breakfast blogger

Since my latkes turned out so well last year, I thought I should post this recipe BEFORE the holiday begins this year.

If you are an avid reader of the Breakfast Blogger, you may well recall that last year I made latkes for a Hannukah brunch held in Toronto, where the guests were the extended family of my Very Special Ladyfriend. It was a high pressure situation and I pulled through with flying colors - I didn’t burn down their kitchen AND the latkes turned out fabulously. I am going to Toronto in a couple of days and will probably make latkes once again. I decided to post this thread now so everyone can make latkes before Hannnukah instead of after, not that you can’t eat latkes all year round. . .

Hannukah starts this Friday evening, so light your Hannukiah before lighting the shabbes candles . . . .and then eat your latkes!

I learned to make latkes from my mother, and we both use the recipe from a local cookbook that most Montreal Jewish homes seem to have sitting on their cookbook shelf. It is called Second Helpings, from B’nai Brith Women Montreal, 1977 - edited by Norene Gilletz, but almost all latke recipes are just about the same, so any will do.

The last time I made latkes, I used:

6-8 potatoes (Yukon Gold potatoes are 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

You can multipily this recipe if you are feeding many people - I usually do. Also, feel free to add an extra onion if you like your latkes a little oniony, or omit an onion if you prefer your latkes bland. I usually adjust the recipe according to the size of the potatoes and onions that I am using.

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

Now you have to 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 grate the potatoes using both the big and small sides of a box grater until I achieve a smooth consistency - just keep switching until it seems right. You don’t want to see too many big potato shreds, but you don’t want it to be a puree either.

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, either by hand or with the food processor.

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 and you’ve got yourself some pretty decent latke batter.

Now set the stovetop to medium and heat up some oil in a frying pan. There should be enough oil to submerge the latkes halfway, so when you flip them, the other side will cook without burning the edges (too much oil) or leaving the middle raw (not enough oil). As you are cooking, you will have to add more oil every now and then as the latkes do absorb oil when they cook. It may not be the healthiest food in the world, but consider it a ‘mitzvah’ as it represents the miracle oil that burned for seven days. Hopefully your heartburn won’t last quite as long.

I usually use 2 or 3 (or even 4!) 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 it into the pan and flatten it using a spatula.

Repeat until the pan is full - usually five or six latkes at a time. Let each latke fry until the underside is done and then flip it to do the other side. you can get a really good rhythm going so you are always adding, flipping, or removing, without too much worry or hurry.

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.

I hope your latkes turn out great. Please let me know . . .

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 11:30 am and is filed under Breakfasts, Recipes, Spanky's Recipes, Spanky's Breakfasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.