breakfast blogger

I made latkes on New Year’s Day, which was also the last day of Hannukah - at a Hannukah party hosted by my girlfriend’s mother in Toronto.

I learned to make latkes from my mother, and we both use the recipe from Second Helpings (B’nai Brith Women Montreal, 1977 - edited by Norene Gilletz). Almost all latke recipes are the same, and here is what I used:

6-8 potatoes (Yukon Gold is best)
2 onions
3 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt and some pepper
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
oil for frying

Peel the potatoes into a big bowl of cold water, to avoid them turning brown.

Grate the potatoes: This should be done by hand, but can easily be done in a food processor. The important factor is the consistency. If grating by hand, I use both the big and small sides of a box grater until I achieve a smooth consistency - but not too smooth. If using a food processor, grate all the potatoes first with the grater blade, and then use the regular blade to puree a few handfuls and mix it back in until it looks right. Now grate the onion.

Put the grated potatoes into a clean tea-towel (or cheesecloth) and wring it out until most of the water is gone. Then mix in everything else.

Set the stovetop to medium and heat up some oil in a frying pan -I usually use 2 or 3 pans simultaneously, depending on how many latkes I am making - this time I used 2. Shape some of the mixture (about 1 tbsp or a small handful) into a ball and carefully place into the pan and flatten using a spatula. Repeat until the pan is full - usually five or six latkes at a time. Let them fry until the undersides are done and then flip to do the other side.

Put a baking sheet in the oven on the lowest setting (warm). As each latkes is ready, place it onto a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the extra fat and then place the latke in the oven to keep warm.
Keep doing this until all the mixture has been used.

I made about 50 latkes.

Here is what one plate of latkes looked like:

We served them with apple sauce and sour cream.

There was also a beautiful cheese plate:

Clockwise from top: Stilton, old cheddar, a really nice soft French cheese?, Chevre Noir, aged Gouda.

There was also some cakes and a nice array of sweets:

Brownies, Rugelach, chocolate chip toffee squares, etc.

My latkes, and the party, were a success.
I hope your latkes go over just as well.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Breakfasts, Spanky's Recipes, Spanky's Breakfasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.