Well, what about the applesauce?
Comfort food is like that.
They are generally dishes that have emerged from the day by day of a kitchen,
the routine of a mother who has those ingredients
and has to extract all the flavors she can out of them.
The first time I made this applesauce
to serve with latkes,
I peeled the apple, saw those little seeds,
and when I was discarding them,
I said: "Why am I going to cook the apples in plain water,
if I can cook them in seasoned water,
in flavored water?"
So I added the apple peels and seeds
to the water, made some tea, and then I cooked the apple in this tea.
The green apple is cooked in this tea to maximize its flavor.