filling

• 7 dried figs
• 1 cup of port wine or other semi dry red wine
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 4 oz. goat cheese (chevre)

Latke Blend

• 4 large red potatoes, washed and peeled nand quartered
• 1 medium onion
• 1 shallot
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• additional salt and pepper to taste
• 8 tbsp. almond flour or all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• Oil for frying

Instructions

1. Soak the figs in the wine for at least 20 minutes.
2. Drain the figs and chop them finely. In a small bowl, mix the figs with the chopped shallot and goat cheese. Set the bowl aside.
3. In a food processor fitted with a shredding disc, grate the potatoes, onions, garlic and shallot.
4. Rinse and drain the grated potato mixture. Squeeze out all of the liquid.
5. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
6. Mix the rosemary, salt, pepper, egg and flour into the potato mixture.
7. Heat about a ½ an inch of oil in a large frying pan.
8. Form the potato mixture in to a small thin patty in your hand and place a tablespoon or so of goat cheese filling in the middle. Cover it with a small thin layer of potato mixture and seal along the edges.
9. Fry in the oil until browned and crisp on both sides.
10. Drain on a cooling rack or paper towels.
11. Enjoy!

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