Thursday, December 06, 2007

Happy Hanukkah!



I love potato latkes. It's my favorite Jewish food. Matzoh ball soup can't compete (sorry Josh's mom). Since Tuesday was the first night of Hanukkah, what better night to try my hand at making latkes for the very first time? I once watched Josh's dad make them, and I helped fry them, so I knew it wasn't that hard, especially with the help of a food processor. Turns out making latkes is so easy, and doesn't require anywhere the amount of oil I thought it did. And it also turns out that Josh thought they were delicious. When I'd turn around to put another bunch to drain, the previous batch would already be gone.

Here's the recipe I worked out:
Ingredients
3 peeled large Idaho potatoes (not the super ginormous super baked potato size)
1/2 medium yellow onion
3 Tbsp flour or bread crumbs (Josh couldn't find any matzoh meal at the market)
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Black pepper (to taste)
Vegetable oil

Grate the potatoes and onions. Using a food processor with grating disk is the fastest and easiest way to do this (also easy on the eyes if you're a weakling with onions). Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the potatoes and onions. I just squeezed it out over the kitchen sink. Don't worry about trying to get it bone dry. Using a salad spinner would work too, like in that Good Eats episode where Alton Brown made potato roesti. However, I was lazy and didn't want to wash more dishes.

Then mix the salt, pepper, flour/bread crumbs, and eggs into the potato mixture. Heat up your pan of choice and pour in 2-3 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Drop in 2-3 Tbsp of your latke mix and flip when bottom is golden brown and delicious. Remove when second side looks good too. Serve with apple sauce and sour cream. I prefer the apple sauce.

4 comments:

Jennie said...

Oooh those look so good! I love latkes. Julie tried to make them once, but it was a big mess and they didn't turn out well. Maybe we will try again with your instructions. ;)

Anonymous said...

Great recipe. Good for you. Must save.

Dora said...

The recipe is pretty flexible. I made latkes again and I used more potatoes, but didn't increase the other ingredients proportionally and they still tasted great! At least I think they did, because we have no leftovers again.

Anonymous said...

That looks wonderful. My one experience with making latkes was disastrous but will try again with your recipe. Of course that was a million years ago before I had a food processor and there must have been an ounce of knuckle in the latke mix.
Thanks.