latkes

I love potato pancakes. It turns out their preparation does not involve rocket science. Grate four potatoes and one onion (prepare to cry). Mix with two eggs, a few tbsp of flour, and a whole heck of a lot of salt and pepper. Fry large, flattened spoonfuls of the mixture in plenty of hot olive oil until very dark brown, turn, and make the other side dark brown too. Serve with sour cream and smoked fish, or apple sauce. These quantities make about twelve pancakes (serves about four).

As you proceed with the frying (with two pans doing two or three at a time), you can preserve the cooked pancakes on paper towels in a 170 F (80 C) oven.

An expert variation is to drain the shredded potato, let the starch settle out of the drained liquid, and mix it back in, but that may qualify as rocket science. One night we added shredded celery root, to good effect.

mirepoix

A mirepoix is a mix of chopped vegetables used to build the foundational flavours of many dishes. In classic French cooking, the mirepoix consists of two parts cooking or yellow onions to one part each of carrot and celery. If that sounds like rocket science, if I wanted for example one cup of mirepoix, I would use half a cup of onion, a quarter cup of carrot and a quarter of celery.

Other cuisines have their own take on mirepoix. The function is always the same: build a solid base or backdrop of flavour against which to highlight the goodness of the main ingredients.

• Indian: the highly aromatic "wet masala" of onions, garlic and ginger
• Cajun/Creole: the "holy trinity" of onions, celery and green pepper

lentil soup

This was great for lunch with a crusty baguette (we tried the new "La Tradi" from Eric Borderon's artisinal bakery in Quebec City).

• in a heavy-bottomed pan, sweat a cup of classic mirepoix in a bit of olive oil (covered at medium-low heat)
• add half a cup of small green lentils, a small handful each of red-skinned potato, rutabaga and zuccini and a sprig of thyme
• all the veg should be chopped or diced medium (the size of a green pea)
• add eight cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour
• season with salt (about two teaspoons) and pepper when the lentils are tender

water-based soups

Almost all of the soup-related entries here at F,NRS call for chicken stock. Sometimes, however, I don't have any stock on hand. This entry is meant to be an on-going record of soups that don't seem to suffer for lack of chicken stock and those that do or might.

Good with water:

• cauliflower soup using the pureed vegetable soup algorithm replacing stock with water
• lentil soup
• leek and potato, but I oversalted it (Dec. 2008)
• (Hogg say:) carrot-ginger: a bunch of carrots, a cubic inch of ginger (boil carrots and ginger with salt and blend), orange juice and cream

Bad with just water:

• chicken noodle (just kidding)
• Tuscan white bean soup, probably