Yes, just to set the record straight—since I have gotten a flood of e-mails about it throughout the last few days—my father-in-law, Bill Haas, is indeed the same Bill Haas running for governor of our great state. He announced two weeks ago. There is a bumper sticker on my car now that reads, “left wing Lindsay liberal Jews for Haas.” I believe it’s one-of-a-kind

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OK, kids, here is the one-step way to use up all the rest of your bird after you are done with making soup with the frame and eating sandwiches all day Friday. Finally, we can turn our attention away from the bird and look forward to what you are going to put under my menorah this year. I need socks.

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Here are some great holiday treats for everyone looking to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is a great time to share food with friends and family, and I have received dozens of e-mails asking for some great recipes, so here you go. I should tell you, the potato pancakes are so good that posting this recipe alone is a mitzvah of the highest order. Bubbelah, you should always trust me with this stuff. The chopped liver is the version I have been making for years and have named it after my grandmother who always made me a to-die-for chopped-liver dish every holiday.

Sephardic Eggplant Salad

3 large eggplants at 2–1/2 lbs.
2 T. olive oil
1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 c. flat parsley leaves
2 t. dried oregano
4 chopped scallions
2 T. lemon juice
2 large garlic cloves
2 T. salt packed capers, refreshed and drained
2 ripe, diced, skinless, seedless tomatoes
6 pita bread discs cut in 1/8s and toasted

Brush the eggplant with the tablespoons of olive oil, and broil on a baking sheet for 25–30 minutes, turning often until skin blackens and eggplant is cooked.

Let it cool. Peel and chop meats, and reserve to a colander to drip off the excess liquids.

Place the oregano, scallions, garlic, and half the parsley in a food processor, and pulse until well processed. Fold into the drained eggplant, season with the oil, lemon, and vinegar.

Add the tomatoes.

Chop the remaining parsley and capers, and fold into the salad.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve with toasted or grilled pita.

Henriette’s Chopped Chicken Liver

2 lbs. fresh chicken livers
1/4 c. rendered chicken fat (schmaltz)
1 t. minced parsley
2 hard-boiled eggs
1 large yellow onion, minced
1 box matzo

Drain, and pat dry the livers.

Sauté onions in 1 T. schmaltz over medium heat until lightly caramelized (just past beige). Reserve.

Fry livers to medium (pink) in 1 T. schmaltz in the same pan over medium high heat.
Reserve livers.

Grind the liver and onions through a food mill by hand, or pulse in a food processor.
Add the parsley, grate the eggs, and fold in those as well. Add remaining schmaltz, or more, to taste. Season with salt and pepper.

Chill the chopped livers.

Serve with the matzo.

Potato Pancakes

3 large russet (Idaho-style, baking) potatoes
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cooked, and diced
2 eggs, beaten
2 t. sea salt
1/2 t. ground white pepper
1/2 c. matzo meal
1 large yellow onion, grated
2 c. applesauce
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. crème fraiche
1/2 lb. sliced, smoked salmon (I like the Ducktrap line.)
Oil for frying

Peel and grate the Russet potatoes. Rinse with cold water, and drain, gently pressing to relieve excess moisture. Mix half the potatoes with the mashed potatoes. Pulse the other half of the grated potatoes with the onions in the work bowl or food processor to form a paste. Do not over work.

Combine the two mixtures; season with the salt, pepper, eggs, and matzo meal.
Heat enough vegetable oil, in a large skillet over medium heat, to come up the sides of the pan 1/4 an inch.

When oil is 350 degrees, or a small pinch of batter instantly sizzles when dropped in, fry small 2- to 3-inch sized patties in batches until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel.

Serve as a side dish or as a snack or appetizer. I think it is great to serve them with applesauce, sour cream, smoked salmon, and other treats on the side.

Noodle Kugel

1 lb. extra-wide egg noodles
4 c. cottage cheese
3 c. milk
2/3 c. melted butter
1 T. cinnamon
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
6 eggs
2 t. salt
1–1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. minced, dried apricots
1/2 c. sliced almonds

Cook, drain, and cool noodles.

Combine all the ingredients, reserving the almonds, brown sugar, and 1 t. of the cinnamon for sprinkling on the top of the casserole.
Butter a large pan or 2 small brownie pans.

