Potato Latkes (pancakes)
Potato Latkes are a traditional food in the Jewish religion eaten mostly during Chanukah. Traditionally, they are made of shredded potatoes and onions. However, why not mix it up with some different vegetables. The recipe here is my recipe for traditional latkes. I frequently, however, replace 1/2 of the potatoes with different vegetables (carrots, parsnip, zucchini, celery root, broccoli, cauliflower or a combination thereof). Sweet potatoes also make a delicious variation on the original. The basic recipe is the same, play with the vegetables, seasonings you add as well as the toppings! I’ve seen apple sauce, sour cream, lox, avocado, herbed cream cheese, nut butter and apples, ricotta, or pesto! My favorites are applesauce on a traditional latke, lox on a potato zucchini latke, potato celery root with garlic and ricotta, or pesto on any latke!
Ingredients:
2 lbs. russet potatoes, cleaned and halved (sub 1 lb. of any vegetable and 1 lb. potato)
1 lb. yellow onions, peeled and halved
1/3 cup potato starch
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
olive or avocado oil, a few cups of it.
Directions:
Shred onions using the shredding disc on your food processor (you can use a hand held shredder if you are a sucker for punishment, just be careful not to shred your fingers while you are at it) Place onions in a large strainer (can also squeeze out liquid using a cheesecloth or a thin towel) to let drain.
Shred potatoes using the same technique as above. Feel free to add potatoes to onions when straining, they are all going to the same place! Drain as much liquid as you possibly can, let rest for a few minutes and repeat. They will continue to give off liquid.
Once thoroughly strained of liquid, place potatoes and onions into a large bowl. Add potato starch, eggs, salt and pepper.
I like to roll up my sleeve and use my hand to mix this up. I find that it is the best way to get everything thoroughly combined. Don’t worry if the mixture is still giving off liquid. We will mix it up and use it when making our pancakes.
I suggest using two pans at a time to fry up these babies. No need to spend all afternoon frying. Heat pans over medium high heat. Add enough oil to fill pan about 1/4 inch.
Place about 2-3 tablespoons of batter into pan, using back of spoon to flatten pancake into a 3-4 inch round ( or whatever size you like). A 10-12 inch pan will fry 2-3 pancakes at a time. Don’t over crowd or it will be difficult to flip and they will cool the oil down too much.
Once you see the edges of the pancake beginning to brown (2-3 min.), gently flip it over and fry the other side. It should be nice and golden brown on both sides when done.
Remove pancakes from oil and place on a sheet pan covered with paper towels and then a cooling rack on top of that to keep them crisp. Blot the oil off the top of the pancakes, allowing any extra oil to drip down into the paper towels in your sheet pan.
Once cooled slightly, you can put them into a 200 degree oven to keep warm for dinner or place them on a parchment paper lined sheet pan to freeze for later.
Continue this until all the pancakes are fried. If your batter gets too watery as you get toward the bottom of the bowl, feel free to pour off most of the liquid at this point.
If you are not using these right away, freeze them for later on the parchment lined baking sheet. Once frozen, you can store them in a zip top bag until use.
To cook from frozen, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place frozen latkes on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes until sizzling and hot. Serve immediately with any of the toppings mentioned above.
To make as an appetizer, Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a cupcake pan with oil. Place ~2 Tbsp. of potato batter into bottom of each well, press down gently using the bottom of a juice glass and then spray again with oil. Bake for about 30 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Allow to cool, remove with a butter knife and top with your favorite topping: applesauce, sour cream and chives, sour cream and lox, olive tapenade, pesto of any variety, etc.