A.K.A. Pumpkin Latkas
Part Hannukah, part Thanksgiving, part necessity.
I was surfing the web looking for inspiration for an egg-free breakfast and these are what I came up with. Egg free in part because my chickens are on strike again and store-bought eggs are just so different! Egg-free in another part because as much as farm eggs are yummy and healthy and filling and delicious, some people still simply cannot eat eggs.
Oh yeah, and it's kid approved...
See that? Sour cream not even touched...
Helpful Equipment:
A rotary shredder, hand-crank or for your kitchenaid or a food processor with a rotary blade for shredding, or a mandoline with two-way blades that will make french-fry shapes of your potato. If you don't have any of these, hopefully it's just you and you can scale it down to just a potato or two's worth of slicing or you have help.
Ingredients:
1 onion, softball size (you can take this out if you can't have onions)
6 medium sized potatos, any variety works
1-2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup, approx, flour
Salt, to taste
1/2 lb bulk sausage
oil, for frying/greasing cooking surface
Instructions:
1. Heat a frying pan on medium heat, cook through and brown your sausage. Break it into smallish bits. Once done, set aside. Continue with directions while sausage is cooking.
2. While sausage is cooking, Remove ends of onion, peel and halve or quarter. Using a medium shredding size implement, shred your onion into a large mixing bowl.
3. Using a knife, remove any questionable portions of your potato and shred into your large mixing bowl also. My shredder of preference makes pieces a little smaller than a typical french fry but shorter.
4. Using your hands, mix the potato and onion pieces. Don't forget to check your sausage!
5. Add pumpkin puree and mix with a spoon. Pumpkin by itself in this form has a pretty mild taste so add pumpkin until you get a nice sticky consistency or to your taste.
6. Add flour in portions until you can make a nicely stuck together patty.
7. Sprinkle with salt and mix in. 1/4 tsp is usually what pleases everyone in my family.
8. Mix in the cooked sausage. This is what you should see at this point...
(Not quite so yellow, my kitchen lights aren't the best for real photography...)
9. Heat your frying pan using med-high heat and keep a very shallow layer of oil across the bottom. You will have to add more because the potatoes tend to soak it up more when it's not hot enough.
10. Form small handfuls into patties approximately the size of your hand and place in pan. Turn when they begin to brown. When you turn them, use your spatula to flatten them down again.
Be sure to snag one for yourself or hide them until you're all ready to sit an eat or they will not make it to the table! Toppings we like on these savory style latkas include sour cream and leftover (or fresh!) home-made cranberry sauce.
