This week is Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. I honestly don’t know much about the meaning of the holiday. When I asked my husband, our conversation went like this:
Me: (Yelling from my office upstairs, blogging.) Jeff! What’s Hanukkah?!
Jeff: (Watching the Browns have the upper hand against the 49er’s, yelling back.) I dunno! Look it up!
Me: I can’t find anything! Wikipedia is lame!
Jeff: I dunno! It’s not a big deal! They were stuck in a temple and the oil lasted for eight days!
You would think that someone who was bar mitzvahed and played rugby for the U.S. in the Maccabiah games (in Israel!) would be a little more of an authority. You’ll have to make do with my version: Jews were stuck in a temple and they didn’t have much oil, but the oil that they did have miraculously lasted eight days. Today those eight days are represented by the eight-candle menorah and eating foods that are cooked in lots of oil, like Nana’s Potato Latkes.
Latkes have a long tradition. You can find more about the history of lakes on this article posted by The Atlantic.
Using onion is important, because that is the trademark flavor of latkes. Without it, you basically have hash browns.
Prepare the potatoes. It will take about 45 minutes or so to clean, grate, rinse, and dry the potatoes. Take the clean potatoes and grate them.
As you grate, place the shredded potatoes in a bowl of cold water. This will keep the potatoes from browning. You can see this working when the water starts to look “muddy.” Drain and refill about halfway through grating to keep the water clear. Soaking the grated potatoes in water is important because if you don’t, the latkes will be grey and goopy, and they won’t crisp up properly. When finished grating, drain this bowl into a colander and rinse. Your shreds should look crisp and white.
Dry them off. This step is important because it will help the shreds bind. If you don’t do this, they will fall apart when you fry them. Place in a kitchen towel and twist to remove the excess water. I did this in three batches, and then placed in a large bowl. Set aside.
Mix the egg batter into the grated potatoes. I used my hands, to make sure all the shreds were evenly covered.
You’re now ready to fry. This is the second part of making the latkes and will take about an hour or so. There will be several dozen latkes with this recipe so hunker down—you’ll be here a while. Start with a little oil in a heated skillet over medium-high heat. For my 10-inch skillet, I use about eight tablespoons, just enough to cover the bottom. Taking about two spoonfuls of potato, place in the sizzling oil, four latkes at a time. Don’t do anything more than this, the more latkes you place in there the more the temperature of the oil will go down and they won’t cook evenly. The heat needs to be hot enough to cook each side evenly until they are golden brown, about five minutes per side. Then flip.
As you cook, the oil will need to be refilled. The photo below shows the oil going down a little too much. Between batches, refill so that the bottom of the skillet is evenly covered.
After they are golden brown on both sides, let them drain. Cover a cookie sheet with paper towels and position a wire baker’s rack over that. Then, place the latkes on rack to drain.
Top It off
You can top off Nana’s Potato Latkes with the following:
- Sour cream
- Applesauce
- Mango chutney
- Creme fraiche
Serve with traditional fixings of applesauce and sour cream. Sometimes, I go all shiksa and have them with mango chutney and creme fraiche.
Serving Suggestions
Nana’s Potato Latkes makes about 38 latkes so you can also freeze them and have them later. If you freeze them, place parchment or wax paper between them so they don’t stick to each other. To reheat, pop them in the oven at 400 degrees, Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes until warm.
L’chaim! (To life!)
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Nana's Potato Latkes
Equipment
- box grater
- 8-quart mixing bowl
- 5-quart colander
- Skillet
- baker's cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 pound russet potatoes, cleaned about eight large potatoes
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup vegetable oil
Instructions
- Mix onion, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Using a box grater, shred the potatoes, placing them in a big bowl of cold water as you go, to prevent them from browning. Drain and replace water about halfway through to keep potatoes white and crisp.
- Drain in colander and rinse. Then, working in three batches, roll up jelly-roll style in a kitchen towel and ring tightly to remove excess water. Place in large dry bowl.
- Add egg mixture to potatoes and mix thoroughly.
- Heat about 8 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.
- Working in batches of four, spoon two tablespoons of potato mixture per latke into skillet, spreading into a three-inch round with a fork.
- Cook on side for about five minutes, until golden brown and then flip. Cook for another five minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer to wire baking rack that is over paper towels and drain.
- Repeat until all the latkes are made. Remove stray shreds of potato and refill oil between batches as needed between batches.
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