Never Enough Latkes

Posted December 14, 2009

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Birdy thought she'd take leftover latkes to school. What is wrong with that girl? "Honey," I explained. "There's no such thing as leftover latkes."

This photo is partly of potato peeling, partly of my excessively fragrant paperwhites, and partly of Birdy's school-planted bean plant which is twining ferociously around the delicate paperwhites in the spirit of Little Shop of Horrors.

This is what the batter looks like after the grating and the whirring. The liquid settles to the bottom, so keep stirring it as you make the pancakes.

If you use super-seasoned cast iron, you can avoid the creep factor of Teflon. But don't use a pan that sticks or you'll cry.

See what I'm saying? Everybody loves latkes. Except a little friend we had over. Who consented to nibble off a mouse-sized bite of one only after we said it was like a round French fry. And still there were no leftovers.

Meanwhile, I was also making some applesauce--a perfect way to use up some very *mature* apples.

Voila.

Latkes with artfully unfocused menorah in foreground.

Birdy would happily spread sour cream on your foot before chomping into it.

I'm still a little bit sad that they're all gone.

Raw kale, eggnog cheesecake, latkes. We are, as you have surely gathered, a very earthy, very decadent, very spiritual, very secular family. We celebrate with great passion and wonder, and what we believe in is the magic of nature, the compassion of humans, the power of justice, and gratitude. Which means that, come December, our little family--with two parents each of whom is half-Jewish/half-Christian--takes on the air of a great and festive dabbling.

Take our beautiful crèche, for example: Italian porcelain, purchased two years ago from the Salvation Army, and so beloved by Birdy that she literally jumped up and down when we got out the box this year. Lean in close, and you'll hear her whispering to the rosy little Christ baby: "Well, Joseph is your step dad? But he loves you so, so much, Jesus. It's fine just to call him Daddy." The Magi bring their gifts over and over again, given that they are welded porcelainly into their porcelain arms. "A kind of incense," Birdy explains to baffled, kneeling, one-armed Mary. "It smells good." She handles all the delicate people and animals with so much sweetness and devotion that you could not imagine a more shining example of Christian love.

And then there's Hanukkah: Michael's grandmother's menorah, lit with great sentiment and ceremony--and only slight fumbling over the prayers and their difficult tune--every night. I just looked it up on Wikipedia to read that "the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE." Oh! I always explain it to the kids as a kind of loaves-and-fishes situation: a day's worth of oil burns for eight; through faith and gratefulness, scarcity expands to become enough. That so perfectly describes how I want to live that it takes my breath away. An attitude of abundance. The miracle of gratitude.

And yes, I'm perfectly happy to sit in the candle-lit house of our friends, who've recently become pig farmers, and eat latkes fried in lard. Because this is part of our belief too: not just pig fat (which could be a religion unto itself), but the spirit of resourcefulness, an absence of waste, food shared in happy community with ceremony and warmth and absurdity and laughter.

But that's not the recipe I'm giving you. Not just because the treyf quotient is detonatingly high (even my late atheist grandmother had to be cringing a little over the "lardkes," as we called them), but also because, well, canola oil is really a more practical option. I also make a mess-free and greaseless oven-baked potato-pancake recipe, but it's wrong to make them that way when what we're celebrating is oil--it feels too much like fretting about the carbs in your Eucharist wafer.

Make these, even if you're not Jewish, and eat them in quiet appreciation of their deliciousness or accompanied by the Hanukkah story of magic oil, of spiritual illumination, of the light of human kindness shining through the dark and holy night.

Latkes
serves 4 as a meal, 8 as appetizers
Total time: 45 minutes

These are crispy and tender and salty and delicious. A pinch of baking soda keeps the potatoes from turning their creepy blue-grey color; whirring the batter in the blender makes it smooth enough to spread thin and cook through quickly; small pancakes maximize crisp edges. There are never enough.

3 fist-size baking potatoes or Yukon golds, peeled (enough to make 3 cups grated)
1/2 a small onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
1/2 cup (or so) vegetable oil
Sour cream and applesauce for serving

Grate the potatoes and onion: I do this with the grating disk of my food processor, but it's fine to do it on the large holes of a hand-held grater. Stir in the eggs, flour, baking soda, and salt, then pulse the mixture briefly in the food processor, now fitted with the steel blade. If you didn't use the food processor to begin with, then your potatoes were probably more mushily grated (in a good way), and you can skip this step--or else whir the mixture briefly in a blender.

Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, then drop in heaping teaspoons of the batter and flatten them a bit with the back of the spoon. Fry the latkes until they're nicely browned, then flip them and fry another 2 minutes until the undersides are browned too. Drain them on a paper-towel-covered wire rack and, if absolutely necessary, keep them warm (sans paper towel) in a 250 oven until they're all fried. But it's really better just to take turns frying and eat them while they're fresh and hot. Fry the rest of the batter, adding more oil to the pan as necessary. Sprinkle the latkes with salt, and serve with sour cream and applesauce.

Bonus Applesauce Recipe
I make applesauce two different ways: if I'm lazy, I just chop up the apples, cores skins and all, and cook them until they're tender, then put them through a food mill to fish out the skins and seeds and make a smooth sauce; if I peel and core them first, then I leave the sauce chunky.

Apples (I used 6)
Water
Maple Syrup (I used around 3 tablespoons)

Chop the apples and add them to a medium-sized pot with a splash of water. Simmer them on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until they are tender (from 15-30 minutes), then stir in maple syrup to taste, and put the sauce through a food mill (or don't).

Get a printable version of this recipe.

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Never Enough Latkes

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cefkennedy says:

January 08, 2010

I made them again with Maine potatoes (thin skin, similar to Yukon golds) and had the same slight grayish discoloration thing settled in pretty quickly. Again, still cooked up golden and delicious. So, here's what I think thefivedollars and I should do: stop using a white mixing bowl and get a fancy bright pink mixing bowl from Salvation Army like Catherine. That's it. Problem solved. --Cathy K

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cefkennedy says:

December 28, 2009

I lost count of how many latkes I ate on Christmas. So, so many. So SO good. Here's my report: I used red bliss potatoes (that's what I had the most of) and I did find that they turned a color almost immediately after they were grated (grayish? pinkish?), and continued to be an other-than-white color after the flour and baking soda were added. However, after they were fried up all nice and golden brown, the insides seemed to look regular potato white again (?). A Christmas miracle? I don't know. But I do know this--they are awesome even if you skip some of the steps, like the blender part. And I had just made bacon and decided to fry them in the still sizzling fat and it worked perfectly. But if I had been a tad less lazy I would have used oil to fully appreciate the symbolic beauty of it all. Next time. --Cathy K

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GeenyBeeny says:

December 21, 2009

My dad has been making latkes for Christmas morning breakfast for as long as I can remember. Scrambled eggs, english muffins, bacon & sausage, latkes & mimosas. The best breakfast ever!

We always drain the extra water out, which can be done easily by putting the grated potatoes & onions in a fine mesh sieve and pressing on them lightly. No messy dishtowels to deal with and it definitely makes a difference. You can use less oil and they are less prone to sticking.

Happy holidays everyone!

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Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Never Enough Latkes

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