Sprinkle kugel with the reserved ingredients, and bake at 350 degrees for 50–60 minutes until set and golden brown. Serves10–12

Stuffed Cabbage with Veal, Currants, and Pistachios

The Filling
3 lbs. ground veal
2 eggs
1–1/2 c. matzo meal or bread crumbs
1/2 c. currants
1/2 c. plain yogurt
1/2 c. minced parsley
2 T. ground cumin
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/3 c. toasted pine nuts
1 minced onion
1 lb. cooked, chopped spinach, drained very, very well
3 large heads Savoy cabbage, cleaned, leaves blanched and cooled

Combine all the ingredients except the cabbage. Roll 3 oz. of this stuffing mixture into the cabbage leaves, burrito style. Place all of the rolls 1/2 inch apart into 2 ovenproof dishes. Reserve.

The Sauce
24 oz. diced tomatoes in juice
4 T. minced, preserved lemons
2 minced cloves of garlic
1 t. saffron
1 c. white wine
2 minced shallots
6 leaves basil
2 diced carrots
2 pinches of chili flakes
1/2 c. orange juice
1 T. ground celery seed
1/2 c. toasted pistachios
2 T. butter

Place the butter in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the shallots, lemon, garlic, carrots, and saffron, and sauté until glassy. Add the wine, and simmer to reduce by half. Add the herbs, spices, and tomato with the juices. Simmer for 15–20 minutes until almost dry.

Divide over the cabbage rolls, and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Uncover, and bake for 10 more minutes.

In last Wednesday’s Star Tribune, Kevin Diaz reported on Hormel and Cargill CEOs testifying about the modified atmosphere packaging that allows for storing meat and other foods in an oxygen-depleted environment, then pumping the meat with carbon monoxide, making it shelf stable for up to twenty days, and it retains all it’s original bright red color. I have all the respect in the world for many of the local politicians on all sides of this issue, but if you take the position that the process preserves freshness and minimizes contamination as Cargill and Hormel do, and if you really believe this is a positive step for food safety as they do, then the least you could do is stick a BIG FAT LABEL on the meat that tells everyone how old the stuff is. I happen to think the practice is deceptive and is a scarily, but weakly, disguised attempt to get us to relieve the giant food companies of old meat that otherwise ends up in the garbage. You can say as many times as you like that it’s about preserving freshness, but it is simply a matter of baiting consumers into buying old meat that looks fresh and keeping meat shelf stable without freezing it. Why not simply sell fresh meat as fresh meat; then freeze the stuff before throwing it away in the supermarkets and sell that at a discount? And if you believe in the product and the new science so much, why not simply label it as “CO gassed” with large “made-on” dates? Hormel and Cargill have offered to label the product with a “color is not an accurate indicator of freshness” warning. Why create a process like this and then label it as such? Isn’t this an obvious mea culpa? Thoughts?

Speaking of freshness . . . for those looking to make do-ahead gravy for the holidays:

Do-Ahead Gravy
3 lb. poultry wings and backs
2 c. chopped onion and celery
4 c. chicken or turkey stock
3 T. flour
3 T. butter
1/2 c. cream (if you like)
salt and pepper to taste
herb sprig as needed

Chop the onion and celery, and place in a large brownie pan. Roast the poultry wings and backs on top of the chopped onion and celery. Season and cook at 350 degrees for 75 minutes. Remove from stove, pour off any accumulated liquid/fat, and return to oven for 10 minutes. Onions under the bird bits should be golden brown around edges, and poultry should be crisp-gold. Skim fat from liquid and discard, returning the liquid to pan along with the chicken or turkey stock. Simmer on a stove top for 10 minutes to loosen the sticky bits, pour contents of the pan into a small pot, and simmer covered for 50 minutes. You can add an herb sprig here if you like. Uncover, strain well, discard solids, and reduce liquid to 2-1/2 cups.

Set aside, and place the flour and butter in a saucepan, and cook for a few minutes over medium heat. Add the hot gravy liquid in thirds, whisking, and bring to a slow boil. Cook for 3–5 minutes, add cream, if you like, or season with salt and pepper, and serve as is. I do mine ahead to make life easy on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving.

Insiders on all sides of the fence e-mailed me over the weekend to say that J. D. Fratzke, longtime chef at Muffuletta—the Parasole group’s heritage restaurant in St. Anthony Park—has been made a managing partner and will also assume chef duties at The Strip Club, the new Tim Niver/Aaron Johnson restaurant on Mound and Maria in St. Paul. Niver and Johnson are the duo behind the smash hit eatery on Lake Street, the Town Talk Diner. Fratzke assumes his new duties in December.

Now on to the recipe at hand . . .

My wife loves lettuce cups and so does our son, and when I was in China last month I was reminded that they are just as popular there. All great food is about contrasts—hot-cold, salt-sweet, crunchy-sweet—and this dish has it all. The first time I ate this dish I was five years old with my Dad at Bobo’s in NYC’s Chinatown, a restaurant that closed about a year ago after a ninety-year run. This is a recipe that I spent years perfecting, trying to get it to the point where it would be indistinguishable from the original I had tasted there. It works.

