Spinach Salad with Roasted Golden and Red Beets, Walnuts and Goat Cheese

Ingredients

Salad:

Spinach or baby spinach

1/2 red onion, minced

Red wine or white wine vinegar

Toasted Walnuts

Goat Cheese

3 beets, cooked, skinned, cooled and cut crosswise into thin medallions.  Golden + Red makes for a very pretty salad.

Dressing:

1/4 cup good balsamic

1/2 cup + a few tbs good extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp whole grain prepared mustard

1 tsp maple syrup

2 cloves garlic, smashed with a back on knife

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

At least 2 hours and up to one day ahead, add minced onions to vinegar, enough to almost cover.  Keep refrigerated until ready to use.  

For the dressing, mix all the ingredients together except for the oil.  Drizzle oil in slowly while whisking rapidly to make a nice, thick dressing.  Season to taste, add smashed garlic cloves.  Let sit out for a few hours until ready to serve, or refrigerate for later use.  Discard garlic cloves.

Compose salad, adding as much of the toppings and dressing as you'd like (including onions). 

Potato Latke - Maya's version

Ingredients

6 potatoes (unpeeled)

1 zucchini

2 medium onions

3 eggs

2/3 cup flour

S+P to taste

2 garlic cloves

Directions

- Work 1 batch at a time.  Grate potatoes and zucchini, place in a colander lined with a tea towel.  Add a generous pinch of salt, massage into grated mixture.

- Meanwhile, whisk eggs + salt and pepper.  Grate onions.

- Wring tea towel to remove as much liquid as possible, add solids to egg mixture. 

- Drain off as much liquid from onions, add to the rest of the ingredients.

- Sprinkle over flour, mix until combined

- Prepare two cookie trays with cooling wracks, place double paper towels on top of cooling wracks.

- Fry latkes, pressing out liquid with slotted spoon before adding to pan.  Transfer to lined cookie trays

- Put oven on warm, line a third cookie tray with double paper towels.  Once first two trays are full, place latkes into warmer tray in a scalloped fashion (slightly overlapping to fit more).

- Leave on warm uncovered until ready to eat

Comments

- Switch out oil every two batches to avoid smoking