Frieda’s latkes
It’s almost Hanukkah and I always feel that latkes are the star of the meal when it comes to celebarting the eight days of love, laughter and light plus a bunch of really oily delicious food. Here’s my mom’s non traditional recipe for potato latkes with my own twist.
I’m going to give you all the tricks and tips you need to know on how to make them perfect. But first let me tell you how I learned to make my mom’s recipe for these crispy little bites of heaven.
I always talk about my mom during the holidays and to be honest, I miss her even more every time I think about her. My mom spent hours and even days in the kitchen to make everyone’s favorite foods and now that I have been handed her role in the kitchen, those are very BIG shoes to fill. She used to make us latkes every Hanukkah and we waited for each batch to come out fresh, hot and crispy. She would always refer to her latkes as a latke but they actually resemble a potato pancake.
I always asked my mom what kind of potatoes to use when making latkes. She would look at me straight in the eye and say “what kind of question is that’? Always RED!”
Now I know what the standard “Latke potato” usually is…..a good starchy russet that yields a super crispy result. BUT….reds were what she always used for every single dish and I feel like if I varied the recipe they would never taste as good as hers. The story is….as long as you use potatoes that are good for baking and frying, you’re good to do the latke dance.
OH yes. Here’s another thing. I was ALWAYS told to shred the potatoes and onions using a specific grater. The grater of course was my moms. It’s most likely a hundred years old. It is a small hole grater. Not the smallest hole, but small enough to make a very fine shred instead of a thicker one. My mom told me that if I dared to use a food processor that I shouldn’t bother making them all. She of course was very old fashioned and didn’t know that using a processor will take the dread out of the endless shred. One last thing. The spoon. My moms famous spoon with the wood handle. That spoon was used and still is used to measure EVERYTHNG. Whenever my mom would say, “use a spoonful” of this or that it had to be with THAT spoon. I have now have that spoon along with her grater. Thank goodness I do because I truly believe that spoon has magical powers.
This year I discovered that if you cube your potatoes and onions then process them it keeps your potatoes from turning brown or God forbid a shade of purply-gray when they are exposed to air. Nothing worse than having your latke look like it’s dead. The concept of mixing the onions right into the potatoes is genius and here’s an even better hack. After processing the mixture, you are going to hand grate one large potato and mix it in. This will give the latkes back some texture so you end up with those delicious crispy shreds after frying.
Another very important step is squeezing the life outta that mixture. Place it all in a cheesecloth, clean towel or believe it or not I use a piece of tulle and squeezzzzzzzzze the potato/onion mixture over a bowl to catch the liquid starch. You need to squeeze until one of two things happen. 1. Your fingers start to feel numb or 2. You absolutely do not have feeling in your hands at all. That’s when you know you have done a good job getting the liquid out. Your end result should yield a super crispy latke. There’s no other way. Everyone thinks that starchy liquid should be discarded but noooooooo. That is where you find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. All the wonderful starch is there after you pour off the liquid floating on top. You are going to add that starch to the potato mixture and trust me it’s latke life changing.
I’m so happy to share this family recipe with you. Happy holidays and Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!
Frieda’s latkes
Ingredients
- 8 medium size red potatoes peeled and placed in a large bowl of cold water to prevent them from browning)
- ½ large sweet Vidalia onion
- ½ tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 4 tsps oil my mom only used mazola corn oil
- 3 heaping tablespoons matzo meal
- 2 tsps baking powder
- Starch from potatoes liquid drained off first
- ¼ cup oil for frying
- 1 carrot peeled and cut into chunks for frying pan
Instructions
- Grate the potatoes with the onions (my mom ALWAYS grated this by hand)
- *I cut my potatoes and onions into cubes and placed them directly into a food processor reserving 1 whole potato to grate by hand separately*
- Process potatoes until smooth then add in that hand grated potato.
- Place potato mixture into either a clean towel, cheesecloth or believe it or not I use a piece of tulle. Then wrap and squeeze the life outta them over a medium sized bowl to make sure they are as dry as possible. Set aside the remaining starchy liquid that’s in the bowl Leave the mixture wrapped up in a clean bowl until you’re ready to mix it with the balance of your ingredients / it will NOT brown because of the onion being incorporated into the potatoes.
- Whisk your eggs, salt, white pepper, oil in a small bowl. Dump your potatoes into a clean bowl and add the wet mixture as well as the matzo meal and baking powder. Pour off the liquid from the starchy mixture that’s been sitting and scrape the white starch from the bottom of the bowl into your latke mixture. Blend well with a fork until everything is evenly coated.
- Heat a heavy cast iron pan with 1/4 cup oil and a few pieces of carrots.
- Note: my mom made hers in an electric frying pan and they came out perfect every time. The oil has to be hot before you drop in the potato mixture. Use about two tablespoons of the mixture for each latke. Fry for 3 minutes on each side (checking that they are browned and crispy before flipping. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately with applesauce or sour cream
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