Minced ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ in Lettuce Cups
2 whipped egg whites
2 T. corn starch
4 T. Chinese rice wine
2 T. soy sauce
1 lb. boneless and skinless chicken thigh, minced fine by hand
1 lb. shrimp, cleaned and finely diced
4 c. peanut oil
2 T. hot chili paste
1 t. sugar
1 T. plus 1 t. Toban Djan . . . Lee Kum Kee brand is best (Toban Djan is
     fermented bean paste that is seasoned with chiles and garlic).
1 T. minced ginger
1 T. minced garlic
1 dried hot chile
1/4 c. minced scallion
1/2 c. minced red pepper
1/2 c. minced celery
1/2 c. diced fresh water chestnuts
3 heads Boston lettuce or iceberg lettuce

Place the egg, corn starch, half the rice wine, the chili paste, and half the soy in a large Ziploc bag. Add the meat and let marinate for 12 hours.

Remove meat from marinade. Heat oil in a wok to 375 degrees. Fry the meat until cooked through in batches. Using a spider wand, reserve to a plate. When finished, pour off the oil through a strainer and refrigerate for another use. Do not wipe the wok. There will be oil remaining behind in the pan. This is intended.

Return the wok to high heat. When smoking, add the ginger, sugar, garlic, and the dried chili. Stir fry for a moment and add the vegetables. Stir fry for another moment and add the meats back to the wok. Add the remaining rice wine, Toban Djan, remaining soy sauce and cook, stirring until sauce is reduced to proper consistency.

Serve with the lettuce, allowing the guests to spoon a few morsels of meat mixture into the lettuce leaves at the table. Serves 4–6 people as a small course.

This is one of the dishes I first turn to whenever the cool weather hits us. These fabulous braised veal shanks are perfect for family dinners or entertaining. Be sure to keep some small forks or espresso spoons handy for extracting the delicate marrow from the bones. The fennel and orange flavors marry beautifully, as does the vinegar, which cuts through the fatty richness of the veal shanks.

Braised Veal Shanks with Orange and Fennel
8 osso buco veal shanks . . . please select meaty, center-cut pieces,
     approximately 14–16 oz. a piece
Kosher salt and pepper
Flour for dredging
4 T. olive oil
2/3 c. sherry wine vinegar
3 c. homemade veal or beef stock
2 medium-sized fennel bulbs, trimmed
3 c. peeled and sliced carrots
1 c. fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 c. cooked and cooled peas (or frozen)
1 orange, peeled and segmented, freed of all connective tissue and
     filament

Preheat oven to 375. Season the veal shanks with the salt and pepper and dredge with the flour. Place the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and brown the veal. Reserve to a platter. Discard the fat from the pan.

Add the vinegar, scraping the pan, and reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by a third. Return the veal to the pan, cover, and braise in the oven for an hour.

Slice the fennel lengthwise into sixths. Uncover the veal, then add the carrots, fennel, and orange juice. Raise temperature to 400 and cook uncovered for another 45 minutes, basting as you go.

Skim the sauce. Reserve the meat (it should be fork-tender) and vegetables to a platter, then return the pan to medium heat on your stovetop and reduce liquids to sauce consistency. Stir in the peas, then season and serve over the shanks.

Garnish with the orange sections. Serves 6.

I love soup, and this one is a home run. Best of all, it freezes well. I like to make this soup once it gets cold and rainy, and of course, it’s a great way to use up those carrots that I know are always sitting in the bottom of your vegetable bin.

Carrot Soup with Ginger and Curry
3 lbs. peeled and chopped carrots
1 lb. carrots, juiced
3 c. chicken stock
2 T. vegetable oil
1/4 c. minced shallots
4 Kaffir lime leaves
2 T. Madras curry powder
1 t. blanchan (shrimp paste)
1/4 c. minced ginger
2 sliced garlic cloves
2 red Thai chile peppers
1 T. toasted coriander seeds
12 oz. coconut milk
Lime juice and cilantro leaves for garnish

Place oil in a large pot over high heat. When aromatic, add the ginger, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste, curry, sambal, coriander seeds, and lime leaves. Cook briefly. When aromatic, add the stock, juice, and carrots. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Puree well, strain well, and bring to a simmer again, adding the coco milk. Simmer until soup has a rich, full-bodied consistency, then season with sea salt and white pepper. Add the lime juice and cilantro at the table. Serves 6–8.

