The Celebration of All Things Fried

Earlier this week marked the beginning of Hannukah. The eight crazy nights stretched through this week and end right before Christmas. My kids look forward to two things during Hannukah – gifts and latkes.

Golden brown latke's ready to eat

Latke’s are traditional potato pancakes that are eaten this time of year along with sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and all other things fried. Personally, that’s what I think is cool about this holiday. Don’t get me wrong, the meaning behind the holiday is pretty amazing – good over evil, resources lasting longer than expected, hope and faith persevering in the presence of certain darkness (literally and figuratively) with a few miracles sprinkled in for good measure. 

So, what do we do to commemorate the occasion? We eat. But better than that, we are told that we must eat fried food to remember the miracle of the oil in the ancient temple that lasted a full eight days as opposed to the one day that was expected. As one of my girlfriends said to me when I told her about Hannukah and the foods that we are instructed to eat, “an entire holiday about fried food? Where do I sign up to be Jewish?” Wait until I tell her about Passover when we’re commanded to drink 4 cups brimming with wine.

This year for Hannukah, my daughter had to write an essay about our holiday food traditions and bring in a little taste of that food for everyone in her class. This meant that in the first 2 days of Hannukah, between her class project and the family dinners, I made so many latke’s that the fried smell permeated every inch of my house and won’t dissipate until next Hannukah. The city might end up rezoning our house to a fast-food location because you can smell it down the block.

Although latke’s aren’t hard to make, they are labor intensive and make me very grateful for modern day kitchen tools. Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks which I wanted to share with you along with our family recipe and an alternative version. 

And yes, I fry them. Because every other time of year, I feel guilty for eating french fries, or justify that swiping them from my kids plate “doesn’t count” or I have to count every calorie, point or whatever when I eat fried food and hash-browns are reserved as a hangover indulgence. So this one time of year when I don’t have to feel guilty for eating fried food and in fact, it’s a way of commemorating my heritage well then, I'm going to take full advantage of it and own it. 

Traditional Potato Latkes

Serves 5. About 5-6 latkes per person

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds of russet potatoes
• 1 lemon
• 2 yellow onions
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour. Keep another cup of flour on hand if needed.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• Sour cream
• Applesauce

What to do:

1. Wash and peel potatoes
2. Grate potatoes in food processor using shredding attachment with the largest holes
3. Place grated potatoes in a bowl of cold water along with the juice of one lemon, careful not to get any lemon seeds into the water.
4. Drain potatoes in a colander then place them in a salad spinner. Spin the potatoes until very little water comes out after being spun. If you don’t have a salad spinner, once the potatoes are drained, place them in batches on a tea towel, roll up the potatoes in the towel and squeeze as much excess water as possible.
5. Grate the 2 onions in food processor
6. Add onions to the potatoes and season with salt and pepper
7. Slightly whisk the two eggs and add to the potatoes along with the flour
8. Stir until well blended
9. Heat vegetable oil in skillet (I like to use a cast iron skillet) until it sizzles when a piece of potato is placed in it.
10. Take a scoop of potato mixture in the palm of your hand (it should be a little sticky and hold together) and form a ball. Flatten the ball and place in the oil.
11. You can fry several latkes at a time but don’t crowd the skillet. Also, be sure that the oil stays hot and add more oil as needed.
12. When edges of latke are golden brown turn it over to fry other side. If the center isn’t brown, let it fry a little longer.
13. Once both sides are golden brown, take latke out of oil and put on plate with paper towels to drain.
14. Serve with sour cream and applesauce.

Sweet Potato and Ginger Latkes

Sweet Potato and Ginger Latkes

Serves 5. About 5-6 latkes per person

Ingredients:

• 3 sweet potatoes (about 2.5 pounds)
• 2 handfuls of baby carrots or 2 regular carrots, peeled
• ½ red onion
• 2 tablespoons grated ginger
• 3 tablespoons cilantro
• Juice of one orange
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups flour

What to do:

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes
2. Wash baby carrots or peel regular carrots
3. Grate sweet potatoes in food processor using the shredding attachment with largest holes
4. Put sweet potatoes in large bowl
5. Grate carrots and red onions and place in bowl with sweet potatoes
6. Add grated ginger, cilantro, orange juice and mix
7. Slightly beat eggs and add to potato mixture along with 1 ½ cups flour. If mixture doesn’t hold together when formed into a small ball and pressed into a patty, add additional flour.
8. Heat vegetable oil in skillet (I like to use a cast iron skillet) until it sizzles when a piece of potato is placed in it.
9. Take a scoop of sweet potato mixture in the palm of your hand (it should be a little sticky and hold together) and form a ball. Flatten the ball and place in the oil.
10. You can fry several latkes at a time but don’t crowd the skillet. Also, be sure that the oil stays hot and add more oil as needed.
11. When edges of latke are golden brown turn it over to fry other side. If the center isn’t brown, let it fry a little longer.
12. Once both sides are golden brown, take latke out of oil and put on plate with paper towels to drain.

Traditional Latke's photos:

Peeled potatoes in water to prevent browning

Potatoes shredded in food processor.
Notice how much liquid they are producing?

Place grated potatoes on tea towel to drain extra liquid.
But, for the next batch, I used the salad spinner and this was SO MUCH BETTER (and less messy).

Squeeeeeezing out the extra liquid. Do not put this in your sink.
The potato starch will clog your sink. We (and I mean my husband) has spent many
Hannukah evenings trying to unclog our backed up sink because of potato starch. 

Adding in the onions

Putting onions in food processor.

Adding the onions to the potatoes. Just add the onions and not all of the juice.

My daughter's solution to stop the onion cutting tears. 

Adding the two eggs. I should have whisked them slightly before adding. 

Adding the flour. I usually keep an additional cup of flour on hand
that I add - 1/2 cup at a time - if the potato mixture gets to liquidy.

Mmmmmmm ... frying the latkes. 

Notice the golden brown edges on the ones I haven't flipped?
That's what you're looking for before flipped them. You also want the centers to be golden brown. 

More latke's flipping. 

Draining the latke's on paper towels. 

Sweet Potato and Ginger Latkes in Photos:

Peeled sweet potatoes

Shredded in food processor.
Sweet potatoes don't give off as much liquid. 

Red onion ready for food processor .

Shredded sweet potatoes with carrots and orange juice squeezed in.

Sweet potato mixture with carrots, ginger, onion, cilantro and
orange juice. After this I added whisked eggs and flour. 

I usually put the raw potato patty on a spatula and
push it into the hot oil with my finger. 

Frying the sweet potato latkes.

Mmmm... frying the sweet potatoes. 

Multiple latke's in the frying pan. 

 

Finished and ready to eat!