Everyone has their go-to version of meat loaf, and everyone thinks theirs is the best. I'm no different. But in case you are still looking for yours, this is the answer to your prayers. I love to make sure I have some of this for leftover meat loaf sandwiches that I serve on toast with Heinz chile sauce.

The Real Deal Meat loaf
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground veal
1 lb. ground pork
3 T. butter
1 large onion minced
3 ribs minced celery
1 c. blanched and drained spinach . . . frozen is OK, but be sure that it is squeezed well to remove excess moisture.
2 pinches fresh grated nutmeg
1 c. chopped tomatoes . . . canned is OK.
2 c. dry bread crumbs
1/2 c. sherry
1/3 c. heavy cream
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. tomato paste, softened in a few teaspoons of water
2 slices bacon

Place the butter into a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the onion, spinach, celery, nutmeg, and tomato. Cook until soft and glassy.

Add the sherry and cook until dry. Cool, then pulse for 4 or 5 seconds in a food processor. You don't want to purée it, but you want to be sure there are no big chunks. Place into a bowl and add the cream, bread crumbs, eggs, and meats. Combine well and season with salt and pepper.

Place one slice of bacon inside a large rectangular loaf pan. Add the meat mixture all at once and spread tomato paste mixture over the top of the meatloaf. Place a piece of bacon over the top of the paste. Put the loaf pan into a 325-degree oven for about 2 hours.

Remove and cool for 15 minutes before unmolding, slicing, and serving.

So I had lunch with my son at Brasa last week—what a fabulous joint that little place is. Anyway, it made me get out my favorite grits recipe after I ate Alex's version. Here it is. I serve it either with roasted, whole corned beef glazed with maple-bourbon-mustard sauce or under grilled quail. (For the latter, take 12 semi-boneless quail and marinate overnight in 2 c. of fresh orange juice. Grill over high, direct heat and brush with apricot preserves thinned with a little cider vinegar and brown mustard.) These grits also are fabulous with roasted ham . . . I'm making myself hungry.

Cheddar Cheese Grits
4 c. milk
1-1/2 c. quick-cooking grits . . . Quaker Oats brand work great.
1/4 lb. plus 4 T. butter
2 t. butter for the baking dish
2 t. salt
1 dash hot pepper sauce
12 oz. of grated, sharp farmhouse cheddar cheese . . . Grafton works
     well.
3 eggs, well-beaten
Butter for frying

Butter a long, rectangular baking dish—Le Creuset works great, as does Pyrex. Preheat oven to 375. In a large sauce pan, bring the milk and 2 c. water to boil over high heat. Pour in the grits, and stir well.

Pull from heat and stir in all the seasonings, cheese, 1/4 lb. butter, and the eggs, stirring well. Pour into the prepared baking dish and place in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve.

October is here. Who cares what the temperature gauge says or how the local teams did over the weekend? Who cares how much time a dish takes to cook now that the season has turned? I am getting ready for hibernation, so break out the cream and butter and dust-off the kettle . . .  or if you like, blow the cobwebs from a French classic and get cooking. This recipe reminds me why great food is timeless. I cut the back bones out of the ducks when they have rested for 20 minutes after cooking, serving the duck in quarters. Two servings is half a duckling—a large portion per diner, but I rarely serve it any other way.

Duck a l’Orange
2 large Pekin (Long Island) ducklings, about 5–6 lbs. each
5 c. fresh orange juice
4 buds star anise, ground or crushed

The Sauce
4 c. rich duck stock or veal stock
1 c. fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 c. Grand Marnier
6 cloves
Zest of 1 orange
1 shallot, minced
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. lemon juice

Prick the ducks with a sharp fork and wriggle the skin to loosen. Marinate the ducks for 24–36 hours in the orange juice and ground star anise. I use the super-sized Ziploc bags.

Remove ducks from marinade, discard marinade, and place ducks on a rack in your refrigerator. Dry for 12 hours refrigerated and then 2 hours at room temperature.

Rack the ducks over a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and stuff the cavities with rosemary and sliced oranges. Preheat the oven to 350 and roast ducks for 2 hours, turning and basting with the fat, pricking the skin occasionally when the leg joint wriggles in its socket.

Place the sugar and lemon juice in a high-sided saucepan over low-medium heat and slowly let it caramelize without stirring. When golden light brown, pull from heat and stir in the shallots, orange zest, and spices. Add the stock (it will bubble a lot—keep stirring), then the cup of orange juice and Grand Marnier, stirring. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and reduce to sauce consistency. Season with sherry wine vinegar, salt, and orange zest. Strain and keep warm.

Serve the duck with the sauce. Serves 4–6.